5 Tips For Great Residential Real Estate Photography
“Never judge a book by its cover” is a phrase we know all too well. However, when it comes to house hunting, future homeowners will typically gravitate to the homes that look the nicest online. Why? Because they want to know what they are looking at before they even step foot inside the house.
According to a 2018 Zillow report, 79% of future homeowners use online resources to find a home. This means that they are looking at photos, videos, and other information on the home before even deciding to send a message to their realtor about setting up a walk-through.
In 2022, that number is most likely greater since we’ve adapted even more to using the internet as our first resource since COVID-19 kept us all indoors and away from the public.
If you’ve got a house to put on the market, what can you do as a real estate professional to ensure it sells quickly? Take great photos!
How? We know you aren’t a professional photographer by trade, but we are, and we’ve got a few tips to help boost your residential real estate photography skills.
Tip #1: Invest In Proper Equipment
This might sound obvious, but it’s important to invest in the right equipment to ensure you have high-quality photos. This doesn’t mean running out and buying the most expensive DSLR and lighting system, but it does mean acquiring the proper tools and equipment to help you elevate your photos.
Lightbars, tripods, and even a simple point-and-shoot digital camera can take your photos to the next level. You can also find tripods that work with smartphones.
Tip #2: Stage The Room
No one cares about how the current homeowner has their home set up. You need to stage the home for the future homeowners. This means taking out eyesores and creating a “fresh canvas” that has the potential buyers imagining what they would do to that space.
Keep it minimal but inviting; warm but not overdone.
Tip #3: Lighting and Consistency
You might think this is odd, but keeping a consistent lighting profile throughout the photoshoot of each room will help create a smooth flow when looking at the home online.
Don’t switch back and forth between night and day shots (unless you’re trying to highlight an interesting night feature - i.e., a patio entertaining space).
Use as much natural light as possible, and if your lamps are on in one of the photos - keep them on throughout the home.
It’s also a good idea to make sure all the lightbulbs in the home are the same so that you get the same lighting in each room (Yellow vs. LED vs. soft white, etc.)
Tip #4: Aerial Shots
Again, you don’t have to invest in the most expensive, complex photo accessories, but if you’re going to do your own residential real estate photography, it would be wise to add a drone to your list.
Aerial photos give potential buyers a unique angle of their future home that they would otherwise never see. You can show them the entire property (whether it’s half an acre or 57 acres). You can also create aerial videos and neighborhood tours to give an even more personal perspective to the home. Let the buyers know the area where they will be living and make them feel “at home” before they get the keys.
We’ve mentioned in several other articles the importance of aerial photos for land real estate photography, commercial real estate photography, and residential real estate photography. Read our article, Enhance Your Commercial Real Estate Photography With Drones, for more insight.
Tip #5: Hire A Professional
As a busy realtor, do you really have time in your day to stage, shoot, and edit photos for a home? Also, if you’re looking to sell multiple houses a day (which is highly possible in today's market), how much time can you dedicate to residential real estate photography?
Don’t stress; hire a real estate photography professional (like us!) to give you the high-quality photos and videos you need to “wow” potential buyers online.
Want To Enhance Your Residential Real Estate Photography? - See Sky Films
As we said above, don’t stress, call a professional. Here at Sky Films, we specialize in residential and commercial real estate photography as well as land real estate photography and aerial photography.
We provide high-quality photos and videos at an affordable cost which is why we can create long-term partnerships with real estate professionals like you here in West Virginia.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help elevate your real estate properties with professional photography!
