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As more and more buyers use the internet to find houses and sellers depend on internet marketing to sell houses, it is important that agents take special care to take good real estate photos. The real estate photo is key in attracting buyers to the listing and convincing them they should see the listing.
We’ve all seen our fair share of bad real estate pictures. It’s sadly not uncommon to see bad real estate pictures include blurry images, dark rooms, people, animal, pets, the agent’s car in the driveway, reflections of the person taking the picture in the mirror, or my personal favorite of pictures showing a snow covered house in July. (And the agent is probably wondering why it still hasn’t sold!)
To help you take pictures that sell houses and have great real estate photos you can use for your internet listings, property flyers, and newspaper advertisements, here are some simple tips of ways to take great real estate pictures.
1. Adjust the Lighting: Lighting is very important in the overall quality of real estate pictures. Experiment with turning on and off lights, facing away from windows, and the use of the flash on your camera. Watch out also for mirrors, which may reflect the flash or worse show you in the background snapping the picture!
2. Watch the Weather: Where I live, finding a nice sunny day is hard to come by. Ideally though you should take the pictures during the day (no night time photos unless they have a magnificent outdoor lighting system you are showcasing!) and when it is not pouring down rain.
3. Stand in Doorways/Closets/Out the Window: Ideally you want to take pictures that show the great use of space, so if you stand in a room and can only effectively photograph a small corner, it will make buyers looking at the picture online think the room is tiny, even if it isn’t. Try positioning yourself out of the doorway, in the closet, or even try taking the photo outside through a window if nothing else works.
4. Watch out for distractions: There’s nothing worse than seeing a car in the driveway, people, pets, a TV on, or anything else that distracts from the photo of the house. Be sure none of these things will interfere with your picture. It is best to forwarn your seller when you will be taking pictures and to have the home ready, cars moved, and pets secured before you begin.
5. Use High Resolution Photos: Most cameras will allow you to choose the photo resolution. Ideally you will want between 600-1280 pixels, with the higher the pixel number the higher the photo quality. This will make your images shine when printing and editing, instead of becoming blurry or distorted.
6. Showcase only the best: Many people want more pictures (I think out company website now allows us to add up to 60 pictures!) But unless you’re featuring a multi-million dollar 8 bedroom 30 acre estate with two guest houses and a barn, 6-10 photos will be sufficient. You’ll want the kitchen, the living room, the front of the house, the back of the house/backyard, deck, and any other rooms of the home that are well decorated and staged. Having duplicate pictures of the same room will likely only confuse people and pictures of things that aren’t enticing will not attract buyers through the internet. I’ve seen people photograph hot water tanks before and put that in the MLS. Hot water tank pictures are not pictures that sell houses!
7. Go Light on Photo Editing: It’s okay to edit a photo from time to time, but only if the photo editing is realistic. Stretching a room out 3 times it’s size or adjusting the colors to give it a red tint or to the point it looks grainy will not give you any bonus points with the seller or entice buyers to view the house based on the pictures. They will ask themselves, “what is wrong with this house that the agent had to edit the picture so much?”
8. Consider Outsourcing: If you have no idea how to use a digital camera or have never been good at photography, don’t despair. Instead, find someone you can hire to take the pictures for you and upload them into the MLS or onto a disk for you to use. College students, stay at home moms, and even retirees with a passion for photography can be an excellent resource for inexpensive professional quality pictures.
These 8 simple tips to take pictures that sell houses will help your listings shine amongst the competition and help you gain admiration from your sellers. Have any other tips on taking pictures that sell houses and how to photograph real estate? Feel free to leave them in the comments below.
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16 Comments
This is good info on taking photos. My favorite is a picture of the toilet with the lid up. Really makes you want to buy that home. I try to take photos of what I would want to see the first time I look at a home. Ones that say “take a closer look”. Then they can look at the toilet.
That’s a good one – I forgot about those toilet pics! You’re right, you really want to make them invite the buyer to see more…a toilet is not going to do that, unless maybe it’s solid gold or something, lol.
I have to disagree with you on taking pictures at night. The photography classes I have been to actually recommend taking nighttime pictures. They can have a warm, almost ethereal glow that completely differ from all the other shots you see. Many of my colleagues have used this method with great success. Make sure you have a separate flash to help direct the light where you need it. Try turning on all the inside lights and exterior lights and then taking a picture of the front of the home. It really does work and it will make your MLS photos different from the rest of the pack!
Good post. Amazing how many agents still post one to four photos of a home that is listed for sale. I have found that a wide angle lens helps with inside photos. What are yoru thoughts on this? High resolution photos are good for printing, but not necessary for online viewing.
That is a neat idea Nicole. If you get the lighting right, you can have a beautiful picture. For some though who haven’t taken classes or aren’t naturally inclined at taking good photos it can be tricky! Mostly with the “no pictures at night” I mean the inside shots where the windows are dark/no natural light & there’s a reflection in the window. An outside shot though of the night view would definitely set you apart.
Thanks for the suggestion & stopping by!
I agree Jim, a wide angle lens does help make it a little easier! I didn’t think to include the possibilities of different lenses only because I wrote this for the “point & shoot” real estate photographers. I like the high resolution pictures because they can easily be shrunk to internet size without losing any of the image quality – where if you start with a low resolution you can’t make it bigger without losing quality.
I am not a great photographer but I can take decent pictures for my listings. AND, if they don’t look good I go back and try again not only for my Seller but for me. I want the home to sell! I see so many pictures out there that you can’t even tell what they are trying to take a picture of.
Thanks for the good tips on photography!
I have also done posts about this same topic and I recommend using good angles when taking pictures when agents are looking through 100′s of photos all of homes at the same angles it helps your listing stand out much better.
I personally always outsource my photos. Leave it to the professionals and let us sell real estate.
Yeah! you are right leave it to the professional . I am not a good photographer anyways ,.
Thanks and some good solid photography tips here for a total newbie! I guess there is much more to good photography than just aiming and pressing the button!
Outsourcing is the best idea here. I will have to give my new photographer some credit here. Her name is Allison Cartwright and she is located in Austin, TX. Her web address is http://www.gettwistart.com.
This photographer is very very good. She has really made a difference in my listings. For a while I was getting professional photographs taken on only my expensive listings. Then when I met Allison, she was giving me darn near the quality I was getting from the guy that I was paying $300.00 a photo shoot. But for a much much lower price.
This enabled me to afford to give great looking photography to every listing. Every sale is important to me. The homeowner of a $200,000 home deserves the same great marketing as the homeowner of a $700,000 house. It is just as important to that homeowner.
With IDX — your photos are being redistributed to literally thousands of sites. If over 80% of buyers are looking on the net for their next home– its pretty important.
Dena, a pro is worth it. With people looking online first usually you need great pictures. I once sold a home sight unseen, the buyer did not have time to come look at the home so we took a ton of pictures. But it was the pictures on the MLS that sold the home. It was in a neighborhood with several other homes comparably priced. The buyer told me it was one particular picture that made her decide to purchase that home.
Great tips.Your post is really very informative and also very effective.Especially the tips you described for taking pictures that sells houses are very nice.And I agree that these tips are helpful to gain admiration from the sellers.
Wonderful ideas for taking pictures.your post is a guide for those who want to sell their houses.They should utilize your post.
A most useful article. All of the points are so important in taking great house photos. If you take the photos while thinking like a prospective buyer and seeing through their eyes you will get great results that will help you to sell the house.