4 Reasons You Should Always Use A Professional Real Estate Photographer

Using professional photography for your real estate listing can seem arbitrary these days. Smartphone camera technology is getting better and better. For example (and I’m about to get really tech-y here), the iPhone X is equipped with a Dual 12-megapixel camera, with capabilities of ƒ/1.8 aperture for the wide-angle lens, a ƒ/2.4 aperture for the telephoto lens, 10x digital zoom, and 4K video, which looks incredible on its retina displays. All that being said, it still doesn’t beat out a professional photographer behind a high end DSLR camera.

Confused by all this lingo? That’s okay! We’ll break it down why it’s beneficial for you to go ahead and put down that smartphone:

1 . Sales Price & Average Days On Market

You’ve probably already spent a fortune on that phone, so it makes sense that you’d want to put that investment to good use. Unfortunately, not having professional photography can really hurt your listing’s first impression and possibly the selling price.

According to Realtor.com, most buyers (92%, in fact) are searching for their homes online, so your photographs have to be good enough to keep people from scrolling on. If that’s not enough to convince you, Realtor.com also shows us that listings with professional photography sell for a whopping $3-11,000 on average for homes listed between $200K-$1 Million. It certainly won’t cost that much to pay a photographer for that added value, and in fact, we don’t want our clients to have to make this decision, which is why we cover the cost of professional photography.

2. Lighting & Angles

Aside from the first impression, we have to make sure that when a potential buyer clicks on your listing they get the full experience of the home. If you’re not a professional photographer, then the odds are high that you don’t know the best techniques for using natural light and/or lighting equipment. One of the most attractive features a home can have is a lot of natural light. Not only is it important to have experience here, but also a camera that can work well in low-light situations.

Another asset that a pro brings to the table is his or her ability to take photos that make an interior look big and spacious. Typically, they know the type of lenses and angles that work best for particular rooms, given the layout. It’s more complicated than just standing in the corner and snapping a few pictures. They’re considering the height of the ceilings, the vertical alignment of beams/corners, height of the tripod, the rule of thirds, etc. It’s quite a bit of knowledge to consider.

3. Post-Production

Using professional applications to edit your real estate photos is a must. Sometimes a raw photo just doesn’t capture everything you want it to, so professionals will use software to enhance those photos, like turning brown grass green, fixing the paint or other imperfections, and plenty of other things that might not be obvious to the untrained eye. These tiny details can add up to make a photo look unappealing, so while you might not notice them on their own, you absolutely can tell the difference when next to a professionally edited photo.

4. Time / Stress

We’ve established the technical and financial benefits of using a professional photographer for your real estate listing, but at the end of the day the real estate process is supposed to be fun. It can be the start of a new chapter or investment in your lives. Ultimately, saving you the time and stress of taking your own photos is the responsibility of the agent. That’s what we do here at Nail & Key. Bottom line — put that phone down and call us!… or wait… you know what we mean.

Take a look at these A/B photos we took of one of our listings (left iPhone X/right Professional):