We've all seen them, and the guilty parties know who they are....pictures of the toilet (with the seat up, no less)! There are many infamous shots taken by real estate agents -- the crooked house, half a sofa, dirty dishes in the sink, the list is endless.
The question is why is everyone putting up with this stuff?
Buyers are increasingly visual about choosing their listings. Over 4/5 of buyers use the internet to search for properties, and almost 95% of the 25-44 age group use it (NAR 2008 stats). Buyers increasingly rank photographs as the most useful tool in their search. So why the shoddy photography?
Professional photographs do not have to cost an arm and a leg (maybe just some fingers!), and can do wonders for the life of your listing. Like an online dating service, if buyers are not attracted and informed by the pictures they see, they will just move on to a better prospect.
So if your listings are being passed over, take a close look at how your are representing the homes (and yourself, by the way!).
Professional photography can highlight the best features of a property, and most buyers even agree that they would rather see good pictures of bad listings, even fixers, than no pictures. Buyers like to educate themselves about what they are getting into, and pictures are a great way to help them. As an added bonus, you'll spend less time on calls from people who really won't be interested in certain properties, and have more calls from genuinely interested parties.
After all, picture is worth a thousand words...you use an attractive shot of yourself in your ads, don't you?
Comments(7)