“Without an eye-catching photo, the battle is lost before it begins.”
Michael Seiler Institute for Behavioral and Experimental Real Estate
After evaluating sales of my current listings, I came to a startling conclusion…
Most of the properties listed for sale in Sanpete County do not make use of professional real estate photography. In fact, some photos on the MLS listings for Sanpete County appear to be cell phone pictures.
Here’s Why Your Listing Needs Professional Real Estate Photography
Here is a recent listing photo taken with a cell phone. I took my time taking it, but it still is put to shame by the photo below.
This is the same home shot taken by a professional. This is called a twilight photo and can really show off the property.
“83% of homebuyers rated photos of properties for sale as the most useful website feature.”
National Association of Realtors Study
Since the majority of house shopping is taking place online, you can see how important professional real estate photos have become. Just consider this: The majority of buyers spent 60% of their online time viewing listing photos in 2011. They only spent 20% of their time reading property descriptions and 20% browsing agent comments. 1 I would suspect that even more time is spent browsing the photos today.
Not sure how important those photos are yet? Researcher Ken H. Johnson analyzed 4,000 homes and found that adding just one photo to a residential listing raised the price by 3.9%. Guess what? That doesn’t even take into account the photo quality.
In order to stand out from the long list of available properties online, sellers need an attention grabbing photo to substantiate a difference.
Taking Photos Isn’t the Only Important Factor
Although photo editing has advanced by leaps and bounds in the last decade, you still need to make sure your home is ready to be photographed. Decluttering, cleaning, landscaping and staging are all very important to successful photos.
Here are a few recommendations to help you prepare your home to sell and be photographed:
As a Realtor, I am always happy to provide advice to home sellers looking to get more bang for their buck. There are so many ways to make your home stand out. Make sure your agent takes the time to use them.
Your listing deserves quality photos. I believe they are a necessity if your Realtor intends to sell your property quicker and for more money. Plain and simple.
I include professionally taken real estate photos on every one of my new listings, not because I want to be different, but because I owe it to my client to market their home properly. Maybe it is just a coincidence that two of my most recent listings were under contract in less than a week. Or maybe not.
I would love to hear any comments about your experience with using or not using professional photos on your home listing.
Sources:
http://www.ibere.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Ocular-Tracking-Paper-06292011-Final.pdf
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