Hello ladies and gents. I’m Shawn Millar, and I’m the President of AREPAV, and we shoot fantastic photos and videos for real estate listings.
So, why should you pay a professional to take your photos?
- Great pictures sell houses faster
- Increase your referrals with impressive marketing collateral
- DSLR quality cameras are much better than point and shoot cameras
- Post Processing software makes all the difference
Great pictures sell houses faster:
Great pictures sell houses faster. When buyers are looking at the MLS, having professional pictures on your listings is the most important thing getting them to click besides the home’s price and school system the house is in. When buyers are looking at several houses online, they are much more likely to come see your listing if your pictures stand out from the crowd.
Different studies have shown that listings with professional images are looked at on average twice as often as those listing with amateur photos. Another study showed that listings with images taken by DSLR cameras versus point and shoot cameras would bring in an extra $1,000 to over $100,000 more than the original asking price at the closing table.
Increase your referrals:
Plus, when you wow your client with fantastic photography, they are going to share the results with friends… on facebook… in emails… and tell people they work with, “Look at these great shots my agent got of my house. Doesn’t it look beautiful?” When you have more people looking at your online image collateral, the better chances of getting another house to sell. So the benefits to you?… sell houses faster, get more money at closing, and get more referrals.
DSLR versus point and shoot:
DSLR cameras and high quality lenses can be prohibitively expensive for the average person to invest in. Camera bodies by themselves can range from $800-$3,500, and high quality lenses cost between $700-$3,000. And every professional photographer has at least four different lenses in their bag for different situations. What’s important are the images the camera is capable of taking.
I recently did a reshoot of a townhouse. The original agent had taken the photos herself, and her contract with the seller ran out with no offers. The seller picked a new agent, who had me come out to shoot the property. I shot it on Friday, he had the images Friday afternoon, and they were posted Friday night. On Monday morning he had his first offer. So it wasn’t that the property wasn’t beautiful, it was, it’s just nobody could see what it looked like.
Because the original agent wanted to save less than $200 by taking the pictures herself, she lost out on $14,000 in commissions.
BEFORE (NON-PROFESSIONAL PHOTOS)
& AFTER (PROFESSIONAL PHOTOS) EXAMPLES
Before: Dull shot of the kitchen
After: Same angle of a beautiful kitchen
Before: Bathroom tub and shower
After: Warmer, more detailed shot with wider angle
Professional equipment makes a pretty huge difference. But having a good camera is just part of the equation. You also have to have some top of line software to edit the images after you take them.
Post Processing software makes all the difference
AREPAV uses the latest version of Adobe Photoshop CS6 and other Adobe editing tools to prepare our photos for real estate agents and their listings.
Here’s an example of a before and after shot. Here is a typical house high up on a hill. The lines are skewed and it looks squeezed at the top. And here’s the shot after we fixed it in Photoshop. It’s more colorful, and the sides of the house have been straightened out.
Before: House on a hill. The sides have perspective.
After: Same photo with enhanced color and sides fixed
Shooting in the RAW format instead of JPEG also gives us a tremendous amount of control over exposure levels, brightness, shadows, and a host of other color correction utilities during post processing.
So, we hope you enjoyed our little pep talk, and please... please... please... Don't let your agent use a point and shoot camera. Let Atlanta Real Estate Photography and Video help you sell your house faster. CONTACT US TODAY!