How many showings are you missing out on because of your "do-it-yourself" listing photos? Can you imagine the decreased "days-on-market" you'd have if you just used a couple bucks on professional pics?
We've all taken listing pictures for our sellers and thought they were simply fantastic. My clients even told me the pics we awesome but I began to see something unique when I took a agent job in WA State.
My buyers, of which I had over 60 different ones every three weeks, didn't hold anything back and complained about how terrible the selling agent's pics were online.
In terms of the listing agent's Real Estate Agents marketing, I could tell from the enormous number of buyer clients I had, that agent needed to step up their game with better photography.
We'd step inside and they'd wonder if it was the same house they saw online. Some even blamed me for the difference between the online pics and what the house actually looked like in person.
The thing I kept seeing was that everything hung on these listing pics buyers viewed while searching on the web. You can't ignore how critical a role professional photos play in your Real Estate Agent marketing arsenal when selling a house. Give buyers a great photo and they'll pop inside the house that day. Give them a "do-it-yourself" picture and they'll move onto the next home.
Even when the listing pictures were greater than the actual home, guess what? You still had a buyer walk through the home. The obvious way to selling that house is having as many buyers walk through as possible, right? The lesson is to have a pro take your listing pics and spend the $50-$200 so you can make that $10,000 commission.
Almost all the buyers searching for a home will make their choice to see the inside on how good your photos is when they see it on the MLS or another site.
If you did use the well invested marketing bucks on some professional real estate photos. . .
Your client base would adore you because you got their property off the market in far less time than your competition.
You may have made more cash because you didn't have to lower the sales price when the listing became stale on the market. Think about your brand and reputation and the public will flock to you when they hear from your sellers how fast their house went.
Stop complaining about how much it is to hire a pro. It's easy, it's a Real Estate Agent marketing technique that is critical. When you really think about it, this type of Real Estate Agent marketing photography is not questionable if you want to sell your listings at a super speed.
Want some choices?You could hire a professional real estate photographer in your local region and offer them $40/hr. to come to your listing and take some awesome photos. Be sure they're top notch, have all the right equipment and know the goal of these photos. The worse thing you could do is hire someone like your uncle Joe who can't take a pic better than your four year old.
Your other option is to go with a company like Vicaso. com who does real estate photos exclusively. Their business is listing photos for Real Estate Agents!
Here's the crazy thing about Vicaso, they let you set up everything online, which includes the appointment, how many photos you want, what quality, if you want extra photos, if they need to use special equipment for rainy conditions, etc. No joke, these guys can turn a run down dump and make it seem like Trump's penthouse when it's on the web.