Raising the Bar With Professional Real Estate Photography

Real estate agents take snapshots to document homes for sale as if to say, “This home has a dining room.” What their photographs should be marketing is the dining room as a great space to spend time dining with friends and family. Photography can be used for marketing real estate, but often agents just take a few quick snapshots instead of hiring a professional real estate photographer. I have never seen poorly photographed shoes on the Zappos website. It’s also rare to see poorly photographed products on Pinterest, or in the Target store flier that comes with the Sunday newspaper.

When are we going to have standards in the real estate industry for photography? Don’t we have an ethical and moral obligation to do everything we can to make our clients real estate look fantastic instead of frightening? It isn’t unusual to see the logo of a major real estate brand right next to a poor property photograph. Photography is one of the least expensive and easiest ways for agents and brokerages to really stand out. What do poor photos say about real estate brands? Doesn’t better photography create a better user experience on our websites? Yet photography is rarely even mentioned at real estate conferences or offered as part of continuing education.

If, as an industry, we were at all serious about raising the bar, brokerages would insist on better photographs. MLS would have stricter rules for photos, and perhaps fines. Rio Grande Valley real estate agents market their home listings all over the internet, and they need photographs to do it. Those pictures not only market listings, they market real estate agents and brokerages. Why list with poor photos if you can get professional real estate photos for as little as $75?