Sunday, November 13, 2011

Real Estate Listing Photos

We've all seen them... Listing photos that are so poor that you'd almost laugh at them. Right after that comes all the listings with just one photo of the exterior. I understand that not everybody considers themselves to have "talent" as a photographer, but taking good pictures is now both easier, and more important than ever.
In today’s real estate marketing environment, the photos of the property are the foundation of all other advertising, including:
  • Your MLS Listing, which attracts Buyer Agents
  • All the websites that are fed from your MLS listing, which attract Buyers
  • Your website slide show and virtual tours
  • Social media used to market a listing or your business
  • Your brochures and other printed materials
  • Your listing presentation to prospective sellers
In other words, having great listing photos complements and turbo-charges all your other systems and training, while having few or poor photos can render them useless.

Home buyers (and their buyer agents), especially when searching on the Internet (or the MLS), are more visually-oriented and have lower attention spans than ever. Many people are calling this the "Post Literate Society", where people are going back to icons (look up where that word came from) and other visual media rather than reading long blocks of text.

If your listing has few photos, no photos, or poor photos, many of the the online buyers will just move on to the next property.

While it’s great to learn how to promote yourself on social media, how to do a listing presentation, and how to market on Craigslist... if you miss the foundation, you miss it all! Every agent must learn how to take great pictures - or have someone on the their team who can.

Those who fail to change with the times get left behind. It happens in all industries. The key to success is to look for the trends, see what’s coming - and in this case, what’s already here! Photos of real estate listings are more important than ever! If you don’t have great photos of your listings then you will be passed by. And as time goes on, you will lose potential listings to the agents who demonstrate that they take excellent pictures.

The good news is that with digital cameras and training, such as that from our online Real Estate Photography Classes, anyone can learn to take great listing photos that attract buyers, drive in traffic, and get homes sold.


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