First impressions matter. – think about how many selfies you take before you find THE ONE. Why, then, would you want to try to sell your home with an iPhone photo taken by a real estate agent? With online listings from real estate agents and websites like Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com, buyers are now getting what’s essentially a “first showing” through the web. Making a great first (and lasting) impression through professional photography is sometimes the only opportunity you get to convince buyers to fall in love with your property.

Home buyers rely heavily on property photos to make their purchase decisions. When your listing goes live and into syndication, it will be competing against other properties that have been professional photographed. When you get on a site like Zillow, the eye is naturally drawn to houses with professional photography. When it comes down to it, that’s what truly matters. Capturing the attention of buyers and making a great impression. Other things to consider:

  • The average home buyer will only view 10 properties in person before making a purchase decision. (National Association of Realtors, 2017).
  • To get to that very short list of in-person visits, 95% of home buyers will use the internet to search for a home. (National Association of Realtors, 2017). 
  • In fact, 44% of buyers will look online for properties as their very first step towards buying a home (even before talking to a friend, agent, or lender, or even looking online for information on the home buying process).  (National Association of Realtors, 2017).
  • However, not every part of an online property listing is equally useful to our internet savvy home buyer. Almost 90% of buyers find property photos “very useful”–while fewer buyers find things like virtual tours, interactive maps, or even the actual detailed property information as useful. (National Association of Realtors, 2017). 
  • Consequently, the average buyer will spend 60% of their time looking at the property photos, while only 20% of their time on the listing description. (The Wall Street Journal, 2013).
  • First impressions really do matter: researchers watching the eye movements of subjects looking at home listings found that 95% of users viewed the first photo in the listing for a total of 20 seconds before their eyes began to wander around the screen. (The Wall Street Journal, 2013).
  • According to a study conducted by Redfin, professionally photographed homes brought in as much as $11,200 more per sale compared to an amateur photographed home. (Redfin, 2013)
  • In another study conducted by IMOTO (a real estate photography company), they found that properties that they professionally photographed sold 50% faster and nearly 40% closer to the original listing price than similar homes without professional photos. (Realtor, 2014).

Every photograph should tell a story, and real estate photos are no different. Agents think about features, and that’s why you see close-ups of counter tops and cabinets in agent shots. Professional photographers think about showing the space. You’ll still see the features, but you want the buyer to know that the living room is right off the kitchen and that the hallway leads to the foyer. Each photograph should be carefully produced to visually communicate moods, highlight features, and psychologically appeal to the target audience. There are dozens of active decisions to be made for every photograph, and having a professional in charge ensures that not only every photo tells the best story for that room, but that there are consistent themes that carry over from room to room.

Every property I list gets the highest level of photography Contact me to sell your home and receive complimentary professional photography.