As important as quality real estate photography has become to me with homes I sell in Albuquerque, I am generally accepting of bad photos on the MLS, but today was different. Let me tell you why.I have a client that has requested that I send her homes between 400,000 to 500,000 within Albuquerque. I set her up on a drip system, which also means that I don’t always preview the properties before they are sent to her. Normally, this is a great way to market homes 24/7, right?
Today she wrote and asked me to stop sending her homes via the MLS because all the homes she looked at were “depressing” and she was “worried” that she would not be able to find the right home in her price range. I spent time viewing the eight half million dollar properties she viewed within Albuquerque to find some of the worst pictures I have ever seen for homes in this price range. In fact, they WERE depressing. You would never know if the home was nice as agents shot directly into blown-out (brightly lit) windows creating dark rooms. Crooked pictures, bad angles, insufficient staging, poor color balance and blurry photographs were a few of the other issues with these pictures.
As an agent who started out as a real estate photographer, I did not EVEN have the heart to say to my client something like “it’s just the pictures or I bet it looks better in person.” It was unacceptable to her and reflected on me since the MLS was sending them from me. I said “you are absolutely correct, these homes are substandard…. next!” I promised her I would be more careful about sending her better properties in her price range. Translation – homes with better pictures that don’t insult a high end buyers senses.
So, the take away is this: If you are serious about selling your home or having people even think about viewing the home, either learn to take great photos or find someone who does. In the Albuquerque, New Mexico area… the best real estate photographers charge under $200 including virtual tours, pictures and the works to help market homes. Can you afford not to hire one?
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Subscribe: Marketing Homes Online Blog Jim Gross is a real estate photographer and broker in Albuquerque, NM. Use the links below to contact Jim, order tours nation-wide and follow.
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Jim, I have encountered this complaint from clients as well, especially from ones who live in other markets where, I’m guessing, the quality of the photos was higher in general.
Many agents think they take good photos, but they are totally unequipped to do the job right. You would think the possibility of a $15,000 commission check would be enough to motivate them, wouldn’t you?
Last week I saw a NM FSBO listing at 1.5 million. The pics included people, pets and were in general some of the worst I have seen for any price range. Unfortunately, this is not limited to just Albuquerque For Sale By Owners. I see it in the MLS every day. Yeah… 15k would motivate me to spend 175 buks on great pictures!