Real Estate Photography: First Image, First Impression

We all know that photos are crucial to creating a real estate listing that sells. This is especially true in Alaska, where so many out-of-state buyers are purchasing homes without ever setting foot in them.

But recent studies show just how important those photos are — and which photo is most important for buyers. 

Specifically, a low-quality or missing photo of the exterior of your home could make the difference between whether a buyer is interested in your property or if they move on to the house next door. 

You Have 20 Seconds to Make a First Impression 

When homebuyers look at a real estate listing, they spend 60% of their time looking at photos. Property descriptions can certainly have an impact on whether a buyer is interested in attending an open house or making an offer, but photos show buyers what it will feel like to look at their new home. 

Do your photos show off your clients’ home? 

Eye-gazing studies took these statistics even further to see which photos are most important to buyers. Out of the 56 seconds that buyers typically spend looking at the photos, they spend 20 seconds - more than a third of the time - looking at the exterior. 

In contrast, buyers usually speed through photos of the interior, spending no more than nine seconds on each subsequent photo. Moreover, they are most likely to remember the photo of the exterior when making their decision about a house. 

For this reason, an excellent exterior shot should be the first photo that buyers see. 

Do you have a photo that properly shows off the property’s curb appeal and size?

If you don’t, the buyer is likely to move on within two seconds. Two seconds! Most buyers won’t get through reading a whole sentence of your property description before they decide to click away.

However, if you have photos that show off the quality of the listing, the property will sell 32% faster and with a 47% higher asking price per square foot on average. 

The stats don’t lie. Investing in a real estate photographer will pay off when you sign your home over for a higher price. 

Sell Your Home Faster with Alaska Professional Real Estate Photography

At DMD, we know how important high-quality photos are to your listing. Moreover, we know how to help you create a cohesive “story” of sorts with those images, taking prospective buyers on the journey of the home you want.

We offer a full range of photos and videos to sellers and their agents throughout Alaska, and our team consistently delivers effective images that work to sell homes in Anchorage, Eagle River, Palmer, Wasilla, and Fairbanks.

Reach out to our team for more information on our packages and how we can help you sell your home for a higher price. 

What Should Real Estate Agents Invest in Marketing a Home?

Actually listing a home is easier than ever. With just a few clicks, you can upload photos and a property description to multiple popular listing sites. 

Seems like something that would save you a few pennies, right? 

Sure. If that was all you had to do. Here at DMD, we know better.

While listing sites do help to get the word out about open houses, yours is not the only listing up there. Competition is fierce, if you want your listing to stand out, you need the pictures to make that happen… but is it really worth investing in them?

Why Should Real Estate Agents Invest in Marketing a Home? 

Potential homebuyers move fast when they’re scrolling through listing sites. When they land on a listing’s photos, they will decide whether or not they are interested within 20 seconds. (Without photos, that number drops significantly - to two seconds!) 

Will the photos you’re using catch their attention? Will they capture the true size of the house and the potential for it to be someone’s home? 

Or will they just scroll on past? 

If you are looking to sell a home over $200,000, high-quality real estate photography can help you do so for up to an additional $11,000. That’s an extra $330 in your pocket and another happy client. 

Is Marketing Worth It? Let’s Crunch Numbers

There are two ways to approach your marketing budget, but they all fall within the same ballpark range. The number will depend on the value of the home that you are trying to sell. 

How Much Commission Are You Getting? 

One approach is to allocate 10% of the commission you expect to get from the home. Buyer’s agents and seller’s agents don’t always split commission, but traditionally, both parties get 3% of the home. So you would allocate .03% of the home’s value to marketing. 

Let’s say you are selling a home that is valued at $200,000. You expect to get $6,000 in commission, so your marketing budget would be $600. 

This doesn’t seem like much, but it can get you some high-quality photos that make a fantastic impression on potential buyers who are looking at your listing online. At DMD, $600 could get you a full photo package with leftover room for Facebook ads or other forms of marketing. 

An Easy 1%. 

Another general rule is to allocate .5%-1% of the home’s value. If the home is valued at $200,000, your marketing budget is between $1,000 to $2,000. 

That extra $400 to $1,400 can get you very far. You can invest in larger photo and video packages that include interactive or 3D tours. The extra cash could go to marketing events or creating a social media campaign. Get creative - you have the budget!

Get Started With DMD Real Estate Photography

Real estate photography is a marketing tool that pays off. A beautiful photo of your client’s home will get more buyers interested faster. 

Reach out to DMD today to learn more about package options, prices, and how to get started marketing your homes with high-quality photos. 

Alaska Real Estate Photography Copyright Laws: What You Need to Know

“Can’t I just use photos of my client’s home that are in Google images?”

This is a question that we have gotten over and over again at DMD from realtors. And it kind of makes sense, right? After all, the pictures are just sitting there. And they’re free. Why wouldn’t you try to use them if they’re good? 

Here’s why: because it’s against the law. 

Quite simply put, if you take photos without a photographer’s permission, you could end up getting sued and lose a whole lot of money - even over just one image. 

How much money? Ask Zillow.

The real estate listing site has come under fire many times for violating copyrights. In the past few years, multiple photographers have come forward and filed claims against them for refusing to take down photos that photographers did not agree to let them use. 

Now, Zillow has won some of these cases and lost some of them, and the amount they have been required to pay has varied. In the past, they have had to pay $180 for each photo that was used unlawfully. In an ongoing case, a photographer is asking for $150,000 for each photo.

If the photographer wins, Zillow might have to fork over $81 million. 

What Photos Can Real Estate Agents Use?

At DMD, we see this as a horrible situation for everyone.

Obviously, no one wants to pay over $100,000 because they were unaware of copyright laws (or even if they blatantly disregarded them because they thought it was no big deal). But photographers don’t want to be put in this position either. 

What’s the solution? Learn what kinds of photos you can and can’t use in Alaska. 

Our state’s rules regarding photography copyright laws don’t stray from federal guidelines. The Professional Photographers of America sums up the rules quite succinctly: 

“Unless you have permission from the photographer, you can’t copy, distribute (no scanning and sending them to others), publicly display (no putting them online), or create derivative works from photographs.”

As photographers, we don’t have to purchase copyrights when we produce or distribute a photo. That copyright exists immediately, and anyone who uses the photo without permission can face a lawsuit. 

If you want truly free photos, we recommend using Google Advanced Image Search. You can filter photos by usage rights and choose photos that are free to use and share commercially. 

However, the reality of real estate photography is that the best photos are protected by copyright. The photos that are free usually aren’t the best ones, and finding good images is especially difficult if you need ones of a specific house or neighborhood.

You can use whatever “okay” pictures exist, but trust us when we say that poor photos will not pay off when you are trying to sell your client’s home.

Want Great Listing Photos without a Lawsuit? Work with DMD

Copyright is confusing and complicated. The effort it takes you to track down great pictures of a property (assuming they even exist) and ensure you won’t be sued is as least as much as it would take to just have us do the job for you.

And when you hire a professional real estate photography business like DMD to shoot a property, you’re not just paying for the right to use those images. You’re paying for our experience. Our skill. And to get a cohesive set of images that work together to help form the backbone of a fantastic listing.

Why wouldn’t you want that?