Really crappy marketing photos

I see a lot of awful internet home photos, but the ones from this Buckhead listing especially irritate me:

Are you kidding me! This home is listed for $525,000 with a 6% REALTOR commission. So some poor soul, who probably really wants to sell her home, is paying a lot of money for a few barely discernable photos. I honestly feel sorry for the owners. They are probably receiving very little showing activity.

With over 84% of buyers utlizing the internet in their home searches, it’s the first, and many times the only, impression a home has on the marketplace. When buyers are scanning through hundreds of listings on the internet, they are looking for reasons to eliminate homes from their search. Bad pictures are as good of a reason as any to narrow a list of 300 homes to 30.

I can’t stress enough how important a proper internet marketing strategy is in getting a home sold quickly for its maximum value. When I take pictures for real estate listings, I use a tripod with a remote control, to allow for longer exposure times and more natural light in the photo, and I interchange three different lenses, ranging from a zoom to a wide angle. The photos are then submitted to the owners for review and I will retake shots as needed – it’s that important.

Here is a little advice for taking interior pictures of homes. If there is a bright window near the middle of the shot and your camera is on automatic exposure, the exposure will adjust for the window, making the rest of the picture very dark. You have to override the automatic exposure and manually increase the exposure time. If the camera does not allow for manual override, then there are ways to trick it by initially focusing on a darker area of the room. If the agent has not made this minimal investment of time and money in her business, I would consider a different agent. At the very least, when the agent who took these photos saw them, a light bulb should have gone off in her head, “Better get help with these photos.”

Related posts:

1. Marketing your home on the internet.
2. HDR Photography for Real Estate
3. A comparison of two sets of photos for the same Buckhead home
4. The Extreme Importance of Real Estate Photography
5. Google your Atlanta or Buckhead REALTOR