At the most basic level, your photos need to look technically sharp and polished. Take them with a professional camera (or at least a very good smartphone camera), and make sure the shots are in focus, correctly exposed, and properly framed. Unappealing or amateurish shots won’t sell. There was a time when you or your real estate agent would snap a few quick listing photos with a cheap disposable camera, and that was good enough. But not anymore, thanks chiefly to the Internet. Because nearly 90% of buyers go online to search for homes, listing photos – quality photos – are now critical. Listing photos impact the sale of your Shoreline, WA home in several key areas: whether it sells at all, how quickly it sells, and the selling price.
General Observations About Listing Photos
Preparing to sell your home? It’s no secret that listing photos can make or break a home’s selling potential. According to the National Association of Realtors, 89% of buyers who searched for homes online reported photos as the most useful feature on the listing sites they visited. But those listing photos absolutely must be top quality. So if you don’t use a professional photographer (which is advised in most cases) and take the photos yourself, then you at least need to make sure it’s DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) photography.
Across all price levels, sellers who use DLSR listing photos are far likelier to sell their homes within six months than those who use point-and-shoot photos. For example, 64% of homes in the $4000,000-$500,000 range sell in less than six months with DLSR photos, but only 46% of homes with point-and-shoot photos sell within that six-month period. For high-end, luxury homes in the $1,000,000+ range, those percentages work out to 35% and 30%.
In addition, with the evolution in digital photography equipment and the rise of more sophisticated online platforms, virtual tours have become increasingly important as a selling tool. Simply put, virtual reality and virtual tours allow realtors to better serve their clients. Digital images are perfect for a quick, professional showcasing of a home’s features, and virtual tours are great for buyers searching for homes long distances.
Hiring a professional photographer to snap your listing photos can make all the difference when it comes to attracting buyers. Taking poor-quality photos on a cell phone or low-grade camera may be cheaper than hiring a professional, but it won’t win over any buyers. Homes with better quality listing photos are more likely to sell quickly and for more money.
So, then, if you want a quicker sale, it pays to pay for professional DSLR listing photos.
Listing Photos for a Quicker Sale
As a general rule, professionally photographed homes are more likely to sell, more likely to sell at a better price, and will usually sell more quickly. As we mentioned, because most buyers begin their home search online, this is now a critical aspect of the home buying process. As a consequence, homes with quality online listing photos generally sell faster. The photos get buyers to visit the home because they have a fairly good idea of what the home is like beforehand.
Here’s some statistical proof regarding the quicker sale of homes with quality photos as against those with poor photos:
- $400,000 homes sell three weeks sooner
- $1,000,000 homes sell four days faster
Quality Listing Photos for More Money
What is your home’s best feature? Is it the recently updated chef’s kitchen or the beautiful outdoor pool and patio space? How about that marble fireplace or the home’s front exterior? Whatever it is, be sure to take plenty of photos of the home’s best features. It’s a given that listing photos impact the sale of your Shoreline WA home, and sharp photos have the greatest impact. The necessary sharpness is achieved through the use of a good camera with a good lens and proper lighting. None of these elements can be neglected for impactful listing photos.
Whether you’re photographing a living room or the front yard, the sharpest photos get the best results. According to one relevant real estate study, homes with the sharpest photos (in the top 10%) sold at or above the list price 44% of the time. And homes with photos of just average sharpness sold at or above list price only 13% of the time.
So do your listing photos impact the sale of your Shoreline WA home? You bet they do. Quality photos can help you sell it faster and at a better price. But you still have to know what to do with those clear, sharp photos once you have them. You have to know the best online venues where they will have the most sales impact.
So you hired a photographer, took top-notch listing photos, and sold your home. Congrats! Now, it’s time to figure out how exactly you’re going to move.
