To market your property, you are going to need to have some carefully taken and chosen photographs. Before whipping out the camera, however, you need to give some thought to the process.
One of the most important things that will set your property out from others is photographs. When a buyer is looking on the MLS, on the internet or in some other location, photographs draw their attention. This may seem like a superficial approach with no significant benefits that make the effort worthwhile, but not really.
Unless you are talking to a lawyer or psychiatrist, words are cheap. Indeed, the real estate world has its own lexicon of terms that don’t really mean what they say and are the basis for some snide remarks. For instance, a cozy home is a real estate methodology for saying a property is SMALL! The question, of course, is how small are we talking? This is why photographs are key to your marketing efforts.
In the view of most buyers, the initial proof in the pudding is in photographs. Almost nobody really believes any of the adjectives used in real estate advertisements. Frankly, they words could mean anything. Much like a dating site, however, photographs tend to shed a more objective light on the subject. Unlike a dating site, a property doesn’t tend to dramatically age over five years, change hair color, go bald or gain some unwanted pounds. Put in practical terms, buyers don’t believe your words, but do believe your photographs. Photographs are much more believable and therefore, they are used to filter and avoid waste of time and effort.
If you give some thought to what I just said, you will realize that I am suggesting that most buyers assume you will lie about your property in advertisements. Don’t take it personally. They don’t know you, so why should they trust you? Frankly, they should not. That being said, you can use this distrust to your advantage.
You would be shocked how many people put little or no effort into the photographs of their property. As an old commercial slogan stated Image is everything. A shallow statement, but true. Your photographs represent the first curb appeal impression buyers will get of your property.
This means you need to strongly consider hiring a professional photographer to take the photographs. They understand lighting, angles and so on. It may sound like an unnecessary expense, but it can be the difference between a sale and sitting on the market for month after month.
They can also make the process quick and easy, as they know how to proceed and get it done with a solid workflow. That means less time for the house to be frozen into a state of perfect order and tidiness, as expected in the photos, but so far from almost anybody’s home, where they really live, potentially with pets, kids and no matter how many adults.
If staging is present, as a way to make the home even more attractive, it could reduce the time which is important if a lot of the staging furniture and decor is rented.
If the competition is strong anyway, and everyone in the market is using professional photos, 3d floorplan, staging, maybe even fresh landscaping, then the next step to stand out and get that one special buyer, would be aerial photos. It’s the newest marketing technique that is not just aimed at stunning prospective buyers with images that could not be taken otherwise than from the sky (excluding Google Maps and spy satellite you may have access to, of course). Drones are the latest and coolest way to show a property like it’s never been done before and it’s very affordable, and therefore worthwhile, at all price points.
Drones can shoot photos and videos, not just to do something different and impress home buyers, but they can catch features that otherwise would go unnoticed, like the layout of the property and the lot, the neighborhood, landscape and land features, and the flow of the property even outdoors.
Drones could also shoot a video of the inside showing a flow as smooth and as natural as it can get, all while using much less time to convey the emotions that otherwise could outlast potential buyers’ attention span, even of the serious ones. That could get you that one special buyer out there, or simply the best home buyer out there.
Some photographers offer the service as an extra, in other cases they outsource to drone specialists (dronographers, as they are starting to get called) or you can hire one directly and apart from a regular photographer.
Just make sure that the drone pilot is certified by the FAA and is insured, to be safe and worry-free.
Good luck!
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