A big portion of my business is shooting houses, condos and commercial property for sales listings. I definitely believe that professional photos of your property is some of the best money you can spend when you're trying to sell or rent. Just think about some of the bad photos you've seen. If you have bought, or at least shopped for a house recently then you know that the internet is king. I remember the days when you went down to your real estate agent's office and thumbed through the big Multiple Listing Service book. Now you can search thousands of properties and actually look at hundreds in a day via the world wide web.
What can possibly distinguish one property from another? Once you have narrowed it down to exactly what you want in a new home, I would venture to say that the photos are the thing about the listing that interests potential buyers the most. Why would you even consider posting badly lit and composed, dark and grainy cell phone photos of any property that you were trying to sell?
I've got nothing against cell phone photos and have seen some great ones, but they are always better with more light on the subject. Dark rooms just don't look good in cell phone pictures. Also usually the focal length is too long to get the entire room in the picture. I'm not just picking on cell phone photos. There is always somebody that went to Costco and bought a "good camera" to take photos of their listings.
Here are a few actual photos from actual listings in the actual MLS.
Is it just my eyes or is this one fuzzy? Make sure your shot is in focus.
Poor lighting
This was from a house selling for over half a million dollars. Focus please.
The bad lighting is bad enough, but the homeowner is in the picture too.
After you've stopped laughing, check out the tips below. I've added a few of my own recent real estate photos.
click on and photo for a larger image
- Make sure there are no pets or people in the photo.
- Turn on all the lights and partially close the blinds.
- Check the angles, make sure you can't see yourself in the mirror.
- Keep your camera level, and steady. Use a tripod if you have one.
- Wide angle lenses are your friend. Shooting out of a small room makes it feel bigger.
- Post processing can fix problems or enhance good points.
- Don't forget, it's the front shot of the house that everyone will see first in the listing, make it count.
Pay attention and practice and you too can take good photos of your property for sale or rent. And if you don't think you can handle it...hire a professional.
E-mail with questions, comments, or to critique my real estate photos:
keith@keithlewisphoto.com
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