How Agents Benefit From Professional Photography
Calling all real estate agents! In our search for great content to provide you with, we've come across an outstanding article from Ken Brown at Photographyforrealestate.net.
"Of all of the advantages of using a professional photographer for listing photos, getting a higher price might be the least important from the agent’s point of view. If the agent has done a good job analyzing the comps and getting the seller to list at a proper price, a $10,000 premium over asking might be unusual. An additional $10,000 might only net the agent $150 before tax. This is assuming a 3% seller commission and a 50% split with the broker.
Selling the home faster saves the agent listing expenses such as update calls and email to the seller and possibly fewer showings.
The biggest advantage to an agent consistently using a professional photographer is an improved brand image. RE agents are independent sales and marketing companies and need to treat their business as such. A professional image also attracts and makes it possible to gain listings of more expensive homes. Very few million dollar homes are listed with agents that only have a track record of $100,000 properties. It’s not much more money to sell higher priced listings so why would an experienced agent want to spend their time selling at the bottom of the market when a small amount of investment could lead to much less work and more return? Agents just getting started can also benefit by out-marketing the competition that may be complacent with the way they have always done business.
Agents thinking they can buy the same gear as the professionals and get the same results aren’t thinking things through. Money can buy a novice musician a Stradivarius violin, but it doesn’t make that musician a professional, they are just the owner of a Stradivarius. Interior photography is a very difficult from a technical standpoint to get good results. It might be hard for an agent to justify the time, effort and money it takes to become and stay competent in the process. It is usually better for them to work on bringing in new listings and building an internal and external team to take care of the details."
With all of this in mind, we at ATA Imaging make it easy to get professional real estate photos by having a seamless process to guide you from start to finish of using our service.
