In this episode, we will go over the 5 facts every seller needs to know about listing photos and why you should list your home with RE/MAX Alliance Metro Denver Luxury Homes. The whole point of listing your home in the Denver MLS and on the Internet is to attract buyers to get them to come and visit your home in person. If you don’t have great listing photos, you are losing out on buyers who decide not to look at your home based solely on the photos they see in your home’s listing.
Fact number one that every seller needs to know about listing photos is that professional quality photos will attract buyers.
Let’s start out by seeing what a listing photo should look like. This first photo shows a beautiful kitchen. Notice how the counters are almost completely clear and everything is spotlessly clean. Also, notice how the blinds and curtains are all open and all of the lights are on and the TV over the fireplace is off. All of these details are extremely important. This photo is also good because it shows the relationship between the kitchen and the seating room with the fireplace adjacent to the kitchen.
This next photo is good because it shows the room and on out into the yard. Once again, everything is spotless. It’s a good idea to have a fire going in the fireplace for listing photos like this photo does.
This next photo is great because you can easily imagine yourself lounging here reading a good book. The windows are a beautiful feature of this home and this photo really shows them off. It also nicely shows the lush green yard beyond.
Fact number two that every seller needs to know about listing photos is that bad photos will make your home very hard to sell.
Now let’s look at some bad listing photos. In this photo, the seller didn’t clean up at all before the photo appointment. The home must be completely cleaned from top to bottom before any photos are taken.
It amazes me how many times you see something like a vacuum cleaner sitting out in a listing photo. Items like these must be hidden away before any listing photos are taken. When I take listing photos, if I see something out of place like this, I will put it away myself before taking any photos.
This next photo demonstrates something I see all the time in listing photos and it really bugs me. The toilet seat should never be left up for listing photos. Also, for bathroom photos, the photographer must get back for a wider angle. Many times I see listing photos taken from above like this photo is, listing photos look much better if the photographer gets down and shoots the photo from about four feet off the floor.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen listing photos like this one. Do you really need to see another corner of a room ever again? This does not show you anything about the room or the size of the room.
When taking listing photos, the photographer must make sure the lighting is good. If there’s too much light streaming in at the time of day the photographer is taking a photo of this room, they may need to come back at a different time to get a good photo.
Here is one last bad listing photo. This photo isn’t a bad photo but it’s best to remove pets before taking listing photos. You want the potential homebuyer to concentrate on how your home looks, not on how cute your dog or cat is.
Fact number three that every seller needs to know about listing photos is that the number of photos in the Denver MLS is extremely important.
I’d now like to explain the importance of using listing photos properly in the Denver MLS and on the Internet. Our MLS system in Denver allows up to 35 photos for each home. This listing is a good example of using the maximum number of photos allowed. You want to have as many photos as possible to showcase your home as much as possible to get buyers to schedule a showing.
Fact number four that every seller needs to know about listing photos is that all real estate agents are not equal when it comes to listing photos.
This listing is from another RE/MAX agent. I showed this one to illustrate that experience and competence does matter in real estate. RE/MAX agents like me are the most experience, competent and highest producing agents in real estate. RE/MAX agents sell more homes over $600,000 in metro Denver than any other real estate brokerage by far.
I searched all listings in Cherry Hills Village, a luxury home area just south of Denver, and as of early 2014, of the 47 homes for sale, not one of them had the maximum of 35 photos in the MLS.
Fact number five that every seller needs to know about listing photos is that the number of photos on websites is probably the most important item in getting your home noticed.
On websites such as Trulia.com, the number of photos is shown right on the listings page. Here we are looking at Cherry Hills Village Real Estate & Homes For Sale on Trulia.com. Notice how the first listing has 25 photos and the second one only has 3 photos.
On Trulia.com, you can even sort the listings by number of photos. I know when I’m looking for a home, I want to see as many photos of the home as possible when deciding if I want to see it in person. This is a great way for homebuyers on Trulia.com to quickly find the homes with the most photos.
Here we see that the number of photos also matters on Zillow.com. Are you more likely to schedule a showing for a home with 2 photos or one with 35 photos where you can see most of the rooms and know ahead of time that this home might work for you?
This is Realtor.com where the number of listing photos is also displayed. Over 90% of homebuyers search for homes online and a large percentage visit Trulia.com, Zillow.com and Realtor.com when they search.
Listing photos are extremely important, they must entice buyers to want to schedule a showing for your home and see it in person. At Metro Denver Luxury Homes, we only use professional quality photos. We also know how to use the MLS to maximize the number of listing photos. We are Internet marketing experts and understand how to use listing photos to attract buyers for your home. Contact Metro Denver Luxury Homes today to learn more about listing your home with great photos.