Listing Photo Tip

Photos, arguably, are one of the most important aspects of real estate listings.  They are what potential buyers and buyers agents use initially to decide whether a property is worth spending further time to consider or whether they will just move on to the next property on the search results list.

Many listing agents understand this and demonstrate how important photos are by hiring a professional photographer.  But then they spoil the benefit of quality photos by making one small mistake.  They take a vertically oriented photo (taller than wide) and use it as the main/first photo in the listing.  Here's what happens when that photo is displayed on the MLS and other property search engines.  In going through new listings today I ran across several examples.  Here's one:

First, here is what the photo is supposed to look like:

Here's how it appears on the MLS:

The proportions of the photo are altered so that it is stretched to fit the predetermined size and layout the MLS imposes so the proportions of the property are incorrect -- looks like a wide, squat house.

Here's how it appears on Realtor.com:

The proportions are OK but, in order to fit the photo into their predetermined layout they have cropped the top and bottom.

Here's how it appears on Trulia:

Trulia also crops the photo but to an even greater extent.

Tip:  if you don't want the main photo of your listing to be mangled by search engines (over which you have no control), always use a horizontally oriented photo (wider than tall).  You may not avoid all the distortions introduced by the search engines but you'll make a better first impression.

(I've blurred out identifying information in these photos because the point here is to provide helpful information, not to embarrass the listing agent.  This property happens to be a multi-million dollar listing by an experienced and well-respected local agent but this problem can happen to anyone.)

Do Photos Sell Real Estate?

I ran across an interesting article today that claims "the number of photos included in the listing has an influence on how fast the home sells."  They quickly qualify this claim by saying that in the Bay Area there is little correlation between number of photos and speed of sales unless the listing is on the market for more than 20 days.

The article is based on a study done by the on-line real estate brokerage famous for their notorious "Zestimate" which purports to estimate (get it?) the market value of residential properties whether on the market or not.

This article originally caught my eye because I spend a lot of time taking quality photographs of listings for myself and other agents and I've always believed that quality photos have become an increasingly important marketing tool ever since listing information became widely available on the internet.  But this article goes too far when it says that a property listing with more photos will sell a faster than a listing with fewer photos.  And if you look at Zillow's actual study you'll see they make no such claim.

There are far more significant factors that affect the speed of a sale -- the most important are:

• demand vs. supply
• asking price compared to perceived value

The market in San Francisco is a great example of the first point -- there is great demand resulting in many listings receiving multiple offers well over asking price, often within two weeks of the initial listing.  The second is just common sense -- if buyers perceive the asking price to be greater than actual value they do one of two things.  Either they simply look elsewhere or they may make an offer under asking price and closer to what they believe is the market value of the property.  In a market like our current market in San Francisco, buyers won't bother to make an under asking price.

This is not to say that listing photos aren't important but the effect of listing photos is more subtle and nuanced and probably not subject to easy quantification.  Our experience (and that of our colleagues) tells us:

• It's extremely important that photos accompany a new listing when it is first published.  Especially in a competitive market, agents and their clients are watching for new listings very closely.  If a new listing surface with few or no photos, the reaction is generally to skip by that listing (and not come back for a second look) and a suspicion that there is something wrong with the property "so they're not showing us what it actually looks like".
• Quality photos create the impression of a quality property for both buyers and agents -- and the opposite is true as well, with poor quality photos suggesting the property is in poor condition and in need of repairs.
• "Missing" photos also lead to suspicion that there is something wrong.  If there are no photos of key rooms such as kitchens and bathrooms buyers and agents are likely to think the worst.  Same thing if there are no photos of a feature mentioned in the description. 
• The photos must reflect the reality of the property.  If there a utility poles and wire in front,