Beautiful photos make a difference.

Everyone ‘knows’ it’s a buyer’s market out there, and in most places that is the truth.  However, there are good ways and not-so-good ways to market your home for sale.

Photographs Are Important

I have seen it too many times…

A customer I am working with discarded one of the homes I sent them because there was only one photo, or there were a few photos but they were all of the outside.  When I mention it (because I have been in the house and know they might love it) they say one of two things:

• Either there is enough inventory with photos to keep them happy (so they can discard the homes of unknown content)
• OR the big question is WHY – Is the inside disgusting? What are the sellers hiding?

Most home buyers start their search online, and with so many homes available buyers can be picky.

What Can You Do?

First you should talk to your agent and look at a copy of the photos from the MLS system itself.

• How many photos are in it?
• How many are there space for?
• What do they look like?

This is the same shot with better lighting.

If there are only a few photos then ask your agent what you can do to get more in the system.

If there are a handful of photos but they are dark or the pictures cluttered that will turn off buyers too. It isn’t showing your house in the best possible light.

If you need more photos, or you need to replace ugly photos I suggest hiring a professional photographer.  Talk to your agent about who to use, and get them on-board with a plan for updating the marketing materials for your property.  They probably want to sell it as much as you do.

Go with a Pro

I’ll be brutally honest here, if you aren’t a photographer then your personal photos are not going to do the job. If your Realtor(R) was an artist they would have already produced high quality pictures of your property.

There are professionals that specialize in architecture and virtual tours all over the country.  Do a little research and find one near you.  For a few hundred dollars you can update your marketing materials with beautiful imagery.

Talk to the photographer ahead of time about what you can do to prepare for their session at your property.  Ask a few questions:

• How much should you remove to de-clutter the areas?
• Should you be available to help with moving items and staging for each shot?

Beyond the MLS

Once the MLS system has the new photos in it they can feed out from there to many real estate websites.

Some sites allow more photos than the MLS system can save, ask your agent if they are able to update the busiest sites in your area with your new photos.

As you run low on fliers and other print materials ask your agent to update the photos on the materials before re-printing them.