he Utmost Importance of Great Photography When Selling Your Home

I really can’t stress it enough. And now I have both professional and personal experience.

Example of great photography.

My husband and I are contemplating purchasing a property in another market as a quick vacation getaway. We take the obvious first step and start our search on line. Once we’ve narrowed our search to about 12 properties in the general area we desire, I hired a great realtor to help us with our search. What was the first thing we looked at on line? THE PHOTOS! What made it on the list of 12 properties? The properties with GREAT PHOTOS. The properties with lousy photos did not make the list. You know, the properties with photos taken from an iPhone by the Seller, or worse yet, by the Realtor.

Example of poor photography.

Next step, we take a trip to the vacation getaway. On day two the agent books some showings. One of the properties we are going to see is listed by a Realtor who tells our agent that she is selling her own property. “Please show my property”. So we go to see the property. We LOVE it. But we haven’t seen the MLS listing sheet for the property, or so we think. The agent sends me the listing after the showing and to my great surprise, THE PHOTOS ARE LOUSY. LOOK LIKE THEY’VE BEEN TAKEN WITH A BROKEN IPHONE! Remember, the Seller is a Realtor. So she has terrible photos of her own property. We figured out that this listing never even made it to the top 12 initial list. Why? Because the photos were LOUSY.

A few years back I was showing property to clients. We were about to go to the next home nearby. They said they didn’t want to keep the appointment because the home didn’t look that nice on line. I told them we were just around the corner, we should just take a look. Guess what? The home was fantastic, but the photos were awful. They bought the home.

Moral of the story: If you plan on selling your home, definitely ask the List Agents during the listing presentation, if they use a professional photographer. If they don’t use a professional photographer, then move on to the next interview. The photos are your first showing.

If you plan to purchase a property and the photos look terrible on line, take a look anyway. Chances are the home has been sitting on the market because it doesn’t show well on line. You may be able to get a better deal because the listing is getting stale.

I have the great fortune to sell real estate with Summit Sotheby’s, where we have three professional photographers on staff. I also consult a stager to get the property in tip top shape for the photo shoot. The extra effort really makes a difference.