I’ve been working for years on developing a killer real estate marketing program. I’ve developed innovative internet tools like, HomeSaleNews.com, ArizonaHomesCatalog.com, this blog, McCormickRanchRealEstateHomes.com, and others.
Not everything worked out. I’ve created a few “but I learned a lot” websites.
Search Engines - can’t live without ‘em
At one point I thought search engine ranking was the key to great internet marketing. I often spent an hour or three a day studying search engine optimization.
Today, you can see some of the results, HomeSaleNews.com has ranked in the top 10 in Google for “Arizona homes” for most of the last 6 years. At one time I ranked in the top 3 in Google for many keywords such as “Tempe homes,” “Gilbert homes,” etc.
I de-emphasized search engine rankings years ago. Sure, your site’s gotta rank high in the search engines or no one will ever find it but it’s amazing home little business a high ranking in the search engines will actually generate. Your time is better spent improving your services to your clients. Now I only dabble in search engine optimization.
Video - nah
In 2005, long before YouTube, I thought video listings would be killer for marketing homes on the internet. I did a few videos of my listings but it turns out video has no “Wow Factor.” Video is very clinical - “Here’s the living room. Here’s the family room…” Video of homes just doesn’t generate any emotion, no “Wow Factor.”
Perhaps the biggest problem with real estate videos is “window burn out.” All the intense Arizona sunlight pouring in through the windows makes the rest of the interior look like a dark cave. “Cave-like” is not good for marketing a home.
Photographs - yeah
I started to emphasize the photographs in my listings. I spent a tremendous amount of time taking photos of individual homes.
The photos I put in the MLS were far better than average but I wasn’t happy with them. Window burn out was a terrible problem. No matter how many shots I took, no matter the time of day, certain rooms looked horrible in the photos.
So I researched the big rigs, broke down and bought a $2,500 Nikon camera setup last Fall.
The new camera solved most window burn out problems with it’s flash. The flash throws so much light on the interior that it doesn’t look like a cave anymore.
Also, a wide-angle lens lets me get a lot more of small rooms into a photo (but it can create distortions in the photo as well).
Finally, computer programs like Photoshop Elements and Lightroom are absolutely critical to adding some “Wow factor” to an average photo, in particular, lightening up shadows.
I still have a ton to learn about real estate photography but I’m liking the results I’m seeing.
Single Property Websites - Your home is worth it
Okay, I have some pretty good photos of homes I’m marketing. What’s the best way to show off the photos and the homes?
I was making my own webpages of the homes and was considering making my own websites for each listing. Then last week I rediscovered postlets.com. Postlets.com lets you create a custom “website” for each of listings.
One of the best parts about postlets.com is the way they display photos. Their photos are absolutely huge - 700 pixels by 525 pixels. (I also like their emphasis is on promoting the home, not on the Realtor.)
Now, if you have blah photos, displaying them in such a large format is probably not a good idea. The large format won’t flatter the photographs, the home or the photographer.
If, however, you’ve got good photos, the larger the better for showing off the home.
A Key to great internet marketing of homes
I’m convinced that great photos are a key to great internet marketing of real estate.
To test out the idea, this evening I re-optimized some photos to display at 700 pixels by 525 pixels. It’s very time consuming but now the photos of the home look great on the home’s exclusive postlets website.
Tell me what you think of the results. Check out the photos in this website.
NEXT TIME. Okay, you have great photos on a great web site made exclusively for the property. How do you get people to see it?
8 responses so far ↓
1 henri // Jun 5, 2007 at 10:56 pm
your pics are ok. much nicer than 99% of realtors, but have a few problems:
#1) you have over processed them. the colors don’t look “real”. (this can be a mix of my monitor vs your monitor and the fact that that house has some very rich colors). it’s ok if _something_ in the picture is a bit dark. less is more often when it comes to messing with saturation and levels.
#2) you have to turn off “iso auto” on your nikon. take all your pics at iso 100 (or 200 depending on which one you bought). the noise is apparent in the pictures, especially the one showing the TV (the screen should be a solid color). this will call for a tripod for every picture (one with a few level bubbles is nice)
#3) i’d like to see a bit more width… but that’s a tough call, you do end up with a distorted sense of space. but that can be fixed in post-processing
i’ll post a few of my pics tomorrow (not that i’m any good)
2 John L. Wake - Realtor // Jun 6, 2007 at 12:27 am
henri,
Wow! It sounds like you know something about photography.
I just learned about the importance of holding the camera level when using a wide angle lens. I’ll check out getting a tripod with levels. It would sure save a lot of post-processing time if I could shoot it level.
I’ll have to check out “iso auto” but I don’t think it’s an issue because I’m shooting in the raw format. Correct me if I’m wrong.
About the TV screen, that effect shows up in some photos and I can’t figure out why. Is it the “iso auto”?
I’d like more width too but I don’t have an option. In those websites the photos have to be 700 by 525 pixels.
On the colors being off, I rarely touch the color saturation. However, I almost always lighten the shadows and that may be messing with the colors.
I also darken the highlights a tiny bit. Just this evening, however, I was considering stopping that because it changes the color slightly.
3 henri // Jun 6, 2007 at 12:04 pm
> I’ll have to check out “iso auto” but I don’t think it’s an issue because I’m shooting in the raw format. Correct me if I’m wrong.
> About the TV screen, that effect shows up in some photos and I can’t figure out why. Is it the “iso auto”?
yes, you are wrong
i’m sure you can read up on what ISO is. but the bottom line: the lower the ISO number the higher quality the picture is. the reason you raise the ISO is to use less light (so you can take a hand held pic in a darker setting without getting camera shake/blur)
this has nothing to do with raw/jpg (which is mostly about color balance and jpg compression artifacts)
it’s ok if parts of the picture are dark. you are doing a good job with your flash, no reason to be as heavy handed with the shadows and highlights
by width, i meant a wider lens. while this can really distort stuff (this is at 10mm using a sigma 10-20mm with a Nikon D70): http://henriandjill.smugmug.com/photos/144073106-M.jpg
the room is long, but not that long..
but it’s great for outdoor pics where the distortion isn’t as distracting:
http://henriandjill.smugmug.com/photos/143604416-M.jpg
(this is a house built in 1931 we bought in mid-april in Bellingham WA and are in the midst of a remodel)
email me if you have more photography questions
4 henri // Jun 6, 2007 at 12:18 pm
oh, and for nice houses (like the one you linked to) you really need to use exposure blending (also called HDR)
you take 2 pics without moving the tripod/camera at all (get the remote for the camera). one is set for the inside, and one is set to take a good picture of what is outside the window (if you have any nikon other than the D50/D40 then it can do it automatically for you - look up “bracketing”).
what you end up with:
pic #1: good view of the kitchen, but a white window.
pic #2: good view outside the window, but a black kitchen
then in photoshop CS2 you blend the two pictures together so you get pic #3:
good view of the kitchen, good view of outside the window
might be more time/$$ than you want to spend, but on a _nice_ listing it will make a big difference in the quality of the pictures
here is a tutorial:
http://wiki.panotools.org/A_simple_approach_to_HDR-blending
(same problem, instead of a window you have the end of the tunnel)
you can do it by hand, or buy a plugin for photoshop that helps do it automatically
5 John L. Wake - Realtor // Jun 6, 2007 at 1:12 pm
When I do my first exposure blending, I will have arrived as a real estate photographer!
6 John L. Wake - Realtor // Jun 6, 2007 at 1:19 pm
henri,
You may be beyond this but here’s is a very useful blog about real estate photography http://photographyforrealestate.net/
7 John L. Wake - Realtor // Jun 6, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Thanks for the tip on ISO. I have a lot to learn about photography but I’m enjoying it as well.
BTW, I have the same wide angle lens, sigma 10-20mm.
8 John L. Wake - Realtor // Jun 6, 2007 at 10:48 pm
henri,
Okay, I just figured out how to change the ISO on the Nikon… now I gotta figure out what it does!
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