Real Estate Report:
The majority of buyers search online when looking for homes, in fact 95% of homebuyers use online websites, and 72% use a mobile or tablet app to assist in their home search, based on data from the National Association of Realtors Real Estate in the Digital Age 2017 report. With this in mind, it’s as important as ever to have high quality, professional looking photos.
The first few photos that are included for a property are most important to make sure you gain and keep their attention to learn more about a home. The initial photos should be highlighting the main areas such as living room, kitchen, master bedroom, bathrooms, outdoor living spaces, etc. Additional photos are still helpful and should include such areas as additional bedrooms, living spaces, larger walk in closets, garage, decks, backyards, and exterior home views.
Photos should also convey a neat and tidy home. This means removing magnets from refrigerators, moving power cords out from view, make sure toilet seats are down, make beds with fresh bedding shams/pillows, remove large family photo displays, and display an organized garage.
Photos are the deciding factor for today’s buyers on whether they want to schedule a walkthrough to see a home for sale. In addition to professional still photos, there is also Matterport 3D, virtual reality 360-degree photography programs that are becoming more standard in marketing homes. This new technology gives the viewer the feeling they are actually there in the space. This new photography technology collects photos that are accurate visually and spatially, and the technology maps the entire area in minutes to create an immersive “walk through” tour of the home. For many MLS systems, these tours are available to view by clicking on the “Virtual Tour” link on the photos page.
Lauren Bunting is a licensed Associate Broker with Bunting Realty, Inc. in Berlin, MD.
Lauren Bunting is a Broker with Keller Williams Realty of Delmarva in Ocean City, Maryland.
