Sell your Home with Photographs

It's an oft stated maxim that good quality photographs give a home for sale a competitive advantage in the Real Estate market. Below is research that backs up this statement.

There is a well-known study, performed by Redfin Corp on Boston and Long Island sales in the 2009 - 2010 period. The original write-up can be accessed here and a Wall Street Journal summary of the research is available here. The study compares the difference between asking and final price of homes whose listing photos were created with a point-and-shoot camera versus those in which a Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) was used. Properties that had the higher quality DSLR photos sold for more and were viewed more often than the point-and-shoot properties.

According to the 2012 NAR Profile of Buyers & Sellers 98% of homebuyers searching for homes on the internet found photos to be among the most useful features of agent websites.

A qualitative study performed by Tom Flanagan and available here concludes that

• Photography is critical to homebuyers searching for homes
• Large, professional photographs are preferred
• The order in which photos are presented is important and should reflect what one would see walking through the home

Statistics compiled by Kris Bjarne Haug, a Real Estate photographer in New Orleans, referenced here demonstrates again that professionally photographed properties get more views.

So, as a homeowner interested in selling your home what should you conclude from the above? You should conclude that high quality photos, starting with a picture of the front of the house and ending with one of the back of the house, are key to getting your home sold for the best dollar. This doesn't mean that great photographs will allow you to sell your home at an above-market price. Price is always the single most important factor. But it does give your home a significant advantage when compared with other similarly priced properties in the market.

Original article here.