Guest Post: 5 Ways Photography Lands Realtors More Clients
Earlier this month I was approached by the outreach coordinator for Phoenix Fast Sell Home Buyers, a real estate from Arizona. Their CEO Corey Tyner offered to write a guest post for my website: How professional imaging can expand an agent’s business. Naturally, I obliged!
As a real estate agent, displaying your homes to the world is incredibly important if you want people to buy them. Descriptions of listings will only get you so far, but high-quality professional photography takes your marketing game to new levels. And if you might think that cell phone images are enough to get the job done these days, I’ll explain why they don’t.
As much as smartphone technology has advanced in the past decade, it still isn’t nearly capable of producing what a professional real estate photographer can. If you want more clients, here’s a breakdown of the top five reasons why professional real estate imaging can help win them.
1. Professional Photos Make a Strong First Impression
The photos you put up don’t just represent your homes; they represent you and your business. By hiring out for the highest quality photos available, you’re signaling to the buyer the level of professionalism you bring to the table as their agent. Quality imaging is a key element in establishing yourself as a legitimate, successful businessperson.
2. You Will Set Your Property Apart
What’s the advantage of offering professional listing photos rather than ones hastily shot with an iPhone? There are many. For starters, high-personality, highly professional photos provide your company what marketers call a unique selling proposition (USP).
Advances in real estate imaging such as virtual reality and aerial photography provide tools for setting your home apart from others in your market.
Unique angles in photography (such as aerial) are eye-grabbing and property-selling. Seeing a gorgeous sprawling property in its entirety from 500 feet makes a strong impression. That’s a definite USP.
The greater the buyer’s early access to high-quality residential imagery, the more likely that buyer will form an emotional connection to the property. This connection can be established even before your first interaction with the buyer.
You’ve now warmed potential buyers up to the property, and all you had to do was post your quality images online! Smart move.
3. Staging Can Impact Buyer Decision-Making
A professional real estate photographer is well-versed in staging homes. Aside from knowing all the relevant camera angles, lenses, lighting, exposure techniques, etc., these professionals also have all the tricks for arranging furniture, blinds, decorations and more to maximize visual appeal to home buyers.
Getting a potential buyer in the door is half the battle, so don’t let haphazard staging lessen your chance of landing a walk-through. Your photographer will help you clear this hurdle.
Since photographers may be moving furniture and/or items around while working, make sure that your photographers are covered by their own liability insurance. This will cover them in the (very rare) instance that accidental property damage occurs. All legitimate professionals should be carrying one of these policies.
4. Professional Photos Offer a Realistic Perspective
Buyers these days are smart. They’re aware of the tactics and tricks that real estate agents can use to make a home appear better than it really is. But with professional real estate photography, you can put buyers at ease by showing them exactly what you’re describing. A good interior photographer knows how to use the right lenses and editing tools to make a home look its best, while still providing a realistic representation of the scale and amenities.
Professionally capturing a variety of photos (or video) allows you to show the buyer everything in living color before an in-person walkthrough. Virtual tours will earn you earn credibility and trust with potential buyers. They know what they’re getting into, which benefits both parties.
Below is an example of our video tours. Division Media LLC is the parent company to Scott Mason Photography.
Everyone can agree: Poorly taken photographs don’t gain nearly as much interest as ones taken by qualified shooters. There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to get a feel for a vacation rental or new house when the images are dark, blurry, and seem to lack perspective. When buyers can virtually tour your most impressive listings from the comfort of their home, they become more likely to inquire about the home, and your sales speed can increase by as much as 32%. This fact has even been proven in studies.
5. Social Media Has a Big Impact
Social media has allowed us to get our properties and businesses in front of more eyes than any other medium. And if done efficiently, social media marketing doesn’t have to cost you a dime. Customized audience targeting is another benefit of social media for marketing.
Billions of people are viewing social media. Why not make sure that those eyes get a good look at properties that spark their interest — properties of yours?
A large sample size means more hits, and better quality photos can produce even more hits. Better imaging means better business.
Let a Real Estate Photographer Take Your Game to the Next Level
For the proliferous real estate agent, securing the services of an expert real estate photographer will produce more buyer interest and shorter sale times.
Corey Tyner is the owner of Land Buyers Arizona and Phoenix Fast Sell. With over a decade of experience, Tyner is one of the top real estate investors in Arizona. His work has been featured on Bigger Pockets, Real Estate Agent Magazine, and several other real estate investor publications.
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