According to the most recent Talking Points published by the National Association of Realtors (NAR):
Nine out of 10 recent buyers used the Internet in their home search.
I’ve read other sources citing 93%. This agent in Texas claims it’s 99%! We’ve heard they claim everything is bigger in Texas. Maybe that includes exaggeration.
One thing is certain, the Internet is The King when it comes to promoting your Louisville home for sale.
So when home buyers are using the Internet to find and compare homes, the same NAR survey data tells us:
More than eight out of 10 home buyers who used the Internet in their search reported that online photos and detailed property information were very useful. Fifty-eight percent of buyers found virtual tours very useful, and 44 percent liked interactive maps and neighborhood information.
Clearly, your Louisville real estate listing photos are huge! Especially when it comes to attracting home buyers to schedule a showing. It’s so important, that even the Wall St. Journal is taking notice.
Good pictures are a crucial marketing tool for a home sale.
Just ask Clarissa and Mark Padilla, who were able to get a contract on their Sherman Oaks, Calif., condo unit in less than two weeks—and at the price they wanted.
Ms. Padilla attributes the quick sale to the professional photography used to market the home, which lured about 25 people to an open house the first weekend the house went on sale.
You want your home to be on display, in the best possible light, right? So, what kind of photographs is your Louisville Realtor publishing?
For the sake of comparison, I snagged some kitchen photos from comparable sold properties ($270,000-$280,000) randomly selected from the same part of Louisville (Area 9: Prospect, Anchorage, Glenview, Lyndon).
Here are some lessons we can learn, listed in order of worst to best. (Editor’s note: Most photos were scaled smaller for the purpose of this blog post.)
1. Blurry Real Estate Photos
As seen above, there is no excuse. These photos should not exist… ever.
2. Real Estate Photos That Are Too Small
I’m not sure which is worse, too blurry or too small. Always use the largest photo size you can.
3. Wrong Aspect Ratio Real Estate Photos
Even though HD TVs now use a 16:9 aspect ratio and things look great that way doesn’t mean your listing photos should use the same ratios. Most websites today still display photos with a 4:3 aspect ratio. See all that extra white space at the bottom?
4. Real Estate Photos That Forget The Lighting
Example of Listing Photo taken with not enough light. Notice the overhead lights aren’t even on? (Wrong aspect ratio, as well.)
5. Too Closely Cropped Real Estate Photos
When you crop a photo too tight, you don’t see the entire room. Then those seeing the photos won’t get an accurate feel for the living space. (Also, wrong aspect ratio.)
6. Fisheye Lens Real Estate Photos
A wide-angle camera lens helps you get more scenes into the frame. The focal length can be adjusted for each shot. If you reduce the focal length lower than 15mm, you get the fish-eye effect. (Still wrong aspect ratio!)
High-Quality Real Estate Photos
When I took this photo, I made sure that the room was properly staged, the lights were on and the blinds/curtains pulled back.
I’m using a wide-angle lens but I’ve set it above a fish-eye level. Once the photo is taken, I crop the photo to fully deliver the scene using the proper aspect ratio and then resize it to the largest size acceptable by our MLS, and… voila!
Here you see high-quality Louisville real estate listing photos! This should be the norm, not the exception.
