Fresh on the heels of yesterday’s mini-rant about the dearth of real estate listing photos come these gems, straight from the Multiple Listing Service (with a hat tip to Dean Ouellette at DeanSellsAZ.com).
Here is the primary photo (the photo that initially displays when a listing is pulled up):
This is the actual size. Not a bad photo. Personally I would have taken 10 seconds and cropped it to this:
This helps minimize the… baseball field lights? in the background and puts more focus on the home. But even without cropping, it’s not a bad shot of the front elevation.
Here is where it gets interesting. There are four more photos of the listing. Granted, our MLS allows the listing agent to upload unlimited photos, and five probably isn’t enough. But at least there are backyard and interior shots.
Here they are, in actual size:
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Isn’t that helpful? Four photos measuring a whopping 65 x 42 pixels each. I can’t even figure out how to get my camera to take pictures this small. Even if I could, why?
But wait, it gets better. Our MLS system, in a rightful effort to standardize the photo display, automatically resizes photos. Here’s what it shows for the teeny-tiny pictures after resizing:
It’s a kitchen.
Software does a good job taking big photos and making them smaller. Making small photos bigger? Not-so-much.
Photos are good. Ideally they should be big enough to see. Take BIG pictures as you can crop and resize them and they won’t get all pixilated. Can’t afford Photoshop to crop your photos? Get paint.net. It’s free.
Sellers – be sure to view your home listing on-line. No, you shouldn’t have to check up on your agent. But it’s not a bad idea…
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I used Irfanview in the past. Free and simple. Now I use Picasa from Google which for the novice like me does wonders on some of my photos.
If I used something like Photoshop it would be too easy to clean up pictures more than I should.
I think the technology isn’t the issue. It is laziness. I have went back plenty of times because the image I saw on the camera screen hid some stuff that popped out when it was on the computer screen. Or maybe it wasn’t as clear as I thought.
You would think that these agents would run out of clients but it won’t happen. There are always more clients.
**Mike Rohrig´s last blog post..Names and Naming Stuff
I love when MLS photos are taken with cell phone cameras. Maybe they’re going for a very understated effect?
I’ve seen that before too, Jay.
In the past when I’ve come across those types of images, it’s because someone used the built-in “camera” on a phone/BlackBerry/SmartPhone… because, you know, why spend $200.00 on a camera if there’s one built in to your phone? Less to carry!
Personally, I’ve found that the best compromise between quick loading image and a quality image is to use Photoshop to optimize the photos for the web at 560×375 pixels. The file is about 15% of the size of the original 3.5 -4 MB file that comes out of my camera, it loads much quicker, and makes a nice-sized image for display on just about any website.
I agree with you whole heartedly. I wasn’t all that thrilled with the pictures that my agent took of our house, much less the brochure. Since we are semi-DIY with the listing, I took my own photos, created a whole new brochure, and my own website http://www.3214hearthfire.com . You know what? Suddenly we started getting more showings!
Hey Jay, Just a quick question…. do you do your own pictures or do you hire somebody? Love the blog
**Brantford Real Estate´s last blog post..Get a Pre-Approved Mortgage for that Brantford Home
Yep. I had a reader contact me today asking me to chastise Realtors in my market for their inability to take good pictures.
There oughta be a wall of shame for Realtors’ bad pictures … in each local market …
Come to think of it, I don’t remember taking an aptitude test when I a) got licensed, b) joined my brokerage, c) joined the board.
**Jon Griffith´s last blog post..The Effects of a Short Sale
You are just getting picky now Jay… you asked for more photos… you didnt specify size
**Dean Ouellette´s last blog post..tempe-edgewater-condo-101-pool.jpg
The problem is not the quality although it could be but if you’re using the built in camera on your phone just try to get a good stance so you wont get a blurry photo. A digital camera would help a lot.
In my opinion, I wouldn’t crop the right side as much. I know when I’m looking for houses, I’d like to see a little space around the house.
Over on the seattlebubble.com forum, there is a really entertaining thread there called “Detrimental Listing Photos.” I suggest scrolling through the pages of that thread for a good laugh:
http://seattlebubble.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2102
Simple stupid, Jay, it’s simple stupid…
I wonder if realtor’s know that good pictures and a lot of them are what’s going to get the house sold. Who looks at bad quality pictures? I don’t
A program by the name of “Irfan View” should take care of the fuzzy s when resizing your photographs. My local mls has also gone with a standard size photo which has advantages, however my camera like your takes photos way to big. At any rate try “Irfan View” it’s a simple to use free program for resizing photos.
Reminds me of Gwen Banta and Chris Griffiths’ posts on AG. I guess down-sizing includes the grey matter behind the eye of the camera….
**Joe´s last blog post..May Home Sales Drop
Taking photos of listings is such an important part of what we do; it just blows my mind when I see agents with listings that don’t have pictures, or have blurry ones everywhere.
I had to comment for two reasons -
1) I just realized the beauty of Keyword Luv and could you please go add my keywords to all my comments
2) I actually wrote a post about this except the agents here were intentionally making the pictures postage stamp size. I guess the idea was to entice the buyer to want to visit in order to really get a good look at the home. It still amazes me buyers still have to ask for pictures when you can buy a digital camera for $100.00.
Here’s the thing – if the sellers don’t check up on their hired representatives, the only ones who are going to know how bad their homes look are the buyers and the good Realtors …
Sellers are delinquent if they *don’t* ensure that the pictures are at the very least decent and not laughably bad.
Some Realtors suck, but if the clients are ok with this ….
(Trying out the keywords
)
Hey Jim
If I remember correctly, someone – I think Point2 – created an awesome graph indicating the amount of leads generated increases dramatically with the amount of pictures. It was something like listings with over 21 pictures generated 11 leads, while listings with one picture generated .3
As an agent – that would motivate me to get pictures online so I could sell my clients home. Just sayin’
Paula / Jim -
You can see that Point2 awesome graph right here on Phoenix Real Estate Guy:
http://www.phoenixrealestateguy.com/real-estate-listing-photos-or-not-from-the-i-dont-get-it-files/1607
You are absolutely right about the cropping of the picture. The fact that you create focus on the home, improves the overall picture impact.
The world of phots! The first thing that comes to my mind is aahhhhh. Even with a professional photographer, done of my photos are ever perfectly sized to be compatible with the mls. The mls systems need to let realtors upload better photos at sizes they want, but standard sizes of course.
Ideally they should be big enough to see. Take BIG pictures as you can crop and resize them and they won’t get all pixilated.
Ideally they should be big enough to see. Take BIG pictures as you can crop and resize them and they won’t get all pixilated.