Real Estate Photography is Very Important

Real Estate Photography
Real Estate Photography

1. Price and location are the most important factors in selling a home. If the home is priced too high or in a location no one wants to live in, awesome photos make little difference. Price is a key issue in today’s sluggish market. Home sellers having a hard time wrapping their mind around how much their home has dropped in value the last couple of years. Getting home sellers to price their home at market value can be a big struggle.

2. Once a home is priced near market value and there are a bunch of other homes in the same price range and location, the importance of photography becomes appearent.

3. Now days, 90% or more of home buyers use the Internet to start their home search and they are faced with deciding which of all the hundreds of available homes they are going to go look at. Home searchers are faced with choosing which homes to physically go see and photographs play a major part. Anyone can appreciate this by simply going to any real estate website and pretend they are looking for a home. Today, there are 2,371 properties listed in our MLS. Click here to view this ever changing /REALTIME number.

4. As I browse through these properties, the initial selection must be by a handful of facts like year built, number of bedrooms and a small thumbnail photo of the front of the home. The importance of this thumbnail is unmistakable! A compelling thumbnail is like the bright flashy piece of metal on a fishing lure. It attracts home searchers attention to look at the listing details.

5. Once you click on the thumbnail to get more detail the importance of the photos increases. The text descriptions in listing details are legendary for their sparseness. One agent or home owner in a thousand will take the time to write good compelling marketing copy so photos pretty much take over the home searcher’s attention, even if the photos are awful. It is easy to see that good photos give the home seller a distinct advantage in the selection criteria. I believe 15 to 20 photos gives a listing a clear advantage over one with less.

6. Why are “good” photos more effective than “bad” ones? Because at this time in history even a 65 year old person has grown up with TV and magazine advertising that uses strong compelling images. Even though most people can’t tell you what makes a strong image, they know one when they see it. Strong images work at an intuitive, emotional level. You don’t need to understand how the image works to see and feel its strength. Strong compelling image can be created for exteriors and interiors of homes just like other subjects!

7. The end result of this online search process is getting on the home searcher’s short list of homes they want to see in person. A home will never sell if no one physically comes to see it and it’s easy to see from the steps above that photos play a key role in getting home searchers to come look at a home and thus selling it.

Real Estate Photography
Real Estate Photography

For more on this topic or questions regarding real estate in Steamboat Springs, feel free to call Charlie at 970-846-6435 or write me an email at: charlie@steamboatsmyhome.com. I will answer your post or email promptly with candid and informed answers. Click here to view all properties in Steamboat Springs in “real time” — This is one of the few real estate sites showing all foreclosed and all short sale listings in real time and updated every few minutes.