Real estate agents need pro photography even in hot markets
The goal of hiring a professional real estate photographer is not just to sell the home – it’s to sell the agent who is selling the home.
That may sound a little strange, but that concept is what underlies the need for real estate agents across Winston Salem, Greensboro, and Charlotte to hire a professional photographer for every shoot, even when homes are selling crazy fast. You want to build a comprehensive approach and reputation that establishes you as a leader in the market.
Here are 3 reasons why:
Reason #1. Your brand is defined by your marketing efforts.
When we’re talking about a Winston Salem real estate agent’s brand we’re talking about the way they are perceived by their potential clients. For example, when a potential client sees an agent’s marketing for a home on their street, what assumptions do they make about that agent?
If all they have to make a decision is the marketing material for that listing then that marketing campaign has an important role to play. Using photos from a camera phone or that look amateurish might not impact the sale in a hot market, but they will surely impact the assumptions made by potential clients about that agent. And we know how important first impressions are.
Compare those assumptions with an agent that uses magazine-quality photography, and it’s not hard to see that a seller that’s looking for an agent to sell their home will choose the agent that makes their listing look as amazing as possible given what they had to work with, not the agent that took their own photos.
Reason #2. It’s not for now but for later.
Homes might be selling within days or even hours of hitting the market here in North Carolina, but as we are starting to see now, the market is starting to shift. As the market slows it will take longer for homes to sell and listings will start to dry up.
When this happens, home sellers will be much more selective about which agent they hire because they know they will need a good one if they want to sell fast and at or above the asking price within the first 60 days or maybe 6 months.
Where do sellers go to find an agent? They go online and look for agents in the area, taking a close look at the images they find. They also talk to family and friends.
What do they look for in an agent? One of the first things they probably look at is the sales history for that agent. They will also look through previous listings to review the photos and other marketing materials that exist online.
For some sellers, that’s as far as they get. The decision on which agents they will actually talk to can be decided in those lists of past sales where they ask themselves: “Given how that agent has marketed homes in the past, do I want that agent handling my home the same way?”
If the photos don’t look good, the answer is probably a decisive NO!
We recently sold a home before the market went bananas it was imperative for us to work with an agent that not only had a great track record but someone that we knew would put their best foot forward when marketing our property to get it sold and our agent, Sheena Baker, did just that and in record time.
Trust me, the quality of photos matters. If you get it wrong and your listings look undesirable compared to your competition then you can easily lose sellers to other agents.
Reason #3. Sellers Talk
Imagine this conversation happening between a recent seller and their neighbor, somewhere in Winston Salem, Greensboro, or Charlotte.
Tanya: Congratulations on the sale of your home! How did things go?
Erica: It was amazing! I mean, the market is hot, and the house sold in 2 days, but we were super impressed with our agent.
Tanya: That’s awesome, who did you use?
Erica: We went with Sheena Baker and her team was so fantastic to work with. She didn’t cut any corners in the process and went all in. She hired a professional photographer and even purchased a floor plan of our home.
Tanya: Agents still do that?
Erica: Some do and some don’t. I looked at other listings here in Winston Salem and some of the pictures were horrible. I was so impressed by the professionalism of the photographer she hired and the images were amazing. I would recommend Sheena to everyone.
Conversely, can you imagine how things would have gone if the agent had taken their own pictures? Of course, the home would have still sold, but the conversation would probably have been drastically different.
After the sale will your sellers boast about your willingness to hire a photographer even in a hot North Carolina real estate market or will they only talk about the speed of the sale if anything at all?
