Pictures don't lie. The eye of the camera is a truth tool.
Photos online need to be of Staged houses in order to get a second glance.
I am still amazed in this day and age of digital photography with all the enhanced devices and services available to see poor photos (or no photos) online to promote and market a house for sale.
Photos need to be Staged too. Presentation matters.
Over 90% of buyers in most markets are searching online FIRST before even deciding which houses are candidates for purchase. Gone are the days where all houses are previewed via open houses or showings with an agent. Virtual Showings are the new buzz phrase - and in a virtual showing, the photos are king.
Staged houses show better in photos and in virtual tours online.
It's not just about clicking the camera and posting any photo to promote a house. Today, the savvy seller better make sure that the photos of their house - their product - are good ones that really showcase the space and selling features of their house.
Consider this photo - of a framed painting found in the dining room of a very high-end $2M house. Do you think Buyers would find a naked woman lounging on the bed appealing? Is this something they would expect to find in a dining room? No. And the buyers touring this house online or in person would remember this house as "The Naked Lady House."
Or how about his photo of a $550K house - this is supposed to be a Formal Living Room. Not only is it cluttered with ugly exercise equipment and random pieces of furniture lining the walls, but the "focal point" of the photo is the bare wall with an unattractive picture on the ground. What are these people thinking? The agent marketing this house needs to take a hard look at the photos and ask, "Is this photo going to help or hinder the sale?"
Or lastly, how about this photo - of the exterior of this over $500K house - can you even see what you are supposed to be buying? And worse than that, this is the ONLY photo for this house - there are no interior photos posted online. A buyer is going to pass right over this washed out photo with trees that block the house.
The amazing thing is that when searching online I looked at 400 houses that fell within the criteria of $500,000 or higher for this particular city search. These houses for sale listed on Realtor.com had more than half of them featured with no photos other than the exterior photo posted. Of the ones that had additional photos, 75% of them had photos that were poor quality or did not showcase the house. Even a short-sale or REO needs to have a best-foot forward in order to attract an audience of buyers.
Here are some Tips for getting the most out of what is shown online - Staging Works and is a key marketing and presentation tool for Houses.
RULE: Stage your Houses BEFORE they come on the market - and take photos of Staged rooms to promote the house to the public!
1. Get a good digital camera that can capture the entire room in a photo. If you have to, pay to have a professional take the photos as this is the first image a potential buyer will see online.
2. Make sure the lighting in the photo is an enhancement to the picture. If the lighting is too harsh, it will wash out part of the photo (like in the exterior house photo above) and the viewer cannot get a good perspective of what they are looking at in the picture. If the lighting coming from a window is too bright, it will wash out the photo and become the undesirable focal point. You are better off waiting for better lighting - either in the morning or later in the afternoon.
3. Take some photos at night. Exterior photos of a house lit up at night can be a fabulous way to showcase a house. Pools or other water features can reflect the light at night and create and artsy and attractive image.
4. LOOK at the pictures as you take them. The eye of the camera shows everything - the dog bowl, the cat toy, the shoe by the stairs, the random umbrella leaning against the house, the trash can, the old car, the weeds by the door, the person sitting in a chair, etc. These things we "filter out" with our minds, show up with evident clarity in photos. Remove the eye-sore and re-take the pictures!
Remember: You only have ONE CHANCE to make a FIRST IMPRESSION - make it a good one!
Whether Occupied Home or Vacant Home Staging - statistics prove that:
"The investment in Staging is always less than a Price Reduction." - Barb Schwarz
Definitely - and there are too many houses that do not invest any money up front to present the house for sale. It is truly shocking to me to see so many poorly presented homes for buyers - that just sit there - and the seller and possibly Realtor both wonder "WHY" is the house not getting showings? Virtual showings are probably happening - monitoring the number of hits it gets on the MLS is a way to show this - but we cannot measure the hits on sites like Realtor.com - so how many houses are being overlooked simply because they were not Staged first and then photographed well?
- Jennie
Hi Jennie... interesting pictures. okay, so...
Picture #1...I will hold my comments for picture #1.
Picture #2..."bare" does not sell homes.
Picture # 3... I'd say some trimming is in order.
It really is unbelievable!
I could post more - but we get the point . . . there are way worse for sure - and some that are great. The hope is that sellers will realize that the reason their houses are not being shown or seen by buyers is that they are totally unappealing and passed over online. "Next!" They are seen as not worth a buyer's time. A skilled Staging fix and good photo would change the experience buyers have - and would reward the seller the most.
- Jennie
Great post Jennie...great examples of photos that should NOT be on the internet! It still puzzles me why anyone would think these kind of photos will bring a buyer! It isn't always a "naked lady," but don't you just love the photos of the "garage floor," or the "toilet seat UP" ..gems..real gems!!!!! Thanks for the post!
Too true - and I would hope that a Seller would LOOK at how their house is presented online but I know many of them don't even check!
My husband is a Realtor - and his clients (especially the younger ones) are all over the internet and how their house looks and what websites their house is featured on, etc. If a seller is NOT checking to see how their house looks - wow - that is really a shame. Part of what the commission pays for is the MARKETING - and when online presentation is the most widely used tool (MLS and other sites) - the photos better be good ones. I think sellers should demand that their pictures be redone if they are lousy - or get a different agent that will put the best foot forward.
Jennie...Amen sister! This has been my message for many months to sellers and Realtors and anyone else that will listen to me. That naked lady in the dining room....well...I'm speechless. Was that your first reaction when you saw it? LOL!
To be truthful, I was actually EXCITED to see the naked lady on the wall - because I tell others about those types of "incredible" things in people's houses - and there is sometimes this disbelief like, "Nah - people would not really put that in there." So to have photographic evidence made me practically giddy! People I think wonder if there really are moose heads on walls (yes!), naked art and other eye-sore objects displayed - and we have seen a lot of it. Of course I shared that another painting would be best in the dining room. . .and thankfully the seller listened.
I just wrote a report on a simple house with dated colors inside. The wife passed away 8 years ago, and the widower husband has not changed a thing. The grapevine stencil from the 80's is still on the wall, along with dried floral hanging everywhere. Very nice man - and willing to make adjustments to sell the house. Peach window treatments and southwestern pastels for art. Clean house - just needs some help to present it for selling. OK - the realtor plans on putting the house on the market tomorrow - and the house is NOT staged! WHAT? I plan on calling him to let him know to hold off until his seller can make some key changes - or else - to me - what's the point! We have to do a better job educating our Realtors to WAIT until the Staging work is Complete. There is the timeframe of when they'd like to list it versus when the seller can get the work done and they are not always the same.
Jennie