On your way to your next property photo shoot take the time to think about what you want to achieve for your vendor and for your agency.
Here are some things to consider.
1. What are the features of the property.
You should try to take 4 shots of the features of a house. The photos on your website should be a tour of the property that informs and excites potential buyers.
2. The best go live
Pick only the best quality images. Remember poor quality images reflect badly on your companies professionalism and without knowing it, could cost you vendors.
3. 800 x 600
All your photos should be the standard which is 800 x 600. In the coming years this might increase to 1024 x 768 pixels (the bigger the better) but most portals do not support this because their are still around 30% of the consumer market with only 800 x 600 monitors.
4. Include your website address and logo
No Agent does this, but I believe that any image that goes live on any portal other than your own website should have a small clean logo with your domain name clearly marked. Do not make it overbearing, it should be clean and crisp and located in one of the corners (pick a corner and make it consistent through all of your images). This will promote the listing and your website and costs nothing but a little time.
5. Minimum 5
Each property listing should have a minimum of 5 quality images. This informs site users. Sometimes for listings such as land it is difficult, but in the information age the last thing you want to do is waste time and frustrate potential buyers and your staff by wasting both their time.
Note: Never, ever upload poor quality images.
Example: (Note this was designed by myself and not the client)
5 Comments
Jon May
What opinion do agencies have of the photographer branding photos with his/her logo? (as does open2view).
signed
a pro RE photog. 🙂
Peter Ricci
John, well it is poor branding, it always looks terrible, virtual tour companies have been doing this for years. I don’t mind, as long as they pay to do it.
Branding is everywhere though, we wear t-shirts with branding, pay to carry plastic bags with branding.
Did notice you guys do it as well though?
Jon May
Peter – “…poor branding.” By that do you mean that the concept (the photographer adding their name or logo to the photo) is flawed, or that the examples you’ve seen have been badly implemented?
As you say, we buy items everyday which bear the brand of their maker. The brands on quality products even become desirable over time. I aspire to that happy state of affairs! What reasons can you see for agents not wanting (subtly) branded photos?
Peter Ricci
Hi Jon, maybe I wasn’t too clear about that one. The branding on the photos for them looks terrible, and it takes away from the user experience. So I would just get rid of them.
It is all about what we will put up with. As an example, if many agents told them to remove their logo off agents photos or they will remove their listings and support, then I am sure they would do this.
The reason agents do not want them is that many take the time to create photos, not just point and shoot – and logos for the most part look terrible on photos, ‘subtly’ will just not end up being so.
Jon May
Hi Peter – thanks for the clarification. I take your point that a logo on a photo might taint the user’s experience if the brand was obtrusive. But you did suggest (your point 4 above) that realtors brand the images they use to market their listings. I was running with that suggestion as I’m all for self-promotion and branding my product (photos) seemed an opportunity to do just that (self-promote). I have yet to test the waters and see if any of my clients will allow me to do this.