MLS Photos – The Importance of Hiring a Professional

Back in the day, buyers and sellers depended entirely on real estate agents to find their dream home or sell their property.

Today, most prospective homebuyers are proactive. They head straight for their electronic devices to search for properties before even contacting an agent.

In fact, more than 90 percent of Americans go online to shop for property.

Hiring a professional real estate photographer for your listings can make all the difference between selling a property within months and selling it within weeks.

So, with more homebuyers searching for properties online, top quality photos are more important than ever. After all, they say a picture is worth a thousand words. When it comes to your MLS photos, the right photographer, camera, and photos can be worth thousands of dollars.

What Can Professional MLS Photos Do for You?

Put simply, hiring a professional real estate photographer can make your photos stand out online.

Not yet convinced? Let’s look at a couple of reasons:

• According to a Redfin study, listings that are photographed with a DSLR professional camera receive 61% more views online than their competitors.
• Studies show that online buyers will spend as long as 20 seconds looking at the front exterior photo of a property before moving onto the listing’s details. You want those 20 seconds to count.
• Redfin reports that homes shot with professional photos are more likely to sell than those with basic point and shoot photos. Studies report an increase in all price points from 5% up to 17%.
• Let’s face it, lovely photos trigger emotions. Emotion sells. For most homebuyers, emotion plays a big 80% part of the buying decision. Sure, buyers use logic to choose locations, property sizes and price ranges, but most rely on emotion to choose which properties to visit in person and ultimately spend their money on.
• The Redfin study also shows that listings with professional images sell faster. On average, homes in the price range of around $400,000 sell 3 weeks faster than those with bland, novice images.
• You might own your very own DSLR camera, but it doesn’t make you a photographer, does it? Professional photographers take snaps for a living. They practice, they hone their skills, they just they understand angles, composition, and lighting. They take an ordinary living room and make it look like the dream formal lounge your clients always wanted.
• Excellent MLS photos don’t just require the time to snap a few pictures, they require time for editing and uploading to your site. As an agent, you list, show, and sell homes like nobody’s business. So, focus your time doing what you’re best at and leave the photography to the professionals.

Time Is Money – and a Professional Can Help You Get More of Both

If your time is money and you want to get the most for each listing, a professional photographer can help you save time AND get more money for your listing.

Not only do professional photographers provide great images from the get-go, but as technology evolves, more opportunities to showcase your listings tend to arise. You’re no longer limited to 2D photos. More and more professional real estate photographers seem to have expanded their services to include 3D tours, virtual tours, and even detailed floor plans to give potential buyers an extensive and comprehensive look at each listing.

In turn, this can expand the amount of home-buyers viewing your properties. Elements like virtual tours appeal to out-of-town buyers who might not be able to view the home in person. Even local buyers like such additions, as it lets them get an in-depth look at a property quickly and efficiently.

It’s Time to Go Pro

While hiring a professional photographer may seem like a grudge spend to some agents, it is more than worth the budget. Not only do professional photos garner more views, faster sales and perhaps even more referrals, but they’re a great way to maintain your agency’s professional aesthetic.

Should you choose to hire a fellow professional to handle your photography needs, there is many resources out that that can help you find the suitable fit. We’ve covered a few of these in our piece about professional headshots (Spoiler, you should hire a professional for those as well). Our favorite was Photosesh. While pricing will vary by locale, this app allows you to filter by cost, service, location, and additional criteria that will help you locate the perfect photographer for your needs.