The Good, the Bad & The Ugly - It’s dark in here! Week 11

It’s Fall, we’re back on Standard Time, and it gets dark earlier.  Some agents must think their properties show best in the dark (and some listings probably do!), but this week The Good, The Bad & The Ugly focuses on really dark MLS photos, and finishes by showing how good nighttime photography can make a listing dazzle.

Wall of Shame Sample

What do I take from this photo? That the car has reflective material on it -which is more than I can say for the house. What was this agent thinking - not only by taking this picture in the dark, but then seeing it, and THEN uploading it to their MLS! This was taken in Chicago. Or Boston. Or Philly. Who can tell? I can, it’s from Long Island, NY. Who said watermarks were useless!

Click here to see more dark Wall of Shame examples.

Wall of Fame Sample

Sunrise and sunset light offer the most dramatic light of the day, and the photographer who can plan effectively can really make their listings shine (no pun intended - well, maybe).  Here’s a great example:

Click here to see more dark Wall of Fame examples.

Let us know if the comments what you think.  Also sign up to receive these posts via email on the top right of this page.  Be the first on your block to gasp in shock and awe when we post these gems.

Tips 1 and 2 For Creating Better Real Estate Videos

Have you ever browsed a website and seen images that appear stretched out or compressed like a fun house mirror?  How about viewing videos or slide shows with these types of images in them?   That’s caused by images being uploaded without them being resized for the website in which they are viewed.    Many of you may be familiar with this concept on your home TV.  You may have a widescreen TV, which has an aspect ratio of 16:9, but are viewing a TV show shot in traditional, old-school 4:3 ratio.   What does that mean?  To fit your widescreen TV, the show is stretched wide to fill the screen, and throws off the appearance of the show.

Tip 1.  Preserve Aspect Ratios

Well, in online marketing, preserving the aspect ratio is key to avoiding the distortion that can occur.   According to the real estate photography pros at the RE Snapshot blog, preserving aspect ratios in PhotoShop is rather straight forward.   Click the “constrain proportions” in the Image Size tab (under ‘Image’ in the top navigation).

Tip 2 - Resize Photos

Another important step is to resize the image to the dimensions for where its going to be used.   This too prevents the web browser from resizing the image to fit its location.   Resizing photos can be done with PhotoShop and other photo editing tools.   For your PropertyPreviews videos, for example, the minimum size of photos we accept is 640 x 480 pixels, but 1024 x 768 pixels is preferred.

See For Yourself

Try taking two sets of images, one set in their original format and another in a resized format to compare the difference in quality.   Taking the time to do these steps will improve the quality of your marketing materials, and increase the perceived value of your listing.   That may be just enough to get a prospect to act and contact you for more info.

Tips For Shooting Better Real Estate Photography

Here are three tips to make a big room look smaller, courtesy of the RE Snapshot Blog.

1. Use the 3-Wall Rule. Try to capture three walls in your scene to show more dimension.
2. Try Shooting at a Slight Angle. When shooting at a slight angle to a room, the lines of the room help create visual depth to the room. This helps make the room look longer by adding perspective.
3. Use a Wide Angle Lens. To achieve some of these tips, a wide angle lens makes the job much easier.

There are some compelling examples of agent-shot photography and the same room reshot by professionals.  Here’s a sample before and after shot:

The top photo is a very nice kitchen, but due to limitations of the camera, the lighting is uneven (note the bright light coming into the window).  Also the focal length of the lens does not allow the entire kitchen to be displayed.   So, using the rules above, there are not three walls, and a wide angle lens was not used.  It does seem that an angle was used when shooting.

The second photo is the same scene as above, but you can clearly see the use of  the Three Wall rule and a wide angle lens.  This is a much more dramatic and complete representation of the kitchen, and visually much more appealing to a prospective buyer.

Sow whether you use professional photography or do it yourself, by employing these techniques you can present your listing in the best light and hopefully engage more prospective buyers to contact you for more information.

What do you think?  Let us know in the comments.

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly, Week 9

Happy Thanksgiving to all.  Be thankful your listings aren’t featured in this week’s The Good, The Bad & The Ugly - Bad MLS photos.

Let’s start off with this South Beach stunner.

Oh, wait. It’s not in South Beach. But what about that pink sky? I’d say it’s possible to have such a sky in California, where this $409,000 listing is from, but I’ve never seen sky partially color a white garage door like this.  This agent needs some Photoshop skills, stat!

Click here to view more Wall of Shame entries.

Let’s see some lakefront property in the Land of 1,000 Lakes:

Note how you can see both inside and outside details clearly?  That is the mark of great professional photography and some great editing skills.

Click here to view more Wall of Fame entries.

As always, vote for your (least) favorite entries from this week in the comments section!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly - Bedroom Edition

This week from VHT: the GBU focuses on bedrooms.   While a picture is worth 1000 words, in these cases they would all be bad words, so I apologize in advance.

Note the cropped bed at least shows the Garfield comforter, which fortunately matches the carpet.  I don’t even know what those green glowing dots are on the floor. And I don’t want to.

Click here to see more Wall of Shame entries.

Now for a bedroom we’d all like to retire to, a room with a view!

Click here to see more Wall of Fame entries.

Let us know what you think in the comments!

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Bad MLS photos are getting more notice

Bad MLS photos are gaining in popularity - at least in terms of being called out as bad. Mary Umberger recently wrote an Inman News column about an agent/collector of bad MLS photos on their Active Rain blog (Mary’s article is for Inman subscribers only, but here’s the Active Rain blog Mary discusses).

Our readers know we’ve been touting bad MLS photography over the last few months, along with some very high quality photography, to help educate agents on the difference between “reference” photos (taken just to recall some details) versus “marketing” photos, those which are intended to engage, move, and motivate prospective buyers to take further action. Those actions can be clicking through to your property details page, calling you, or emailing you. Hopefully it stops them from dismissing your listing and stating, “Next”!  Many times “reference” photos get uploaded to satisfy the MLS requirements but are then included when this listing is shotgun-syndicated across the web and become “marketing” photos.

As we’ve said before, you only get one chance to make a good first impression, and in this market, that lasts a fraction of a second for buyers who are trying to filter out homes they DON’T want to investigate further when viewing search results screens on major real estate sites.

Don’t know what we mean? Take a look at this Wall of Shame entry - remember these photos are to help sell homes. What does this photo say about the property?

Click here to view more Wall of Shame entries.

I bet you could use a palate cleanser right about now, so here’s a Wall of Fame entry from this week:

Click here to view more Wall of Fame entries.

Let us know in the comments if you have more candidates for the Walls of Fame/Shame.  We’d love to feature them here!

Halloween Edition - Scary Bad MLS photos!

Just in time for Halloween, VHT released 20 of the scariest MLS photos culled from MLS’s across the country. This special edition shows no Wall of Fame entries to focus on showing a great collection of BAD photography.

Agents, you only get one chance to make a good first impression! Don’t blow it by letting these images scare away potential buyers - even if it is Halloween!

For everyone else, enjoy some of these samples from this week’s The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - Halloween Edition!

I can envision the copy for this, “enjoy the spacious, open feeling you get…” Oh. Wait. Nevermind.

This property is “driveway ready.”

While not used in the making of the film “The Sixth Sense”, this picture makes me want to say, “I see dead people.”

Well, that’s it for this week. Click here to view more of these horrific photographs. Hopefully none of them are yours, and if they are, consider photography lessons or hiring a pro to shoot your listings!

As always, let us know if you’re aware of any candidates for the Wall of Fame or Wall of Shame.

See you next week, and have a great Halloween weekend. Hopefully you won’t be knocking on the doors of the homes featured here!

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly - Week 5

PropertyPreviews users can continue to refine their skills by observing what professional photographers do and what amateur photographers should not do.  For this reason, we continue to post samples of both bad and good real estate marketing photography.   This week’s edition of VHT’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly again dips into the state of property marketing finding both gems and disasters culled from active listings around the country.

Wall of Shame Sample

This is a $628,000 California listing. Kitchens sell homes, and buyers seeing this on the internet can’t help but say, “I gotta see this one,” right? Is it too much to ask the agent to use a tripod, stand straight, or use both hands to level out the camera? How about waiting until the person washing dishes is done and gone?

Click here to see more of this week’s Wall of Shame entries.

Wall of Fame Sample

Here’s what quality real estate photography looks like:

This condo, complete with great view, is listed for $379,900 by Vikas Wadhwa of Urban Living Properties in Chicago, IL.

Click here to see more of this week’s Wall of Fame entries.

Next week: Halloween Feature… VHT posts the top 10 scariest photos of the month!

Let me know if you know any candidates for the Wall of Fame/Wall of Shame by posting in the comments!

More Ugly Fun from VHT - Bad MLS photos - Kitchen Edition

Rachel at VHT continues to impress by finding some hideous kitchen photos from active listings around the country for this week’s The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. Some readers had assumed only low-end listings were being used to make a point. Not true, and now listing prices are provided alongside these Hall of Shame entrants to prove that “ugly” knows no limits.

On to my favorite new member of the Hall of Shame:

How much do you think this Maryland home is listed for? $249,000? Nope. $349,000? Nope.

$499,900!! But it includes the UFO out back and someone to close the door!

Let me get that bad taste out of your mouth with this entry from this week’s Hall of Fame, a stunner from Wisconsin (listed for $675,000 by Nicholls and Kindberg of Coldwell Banker):

Have a good weekend!

The Good, Bad and Ugly MLS Photos

Visual marketing firm VHT recently started a series of blog posts showcasing some very poor MLS photos from around the country for a Wall of Shame, and also features some beautiful photography from their Wall of Fame.

Here’s a sample from the Wall of Shame:

Here’s a sample from the Wall of Fame:

PropertyPreviews users can learn a lot from observing these photos and incorporating both what not to do, and what to do when photographing a listing.   If you’re consistently coming up with results like these Wall of Shame candidates, hire a professional!  The cost of the service will be less than the damage to your professionalism.

So far there have been three editions, and here are links to them all:

First Edition |  Second Edition |  Third Edition

If you’ve any candidates for the Walls of Shame and Fame, let us know if the comments!

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