Real estate photography and market conditions

Real estate market

Real estate market conditions change constantly. We’ve seen homes sell ridiculously fast and we’ve seen homes take months to sell. Statistically, we know that professional real estate photos help sell homes faster. Redfin has a great article on armature vs. professional photos here. However, what is the underlining goal of professional real estate photos?

The bigger picture behind hiring a professional real estate photographer is your brand. Regardless of market conditions, as a real estate agent you are constantly marketing yourself.

Marketing defines you and your brand

When you create your brand, you’re creating a perception of yourself for potential clients. An agent’s marketing materials create a first impression for future clients.

For example, when an agent has a new listing, most of the neighbors are going to look at the marketing material. What impression do they get of the agent? The neighbors (potential clients) get a first impression of you, the agent. Marketing that listing has an important role in your future business.

In a hot market, an agent can sell a home with amateurish photos. However, those amateur photos have an impact on the agent’s brand and the impression potential clients receive about the quality of the agent’s work.

By comparison, an agent who uses magazine-quality real estate photos creates a brand of professionalism. Potential clients get a first impression of the agent’s commitment to marketing their home in the best possible light.

For future business

In a hot market, homes can sell quickly without much effort by the agent. However, when the real estate market changes, sellers become more selective and do their research when choosing a real estate agent.

Sellers will go online to find agents in their area. They will look at sales history and previous listings. The potential seller will look at how an agent marketed the home. They will look at the photos and videos of previous listings, how long it took to sell and what price the home sold for. As they look at the real estate agent’s history, the potential client is asking themselves “Do I want my home marketed like this?”, or “Is this agent putting in more effort than other agents”, or “What does this agent do that is better than the other agents I’ve researched?”

What do your previous listings say about you? What brand have you created with your marketing? How does your sales history impress potential clients?

This is where professional real estate photos help your future business. The quality of your listing photos makes a difference when compared to your competition. In a balanced or slow market, a potential seller will choose the real estate agent whose brand shows quality and commitment over the agent whose marketing shows they cut corners.

Word of mouth

Sellers tell people about how their real estate agent handled the listing. They even share your marketing material, whether printed or online. This is free marketing and can result in many referrals.

What will your sellers say about you? How many referrals will you get from your previous clients? Are your clients going to talk about the lengths you went to, so the home looked perfect?  Are they going to mention the beautiful marketing material you created?

Your word-of-mouth marketing comes down to how you create your brand. The impression created by your hard work, commitment, and presentation of the listings.

The listing photos play a major role in establishing your brand, creating a first impression and a lasting impression of your commitment to professionally marketing a listing.

For all your Colorado Springs real estate photography, call Effective Photography – (719) 344-4041

See samples in real estate portfolio.