To begin with, everybody should undersand that we live in a very graphic age. These days, I think people are far more influenced by how something looks than what is written about it. After all, how many people actually read all those articles in National Geographic? Mostly we look at the photos and read the captions, don't we? Same is true with Playboy. C'mon, be honest.
Well, if you want to sell a property today in this highly graphic age, you better have some good photos of the property. Here are the tips Vivian S. Toy provided in the her article, and I quote her fully ...
- Insist on good photography equipment so the photos are sharp and colors aren't washed out
- Get rid of clutter in the home so the focus can be on the property, not the furniture and personal items
- Don't shoot at night. Natural daylight makes the home look bigger.
- Use flowers; they add color to the photos.
- Wide-angle lens are good unless they distort the view. Making an average living room look like a ballroom will only disappoint a potential buyer when she sees the real thing.
These are great tips, but I want to add a few more that are based on my years in the advertising agency business and my background doing a lot of real estate advertising for developers.
While Vivian Toy advises you not to shoot at night, I think that depends on the skill of the photographer. If you know how to make timed exposures at night, a home shot in the evening can be stunning and really adds to the appeal of the property. It also isolates the property so it is not competing with other distracting images -- clouds, cars, landscaping etc.
Shooting at night is especially effective if you have a lovely pool home -- turn on the pool lights and the interior lights of the property and take a timed exposure. It's absolutely gorgeous. Many top builders are having their model homes shot at night these days for brochures and internet advertising. I've done it for years when my advertising agency represented some of the area's top developers -- and it always turned out super! The only warning is this -- you have to know how to do it. If you don't know how to do it yourself, hire somebody who does.
Here's another old tip from the advertising agency people. If the product is ugly, don't show it.
From time to time you get a property that is really unattractive. MLS rules require a photo of the property, but if you've got one that doesn't look good, limit your photography to a single shot of something that is the property's best feature. Remember, in a graphic age the image presented can turn people off as fast as it can turn them on. Your goal is to get people to the house, not turn them off with a single photo. Find the best side and show only one shot.
The final point, don't buy more camera than you need if all you are going to do is take photos of houses and snapshots of your children. Those mega-pixel, interchangeable lens cameras with tons of built-in features are okay if you're a serious photographer, but they cost a bundle of money and you likely won't use even a third of what those cameras can do. My advice when it comes to buying camera technology is to keep it simple and inexpensive.
