Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, which makes a flattering camera lens a vital tool in selling real estate.
Whether one takes photographs oneself or hires a professional, in today’s real estate market, photos can cinch or sink a sale.
Kim Shephard-Fabrizi, a broker with Prudential Douglas Elliman, invested several hundred dollars on professional photo editing software including Adobe Photoshop to give polish to photos of middling quality, or shots taken in gloomy weather.
“I taught myself,” says Shephard- Fabrizi, who got into the real estate business 11 years ago. “Photographs didn’t use to be as important. We used mostly the newspaper. But with the Internet and technology it is essential to have quality photographs. It sells an apartment without a doubt.”
Shephard-Fabrizi says more real estate professionals are turning the photo business over to professional photographers specializing in architecture and real estate, to help make even the most mundane studio appear straight out of House Beautiful.
When it comes to making the choice for her properties, Shephard- Fabrizi says, “It depends on the price range of the apartment. A million dollars or above, I will hire a professional. Under that I do it myself.”
While many brokers still take their own photographs, some companies, such as the Downtown Manhattan office of Sotheby’s International Realty, assign an energetic staff member with an eye for visuals to take photographs for their listings.
“We are not just giving each broker a camera. Because there is an art involved. Some people are just better at visualizing a space, and taking better pictures than others,” according to Diane Levine, Downtown brokerage manager for Sotheby’s.
She says using a professional has become a part of doing business, saying, “In the luxury market, more often it is the professional photographer who is taking the photographs.” Professional photographers charge between $500 to $3,000 a day, and the cost is usually assumed by the brokerage, which also springs for any printed material such as brochures.
Beyond the luxury market, even some brokers selling less expensive units seek the same level of quality for their photographs. David Feldman, a broker with Citi Habitats, sells mostly inexpensive apartments in the Bronx. On all of his exclusives, Feldman uses the services of listings information company On-Line Residential. For a fee, the company will take digital photographs of a space and stitch them together to create a 360-degree panoramic, resulting in a “virtual tour” of a particular space.
“It’s great. I pull still photographs from the virtual tour, and use both (digital photographs and the virtual tour) on my Web listings,” Feldman said. “It’s worth the extra money. A lot of times people say, ‘I saw those pictures. This apartment looks incredible.’ It’s really what’s attracting them to my listings.”
Exterior impressions are sometimes just as important as dazzling interior shots, so commercial and residential real estate firms often hire architectural photographers.
Beth Green, a photographer who specializes in real estate and architecture, often works for real estate firms trying to showcase the value of their properties.
“You can take a building in the worst part of town and still find some beauty in it with a knowledge of composition and lighting,” says Green, a 30-year veteran who charges an average of $2,000 a day for exterior photography.
Jonn Coolidge, a Los Angeles- and New York City-based photographer specializing in interiors, says lighting is critical when taking pictures. “The goal is to capture the essence and style of a space and elevate it,” says Coolidge. When it comes to photographing interior spaces, he offers the following tips:
Use professional interior design magazines as a reference
Find inspirational images, and look at how professional photographers approach a space
Look for unique angles from different vantage points
Capitalize on great lighting
Edit or reduce clutter caused by furnishings.