Mars Hill Realty Group

According to a 2007 survey by Realtor.org, 84 percent of people use the Internet to search for their home. Many even purchase a home sight unseen, relying heavily upon the information and photographs they see on the Internet. It's no question that photography plays a critical role to the home buying decision-making process. It's not enough to have the prettiest home on the market, especially if the photos of your home are unflattering and give no compelling reason for anybody to look at your home, let alone buy it.

Most people can recognize an excellent photo when they see it, but achieving professional results yourself can be a challenge. Where do you start? The first place is with a high quality Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera. This is important not just from a photo quality standpoint, but also because you are going to need the ability to switch out your lens and utilize a wide-angle lens. A wide-angle lens helps the viewer of the photograph get a better sense of reality in smaller rooms, like bedrooms and bathrooms. For example, you can capture 3 or 4 walls of a room rather then just 1 wall (see picture on left - bedroom picture is really just a window). If you've ever seen a picture of a shower curtain, rather then the entire bathroom, you are seeing what happens when you take a picture using a regular "dinky" camera with no wide-angle ability.

Another important factor in photo quality is the time of day in which the photo is taken. Taking a photo at sunrise or sunset not only captures the most beautiful colors in the sky, but also prevents direct sunlight from overexposing the windows, or underexposing the interiors. Whatever the weather or time of day, a couple of touches in Photoshop can help green the grass and blue the sky to make photos brighter and more inviting. Photo editing can also be used to take the best of two or more separate exposures (called bracketing) and combine all of the properly exposed elements into one picture. For example, if a room has a large picture window that has an excellent view, the human eye can easily see both the room and the window view simultaneously. However, unless you properly photograph and edit the picture, you'll either have a great looking interior, but an ultra-bright light in the window (see photo on right - looks like a nuclear blast); or you'll have a beautiful view out the window, but a very dark interior.  These are two common mistakes that users of "dinky" cameras make.

There are many other techniques that can help bring out the best attributes of your home. All of the agents at Mars Hill Realty Group continually train on these techniques and hone their skills to provide the best results for their clients. When you hire an agent from Mars Hill Realty Group, you leverage their professional skills and equipment to achieve results that are unique in the market and help your home stand out among the other homes on the market. That is why we sell homes 3 times faster (faster by 70 days!) than the average real estate agent in Georgetown, Texas.

You only have one chance to make a good first impression and excellent photography makes all the difference. Find out more information about the four core competencies that help us revolutionize your real estate experience.