Maximizing Your Listing with Professional Real Estate Photos: A Realtor's Guide
Chapter 13
You have one chance to make a lasting impression on a potential home buyer. As they scroll through an endless sea of listings, only the most eye-catching properties will stand out.
The best way to capture their attention is through stunning photographs. Professional images that highlight the unique features and one-of-a-kind charm of your property will make them stop and take notice.
You can turn a high-intent viewer into your next buyer with photography that makes a splash. That’s why enlisting the help of a professional real estate photographer is so important, and is an investment that can pay dividends down the line.
In the guide that follows, we’ll focus on how realtors like yourself can effectively use crisp, high-quality images to enhance your property listings. We’ll go over all the benefits of professional photography, and how you can rely on it to close your deals in record time.
Looking for a better understanding of how to leverage your listing photos as a realtor?
We get it: the world of real estate photography can be confusing. With so many options out there, it can be difficult to know where to start. Between freelancers, professional agencies, and random ads on Craigslist, it seems impossible to know who to trust.
Luckily, there are a number of tell-tale signs to be on the lookout for when choosing who you want to do business with. By doing a deep dive into their customer reviews and existing portfolio, you can make a solid judgment call about whether or not you want to proceed.
In the meantime, there’s no harm in making use of existing photos you already have on-hand. Maybe you have some relatively clear photos stored on your smartphone, or photos from a previous photographer you’ve worked with before. There’s no harm in attaching these photos to your listing as a placeholder while you wait to give them a facelift. Once you eventually partner with a new photographer, your property photos will be fresh, bold, and exciting.
The Value of Professional Photography
The importance of partnering with a professional photographer when listing your real estate can’t be understated. An experienced photographer brings a wealth of knowledge to the table, and knows what to look for when producing a photo reel.
Between having the right equipment, knowing how to frame shots correctly, and being able to focus on only the most important aspects of a home, the value they add is hard to replicate. Professionally captured images can elevate the quality and appeal of a property almost instantly.
With so much on the line, you’re better off bypassing the amateurs and sticking only with the best. It might take a little bit more effort to identify a reputable photographer, but when all is said and done, it’s worth it in the end.
Curating Your Image Gallery
A curated gallery of professional real estate photos gives buyers a central location to browse your property images. You don’t want to confuse your prospects by having images scattered all across the web. It’s best to have a single place you can point them to, where they can scroll through a carefully selected catalog of images.
There are a number of ways you can organize your images to highlight your property’s key features. For instance, you can start with the exterior, focusing on the curb appeal, touring various elements of the backyard, and zooming in on unique outdoor features like a pool or garden. Then, when you eventually get to the interior, you can group according to different room types, like bedrooms, bathrooms, and common living spaces.
The first image should always be the primary attention grabber, compelling the viewer to want to see more. From there, you can organize your photos in a logical and enticing way, one that showcases the property in the most favorable light possible.
Crafting a Compelling Listing
When writing your property listings, you want your reader to hang on to every last word. You want your listing descriptions to pop off the page, and be anything but boring. In essence, you want your potential buyer to be able to envision themselves living there.
The photographs should be a natural extension of the descriptions. It’s important to maintain a consistent style and cohesive branding throughout the listing, so that your readers don’t get thrown off. Both the written descriptions and the photographs should feel like they belong to the same property, and should tie together nicely.
Utilizing Images for Marketing
You can have the best pictures in the world, but it doesn’t matter if no one sees them. Getting eyeballs on your property should always be a priority. There are numerous online and offline marketing methods that can be used to achieve this, and promote your real estate effectively.
By placing images of your home in brochures, flyers, and direct mail campaigns, you can reach people where they happen to be. And with social media and property websites offering the perfect platform to upload your images with catchy captions, it’s never been easier to generate organic traffic to your listings.
Virtual Tours and Video Walkthroughs
To take your still photography to the next level, create virtual tours and video walkthroughs. By splicing and editing your images with music, fade effects, and overlaid text, you can give your viewers a truly immersive experience.
Interactive media like this is simply more engaging than run-of-the-mill photos. They grab your viewer’s attention for longer, and make them want to explore beyond what they see initially.
Software tools like CloudPano and Kuula make creating 360-degree tours from standard photos a breeze. You can either teach yourself how to make them yourself, or see if it’s an add-on service that your photographer provides. In all likelihood, they have experience generating virtual tours, and can help you transform your photos into a video walkthrough.
Leveraging Social Media and Online Platforms
Social media has changed the way we communicate, and it’s changed the way real estate agents are able to do business. With profiles and timelines providing the perfect stage to showcase new properties, it’s possible to reach a bigger audience than ever before – with no marketing spend required. (Though there’s still opportunity to use these platforms for paid advertising, which we’ll get into a bit more later.)
Nevertheless, the fact remains: only the most professional images will cut through the clutter. By combining clever text on your posts with trending hashtags, you can engage with potential buyers on various online platforms in order to receive an avalanche of impressions.
Tracking and Measuring Success
You don’t want to blindly invest time and effort into marketing online without being able to track and measure your impact. It’s important to keep an eye on key metrics so that you know when to double down on strategies that are working, and when to change course and pivot to a new approach.
Total number of views, clicks, and conversions are all stats you should be watching. Don’t be afraid to A/B test different ideas, rotating specific aspects of a listing to see what resonates the most.
Make use of the analytics dashboards that are native on the social platforms you are using – like Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) – to gain actionable insights surrounding your performance data. Only then will you know the right moves to make, and how to optimize your marketing efforts over time.
Enhancing Property Presentations
In-person events and open houses are still some of the best ways to connect with potential buyers. Visual materials like flyers and brochures, glossy ads, and yard signs can take the overall experience up several notches. Embedding your photographs into these assets can give them a slick, professional look.
After all, you don’t want to spend money printing up all your assets, only to have them be dragged down by less-than-ideal images. Top-notch real estate photos will present your property in a more appealing light – and make your open houses a smashing success.
Specific Places You Can Post Your Professional Images To
Online Platforms
Multiple Listing Service (MLS)
Realtor's Website
Real Estate Portals
Popular real estate websites like Zillow, Realtor.com, and Redfin attract a large audience of potential buyers. The good thing about these portals is you don’t have to worry as much about marketing expenses. The traffic is already there, primed and ready to explore. Your listings are in an ideal position for high-intent buyers to view, and eventually reach out to book a showing.
Social Media
Virtual Tours and Video Platforms
Consider platforms like YouTube for uploading virtual tours or video walkthroughs of your property. YouTube handles the logistics of storing and hosting your video, while you focus on turning leads into conversions. An interactive, immersive video can make a bigger impact than standalone photos, and can push an interested buyer to get in touch. There are few better ways to leverage your existing assets to create compelling media.
Email Marketing
Real Estate Forums and Groups
Real Estate Blogs
Local Online Classifieds
Websites like Craigslist and local classified ad platforms can attract local buyers. These services allow you to geo-target based on your neighborhood, and have an active base of users who are constantly scrolling for a good deal.
As long as you don’t let yourself get taken advantage of by scammers and phishing attempts, you can make use of online classifieds to reach a wider audience. They even let you upload images to your listings, so you can show – not just tell – what you have to offer. Set your preferred mode of contact (either email, phone calls, or text messages) and wait for the inquiries to come rolling in.
Paid Advertising
Consider using Google Ads and Facebook Ads to promote your listings to a custom audience. Sometimes, organic posts don’t get the level of impressions and clicks you need to generate a sale. This is where the suite of advertising tools these platforms make available to businesses like yours come in handy.
You can use pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to get your listings at the top of search results, and optimize based on what people are looking for. This means that you can funnel high-intent traffic to your listings, and be more likely to get serious buyers interested in your property.
Offline Marketing
Printed Materials
Yard Signs
Open Houses
Real Estate Magazines
Networking
Maximizing Your Listing - Conclusion
Your success as a realtor often hinges on the impact of your photos. Clean, clear, professionally-composed images can go a long way in advancing your career, and reaching prospective buyers.
In this guide, we’ve gone over how best to go about gathering your photos, and what to do with them once you have them in your possession. This includes uploading them to social media, putting them atop your listings, blasting them out to your email list, and more.
We touched on many of the budget-friendly routes to go – like using free online classifieds – as well as relying on paid advertising on Google and Facebook. Depending on the area you’re in and the amount of people you’re able to connect with, it sometimes requires a monetary investment to get the number of clicks and inquiries you need.
When you do eventually land a sale, the investment will be worth it in the end, ultimately giving you the ROI you’re looking for. Selling real estate can often feel like an uphill climb, but with professional photographs and creative assets in your back pocket, you can gain a competitive advantage.
The right photos can put the finishing touches on your materials – from postcards to flyers to yard signs. They can be what moves the needle and compels an interested buyer to actually get in touch and book a showing, or arrive at an open house with their curiosity already raised.
At the end of the day, there’s no shortage of things that can be accomplished when you have crisp, high-definition photographs of your property. From online blogs to physical magazines, they can reach buyers wherever they happen to be browsing.
So what are you waiting for? Contact a professional real estate photographer today, and make your listings better than ever. Trust us – you’ll be glad you did.
Are you ready to schedule your next shoot?
Our friendly, expert team at Captivly Real Estate Photography is here to answer any questions you may have, or get you on the schedule to have your next listing photographed by the pros. Dont wait, call now!
Call Now!
