Hey....I'm back!

  Where have I been?  Well truth be told mostly just life happened.  The spring, summer and fall tend to be full of photography and I love that!.  I went to Scotland the first 2 weeks of September and had an awesome time reconnecting with relatives and shooting lots of beautiful scenery.  If you haven't been to Scotland it really needs to be on your must see list of places to go.  We spent most of the time around the coast and western lochs near Glenfinnan.  Go there if you're a Harry Potter fan!!

Growing Ourselves & Business Series: Barbara Corcoran Getting Started

An 8 minute inspirational video clip of Barbara's learning's as she grew up as one of 10 children with her incredibly organized mom who focused on their strengths ending with a failed relationship and partnership that sparked her business success today.

The Click That Sticks Series: 5 Smart Ways to Sell Your Home

Agents, here's a great, short video from The Today Show with Barbara Corcoran to help educate sellers about positioning their home for faster sales!

DIY Photography: Getting the Least Noise in Your Images

For those of you out there taking your own shots, invest in a DSLR for increased traffic to your webistes/listings (see the Clicks that Stick Series).  This is a great blog site and for Canon users good info on using native ISO settings to get the least noise in your images.  Here's the bottom line and link below to the whole entry.

"So which is more important, shooting images with less noise, or shooting images with more dynamic range? It's obviously subjective, but for me there is no one-size-fits-all answer. In some cases I prioritize one, and in some cases I prioritize the other. I really can't think of any reason to use the digitally pushed ISOs (125, 250, 500, etc). If you need more exposure, you're better off going up to the next exposure-pulled ISO, or the next native ISO, rather than shooting with the increased noise and decreased dynamic range that comes along with the pushed ISOs. In general, if I am shooting a bright scene with a large contrast range, such as a daytime exterior, I will prefer to use the full-stop, native ISOs. In that situation, since I will likely be using the lower ISOs (100 or 200), noise really isn't much of a factor anyway, and I will prioritize dynamic range to prevent the highlights from blowing out as much as possible. If I am shooting a dimly lit scene, I will likely be using the higher ISOs where noise is more of an issue. In that case, keeping the highlights in check isn't usually a problem, so I will prefer to use the 160-multiple ISOs (320, 640, or 1250) so I can get more exposure with less noise."

From Shootin The Shot  http://shootintheshot.joshsilfen.com/2010/05/13/canon-hd-dslr-native-iso/

The Click that Sticks Series: What is The Click that Sticks?

90% of people shop for their home on line and 83% use the photos as their bellwether in narrowing their list of must see homes.

Yes, 83% of them find the photos to be the single most important piece of information about the home.  It takes us about 5 seconds to make a decision and in 5 seconds the buyer can either be taking a closer look at your property or off to someone else.  It’s a click away! 

Be the click that sticks - not the click that got away

Aside from all the market studies on real estate photography, the plethora of home magazines and home cable channels have educated the general population and raised their expectations about good architectural and interior photography.

How does all of this impact selling a home?  Buyers intuitively know what a home or room should look like in a photo.  When it’s distorted, when it’s crooked, when it’s dark, when the color is off, when the windows are blown out, when it’s out of focus, when all the shots are of furniture - a flag goes up – and that’s the click that got away, 5 seconds, it’s that fast.

Be the click that sticks!

 

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

The Click That Sticks Series: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Dollars. True or False?

Here's a great read from Redfin's Real Estate Science Series.  It's an article that explores the question, What is the true benefit of listing your home with professional quality photos?  While this article is a great starting point for understanding the benefits of DSLR photography over point and shot cameras, it can be a bit misleading.  It does not discuss the other elements that go into making that photo a "click sticker".  The wide-angle lens, abilities of the photograher and the back-end software all of which go into making that "$1000 photo".

Nonetheless, it's a great starting point in understanding the difference a DSLR can make.  Here's the chart and the article can be reached at this link where you can see their analysis.  http://blog.redfin.com/blog/category/the_real_estate_scientist

So, is it worth the dough?  It turns out that in most cases the answer is a resounding, “Yes!”