Why do I need professional photos taken of my house?

We live in a digital age.  We live on our laptops, iPads and iPhones.  In almost every instance, a prospective buyer of YOUR house is going to view it first in the photos that they see of it online.  First impressions last.  For many home buyers, when they see poor quality, unprofessional photos, that will be be their only impression.  They will never look further.  High quality professional real estate photographers know how to create a visual story around your house.  They can elevate your house above the noise of the 20 other homes in the same area in the same price range.  Good real estate photos make the buyer WANT to see themselves in that space.

Don't ALL realtors use professional photos for their listings?  And does it REALLY matter whether they're professionally shot or not?  A study quoted in the Wall Street Journal in 2010 found that barely 15% of all listings for home sales used professionally produced photos.  Moreover, of homes listed for over $1 million, not even half used professional photos.  But does it matter?  I mean, houses are selling in a weekend with multiple offers here in San Diego, right? In a word, cha-ching.  YES, it matters hugely.  In fact, that same study found that, especially in the higher end markets, listings using professional photography sold for significantly more money - on average, anywhere from almost $1000 more to well over $100,000 more.  It just stands to reason that if you can get more people IN the front door thanks to great photos, you’re going to have MORE potential buyers and MORE offers driving the price higher and higher.

I know it's hard to believe, but this is NOT going to help sell your house...

Looking past the dated decor of my old house (I would never post another photographer’s photos, but this caliber of photo DOES show up on the MLS for high end properties), clearly an iPhone is not going to cut it.   You know you need "professional" photos.  Be careful, though, the next photo is an example of what MANY people consider professional.  It's a process called HDR or high dynamic range photography.  Multiple photos are automatically composited together so that a full range of detail can be recorded from the lightest to darkest part of an image.  Unfortunately, in many cases the images just end up looking a surreal, muddy mess, like this...

No potential buyer is going to look at this image and say "THAT'S a house I want to live in!"

In the end, what draws a person in and catches their attention is lighting.  This is an image that will get a potential buyer in the door...

Of course, if you REALLY want to make your home stand out, we can make it look like it's straight out of Architectural Digest.  This is a MUCH more labor intensive process, but the results are spectacular.  Call it what you want - the money shot, the wow shot, the magazine cover shot - it guarantees to catch the attention of a potential buyer.  If you're interested in this style of photography, contact John for a custom quote.  Have a look...