Sometimes, the only difference between listings that sell quickly and ones that sit on the market for months is the difference in real eastate photography.
Investing in a professional realestate photographer is imperative to having an effective luxury home marketing strategy, and since listings with high-quality photography have the ability to sell for more than the asking price, it’s a small investment compared to what you’ll get back.
If you’re struggling to get listings sold but you feel like your grasp on luxury home marketing is otherwise solid, the most obvious culprit is your listing photography.
Here are 5 real estate photography tips you need to make sure you’re doing to maximize your real estate marketing strategy efforts:
1. Getting Enough Photos of Your Listing
Having more photos will sell your listing faster and can even raise the value of what it sells for. Having a detailed listing description is great, but luxury home marketing lends itself to having plenty of high-quality visuals.
As a general rule, listings in the luxury real estate market do best with at least twenty photos, but it’s best to lean towards more.
Most high-end buyers lead busy lives and have an abundance of options when it comes to available real estate within their price range, so having a wide range of photos helps them decide whether or not they’re going to make time to learn more about your listing.
2. Creating “Moments” In Your Photos
Your number one goal in luxury home marketing is to paint a vivid picture of the kind of life a buyer could create in the home you’re listing.
Since it’s common for buyers in this market to look for investment properties, they’re also looking to see how they might sell the property to potential tenants, as well.
With that in mind, it’s crucial to go beyond checking the boxes of just making sure you’ve included all of the rooms and features and take that extra initiative and include photos that capture defining moments in and around the property.
For example, if your listing has a gazebo outside, could it be photographed as an intimate, outdoor meditation space? Instead of taking a photo that simply lets the potential buyer know the gazebo exists, why not capture the space at dusk and stage it with meditation pillows and candles?
The more you can make the buyer see and feel the possibilities of your listing with your photography, the easier it will be to sell.
3. Finding the Right Lighting
Whereas the golden rule of real estate is “location, location, location,” the golden rule of real estate photography is “lighting, lighting, lighting”! Lighting can make or break a listing photo, which is why hiring a professional photographer is key.
Almost any buyer wants a home with plenty of natural lighting, so making sure that your photos look bright and natural is a must.
When surveyed, most buyers self-report that they’d be willing to spend up to $5,000 more on a property with ample natural lighting, while listings with poor lighting can sell for up to 20 percent less.
4. Taking Aerial Footage
It may cost extra, but getting aerial views with drone photography can help potential buyers put your listing into better context.
Luxury real estate is a global market, so it’s common for prospects who are unfamiliar with your area to be looking at your listings.
Providing a birdseye view of the neighborhood, especially when listing waterfront or beachfront properties, can help people gauge whether or not they’re interested in the proximity of the listing in relation to the other homes and features around it.