Country estate nestled on 8,000 nicely landscaped acres. Cozy interior with 250 rooms, 65 fireplaces, and 135,000 sq feet of living space

Which picture, left or right, evokes the visual grandeur of the country’s largest home, Biltmore Mansion in Asheville, NC ? Which picture would you want to have representing your home? Without a picture the grandest home loses it’s appeal despite the narrative describing the home. Pictures serve as the bait to lure potential visitors to your home. Ensure they represent your home at it’s best.

Over 90% of potential home buyers begin their search for homes on the Internet, and one of the most critical components to a listing as it is presented on the Internet is pictures. Good pictures act as a enticement to potential buyers, and the lack of pictures, or poor quality pictures act as a definite turn off. The opportunity to grab the attention of a buyer is brief, and the initial online presence of your home is very important. If an image does not grab their attention, it is highly unlikely that they will return.

Some common bad practices regarding pictures:

No Pictures At All: It maybe hard to believe but I have seen many listings that have been on the market for a substantial time without any images. I saw one the other day that was on the market over 200 days with no without any pictures. This is the ultimate disservice to a client. A new listing has an Web “shelf life” of less than 3 weeks, after which it has lost it’s freshness and becomes just another listing. The first few weeks must be capitalized upon, and pictures are the driving force behind generating interest. Potential homes of interest are winnowed out on a buyer’s laptop, PC or other connected device based primarily upon the images associated with the home. Pictures for listings should be entered quickly after the listing in entered into the MLS, preferably accompany the listing’s entry. Data feeds from the MLS to syndicated Web sites are generally done once daily. It is important that new listings have images from the start.

Out Of Season Pictures: Believe it or not there some listings in August still show pictures of homes with snow on the ground. Others still show interior pictures with Christmas decorations. I think this is  an inexcusable practice for an agent. It shows a gross lack of attention to detail, and ultimately says ” I am lazy”.

Too Many Pictures: The MLS currently allows up to 25 pictures for each listing to be uploaded. When an agent sends listing information to a client from the MLS up to 25 images can been seen. Most other syndicated Web sites only display a subset of the pictures, many for instance only show six. Ten or 12 quality images on the MLS can adequately capture the most important visual elements of a home. When seeing listings with 25 pictures I think most agents really “stretching” to get that many quality pictures. Pictures should act as an visual enticement to stimulate a desire to see the home,  too many images may cause a potential buyer to eliminate a home from their “want to see” list. There is no need to show an entire home in pictures.

Out Of  Focus Pictures: Some pictures look like the photographer is intentionally shaking the camera in order to create some kind of special effect. Out of focus pictures serve as a distraction, and the focus becomes the bad quality of the picture, instead of a concentration on the image of the home being represented.

Dark Pictures: Many pictures with a bright light source in the background, such as a window, typically turn out too dark in the foreground. The built in light meter of point and shoot cameras is overwhelmed with the bright light source, and the foreground tends to be too dark. Prefocusing on the darker area of the intended subject allows the camera to properly adjust for the more important subject areas of the picture.

Clutter In Pictures: Time should be taken to clear out the subject area of clutter and present the best image of the subject. Kitchen counters should be free of almost all items, refrigerators should be cleared of magnets, notepads, calendars, etc. It is common to see piles of laundry, toys, or just “stuff” in images.

Toilet Pictures: This is an especially common practice which I think is a detraction. Most of the time the seat lid is also up, which must violate some basic Feng Shui principle. Most homes I have seem have toilets, so it is pretty much a given that a home will have one, and they are are really not too different from each other.

Exercise your right to have input regarding the pictures of your home that will be shown to the public. It is a critical part of the marketing of your home in today’s visually centric search process.