How Can a REALTOR Take Photos That are so Bad?
This from an experienced buyer I know who was looking at houses in the Carlsbad area on-line.
“They ought to be shot.” (the REALTOR, that is).
In this age of inexpensive digital photography, one does have to wonder. We complain about it all the time but the reality remains that many agents either do not know how to take a decent photo, or they simply don’t care, perhaps because they don’t feel it makes a difference.
Perhaps with REOs and short sales, or price points where there is high demand, it really doesn’t matter all that much since there are people who are interested and are going to want to see those homes, no matter what. And with many of the lower priced units (under $300K in our area), even those with just 1 lousy photo, there are multiple offers almost right away.
On tour the other day with one of my first time buyers, she commented on one unit that we were in, and out of pretty quickly, that “wow, those MLS photos can really distort how some homes look!” This in a short sale condo that was, well, in pretty bad shape. You never would have guessed from the photo.
I’ve heard plenty of comments about the lack of photos, or crummy ones, from buyers, and there have been a myriad of articles about this issue (this being yet another). We know that buyers want to see them, the more the better, and that they do make decisions to pursue homes or not on the basis of what they see.
THE FIRST OPEN HOUSE IS ON-LINE, remember?
Taking decent, or even quite good, real estate photos is not that hard, and many of us here, who are not photographers by any stretch of the imagination, do so all the time. And it costs you nothing but a bit of time once you buy that camera, which today will cost you less than a month of Starbucks mocha lattes.
It takes only a few minutes to grab a bunch of photos to make sure you can cull out the ones that suck, leaving you a quality product. Take lots of each “scene” to be sure. Or hire someone if you are so incredibly busy that you can’t perform one of the duties you should to market your client’s property. Here are “My 10 Photo Commandments.” I include this is my pre-listing kit now.
And you need to look at what you took on-line before you put them out there for the world to see. I often find what looks good on my camera is actually pretty bad on the computer screen. And sellers are usually more than happy to look at photos and help decide what showcases the home the best. Better that than to have them see your listing plastered all over the Internet and call you to complain that the photos are not very good, or worse.
Below you will find some suggestions for improving your photography from a professional, taken from an educational session SCOTT BASILE conducted for some CRSs here in San Diego that I arranged. These are some great tips and easy to implement. Feel free to print out or download to your computer.
Photography Notes - Scott Basile
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Here is my 10 Photo Commandments List for sellers that I just created and have now added to my pre-listing package, and plan to include in my listing presentation.