Real Estate Agents Need Professional Photography

Real estate agents have extremely busy and challenging jobs.??On a daily basis, they are dealing with major challenges.??And growing their business is certainly one of them.??But focusing on their marketing, their brand and how their work appeals to future sellers can go a long way to plan for the future and grow their business.??

There are many objectives for hiring a professional real estate photographer.??One is to sell the current listing.??Another objective is to sell the listing agent.

While that may seem a bit odd to you, but successful agents know that it is even more important to be focusing on the future listings.??Without future listings you don’t have a business.

And if you believe that in a hot real estate market you can save money and boost profits by selling your current listing without professional photography then that means you are not planning.??And you know, as Ben Franklin said, failing to plan is really planning to fail.

Let’s explore several great reasons why your real estate business needs professional photography.

Reason #1: Your brand is defined by your marketing

When we’re talking about a real estate agent’s brand we’re talking about the way they are perceived by their potential clients.

For example,?when a potential future seller sees an agent’s marketing for a home in their street, what assumptions do they make about that agent?

If all they have to go off of is the marketing material for that listing then that marketing campaign has an important role to play. Using photos that look amateurish might not impact on the sale of a home in a hot market, but they certainly do impact on the assumptions that potential clients make about that agent.??But to be clear, I believe that amateurish looking photography does impact any home sale and in a bad way.

Compare those assumptions with the agent that uses magazine-quality photography, and it’s not hard to see that a seller that’s looking for an agent to sell their home will choose the agent that made their listings look as amazing as possible given what they had to work with, and not the agent that took their own photos.??Spoiler alert – there are agents who are more than capable to take their own photos, but most agents are or should be too busy to take their own photos.Are real estate agents doing their own staging, mortgage financing, and maybe their own repair work.??Being a real estate agent is very hard work and very time consuming.??Relying upon a team of experts to do their jobs is very important.??Professional photographers should be part of that team.

Reason #2: It's not for now but for later

Homes might be selling within days or even hours of hitting the market, but that property market is going to change one day. It might be a slow change or it could be a rapid grinding to a halt, but change is down the line and when that happens homes are going to take a lot longer to sell and listings will dry up.

Imagine that we have reached that day in the future where the number of new listings have slowed down. Home sellers are being much more selective about which agent they hire because they know they need the best one if they want to sell their home within the first 60 days, let alone within the first 6 months.??And real estate agents will become more competitive as agents seek the limited numbers of listings.??Prepare now for later.??

Where do sellers go to find an agent???What do they look for in an agent??They go online and they look for agents in their local area.??

They look at the sales history for that agent, sale price vs listing and time to close. They will also review previous house listings and the photos, videos and virtual tours and other marketing materials, like websites, as way to differentiate and find the agent who will do all that great stuff for them.

For some sellers that’s as far as they get. Their decision as to which agents they speak with can be decided in those lists of past sales where they ask themselves this question: ‘Given how that agent has marketed homes in the past, do I want that agent treating my home the same way?’

And if the photos don’t look good, then they’ll probably answer that question with a decisive ‘no’.

Now some homeowners might go further than that and they’ll dig into the numbers, looking at the agent’s sales history, how long do they take to sell a home and what price do they get. In a hot market those numbers can all look great and very similar, so the seller goes back to the marketing approach taken by each agent.

Do they want to have their home sold this way by this agent, or that way by that agent?

That’s where the quality of the photos matter. If you get it wrong and if your listings look undesirable compared with your competition then you can easily lose that seller to another agent.

Reason #3: Sellers talk

As a real estate agent, do you want your sellers to be discussing your value as a real estate agent, or would you perhaps prefer they spend time discussing how fast their property sold in the current hot market.??They might mention that the listing agent did a great job, but they might also spend more time chatting about how hot the market was and how fast their home sold.

But if a real estate agent, does a great job marketing the property including professional photography services, then the seller is likely to tell their friends that the listing agent included great services and went above and beyond to sell the home.???Imagine the sellers talking about the photography, the video and the virtual tour you used to sell the property.??Or maybe you will print a glossy book of the property, and probably including prior properties.??Or perhaps you have a website which includes an historical set of properties you sold, along with the photography you used to sell those properties.

It will be too late to create a portfolio of photographs, videos, and virtual tours after the market has cooled off.??What will you have to share when the market gets even more competitive for listing agents???Remember – failing to plan is planning to fail.

Reason #4: Professional photos are a great first impression and buyers rely upon great photos

Buyers respond to photos. The real estate agent which understands this concept understands buyers. The ones that provide dynamic, detailed photos that are clear gain the sellers trust and a therefore a greater reputation. Real estate is bought and sold online — buyers go right to the web to check out homes, striking ones that don’t look good as they go and thereby eliminating a sale. This is your first place as a real estate agent to make a great impression about the home and about your abilities.?Image matters and listing photos reflect on yours.

Reason #5: Sell listings faster with professional photography

As shown by a Redfin study, professional photos created using professional camera equipment sold faster and for thousands of dollars more than amateur photos.??Below is a chart, created by Redfin, which shows the number of days FASTER a listing would sell when it was accompanied with professional level photography compared to non-professional, amateurish photography.?

Reason #6: Social media content

We know that?today’s buyers are highly engaged on social media and incredibly visual.??Social websites are a great way to promote to, target, cross sell, funnel, and connect your audiences with your listings.?Professional photography presents you with a tool that can be leveraged far beyond your multiple listing service.?With a few clicks of a mouse these photos can be seen and shared by hundreds of people in your professional and personal network for FREE and then targeted to their friends for pennies on the dollar. But only if you have the images!

Reason #7: Save time by hiring a professional real estate photographer

A professional photographer saves the listing agent time and money.?While the agent is busy doing what they do best and what is most profitable — showing another home, closing with a client, or creating new listings — a professional photographer can arrive, photograph, edit, and deliver photos for the listings.

Reason #8: Professional quality and knowledge

With the way technology has improved in the last decade a real estate agent may feel that a high-quality photo created using a mobile phone is good enough for the listings. While it’s true that phones can take amazing photos — but the operator, the person behind the phone, still needs to be a competent photographer to get the best image. A knowledge of appropriate angles, composition, editing, along with professional DSLR cameras, a variety of lenses, and the experience of photographing thousands of homes helps set the professional apart from the competition.??Knowledge of the editing process allowing for the whites to be whiter and the colors to be truer or composition angles allowing for the view of the rooms to fully share what the home has to offer can be best done by a professional.??Besides, which real estate agent wants to spend time editing photos, creating videos or building virtual tours.

As a real estate agent you can take care of your business today by hiring all of the experts to be part of your team.??Include stagers, the smartest attorney, the fastest mortgage finance company, the thorough home inspector, and definitely, the best and most professional photographer to be found.

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The right team will not only get the current listing sold at the best price and the shortest time period but help you establish your brand in your market.??The professional photographer will make certain you can present the best to current buyers, but also to future sellers. Using a professional photographer is really an investment in your business, in your growth.

Don’t fail to plan and you won’t plan to fail. Invest in your business and grow.