The Click That Sticks Series: Make Every Pixel Count

 
Here’s another good article on real estate photography as well as many other topics critical to the sale of homes.  This one is a bit dated but solid in it’s content by Vivian Toy of the New Your Times called “Making Every Pixel Count”.   Below are a few excerpts specific to photography, however, the article also discusses listing home descriptions, websites, and some words on latest technologies.

“Good photos will grab people’s attention and help you sell a home,” said Jacky Teplitzky, an executive vice president of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate in New York. “Bad pictures will absolutely give you trouble, because you won’t have any calls on it, and nobody will come to see it.”

Unless you are selling your home yourself, your real estate agent will ultimately decide which photographs will go up on the agency’s Web site, but agencies vary greatly in their policies on pictures. Some send their agents and brokers out armed with digital cameras, but others use only pictures taken by professionals. Still other agencies let brokers decide whether to take their own pictures or pay a fee to use the agency’s recommended photographers.

All of which explains why there is such a wide range in the quality of photos found on real estate Web sites.

“When you look at the difference between professional photos and ones taken by brokers with digital cameras, it’s not hard to see that you get what you pay for,” said Lauren Cangiano, a senior vice president of Halstead Property in New York.

Halstead uses only professional photos, and its agents reimburse the agency from their commissions after the properties have sold. The same pictures will be used on information sheets, in the agency’s storefront windows and in advertising brochures.

“It’s so important to have photos that are professionally presented,” said Rosalind Clarke, a senior sales associate with the Corcoran Group in Palm Beach, Fla.

She added that she uses only pictures taken by professional photographers, because “if things look shoddy or unprofessional, not only are buyers going to find the property unappealing, they’re going to associate you with being shoddy and unprofessional.”

The full article is available here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/realestate/11cov.html?pagewanted=4&ei=5090&en=df26766191f80c8c&ex=1328850000&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss