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As a previous home buyer, I've seen listings and visited homes - that I knew were not professionally photographed. I can tell as when they took the photo of the bathroom, I could see the realtor's reflection.
It was not just about the 'photography' but about the sum of it all -
- the staging and preparation
- the attention to details (in the listing)
- the location / neighborhood
- the home's features
- the home's specs
- the overall flow / layout
Photography is just one small component.
I suppose in the 400-500K price range - the photography matters ... but I was a buyer who was looking for very specific things ... that could not be captured in a photograph.
So in your opinion this house has not sold or will not sell well because the home was not professionally photographed?
The way this home is currently being marketed right now is atrocious. I could market this home better than the current realtor is doing. Anybody can go in and snap a few crooked and dark photos with their cell phone and throw them up on a website. There are other homes of this caliber in this area that are marketed better than this. The front yard was upgraded with lights going up the driveway, but they don't showcase that. It could be showcased very well.
Had the home my wife and I bought been showcased better it would have been gone before we had a chance to buy it. They didn't showcase the beautiful back yard with Zoysia grass and beautiful blooming flowers and shrubs in the yard. They didn't showcase the interior very well either. I didn't even know we had Zoysia until a few weeks ago. We bought the home in March of 2013. We actually found the home because of another home in the neighborhood that way portrayed well in pictures and marketed well. 90% of homebuyers will get their first exposure with a home through a photograph in some way.
As a previous home buyer, I've seen listings and visited homes - that I knew were not professionally photographed. I can tell as when they took the photo of the bathroom, I could see the realtor's reflection.
It was not just about the 'photography' but about the sum of it all -
- the staging and preparation
- the attention to details (in the listing)
- the location / neighborhood
- the home's features
- the home's specs
- the overall flow / layout
Photography is just one small component.
I suppose in the 400-500K price range - the photography matters ... but I was a buyer who was looking for very specific things ... that could not be captured in a photograph.
With 90% of homebuyers starting on the internet photography is vitally important. Are your chances better on focusing on the 10% or the other 90% of potential buyers? Real estate photography is important all the way down to $100K. The lower the price the more important it becomes. You as the seller want to sell for as much as you can and it has been proven that homes with professional photos on average sell for more than a home of equivalent amenities. I would rather spend a $100 to sell my home for $3K more than a home of similar amenities then to save my $100 to drop the price $5K to attract people to come see the home. I would even spend $100 to get my asking price rather than having to drop my price a few thousand.
Each criteria you listed can be conveyed with good photography or used to back up the listing description. A good listing will have a picture to back up each claim in the listing.
As a previous home buyer, I've seen listings and visited homes - that I knew were not professionally photographed. I can tell as when they took the photo of the bathroom, I could see the realtor's reflection.
It was not just about the 'photography' but about the sum of it all -
- the staging and preparation
- the attention to details (in the listing)
- the location / neighborhood
- the home's features
- the home's specs
- the overall flow / layout
Photography is just one small component.
I suppose in the 400-500K price range - the photography matters ... but I was a buyer who was looking for very specific things ... that could not be captured in a photograph.
You hit the nail on the head.
The photos need to be good and showcase the best features to get a buyer to want to see the home....but the photos will not sell the house. The HOUSE needs to shine to sell, and be priced right. Its extremely difficult to convey the true feeling of a property with the MLS listing and/or photos. Most I show are nothing like I thought they would be from the listing. Many of those "I don't want to see that one" end up being the one they love. I've sold many of those I closed one this week that my client didn't want to see, I added it because we were looking at two other properties in that neighborhood. Let me add, it was the only one that had professional photographs in the listing.
The photos did not get the buyer to the house, I did. Literally, almost kicking and screaming.
Sellers are rational (well, some anyways). Buyers are emotional. The real money shot is when the front door opens and the buyer walks in. That's the impression that counts.
And unfortunately for many sellers, price reduction is an all too real reality in this current market, great photos or not. There are just some homes that are not selling due to localized market conditions, and sellers are having to adjust their pricing.
Also, many agents are still using (IMO) an antiquated way of pricing a property. For example, $249,900. Old school thought is it looks "better" than $250,000. Its psychological. But, with the way buyers are searching on the internet and searches are structured, you want to list that property at $250,000....you get buyers capping their search at $250k AND you get buyers starting their search at $250k. You want your feet in both worlds, so to speak, to expand the buyer pool. Yet, I see homes listed like that every day with no consideration to how buyers are going to find that home online by price and literally alienating who knows how many online searchers.
But I do laugh almost daily at some of the awful photos and descriptions I see. A house was just listed, and in the description the agent actually put (describing the back yard) "great for grillin' and chillin' with the chillens". SMH. I saw one listed last week with an old man sitting on the front porch in the main photo. I wish I could remember that property address, it was funny. One agent I know puts "free flowing plan" in literally every single listing. Can't you think of anything new??
Last edited by LCTMadison; 05-07-2014 at 09:23 PM..
The photos need to be good and showcase the best features to get a buyer to want to see the home....but the photos will not sell the house. The HOUSE needs to shine to sell, and be priced right. Its extremely difficult to convey the true feeling of a property with the MLS listing and/or photos. Most I show are nothing like I thought they would be from the listing. Many of those "I don't want to see that one" end up being the one they love. I've sold many of those I closed one this week that my client didn't want to see, I added it because we were looking at two other properties in that neighborhood. Let me add, it was the only one that had professional photographs in the listing.
The photos did not get the buyer to the house, I did. Literally, almost kicking and screaming.
Sellers are rational (well, some anyways). Buyers are emotional. The real money shot is when the front door opens and the buyer walks in. That's the impression that counts.
And unfortunately for many sellers, price reduction is an all too real reality in this current market, great photos or not. There are just some homes that are not selling due to localized market conditions, and sellers are having to adjust their pricing.
Also, many agents are still using (IMO) an antiquated way of pricing a property. For example, $249,900. Old school thought is it looks "better" than $250,000. Its psychological. But, with the way buyers are searching on the internet and searches are structured, you want to list that property at $250,000....you get buyers capping their search at $250k AND you get buyers starting their search at $250k. You want your feet in both worlds, so to speak, to expand the buyer pool. Yet, I see homes listed like that every day with no consideration to how buyers are going to find that home online by price and literally alienating who knows how many online searchers.
But I do laugh almost daily at some of the awful photos and descriptions I see. A house was just listed, and in the description the agent actually put (describing the back yard) "great for grillin' and chillin' with the chillens". SMH. I saw one listed last week with an old man sitting on the front porch in the main photo. I wish I could remember that property address, it was funny. One agent I know puts "free flowing plan" in literally every single listing. Can't you think of anything new??
I guess the question I have is did you see the house in person before you brought the client to see the house?
While I understand photos don't always give a buyer the entire feeling of the house, there are certain aspects of the house that can be obtained just through few photos though, especially the floorplan which was what we were the most critical of when we were looking at houses. I also understand that many buyers buy with emotion, but I can tell you that I was not one of those buyers. Most Engineers in general aren't those types of buyers. My agent I think struggled a little with that I was looking at a house purely from a functional point of view, from the house, to the yard, to the location. My girlfriend on the other hand is an emotional buyer.
I guess I can understand also that when talking about above entry level houses, its a little easier to be an emotional buyer than at the entry level because many functional aspects of the house are already built into the house and are more standard with those sorts of homes where with entry level homes, functional aspects can differ from materials used. And yes, I think of materials used from a functional (and durability) aspect vs an aesthetic or resale aspect.
There were a few houses that we saw that had terrible pictures or no pictures and our agent had no idea if the floor plan was what we are looking for. On those houses I chose to skip them over even though she offered to find out what those houses were like on the inside before we saw them so we weren't wasting our time. I think it is silly though for any seller to put terrible pictures up or no pictures at all up on a listing if the potential buyer can't even get an idea of the layout of the house. That adds up to alot more work for the buyers agent to find out what the house is like.
No, I had not seen the house. And the pictures were actually really good, showcased the best features and everything they should, but its still hard to look at an MLS listing and get a true feel of the flow of the plan many times. This was a custom built home which makes it even more tricky.
And my client was an engineer, so I totally get that He was like you....he was very matter of fact but his wife was an emotional buyer. She won out (as they do a lot of times!) And yes, sometimes it is a lot more work on us. I've gone out multiple times to take additional photos for a client or just preview to get a general idea if the property would work.
In a perfect world every agent would fully complete the listing, with perfect pictures and perfect descriptions. Unfortunately, that is not the case, as we have some lazy agents....and it does mean sometimes viewing a house when we have no real idea what we will be walking into. I care more about making sure my clients have not missed out on a property that would be perfect for them than skipping out on one because the agent did not describe it well.
My best engineer story is when one of my clients made a spreadsheet with 10 different criteria that he rated 1-10 for each property we saw, 10 being the best. In his mind, the one with the highest score was the property they should buy. His wife, not so much. They have been happily living in one of the lower scored properties for 6 years now
My best engineer story is when one of my clients made a spreadsheet with 10 different criteria that he rated 1-10 for each property we saw, 10 being the best. In his mind, the one with the highest score was the property they should buy. His wife, not so much. They have been happily living in one of the lower scored properties for 6 years now [/quote]
I was not the client ... but I did have a very similar spreadsheet.
It just so happened that the highest scoring one was also the one my wife liked.
For some of us people, having a spreadsheet helps us see through all the wild crazy emotions during the home purchase. At the same time, the spreadsheet is your insurance when you wife says 'I told you so!'
We actually agreed on most things. It took her though driving 35 minutes from County Line and Capshaw to work to realize that Meridianville was a better bet when it came to work traffic.
When it came down to two houses we liked, both in the same general area, it really came down to neighborhoods. The other house had a better build quality too it and a few more extras, but we couldn't get over how small the neighborhood was and the location of the house inside the neighborhood. Lastly, the house we ended up having had a larger master closet. The girlfriend won out there, lol.
No, I had not seen the house. And the pictures were actually really good, showcased the best features and everything they should, but its still hard to look at an MLS listing and get a true feel of the flow of the plan many times. This was a custom built home which makes it even more tricky.
And my client was an engineer, so I totally get that He was like you....he was very matter of fact but his wife was an emotional buyer. She won out (as they do a lot of times!) And yes, sometimes it is a lot more work on us. I've gone out multiple times to take additional photos for a client or just preview to get a general idea if the property would work.
In a perfect world every agent would fully complete the listing, with perfect pictures and perfect descriptions. Unfortunately, that is not the case, as we have some lazy agents....and it does mean sometimes viewing a house when we have no real idea what we will be walking into. I care more about making sure my clients have not missed out on a property that would be perfect for them than skipping out on one because the agent did not describe it well.
My best engineer story is when one of my clients made a spreadsheet with 10 different criteria that he rated 1-10 for each property we saw, 10 being the best. In his mind, the one with the highest score was the property they should buy. His wife, not so much. They have been happily living in one of the lower scored properties for 6 years now
I suppose its what one is looking for. There must have been other "details" that the listing didn't provide or pictures didn't provide but you knew they might like it.
If I saw a home, in our budget, a floorplan we kind of liked, somewhat newer furnishings, we were there looking at it.
It really was more that they were focusing too much on depending on the listing to give them a feel for the property rather than looking at the details (listing was accurate and thorough, described property well) to determine if it should be viewed as an option. Again, it did have very good pictures, but its still hard to get a great feel for many homes just from the listing. The ones that I pulled for them to see ended up being much better than the ones they thought they would like most from the listing.
There was nothing that the listing did not provide except for that in person showing. They were glad that I insisted we see it with the others, they actually hated the one they were the most excited about.
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I closed one this week that my client didn't want to see, I added it because we were looking at two other properties in that neighborhood. Let me add, it was the only one that had professional photographs in the listing.
