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The real estate market in Southwest Florida is booming right now. With a historically low inventory of properties, we have qualified buyers waiting to buy a home just like yours.
Professional Real Estate Photography
A growing majority of house hunters find their prospective properties online, and a large portion of the remainder do so via print ads, brochures, and window promotions. For all these forms of real estate marketing, the property photos are often the first point of contact between the buyer and home, catching their attention and highlighting the property’s best features (if all goes well).
Studies have shown time and time again that property listings with multiple high quality photos sell quicker and for a higher price on average, and yet many real estate professionals still continue to settle for subpar listing photos.
A big step - perhaps the biggest - towards getting the right photos done for your property is finding the right real estate photography professional.
Not only do they have the right equipment and experience, but very often you can find individuals with specific knowledge on how to treat your specific home, at your price point, with a fast enough turnaround time to take advantage of the market.
The Difference Between Good and Great Real Estate Photos
It’s important to note here that real estate photography is an artform all of its own with very specific challenges independent of professional photography in general. For example, professional real estate photographers have to know how to handle both interiors and exteriors, spaces of variable size and with variable light sources of differing strengths, and how to deal with all the different kinds of surfaces that a home can present.
Good real estate photography has many recognizable features that even seasoned photographers may find hard to emulate. Wide angles for taking in as much of a space as is needed, color balance, consistent focus and exposure, balanced lines, and a pleasing composition and scene that conveys both a kind of emptiness and an idealized form of living.
In more qualitative terms, a good picture for a real estate listing will:
- Highlight the best features of your property
- Be attention grabbing
- Communicate motivation, intent to sell, and professionalism on the part of the seller
On the other hand, bad photos will make your home look poorly-lit and cramped, and could even mislead potential buyers regarding important details like the color or type of a particular finish.
So, to conclude on the importance of getting professional photos for your real estate sale, you get what you pay for. Work with a real estate agent that understands the value of high-quality home photos as they will likely have a roster of experienced professionals that they can call on. And don’t balk at the price either. On this piece of marketing you definitely get what you pay for (and then some).
Preparing for Your Real Estate Shoot
A real estate photographer is not there to clean or stage your home - yet both of these are important to making the most of your real estate photos. If everything is good to go by the time the photographer arrives, they can spend all their time making sure you get the best photos possible (and you’ll usually need a lot of them).
Once again, an agent can help you with this process, recommending the best course of action and “hotspots” to take on, as well as being able to recommend professional cleaners and stagers to take the job off your hands.
Also - cleaning up for a real estate shoot is a great opportunity to get started on your packing.
If you’re preparing your home for a real estate photographer - here are some points to take on:
- Your aim in preparing your home is for each of the spaces to appear stylish, generic, impersonal, and clean.
- Prospective buyers should be able to see the best that the space has to offer, what it could look like with stylish interior design, but without any distracting details or clutter (including newspapers, cables, or personal belongings).
- Make sure to clean your yard as well, which could include applying fresh paint, clearing leaves and branches, trimming hedges and trees, decluttering items, mowing the grass, and mulching beds.
