Ask any successful real estate agent how important good pictures are in selling real estate. They will generally tell you good photos are critical. For 2 reasons:
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Buyers look through lots of homes, and pictures give them a good idea of each very quickly.
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Listings without pictures, or only one or two pictures make buyers wonder what’s wrong with the home.
The pictures should be high quality and the house should look like it’s ready to move into. Buyers have zero imagination. You have to fill in the gaps. That means staging the home for sale. Hiring stagers and renting furniture can run several thousand dollars, depending on the size of the home.
Pictures are not the only part of selling the home though.
Your ad should have a well-written description explaining all the benefits for the buyer. For higher-end homes, it may be worthwhile to hire a copywriter who is skilled in writing sales letters. At the very least you might want to learn a few tricks of the copywriting trade yourself.
Floor plans also help sell homes.
It’s sometimes difficult for buyers to take the pictures and arrange them in their head to understand how a home is laid out. If they become a little confused, they might pass on your house without ever seeing it.
Some research suggests that up to 1/3 of buyers pass on home listings without floor plans. Perhaps if you are selling a very low-end home, you won’t need it. Any decently valued home will probably benefit from a floor plan.
A buyer can pass on your home very quickly if your ad does not tell them what they want to know. It’s worth spending some marketing money to have the best photography, descriptions and layouts you can afford in the ad.
Or is it?
High-End Advertising at a Low Price
Hiring a photographer can run you several hundred dollars or more. Add to that the cost of staging, and you have an expensive marketing budget. Granted the investment pays itself back when you sell the home though.
What if you could sell the home without spending big bucks on staging or photography?
A website from Australia wants to help you do just that. It’s called BoxBrownie. BoxBrownie offers all kinds of services to make your photos and ads really stand out:
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Image enhancement of your own photos to make them look professional
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Black & white, color and 2D-textured floor plans
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3D full-color floor plans
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Development site plans for new construction
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Virtual furniture added to your photos to create the ‘staged’ look
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Day to Dusk – changing the sky in your photos from day to dusk to create a professional look
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Item removal – don’t feel like cleaning when taking your photos? They can digitally remove the mess
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3D rendering – turn home plans into virtual homes to see the finished product before construction
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Professional copywriting to help sell your home
(They also offer background removal, which is great if you are trying to sell a consumer product, but not that useful if you are selling a home.)
All of these services are offered à la carte. You only pay for what you need. The services are very reasonably priced when you consider what it would cost from a professional photographer or stager.
Since BoxBrownie is in Australia, they will be relying on you to take the pictures. However, they do help all the aspiring home photographers out there with various tips and techniques on their YouTube channel. The channel has videos from professional home photographers to help you take the best pictures possible.
Of course, you can also just search on YouTube for something like “How to Take Professional Photos of Your Home” for more tips and techniques. Then once you have the photos, take a look at BoxBrownie for help to help them pop!
One Final Note
Here’s one thing you should consider when using the virtual staging services of BoxBrownie or other virtual staging services...
Buyers might be surprised to see the virtual staging done in the ad, and then walk into an empty home when they tour it. If you use virtual staging, make sure you disclose in your ad that the home is not actually staged.
Buyers are not fond of surprises, unless they are good surprises (“We’ll knock $10,000 off the price, just because we like you,” for example).
Don’t surprise them in any kind of negative way.
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Have any other tips for making your ads really stand out? Please leave them in the comments below.
Include Pictures in All Your Ads – This includes rental properties.
Don’t Skimp on Marketing – Marketing usually is the most profitable part of your budget. Find the services that bring in the most value.
Be Familiar with Copywriting –As a real estate investor, you are still a salesman. Learn from the pros how to do it, and you will be more successful.
JP Moses
is a real estate investor in Memphis, TN, with experience ranging from land lording to note buying, rehabbing, and wholesaling. However, wholesaling is the area that he enjoys most and where he bring the most experience and expertise to his students.