Imagine yourself searching for your dream home. What do you have on your “must have” list? Price? Size? The reputation of the real estate agent/agency? Perhaps, but these are usually not the first thing that “catches your eye” when you’re scouring Zillow. Most of the time, you’re going to be drawn to a home with good looking, professional real estate photos.
Humans are naturally visual creatures. Many of our decisions, perceptions, and judgments are based on what we can actually see. Thus, high-quality images, which are visual stimuli in the real estate industry, are important in attracting property buyers and getting them to purchase a property.
A professional real estate photographer can take great photos of interior and exterior spaces. But to make those photos truly stand out and gain a buyer’s “oohs-and-ahs”, it has to go through some type of editing process. It is real estate photo editing that gives character, vibrancy, and life to these images. Just check out some of the benefits that real estate photo editing provides to real estate photographers, agents, and home buyers alike.
1. Removes imperfections
Sure, professional real estate photographers take amazing real estate photos photos. But due to factors such as lighting conditions, environmental conditions, and technological limitations of the camera, even the best photos need some corrections.
Skilled photo editors can fix these imperfections. Using image editing software like Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, they can eliminate unwanted objects, correct white balance, restore hues, remove noise, align horizontal and vertical lines correctly, and more.
2. Enhances a property’s selling point
Each property in a listing has unique selling points. The amazing backyard, a spacious entertainment room, or the view out the master bedroom. By enhancing these selling points, real estate agents have a better chance of selling the home.
Photo editors can enhance the image so that this lovely scenery shows prominently. They may do window masking, a process that eliminates reflections in the glass and overexposure. The majestic scenery is shown clearly through the window, giving the viewer an accurate preview of what awaits them if they buy the home.
3. Adds details
In the real estate industry, details can make or break a sale. Real estate photographers and photo editors recognize that details add a lot of character and personality to interior or exterior shots. The attention to these details make the property unique, which is a plus for buyers.
Thus, photo editors can add images to TV screens, fires in fireplaces, remove unwanted objects, lush grass to bare lawns, and many more. Details like this may not be noticed at first glance, but this attention to detail gives potential home buyers one less reason to choose not to check out the listing.
4. Increases sales
Property buyers are drawn towards beautiful images of homes they want to buy. To increase the chances of a listing to be viewed and sold, images should be clear, crisp, vivid, and top-quality.
A professionally edited real estate photo provides the would-be buyer an enticing glimpse of what his/her dream home would look like. If the buyer is able to visualize living there, most likely, he will be more inclined to buy the property.
Recently, virtual staging has become a hot trend. It’s the process of staging a home virtually, wherein people add highly realistic virtual furniture, decor, and accent pieces to an image of a vacant home.
Adding virtual staging to your list of services adds more variety and value to your clients. Photos of a well-furnished property usually sell faster than an empty one. By offering this service to your agents and home sellers, you’re actually helping them sell their homes faster! Don’t keep this a secret! Let your clients know!
5. Improves your credibility.
Professional real estate photo editing is all about showing gorgeous images that help boost the likelihood of a sale. Recognizing the importance of excellent images, real estate agents should want to hire reputable photographers who can deliver high quality photos with a fast turnaround.
When you deliver professionally edited, top-quality photos, you give your clients a lasting impression that you provide quality output. Real estate agents who have a positive experience with you, your brand, and your images, are more likely to refer your professional real estate photography skills to others.
6. Helps grow your business
Real estate photo editing is not just about submitting quality photos. Sure, you can edit the photos yourself but that takes time and effort on each and every home you shoot. The fact is, the time that you spend editing photos is also time that could be spent with family and friends or working on your business and shooting more properties. It simply comes down to opportunity cost. What’s worth more to you?
Outsourcing your real estate photo editing to a professional photo editing company is a smart choice if you want to grow and scale your business, and if you’re looking to get some extra time back in your life. Here are just a few things that image outsourcing can do for you:
- Free up your time to shoot more properties
- Spend more time marketing your business and gaining new clients
- Build into relationships with your clients
- Spend more time with your friends and family
- Get more sleep while your team is busy editing
- Photo editors know a lot of tricks to make your photos look even better
- and more!
These are just some of the advantages of having a professional photo editing team.
Real estate photo editing is an integral aspect of the real estate photography industry. Professionally edited photos helps you:
- Stay a step ahead of your competitors
- Gain efficiencies
- Maximize your output
- Get more time back
- Enjoy your work even more!