10 Ways Real Estate Agents Could Use The Apple iPad

Will the recent launch of the Apple iPad mean the end of the Listing Presentation Folder or FlipChart style presentation? Will we see agents showing off their listings via the iPad? Or perhaps they’ll be using it to watch real estate training sessions or live streamed sales meetings? Either way, could it be a Game Changer? Read the rest of this article »

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The Team Member Photo

One of the most neglected aspects of a property listing is the team member photo. I do not know how many times i just look at a photo and think to myself ‘this guy looks like a creep’. If they are not holed up against a wall with a shadow with an off centred tie then they are an extreme close up photo and it is painful to look at.

Agents have to understand that in many cases this is your first impression with a potential client. So why not make it a good one?

You have a number of choices for a photo shoot, you can either do it yourself, or hire a professional.

I have said in the past that owning a digital camera does not automatically make you a photographer and if you can afford to hire a professional do so. If you are going to do it yourself, spend some time playing with the camera and go onto the many websites that can help you to become a better photographer.

http://photo.tutsplus.com/
http://digital-photography-school.com/

Hiring a professional

If you ever hire a professional let them know (in writing) that we are in the 21st century and that once you pay for the photos, you own them. Otherwise, you may get some nasty surprise as Intellectual Property by natural law falls back to what they call the ‘artist’ and that isn’t you! So get the contract in writing or hire a student studying photography from the local college.

Do it yourself

It is not hard, but think creatively. My favourite agent photo of all time is a McGrath agent named Bethwyn Richards. I love everything about this picture. The natural blue hues in the background and her completely natural way. I like Bethwyn already and isn’t this the point?

In fact McGrath.com.au are the yardstick when it comes to photography of team members. Yes, it sometimes looks like they belong to a modeling agency and some guys on that website look like they spend more time on their hair than Ivana Trump, however, you have to admit, they do look good!

So, you can take photos like this yourself and as you can see McGrath use the same photo cropped for their portrait shot as they do the landscape shot.

Here are some standard sizes to work with: Landscape (250w x 125h pixels) and Portrait (100w x 125h pixels ).

It also makes sense to look at how the photographer took the photos and learn a couple of simple rules from them.

Rule 1: The left – right rule is a simple one, never place your subject in the centre of the photo, artistically it is boring. Either place them to the left or right of the image and let the background become part of the image.

Rule 2: The background rule is another simple but artistically effective rule, mix up your background, as you can see from the top image we have the angle of the hill mixed with the blues and greens of the trees with some yachts thrown in for good measure. The lower office photo mixes in glass with some splashes of color with the chairs.

Rule 3: The chest rule just gives all of your photos consistency so that they all look good on one page.

Rule 4: Distance is another rule that allows for all of your team members to look the same and the team page to look consistent. These photos above are a perfect distance.

Rule 5: The natural smile rule does take some time and possibly many photos, remember the subject must be comfortable.

Do not assume the person must smile with their teeth as some people are very sensitive about their smiles. So just take a number of photos and the choose the most natural one out of the batch.

There are some other things to follow and I cannot stress just how important it is to get to know your camera and digital photography.

Here is some software to use with photography

Picasa (100% Free)
Photoshop Elements

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Real Estate Photos Being Altered But By Domain Not Open2View

On a slow news day late last month an eagle eye reporter of the Dominion Post newspaper in New Zealand reported on the shocking crime of turning the sky blue! The local Open2View real estate photographer had the temerity to use the same cloud formation on different photos and the Dominion Post caught them in this despicable crime.

Showing there is not much bigger than a politicians ego local MP Clayton Cosgrove chimed in on the issue when approached by the paper for comment that agents should show the property in “its ordinary environment” and “I just think it’s a bit on the nose. The more straight up you are, the better you are.”

Showing what a hypocrite he was, the MP who apparently proposed the recent real industry reform bill to parliament seemed to have no problem when he said that photoshopping photographs  ”could make me look slimmer and give me more hair”. Seems this kiwi pollie thinks misrepresenting his own looks is fine, but changing a sky blue is a little smelly!

Nobody suggested that the house was changed in anyway nor its surroundings. Nobody removed power lines, blotted out a bus stop at the front of the property,  added a garden that wasn’t there or anything else that misrepresented the property in anyway. They turned the sky blue, thats all.

The whole sordid affair started doing the rounds here in Australia after a local blog picked up on the story and it was retweeted on twitter.

Lets all put this in perspective shall we.  Nobody seems to want to hold Domain to task for altering photos that clearly misrepresent the property but everyone gets up in arms over a blue sky.

Domain does not display photos in the same aspect ratio that they are provided in and will warp the images.  Now when the photo is in landscape the differences are only minor and unless you see the original image side by side it is often difficult to tell. It is a little like when you go to your friends place and they have a fancy widescreen tv displaying a 4:3 or letterbox picture. It looks pretty close but everybody seems to have put on a little weight. So a small house appears bigger and a crowded room appears a little more spacious.

It’s when photos are provided in portrait orientation  things really start going astray.  Lets look at the same property on three different portals.

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Domain.com.au

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Realestate.com.au

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Myhome.com.au

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So if there is any Fairfax journalists thinking of running an Australian spin on the story,  maybe they should look a little closer to home first. Misrepresenting the size of a home or a room is far more serious than changing the colour of the sky.

Domain need to clean up their code and stop distorting photos because its a dangerous game to be misrepresenting properties these days with some government departments looking for scalps… even big ones that can afford to pay big fines.

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Tag and Optimise your Images Correctly

With the release of Google Real Estate in Australia and them pushing the emphasis back onto the agents website I though I would provide some timely tips to help optimise your website images. They say every little bit helps!

Pictures clearly have an advantage over words. Agents deliver images to potential customers that may have no means of viewing that property. Why not tag these images correctly.

This is what a typical image code would look like [img src="”/images/192a/94736.jpg”" alt="”image”/"]. Clearly, a search engine robot has no way of categorizing this image. There is no information for it to file this image under other than it is an image.

Here are 3 simple procedures you or your photographer can do to get your images ranking on the first page of search engines.

Lets create another format of the above image code and add some information that will enable the image to be categorized.

1. give the image the name of the property address including the suburb
2. utilize the “alt” tag and put the property address including suburb in
3. reference the code directly from your website

The new code should look like this:
[img src="”http://www.yourwebaddress.com.au/images/27-oakland-drive-sydney.jpg" alt="”24"]

For added points include the image width and height.
[img src="”http://www.yourwebaddress.com.au/images/27-oakland-drive-sydney.jpg" alt="”24" width="”400”" height="“300”/"]

I have used this technique successfully. Type “mobile phone websites” in Google and go to the images tab. I have images in positions 1, 4, 10 and 14 on the first page.

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Photography in Real Estate eBook Available for $15 USD

I have long been an advocate for real estate agents who take their own photography and virtual tours to educate themselves about the process. Finally there is an eBook that deals directly with real estate photography and tells it all in very easy to understand terms. The Author – Larry Lohrman is an real estate enthusiast who has his own weblog that I feel should be a must read. Read the rest of this article »

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Photography for Real Estate

Isn’t the world of blogging great. There are now so many sites out there that I read all of the time and get RSS feeds from. Some of the bloggers on business2.com.au here have introduced me to some new ones and this is much appreciated.

One I came across today was www.photographyforrealestate.net and this has some wonderful advice for real estate agents. Let’s be honest. I think the big let down for many agents is copy and photography and this site should help you better understand photography – a must read for all of your photography team.

I do know more and more agencies hire professi0onal photographers, but for those that do not – this is a great resource.

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Image Rules!

When it comes to images (photography) of property listings it is important to remember the age old saying “every picture tells a story”. Many agents today employ professional photographers and whether your agency sells or lease property it is important to understand photography will save you time and money.

A few years ago I was looking for a property to lease in the eastern suburbs of Sydney and one thing I came to realise was that so many agents were just too lazy to take appropriate photography if any at all.

I really wondered what their vendors were paying for. Many of the images I came across were not a very accurate portrayal of the property. People leasing properties are on the whole allot more picky than people buying a property.

So here are some rules all agents should follow.

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The Photo Shoot

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.
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FREE Photo Organising Software from Google

Many Agents manage a large portfolio of photography and Google have released their FREE photo organising software Picasa.
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