What type of a reaction do you hope to elicit from someone viewing
your listings?
This has been a topic I have wanted to write about for 3 years. What are people thinking when they post pictures of properties with cars all over the driveway, debris inside or outside of the house, laundry on the floor, etc..?
What type of a reaction are you hoping to inspire from potential buyers when posting a listing? Should we not do everything we can to get buyers in the front door?
Residential Buyers are Visual Creatures
Specifically "residential home buyers" tend to be visually motivated. I am not referring to the advertising of investment properties where the buyers are looking at the purchase from a logistical standpoint. If you have watched any of these tv shows like "Curb Appeal" or "Sweat Equity" on DIY Network,it is easy to see that what you can "see" makes all the difference. According to a source from MarketingCharts, "Internet display advertising continued its growth leadership, increasing 15.9% in 2007 to $11.31 billion in expenditures." If visual appeal isn't important, why is the US spending so much money on it?
People Tend to Buy Emotionally & Visually
People tend to purchase emotionally and visually. No more are we in the days of predominantly text and static images. People want to be wooed and impressed and this almost always requires use of graphics. It is amazing how emotionally moved a client can be to view a property based on how it looks in the MLS.
I have literally watched clients toss listings based on how they "look" in the images. Are you going to let that happen to your listing? You don't have to be a marketing major to drive buyers to view your listed properties. 
Show the properties off in the best light possible. I can't help but chuckle at some of the photos posted by agents on-line. My favorite laugh to date was a new property flyer that had a great big image of the front of the house with a quaint little "Port-O-Potty" just off to the right of the image. It might have taken just a few minutes to apply a cropping tool to the photo. Ha! That just cracks me up!
Technology Is Better Than Ever!
As real estate experts, we have absolutely no excuse for not taking advantage of the technology available to us for effectively advertising listings. With Photoshop, virtual tours, streaming videos and various photo enhancer technology (within reason of course), we can without a doubt market our property listings with awesome visual appeal. One of my personal favs is Adobe Photoshop which I would definitely recommend for someone who is more advanced with photo enhancement tools. I personally love the ability to perfectly crop and add text and borders to the photos.
It Takes Some Cooperation!
Sometimes, it really isn't possible to take a good photo. Let's face it, there is only so much one can do with photography. This is when we need to be the professional and express to our clients what is in their best interest to do in order to get the property shown. It is unacceptable, in my opinion, to sign documents and start snapping photos without that property being completely prepped first. If there are small children in the house it may be necessary for the owner to store away items that you would not want to see in property photos. Did I mention the time my client spotted diapers and baby wipes in a property photo? Anyway, make sure the property is ready to take the stage. The beauty of this is, your client will respect you for it!
So there you have it. Let's set the stage for our listings and market them with confidence.
Seraina Aguayo, Broker, Realtor, GRI
John L. Scott/Sandy
971-322-9878
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