How About A More ARTISTIC Approach To Marketing A Property?!?

Jim:

Thanks for your comments.  You have actually touched a very important subject.  Since, as you say, buyers may be time strapped, then it is critical to capture them the moment they view the property.  Otherwise, they are off to the next home.

By "teasing" the potential buyer with a few snippets of the home, then expanding the scene to encompass everything, you are creating a sense of anticipation as to the next image.  Hopefully that creates an emotional excitement that can help motive the buyer to contact the agent and see the property.

It is my intention that in my 30 image shows, they never make it to the end, but by the first 12-18 images, they have seen enough to warrant taking the next step and making an appointment with their agent.

I also set my shows up so that the viewer sort of forgets they are looking at a home presentation.

The viewer also has the option to stop the show and just look at the gallery if they are impatient.

Good luck!

Kenneth:

I agree.  This is certainly for the more expensive projects where quality, craftsmanship and attention to detail are aspects more affluent buyers are looking for.

For smaller, less expensive properties, a 15 slide show would suffice.  Even at 15 images, it is better than the 6 or 9 images some MLS sites are limited to.

Fred:

Thanks for your input.  Your kind of comments remind me of when I owned a high-end retail furniture showroom on Maui.  On my buying trips to Asia, I had to separate myself from the merchandise.  In other words, I couldn't buy things on what I liked necessarily, I looked for items I could sell.  Completely different mentality.  As you stated, if the buyer is interested, they'll devote the time, if not, they aren't worth the agent's time to begin with.

Realtors need to have the same mentality, most of them have very limited photographic skills and equipment, and these shortcomings are reflected in their images.  There needs to be a paradigm shift in their thought process that says the focus of their marketing dollars goes to photos first, not newspapers, not postcards, not fliers.  If you have poor quality images, you may be losing 80% of potential buyers, and in these market conditions that should be totally unacceptable.

I am creating, to coin my own phrase, "buyer efficiency." That is, getting buyers to the home who are motivated to see it because of something they saw in my photographs that drives them to make the appointment. No shlepping around buyers from home to home based on the number of bedrooms, jacuzzi tub, fireplace, etc. By having quality images, you are giving yourself a better opportunity to give information that will hopefully satisfy someone's need to buy a home.

Larry:

I appreciate your input, as a soldier on the front lines you have some valuable insight into such matters.

A video is only "long" if people don't enjoy what they are seeing.  A five picture slideshow composed of poorly shot, poorly composed, poorly exposed photographs may chase someone off faster than an elegantly photographed home as well.  Beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder.

By the way, the person who shot your "featured home" did a very wonderful job.

Aloha a hui hou!