UPdated by Don on 5-22-2019
OK, it’s 2014- let’s get started… Please feel free to add comments or question if you wish. Today we’re going to talk about pictures.
I originally wrote this article at the beginning of 2014, but some of the questions that Dr. Real Estate received lately that made me think about republishing some of these earlier postings, so here we go. I even have a book available on FSBO photography. You can find it here.
It doesn’t matter whether your house is listed for sale by a Realtor, or if you are selling it yourself with Multiple Listing Service exposure, you need pictures. Even if you are only exposing your house in some local, on-line website, you need pictures. People want to see pictures.
Each type of website probably has a limit on the number of pictures, maybe 15 or in the case of our MLS, 20 to 30. Put the maximum number that you can. There is no valid reason to put fewer, even if there are only three rooms in your home, take pictures of the rooms and the exterior from different angles. Put the maximum.
Take the pictures with the best camera you can put your hands on, even if it’s a phone. (I used a Nikon D-50 camera, which I love and will try to review later. I eventually added a wider angle lens,) Take them in a horizontal format. Stand as far back as possible to get as much of the room as you can. Wide angle lenses are great, but do the best you can with what you have, and make it better if you ever get the chance and upload the new ones. Look at the picture. If you had to take one portait-style, make sure to turn it upright so that when you upload it it doesn’t look goofy lying on its side. If your Realtor is doing the taking, then just look at them as soon as they are uploaded and give your approval. If any are dark, or out of focus, take those over. This is of key importance. It is your home’s first impression. And, incidentally, I don’t mean to insult your intelligence, but get the extra junk, empty glasses, clothes, and “stuff” out of the scene before you snap the pictures. I have seen some before that will make you laugh and cry at the same time.
The next step is to put these pix in a logical order after uploading. The process of doing this will vary whether you are doing it your self, or an agent is doing it for his own listing. or if an agent is doing it for you as an MLS listing. I won’t go into anything that complicated at this point. Just try to have the primary photo of the front followed by the living area, followed by the kitchen and dining areas, followed by the bedrooms and lastly the yard/deck/patio. Order is not a deal-killer, but out-of-order is sometimes confusing.
On the final step, again, we won’t deal with process which is different in various places, but it is adding captions to go along with the pictures. You will have a certain number of spaces for letters. One place I work with, for instance gives us 250 spaces, so you sit and compose a couple of sentences about the picture with letters and spaces that total 250. Don’t just say thing like “kitchen,” “bedroom”- people can already see that. Say something interesting like “new Sub-Zero refrigerator…” Check to be sure your spelling and word count is RIGHT. Nobody is going to do it for you, and it will look stupid if it’s wrong. Bullet-lists also look silly after they are uploaded, so make your comments conversational. as if you were talking to the viewer on the phone.
Remember these pictures are the link to get someone to come and look at your house, the first step. Until that step is taken, nothing else happens, so these pix are critically important. The last point I would make is to keep the pictures fresh. If your house stays on the market over a month, take a new primary picture (the front of the house) from a different angle. More pix of the inside will be good, but not as important. You have probably seen before a picture of a house for sale that has snow on it’s roof, but the actual month is June, so keep them fresh.
All these projects are done differently, depending on your circumstance, so I can’t deal with process here but I can individually. if you leave a comment/question. The main idea for you to take away is that your pictures are possibly the most important thing to you at this point. Keep them fresh, and do them right, the way that wouldn’t make laugh if you saw them in somebody else’s house.
Good luck for now! Get to work if you want it to happen. Call me if you want to talk. Yes, I am the Reasonable Realtor. Don Martin, MARTIN PROPERTIES (615) 973-8970
(Some links may make us a few bucks as an affiliate if you buy through them.)
Just make your comments here, or you can reach the Dean of Graduated Realtors at www.FSBO-GUY.com or “like” him at http://www.facebook.com/MartinProps
Go here – www.mlsDon.com
Don Martin
Martin Properties (Flat Fee MLS to Full or Graduated Services in Nashville, TN)
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