Content and information make the web go around, and it is detailed information that consumers are looking for when they are viewing property listings online. Consumers are using this information to make preliminary decisions about property from the comfort of their own home. The process of elimination starts here and it is your one opportunity to convert browsers to inspectors. So what do you need to provide in your listings to get people off the couch and at the inspection?

1) Floorplans; Equally as important as images, floor plans are one of the first elements consumers look for when viewing a listing. However some agents are still not providing what should be a core component of any property advertisement online.

2) Images; Making a property decision from your computer is a visual process. Consumers have a limited amount of time to go to open for inspections and as many overlap, your property may be making it onto the “no time to see list”. Images are the crucial factor swaying a users decision, and providing 2 or 3 images to look at is hardly going to entice buyers to the property. With property portals providing the capacity for up to showcase 26 images, agents need to make better use of this facility and increase the portfolio of photos for their properties.

3) Pricing; Many properties are still listed without a price guide associated with them. Whether a property sells for the price it is listed at on the day will of course depend on the market. However a price guide helps consumers to determine if a property possibly sits within their budget, and is worth a trip to the inspection.

4) A full valid address; When inputting data, it is important that agents ensure an accurate full address is provided. Without it, map functionality, on portals and your own site, are unable to accurately pinpoint the location of a property within a particular suburb. After understanding what the property looks like, consumers want to know where it is located and what it is close to, so make sure they don’t have to traipse around the web to find it. If you focus on getting these fundamentals right, and combine it with some investment in attracting users to your site through online channels such as search and social media you are well on the way to attracting more buyers for your listed properties.

In the light-hearted spirit of the holidays, I submit these real estate classifieds ads, which are apparently from the US. (Editor Note: I should have posted this earlier, but it is still pretty funny)

Talk about a motivated seller!

Hard to heat and cool?

If that’s the best you can say about it…

All of these ads are courtesy of Criggo, the blog whose tagline is, “Newspapers are going away. That’s too bad.”

(Thanks to my friend Jodi for the heads up.)

Real estate agents in Australia take a lot of flack for the quality of the listings photos they upload to portals like realestate.com.au. And it is probably true that many photos could have been in slightly better focus.

However, today, I think all Australian real estate agents should give themselves a firm pat on the back.

Why? Because I’ve never seen an Australian listing photo as bad as those on the It’s Lovely! I’ll Take It! blog–from the good ol’ US of A and written by “Sara”.

The blog is “a collection of poorly chosen photos from real estate listings”. I’ve pulled out a few here:

What Sara says: “Oh, hi, honey. Nope, just taking some photos. No need to get up. I’m not selling the house or anything. Gotta go!”

What Sara says: Included: oven, fridge, surly teenager. Just what I’m looking for in a house!

What Sara says: Needs TLC: Yes, this is really a photo from a listing… but unfortunately it’s almost incomprehensible, so it’s impossible to tell what’s going on (unless you read an article about it, but that’s no fun).

“Marry a Princess Lost in America / Create the Magic with this Fairy Tale Princess,” it says. “There is also a 1st floor Powder room.”

What Sara says: “I’m done securing the doors and windows.

Have you taken all the photos you need?”

“Yup. Pack it up, and let’s get out of here.”

“So we’ll just walk out through the… $#^@*&!!!”

What Sara says: My first thought is not “I’ll take a refreshing dip!” Eeew.

What Sara says: It’s a golden housing-market. Half a million. HALF A MILLION! Half a million bucks they’re asking, and they can’t be bothered to flush?

Many thanks to my friend Jodi for sending me the link to this blog. I don’t care if it IS an SEO tool for Redfin, it’s hilarious.

You can order this eBook for $15 USD (about 17 AUD) by clicking here. I ordered my copy and it is around 70 pages and a great read and I picked up some great tips. I think this is a must have for any agency that takes its own photography.

I am a strong believer that the future is all about content and presentation of your vendors listings to separate yourself from your competition.

Below is a table of contents of the eBook

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Why did I Write this Book?
Who is This Book Written for?
What do You Need to Know?

Chapter 1 Photography For Real Estate
What is Real Estate Photography?
Why are Good Real Estate Photos Important?
Where and How are Real Estate Photos Used?
How do You Learn Good Interior Photography?
The Front Exterior Shot is the Most Important

Chapter 2 10 Essentials of Real Estate
1-Understand the Purpose of Each Photo
2-Use a Wide-angle Lens to Shoot Rooms
3-Simplify Images
4-The Primary Exterior Shot is THE Most Important Photo
5-Render Interiors Light and Bright
6-Render All Vertical Lines Vertical
7-Straight Lines Must Appear Straight
8-Don’t Let Burned Out Windows Distract
9-Remove Color Casts
10– Use Only Horizontal Mode Photos for Real Estate Websites
Moving Beyond These Rules

Chapter 3 Choosing a Real Estate Camera
Why a Wide-angle Lens is Essential
Compact Point-an-Shoot or DSLR?
What About Megapixels?
Can I Get Wide-angle Shots on My Compact Digital Camera?
Digital SLRs and the Crop Factor
Recommended Cameras and Lenses for Interior Photography

Chapter 4 Lighting
How to Get Good Interior photos
Why use External Flash?
What Flash Should You Get?
How Should You use External Flash?
Using Multiple Flash Units and Continuous Lighting
How do I Work with Only Natural Light?
How do I Avoid (or Fix) the “burned out window” Problem?
How do I Handle Color Casts and White Balance?
Why are the exterior Shots of a Home so Important?
What are Some Guidelines for Photographing Exteriors
Case Study 1—Shooting a Contemporary Lake View Home
Case Study 2—Shooting a View Home on Acreage

Chapter 5 Shooting Exteriors
Why are the exterior Shots of a Home so Important?
What are Some Guidelines for Photographing Exteriors
Case Study 1—Shooting a Contemporary Lake View Home
Case Study 2—Shooting a View Home on Acreage

Chapter 6 Shooting Interiors
Guidelines for Photographing Interiors
Case Study 1—Shooting with Natural Light Only
Case Study 2—Shooting with an External Flash

Chapter 7 Photo Software
Guidelines for Photographing Interiors
Case Study 1—Shooting with Natural Light Only
Case Study 2—Shooting with an External Flash
What Software Am I Going to Need?
What Software Should I Use to Manage and Organize My Shots
Why Should I Use an Image Editor?
What Image Editor Should I Use?
What About the Ethics of Modifying Photos?

Chapter 8 Fixing Common Problems
Using Image Editors
How to Tune-up Exposure
How to Straighten Falling Walls
How to Get Natural Looking Color
How to Increase Saturation
How to Fix Curved Walls (Barrel Distortion)
How to Remove Distracting Elements
How to Deal with “burned-out” windows
How to Bring Back Sharpness to Your Photos

Chapter 9 Virtual Tours
What is a Virtual Tour?
Why Use a Virtual Tour?
What are the Common Features of a Virtual Tour?
Panoramas
Creating Flash Slide Shows with Lightroom
CDs and DVDs as Buyer and Seller Gifts
How Do You Create a DVD Slide Show of Your Photos?
How Do You Create a DVD Slide Show of Your Photos?

Chapter 10 Trends in Real Estate Photography
The Need for Speed!
Web Advertising
The Use of Video
The Use of Virtual Tours is Surprisingly Low
Increasing Use of Flash Slide Shows
Competition in Real Estate Photography

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.

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.

1. Complete the picture.
Make sure you take at least 5 images of each and every room and feature of a property and then choose the best one from the five. This will mean the site user is given an accurate tour of a property.

2. Image Size
Set your digital camera at 800 x 600 pixels for web images. If take correctly these will be good enough for most print work as well, however if you require larger images then make sure you resize images for the web. Most of the portals including realestate.com.au allow for images up to 800 x 600 pixels. The reason for this size is because still about 25% of people have monitors that cannot view anything above this. In the future this size will increase to 1024 x 768 pixels and I a sure portals will support this size once the 800 x 600 users go below the 10% mark. Almost every monitor sold in the past 5 years has a minimum 1024 x 768 pixel resolution.

Note: Pixels are the little dots that make up an image on a screen.

3. Image Quality
Make sure you do not choose out of focus images or images that are useless for consumers, just because you took the photo does not man you have to use it.

4. Quality NOT Quantity
Some agents have too few images and some too many, one good shot of each room and feature is enough for the consumer to get enough of a feel about the property. So try to think of your photography as a tour of the properties rooms, features and views.

5. Your Camera
I have always said that agencies should have the same camera for each of their sales people (if you do not use a professional photographer). This is because you will naturally have one or more people that take the time to understand the camera and its features, this will help the other users who are having problems.

Overall: I think you have to understand that people viewing property photography are also potential future vendors so with this in mind, think of the impression you will leave on them.