Why Agents Should Use Professional Real Estate Photography

Why Professional Real Estate Photography Is Important

Wake up! It’s the 21st century! If you’re a realtor or are selling your property and are not using professional photography, you might as well not list your properties at all… Since the growth of the internet, professional real estate photography has become essential to every realtor and property seller’s marketing strategy. This is because we have experienced a shift from offline real estate to online real estate, and realtors or sellers who shy away from this transition are becoming invisible. 

In addition, a study done by the National Association of Realtors suggests, in the years to come, there will be a 30 trillion dollar wealth transfer from baby boomers to millennials. This will cause a spike in the housing market. And if we know one thing about millennials it is that they are all online and connected. But what does professional photography have to do with this? One answer—competition. Imagine, millennials scrolling through the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) database. Which properties are they going to be enticed to click on? That’s right. Properties that are visually coherent, professional, and inviting.

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Risks of Not Using Professional Real Estate Photography

Any agent might be tempted to have a go at real estate photography. There are many guides on the internet on how to do the job yourself. However, it is not as easy as it sounds and there are many things that can go wrong and many obstacles:

Expensive Equipment

You are not thinking of using your cell phone camera to take the shots, are you? Cellphones are taking better and better photos, no one is denying that. But while the camera on your cellphone might do for social gatherings it does not for professional purposes such as real estate photography.

On the other hand, to produce high-quality photos you need high-end equipment from the camera itself to the various lenses and lighting. Buying this equipment does not only make sense as a sound investment, but it will also set you on the right path towards being a successful real estate agent.

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Lots of Skills To Master

Just like any other profession, photography needs skills and knowledge, and most importantly experience. Even among professional photographers, there is a variation in skill level. You may happen to have the equipment, but you may also lack the skills and experience needed to master real estate photography. Do not push your luck. Your job is at stake. If your listings fail at looking sharp online you risk losing your hard-earned visitors.

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Bad Staging

Let’s face it. It is not just about photography. Producing compelling and convincing photography is the result of a series of necessary steps. Professional photography has requirements that might be ignored or forgotten if you decide to do the photos yourself. There are standards for home preparation and staging that have to be done prior to real estate photography. These a professional photographer can help with.

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Benefits of Professional Real Estate Photography

There are many other reasons why professional photography is so important to any realtor or seller’s marketing strategy.

That said, here are five other benefits to professional real estate photography:

Faster Sales

Professional photographs can make realtors or sellers listings sell 32% faster than listings with low quality or even average photographs. To add to this, statistics say that a listing with only one photograph spends, on average, 70 days on the market. In contrast, a home with 20 photographs, spends 32 days on the market—that’s almost a quarter of the time.

The faster you sell homes, the more money you make and the more clients you will get. Furthermore, fast home sales can become one of the things you boast while marketing your services. Finding seller leads is harder than buyer leads. Sell homes fast and you will be known as the go-to agent for home sales.

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Higher Prices

Listings that include professional photographs can sell for up to $19,000 more in premiums. $19,000 in premiums? With this kind of money, professional photography is a fantastic investment and a complete no-brainer for all realtors and all property sellers.

There is a reason home sellers are advised to fix the major issues with their property before listings them for sales. Such issues have a huge impact on the overall value of the property and consequently on the price they can sell for. The same rule applies to the photos you use for a listing. The better the property looks in the photos the more valuable it is considered. Post poor photos and people already think of the property as poor.

However, we do not recommend manipulate photos to make the property look different from reality. The point here is not to allow digital imagery to degrade the value of the property. To prevent a loss, do not fabricate images to look far better than reality.

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International Buyers

Thanks to the internet, realtors and property sellers are able to sell real estate overseas. That said, it is more important than ever to provide visuals for international buyers. And, by marketing to international buyers, realtors and sellers can increase their profit significantly.

Luxury properties, or even those which do not qualify as luxury, attract international buyers. These buyers have nothing to rely on except the photos you provide. Leaving a great first impression on your first-time visitors has a huge impact on the outcome of their journey on your online space. Surprise them with great photos and they will continue to browse. Shock them with a couple of poor photos and you have given them the message that the property is not worth it.

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Enhanced Credibility.

Did you know 87% of homebuyers who used the internet to find their home said photographs were the most important feature according to the 2018 National Association of Realtors study? This means that homes shown in professional photographs give properties more credibility. 

In a market where everyone is trying to market their properties the best way possible, anything less than exceptional risks being ignored. Even for smaller purchases like food, we tend to pick what looks better, even if other options without photos might be just as good. We need a little push towards hitting that “add to basket” button. Do not deprive yourself of such a strong factor.

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More Visits

Listings with professional photos receive 118% more online views. And if buyers do not like the way a listing looks online, they are less likely to visit in person. When homebuyers are going through the lists the options they have seem endless. These lists are so extensive that those which do not look good are ignored. Instead, those with great photos will be short-listed for the actual visit.

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roomvu Real Estate Photography

We at roomvu believe real estate marketing is all about the presentation of valuable content in different forms. Photos, videos, etc. When it comes to real estate photos, the true value comes from showing the visitors the important features of the house in the best way possible.

All our photographers are skilled with many years of experience. They know their way around real estate photography.

We bring the best in real estate photography to our clients.

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What We Offer

• Get a booking confirmation within 24 hours, once booked, we guarantee a 24 hour turnaround time
• Rates starting from $99.99 for 20 masterfully taken HDR photos of your listing
• We review the quality of the work before we send them to you, ready to upload and share.
• Twilight photography shows the beauty of the house in an eye-catching look.
• Showcase the gorgeous sights and vistas of the local neighborhood through an impressive aerial view

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Real Estate Photography: Final Words

What are you waiting for? Have your listing sell faster, make more money, appeal to international buyers, enhance your properties’ credibility, and finally, have more leads step foot into your open house.

Realtors or property sellers who are not investing in real estate photography are missing out. Especially when there are convenient and affordable real estate marketing services on the market like Roomvu, providing real estate marketing services at a fraction of the cost and making booking services quick, simple, and painless. 

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