Architectural (Real Estate) Photography 1

Introduction

I have stated, in a previous blog, that interior photography is one of the most difficult fields of photography.  In this blog I hope to help you understand why I would make such a statement.

Artificial Lighting

The interior of a building usually has low light levels if there are no windows to the outside world.  The light is usually either incandescent, a yellowish light from ordinary light bulbs, or florescent, one of several tints ranging from a daylight blue to an erie greenish color cast.  Today’s cameras have several preset white balance settings to cover the different types of lights you run into.  All is well if there is only one source.  If you try to take a photo of mixed light sources you confuse the camera and you will see multi-tint casts across your picture.  If the purpose of the picture is to be artistic then the multi-tint cast can look really cool.  The purpose of the photo for real estate is to expose the structure and the casts are a distraction.  Distractions are rather strange in that the observer might not be able to tell you what is wrong but they can sense it.  The sense that they feel is unsettling and they cannot fully appreciate the purpose or subject of the picture while they are experiencing the distraction.

A bathroom with both florescent fixtures and incandescent makeup lights and an exterior window brings in three different colors of light and will result in a very distracting picture.  In order to salvage some value from the photo it would be wise to only leave one light source active.

The least elegant approach is to light up the space with a flash unit.  The camera is well equipped to deal with the color of the flash.  The problems with flash is that the pictures tend to look flat with no depth to them.  Reflections coming off of surfaces can show up when observation by the photographer prior to the shot gave no indication of the problem.  A casual photographer may not examine the resultant image until they get back to their computer to down load the images.  At that point it is too late and the glare is an integral part of the photo.  Glare and reflections tend to be distractions and loose the purpose of the picture.

Natural Light

Windows light up a room and for years realtors setting up an open house have opened all of the blinds to make the rooms appear as bright as possible.  Wise realtors have discovered that open blinds are not their friend and so they photograph with the blinds shut.  If the blinds are open and the window is in the picture then disaster usually occurs.  One extreme is that the room appears very dark and the window appears to reveal a nuclear event outside.  This type of picture makes the viewer very distracted.  The dark room looks like a dungeon and no one can make out any of the details in the room or outside the window.

The problem described above can be solved in several different ways.  The first and easiest way is to take your exposure off of the wall and make the camera use that exposure.  The window will be totally blown out with no detail available.  The interior will appear bright and details in the room will be very clear.  The second approach is to use flash to light up the interior to balance the light between the interior and exterior.  The problem here is that it sometimes takes a lot of flash power and the single flash built into the camera is ineffective at lighting the room sufficiently.  The third way to deal with it requires good timing.  If the pictures are taken at dusk or during a very cloudy day then the light will not be too extreme coming through the window.  Dusk pictures can be quite attractive and are often worth the effort of waiting for the sun to go down.  

Conclusion

You have learned that light coming from different sources will display multiple color casts which are always a distraction to the viewer.  When the viewer feels uneasy they do not fully appreciate the features that you are trying to project.  The next thing I hope you took away from this blog is that extreme differences in brightness are very difficult to deal with using a single camera and its attached flash.  Waiting for dusk or clouds may not be practical so a reasonable alternative is to set the exposure to that of the wall in the picture.  You will need to read your camera manual to determine how to use this feature.

Just remember that the window, while a pain to photograph, is usually a major feature that needs to be recorded.  A professional photographer with specialized equipment and post processing techniques can take a photograph that perfectly exposes the indoor details and still allow the view through the window to be appreciated.  

If the goal is to attract a buyer to the the property then the picture cannot project distress and a proper exposure showing interior detail is a must.  The gorgeous view through the window is the thing that will draw the buyer to take a look at your listed property.

If you would be interested in seeing the difference that professional photography can have on you listing then please contact Lingering Impression Photography Services for a consultation.  We are always prepared to talk photography if you have any question on the subject we will be glad to take the time with you. 

Tips For Selling A Home In An Extreme Buyers Market

The Right Agent

Things to think about when interviewing an Agent.  Yes, I mean  interviewing, you are the boss. You are giving them a job and you are paying their commission!  In this market you must make sure you hire someone with a recent proven record, so before you make the final choice, find some candidates, try to generate some competition, check references and check their presence online.   You must do your own homework and hire the best that you can.  The commission that you pay for listing will be the same for the eager beaver as it is for the lame duck.

The Employment Interview

You must be prepared to ask the important questions and be sure to ask the same core questions to each applicant so that you can compare answers.  Remember that the candidate that you feel most comfortable with is probably the best ‘people person’.   Here are some questions to start with.

1. How many homes do you (the realtor) currently have listed?
2. How many sales have you made in the last six months?
3. What is the average time that one or your listings is on the market before it is sold?
4. What is the specific marketing plan?

The Marketing Plan

The prospective agent should be experienced enough to come up with a specific plan for your house. There must be a major presence on the web because that is where the buyers are.  The National Association of Realtors 2009 Survey of Buyers and Sellers says that 90% of buyers search for homes on the internet (pg. 51), 93% of first time buyers use the internet (pg. 47) and 36% of buyers look on line as the first step (pg. 46).  In 2009 the spit was equal between the Internet and the Agent as the source of the property that they actually bought (pg. 50). Major web presence is an absolute must.
The NAR report also states that 84% of buyers found photos to be very useful on line (pg. 54).  That means that the quality of the photos used on MLS is very important.  Most agents use an automatic camera to take photos and will usually take 20 minutes or less to cover that part of their job.  Do not select an agent who presents rooms with grossly overexposed windows and dark interiors.  Look at the walls and door frames, if they are not square then they are presenting a house that has structural issues.  Do not hire the agent until you have thoroughly examined the photos they are satisfied with for their marketing.

If you go to www.realtor.com and type in any address you will find several houses near that address.  Now look at the results of the search.  They are listed in order of the most pictures to the least.  This is typical, the more photos the closer to the top the listing will appear.  There may be a house next door to the address with 4 pictures that appears well down the list from the house a mile away with 25 pictures.  If the agent does not use the maximum, 25, photos then they are not at the top of the search list.  Your house has to be seen to be bought.

Be Creative 

You need to offer the buyer more and here are a few suggestions.  There are a lot more ideas you just need to spend some time making your deal irresistible.

1. This tip is difficult to do but is worth the effort if you can find the right agent and brokerage.  Ask them if they will alter the percentages.  If you sell a house you will usually pay 6% of the selling price to the agents involved.  The split is usually 3% to the listing agent and 3% to the buyers agent.  If you can get your listing agent to change the split from 3% to 2% and give the buyers agent 4% then you will have more aggressive behavior from the buyers agents.  If you need to sell fast you might consider offering 4% to the buyers agent anyway, it beats reducing the price and prolonging the ‘on the market time’.
2. Price is still the most important aspect of the sale and your agent should be skilled at coming up with the right price.  Ask them what the average discount is against their last 4 sales.  This will tell you if they are good at setting a competitive price.
3. Offer help with closing costs.
4. Include your riding lawn mower or other valuable home accessory to sweeten the deal.

Learn the Art of Home Staging

Once you attract a buyer to see your property you must impress them as much as you impressed them on line, maybe even more.  Staging a home is the art of maximizing the appeal of the home to a prospective buyer.  The buyer wants to buy a home, not your stuff.  If your stuff does not accentuate a feature of the home then you need to make your stuff fade into the wood work! 

1. Make your home smell fresh and airy.  No dirty laundry or sewage smells from the drains.  Freshen the property with new paint or scrub the walls.  Lighter colors make the rooms brighter and more appealing.
2. Make sure the temperature is just right. The potential buyer needs to feel comfortable, after all they will live here for years if they buy the property from you.
3. Arrange your furniture in an appealing manner.  Clutter and too much furniture make a room feel smaller than it really is.  You need furniture to help the prospective buyer to visualize what their furniture will look like in the rooms.  It may be worth while to get a storage unit and remove some furniture in order to increase the apparent size of the house.
4. Put vases of fresh flowers on tables, replace them before they wilt.  Flowers brighten up the room and distract from other clutter.  The aroma of the flowers will help mask any odors from recent cooking or the musty smell from the old carpet.
5. Curb appeal has moved to the Internet, however, when the prospective buyer gets to the property the outside needs to be neat and tidy.  Make sure that minor maintenance items such as grass cutting and trimming is up to inspection.  You will also need to place garden tools and garbage cans in hidden spots or make sure they are place in a very tidy manner.
6. Go online and find more about home staging and consider hiring a Pro but remember that you are the boss here as well.

Photography

A property's ‘pix appeal’ is as important as ‘curb appeal’ used to be.  If someone sees your property on line will they just have to see it?  This is where you need to do your homework.

The agent’s skills at photography can easily be seen online, usually at their web site or at www.realtor.com.  Keep in mind that there are some general characteristics about real estate agents that makes them good at their job but can create problems for you as an employer.  A good real estate agent must be a great ‘people person’.  They have to be very comfortable communicating with all sorts of different people.  This is a skill that most of us do not have.  They have to be confident, they need to believe that they can sell your house at the best possible price and that they can do it better than anyone else.

 
When it comes to photography these characteristics are a problem.  Interior architectural photography is one of the toughest fields in photography.  Most pros cringe at the thought of taking a picture of a room with bright sunlight coming through the window.  Only a few pros are consistently great at it.  Most pros are adequate and all but a very few special non pros can do better than adequate on a good day.  Real estate agents are people orientated and most are not overly technical.

 
Technology in cameras has made it possible for professional equipment to enter the hands of any user.  Just like golf, good equipment delivers better results but to be good at golf will require a great deal of dedication to perfect the art.  Interior photography is much the same.  A $500.00 camera will deliver a better picture than a $100.00 camera but a skilled photographer can take a better picture with the $100.00 camera than the non pro can take with the $500.00 camera.  When you give the pro a $2000.00 camera there is just no contest.  There may be one or two professional realtors who are also professional quality photographers.  We talked about the importance of confidence in the real estate agent but most agents over estimate their ability to execute one of the toughest fields of photography and many just do not understand how the internet has changed marketing drastically in the past 10 years.  Some agents only take pictures because it is expected of them, others look at competitors and feel they are OK if they are average or above the average.  Look at the pictures online yourself and decide if the pictures that you see truly present the underling property in it’s best light or does it make the property look distressed.  Which describes the way you want your real estate employee to present your property?

Conclusion

‘Pix Appeal’ is the current king that has overtaken the older ‘Curb Appeal’.  When a prospective buyer is browsing through the internet they will see properties in the area that they are interested in, in various orders.  The most common order is by number of pictures.  A lot of web sites will show the main frontal shot and up to four other shots to attract the viewer.  Those five shots will determine your ‘Pix Appeal’ and determine if the viewer will enter to see any more shots or details about your house.  If the primary picture is the main calling card it is important that it clearly shows all of the features visible from the front of the house.  Are details hidden in shadows lost, is a roof feature washed out by direct sun light?  Features must be seen in the pictures or no one will be bothered to read about them or come out to discover them.  The photo has to be properly exposed so that details can be seen in the darkest areas and in the lightest areas of the picture.  The house should not appear dark and should not blend in to the background.  These criteria are difficult to achieve at best and the majority of frontal shots that I have seen do not receive a passing grade.  The other four photos need to be bright and cheery.

 
If you were to have an open house your agent would tell you to open all the blinds and turn on all the lights to make the house appear bright.  Look at the typical real estate pictures in your area and take note of the rooms taken with the blinds closed.  If windows brighten the room the smart agent will avoid including them in their photos.  The less experienced agent will include them and show a dark dreary dungeon like room.  Most real estate photos capture individual features but not the space and relationship between features.  It takes a very wide angle lens to show relationships.  Wider angle lens photography is another very difficult field.

Agents are not professional photographers and cannot keep up with that technology as well as keep up with the latest real estate marketing techniques.  If you find a great realtor to hire and they are a little weak in the photography area, don’t be dismayed.  Great photography is available from ‘Lingering Impression Photography Services’.  Take a look at our web site.  The cost of great photography is about the same as having a skilled tradesman come out to work at your house and the improvement in the odds of capturing a buyer for your property may be priceless.  Visit our web site at www.LIPSPhoto.com to see samples of our work or give us a call at (903)705-6145.