Central Ohio Real Estate Market News

If you answered “What do you charge?” you would be wrong.Ask a Realtor® the question, and most will say that the most important thing is high quality photos. Photos?? Yes, photos!

You’ve no doubt searched home listings on the internet. Over 70% of the buyers start their search there. How many times have you by-passed a listing when there was no photo? How many times have you said, “NEXT” when you see a home that doesn’t look appealing? And, if a home doesn’t have any interior photos do you assume the interior is in such bad shape that the agent doesn’t want to show the inside? You’re not alone. Most buyers do the same thing.The photo of your home has a nano second to capture that potential buyer … to make them want to view or read more about your home. Doesn’t it stand to reason then that you would want to make sure you hire an agent who will feature your home best? So when interviewing agents, here are some questions you should ask or things you should watch for:
• Ask the agent to show you actual examples of the photography on their current listings. You’ll want to see examples of the home(s) in the MLS, on their web site, on their broker’s web site, and on Realtor.com.
• There should be multiple photos in each of these locations. In the Columbus area MLS, we can post up to 10 photos along with text to describe the photo. On HER Real Living’s site, we can post up to 26 photos. On Realtor.com, an agent can post 6 photos … if the agent subscribes to the Showcase Listing program, which they should.
• Has the agent staged the home for the photography? This means no cars, no trash cans, no toys in exterior photos. Inside photos should have all lights turned on, no fridge magnets, counters mostly bare, no towels hanging on the range, bed spreads smoothed, and no people or pets showing.
• Ask the agent what the time delay will be from the time your home is posted to the internet to when the photos will be uploaded. The only acceptable answer is “immediately”. All listing web sites allow buyers to set up searches that will alert them when a new listing appears that meets their search. If your home comes up in this email search alert with NO photos, then the buyer will click NEXT!

Digital cameras make it so easy to take high quality photos and to upload them to web sites, that there’s no longer any excuse for an agent to NOT offer this very important service to their clients. As a seller, you can’t afford to overlook photography when evaluating a listing agent. It can mean the difference in how quickly your home sells and at what price.

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