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Hi Everybody--I've been trying to sell my house for almost a year. I know the market stinks, but I was wondering if TOO MANY pictures can make a potential buyer NOT want to come see the house. Like, maybe there are pictures of every single room, a Virtual tour, 10 pictures of the front and back yard, stuff like that. Maybe buyers think, "what's left to see? I've seen it all!"
Or perhaps, too many pictures give a buyer more to pick out that they DON'T like about the house?? (hate that wallpaper, yard looks too steep, etc)
What do you all think? Is a little 'mystery' better? Maybe just 5-6 photos total on the MLS, instead of 20-25?
I worked in advertising and also wrote copy for a real estate photographer's website (which required researching data about online photos and their effectiveness).
Here's what I learned:
It's not a matter of quantity, but quality. The point of the photos is to tease and entice. So, yes-- if you show everything, what else is there to see? But also it's a cases of accentuate the positive. Your best 6 photos/rooms will work harder for you in the "tease and entice" department than 6 good shots, plus four more that show an out-of-date bathroom, a poorly lit sun porch and two nondescript bedrooms.
Some would also say it depends on price point. $2million home demands more evidence online before warranting a visit.
1. Make sure the photos are well lit.
2. CLEAN AND DECLUTTER before photos.
3. An angle that shows a room with a passage into another room is often a good idea.
4. If at all possible, wait for a sunny day-- indoors and out.
Visit a few real estate photography websites to get samples of what good shots look like. To get an idea of how harmful bad shots can be (and have a laugh) visit:
I agree with the above posters. Six or eight good quality photos is better than twenty five poor ones. However, the good photos need to include the areas that most buyers find of prime interest such as the kitchen, the primary living area, and the MBR. I also believe an excellent photo of the front of the house showing curb appeal is helpful. If you leave these areas out some buyers question why and may make an assumption that it must not be worth seeing.
For some of my properties (or when looking), I need to have (or see) 12 to 20 good photos. Why? Because I handle farm and ranch, and if there are no pictures of the barn or the outbuildings or the pastures, but several good ones of the house, the buyers I deal with in that niche will either pass it right by or they will ask me to ask the listing agent for more photos - more often the former than the latter unless the property is exceptional.
However, for an average house, I think 8 to 12 is the minimum - 25 is likely overkill.
Yes, you are right more pictures would give a buyer a picture of some things they don't like. But I think this is GOOD not bad. As a first time buyer, I don't think too many pictures or a virtual tour would hurt at all and I love them. I just saw a place today that had been listed for over a year. Looking on paper and and the few pictures they had the place looked great and the price was great, but I was wondering why this unit hadn't sold for so long. Only once I entered the condo I found out why. One of the "bedrooms" was tiny more like a closet than a bedroom. In addition, the mass transit "L" train literally ran right outside the units windows with the balcony directly over the train tracks. If the seller would have just shown us all the pictures bad and good we wouldn't have wasted our, the listings agent's and our realtor's time setting up a tour. I don't see how there is any benefit to hiding features and keeping "mystery" in your virtual tours/ photos. The buyer is just going to see all those things when they visit the place anyways and you end up wasting everyone's time including your own.
Personally, I could care less about aesthetics like wall paper, color, landscaping, old furniture etc. That is all stuff that can be easily fixed by me. I care more about the size of the rooms, closet sizes amount of light and condition or the kitchen and bathroom. Photos would help out a ton! Just make sure you have plenty of light when taking pictures. I saw a photo of a bathroom that looked like the tile was falling apart and a presumed it would need lots of work, but in reality the tile was perfectly all right when I saw it in person.
Looking on paper and and the few pictures they had the place looked great and the price was great, but I was wondering why this unit hadn't sold for so long. Only once I entered the condo I found out why. One of the "bedrooms" was tiny more like a closet than a bedroom. In addition, the mass transit "L" train literally ran right outside the units windows with the balcony directly over the train tracks. If the seller would have just shown us all the pictures bad and good we wouldn't have wasted our, the listings agent's and our realtor's time setting up a tour. I don't see how there is any benefit to hiding features and keeping "mystery" in your virtual tours/ photos. The buyer is just going to see all those things when they visit the place anyways and you end up wasting everyone's time including your own.
Agents aren't going to intentionally highlight a property's negatives with their photos (and their sellers wouldn't let them even if they wanted to). We want to get you in the door so you'll be able to see all the "pluses" in person and hopefully the "minuses" will be things that won't matter to you.
Since you're in the middle of a house hunt, here's a bit of advice. I always like to check out the address for every listing on Google Maps first because you can see its relationship to railroad tracks, major roads, etc. Be sure you use both the map and satellite views plus the street view so you can get a sense of the local environment. It will save you time if there are obvious major objections nearby.
Hi Everybody--I've been trying to sell my house for almost a year. I know the market stinks, but I was wondering if TOO MANY pictures can make a potential buyer NOT want to come see the house. Like, maybe there are pictures of every single room, a Virtual tour, 10 pictures of the front and back yard, stuff like that. Maybe buyers think, "what's left to see? I've seen it all!"
Or perhaps, too many pictures give a buyer more to pick out that they DON'T like about the house?? (hate that wallpaper, yard looks too steep, etc)
What do you all think? Is a little 'mystery' better? Maybe just 5-6 photos total on the MLS, instead of 20-25?
Buyers are more likely to actually look at your listing online if it has more photos. Many real estate portals (such as realtor.com) actually allow searchers to filter results by the number of photos and a lot of people do this because it's simply more efficient for them to narrow houses down online. Consequently, the listings with the most photos come up at the top of the search and the listings with fewer photos frequently get passed over entirely.
The biggest problem is that most agents use terrible photos that are unappealing or unhelpful. And they frequently don't bother to add rich text descriptions so potential buyers don't know what they're looking at.
My best advice is to use as many photos as are allowed on major search venues (like your local MLS and Realtor.com) but make sure the house shows perfectly before the photos are taken and make sure the photos are taken by a professional (not some agent clicking off a few snaps on their cheap digital camera or cell phone camera ). Then make sure each photo is accompanied by descriptive text that explains what's being seen and any special features (ie., "recently renovated kitchen with custom maple cabinets, honed granite countertops, and Viking stainless steel appliances" not just "kitchen" or "new kitchen").
I agree with Intownhomes247 that the text is just as important as the photos, and I've had clients mention that they chose me to list their property because they looked at my existing listings and saw the descriptors with the photos, and then looked at those of others and . . . nothing.
"Why would someone not do that if they can?" was the question.
So, photos, good ones, and words, good ones, would seem to be the way to go.
Hi Everybody--I've been trying to sell my house for almost a year. I know the market stinks, but I was wondering if TOO MANY pictures can make a potential buyer NOT want to come see the house. Like, maybe there are pictures of every single room, a Virtual tour, 10 pictures of the front and back yard, stuff like that. Maybe buyers think, "what's left to see? I've seen it all!"
Or perhaps, too many pictures give a buyer more to pick out that they DON'T like about the house?? (hate that wallpaper, yard looks too steep, etc)
What do you all think? Is a little 'mystery' better? Maybe just 5-6 photos total on the MLS, instead of 20-25?
How about this: forget about the friggin' pictures and drop the price to a reasonable level !
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(hate that wallpaper, yard looks too steep, etc)
). Then make sure each photo is accompanied by descriptive text that explains what's being seen and any special features (ie., "recently renovated kitchen with custom maple cabinets, honed granite countertops, and Viking stainless steel appliances" not just "kitchen" or "new kitchen").
