There is no place like home. Home sweet Home. Why is it when we go to move and sell our house, the home is forgotten? The photographs being used to sell the home become unimportant. I’ve often wondered if this is a trick that gets people more interested in visiting the home in person. Maybe it’s some big real estate photography trick that realtors have up their sleeves. The thing is, we’re looking to make one of the biggest purchases of our lives and these $300k + homes are looking pretty rough. Imagine if new car photography looked like this! What are you saying when the photograph of the house you’re selling is hardly viewable?
The image above consists of 5 different MLS listings. Each of them represent the first impression of a piece of real estate being sold in my city. These homes were not listed cheap either. The top right photograph was taken in the Winter and still sits like that. Why is it that the home ownership is valued as one of the most important milestones in your life, but we treat the photography like this? And I do believe the majority of MLS listing photography is really bad. Everyone knows this and everyone just accepts it. Show a friend the home you bought with the MLS listing and you alway have to add an explanation: “You have to see it though, the photos don’t do it any justice.”
No one should have to say that. The photographs of the real estate should blow everyone away. This is an item you’re purchasing to pay for over 25 years. Why do we buy such expensive property and not care about it’s image in photographs?
Is it the fault of the Realtor? Is it the fault of MLS? Does MLS decide to destroy the quality of you photographs like Facebook? Is it the Owner’s fault? Is it the result of the digital camera? Who can we blame for turning photographs, within the real estate industry, into garbage?
I don’t like to use the “who can we blame” card. I don’t want to blame anyone. I want to know why we’ve decided to accept real estate photography like the ones I’ve shown here. In the age of the internet, the first place everyone goes to look is…Online. Why are we accepting photography that gives such a horrible first impression? I’d like to know.
I totally agree with you. I just did a real-estate shoot for my partner’s condo, and the agent ran every single one of the shots I provided – even though he normally doesn’t run shots of a condo’s bedroom or kitchen. During the low time in the real-estate market, her condo sold for 15-20% above the asking price. Good photography increases foot traffic. A good agent doesn’t hurt either. :)
The house we bought, on the other hand, looked awful in the photographs – I almost didn’t even look at it in person. I asked our local agent why they don’t do professional photographs all the time, and she said that she’ll do it for bigger ticket houses only — which leads me to believe that the photography costs often come out of the agent’s pocket.
In my opinion, great photographs and a detailed home website (something as simple as 123firststreet.ca) should simply be considered a proper part of staging.
Great post Scott! All very good questions. I feel as though there are many realtors and home owners that don’t care at all. They just want it done and over with.
Thanks for the link to my Facebook post as well!
That’s awesome know know, Andy!
Awesome work raising the selling price! This is the power of actual Photography.
Good Photography can pull you towards the home – it can become a must see on someones list.
Bad Photography can push you away from the home – you may decide to look at it last. Or not at all.
I had a feeling that an agent would avoid professional photographs because there might be a cost involved. Interestingly enough, they don’t take it upon them to take better photographs.
I believe there is a psychology involved in outstanding photographs. Did the house sell for 15-20% more because of the new greater perceived value due to the care and quality of the photography? I believe so.
You mentioned a good agent – the good agent obviously knew the value of the photographs. The photos may come out of the agents pocket but going that extra mile may increase the sale price of the home versus the market. The good agent could see this fact.
It comes down to the fact that we as home owners or the buyers and sellers of home accept horrible photography like this. If the seller were to look at the images and say what the hell is that? You’re going to earn how much from the sale of the home and the photographs to market our hose look like that?
I don’t think we should accept the images.
Detailed home website is a sweet thing too. I hope to see it catching on. I actually want to see a detailed home website that does even more than just show the home. I would see it as marketing a lifestyle around the home. Showing the community, surrounding streets, school, bus stops, a few interviews from neighbors, ect.
Only getting proper photography of high end, bigger ticket homes is a joke. I suddenly hear: “ya i’ll sell your home but I’m not going to put much effort into it because you’re house isn’t worth much.’
I have so much more on the mind. Great comment dude! Love it
“Good Enough” has been the mantra for a lot of agents for a long, long time. Not necessarily because they are lazy or just bad agents, but up until about 4-5 years ago “good enough” was all that was needed. On several occasions I sold homes before I even had the pictures posted, people just needed an address and the fact it was for sale…
But, that was 4-5 years ago. Combine that with the notion that a lot of real estate agents are notorious for being late adopters (remember how many people said the internet in real estate was just a fad…) and you have a perfect storm for complacency. Then there is the convenience factor. Now that smart phones rival the resolution and image quality of some older digital cameras many agents feel that is, “good enough”. I should mention the fact that interior photography is one of the hardest types of photography to master, eh but I think you get my point…
As selling real estate continues to move ever closer toward an internet marketplace, I predict there will eventually be a shift in agents’ mentality toward things like better photography and video. Only by the time that happens, you will be able to buy a device that you sit in the middle of a room, push a button, and the camera captures every single little detail, in perfect exposure and then wireless uploads them to the MLS…
Sometimes I wonder if the homeowner is just as much at fault. The homeowner KNOWS these photos are going up online, and presumably looks at them before (or at least after) they’re online, no a million different websites.
The house next door to me – a decent 8-year-old house – is on the market. The photos are literally the worst I have seen. It’s not just that the composition and lighting is off – the rooms are messes. Couldn’t they make the bed, or remove the clothes and other junk strewn across the bed, before taking the photo? Couldn’t they take the junk off the kitchen counter? Even if the homeowner is a pig and won’t clean, it’s easy to sweep everything out of the shot temporarily. (And I doubt the owner in question is the dirty.) In addition, every shot IS very narrow (no wide angle lens, that’s for sure) and there are some random photos which seem to have been added for no reason. Photos of a random side of a small kitchen counter, which contains no selling feature, should not be included.
Homeowners should actively approve this major part of the marketing of their home, and cooperate so that photos can at least be taken of clean, uncluttered areas. They also should not let an agent rush them to market if the house is not yet ready to be seen. Photos from another listing of the agent in question are fine – probably the sort anyone here would consider to be bad, but a million times better than the ones for the listing I mention. It makes me wonder who is really to blame.