How might you quadruple your enquiries? Here's a very old blog from Rightmove suggesting that one of their properties that was photographed badly, quadrupled the number of visits when re-photographed professionally. The blog is so old that the images have been lost but the words paint a compelling picture. Studies in the USA tell a similar story. The quality of a property's photos can increase the perception of its value by 12% - and lead to faster sales! This doesn't mean that you can sell a house for more than it's worth. But you sure as heck can sell it for less if your photography makes your homes look like the lower deck of Noah's Ark after a nasty storm.
Every home that you promote on the portals is in competition with the ones appearing above and below them in the listings’ pages. The opportunity is to make your properties stand out from those. You can do that by making your photos look more professional and compelling; one limitation currently is, though, that you can show only one main listing photo, so there’s only one opportunity to grab a viewer’s attention.
But, according to The Negotiator, change is a-coming, Rightmove is about to improve their offering.
The big idea, and I think it IS a big one, is to lure buyers and renters in with more reasons to click to see the full details of what you’re offering. So, very soon, in the initial line-up, you’ll be able to display up to four images rather than just one.
However, with every change there are opportunities and given that you’re likely paying £1500-plus per month for Rightmove’s services. These are opportunities that few agents can afford to waste – and yet I predict that many will.
With properties being viewed worldwide on HD screens, there’s now even greater reason to make sure that all of your photos are fit for purpose. But it seems that some agents have been slow to understand the power of the image when it comes to their property marketing.
Here are a couple of examples that I found within a few minutes of looking on Rightmove’s new test site. The question is, whether either of these examples would encourage renters to gird their loins and form a queue to view, or would they have them running in the opposite direction?
Well done, Rightmove, you’re improving your offering but before I dish out too many praises, if your powers-that-be ever read this blog, take note… it’s been a justifiable gripe by countless agents that even their pro-standard images look fuzzy when they appear on your portal. That’s in large part because you reduce the image sizes that your customers send you to 1024 pixels and then stretch them to display at 1536 pixels. No doubt this saves you a few quid in storage and bandwidth costs, but the result is that the images display sub-optimally.
Images are at their sharpest when displayed at 100%, not 150%.
By way of comparison, look at the way that Zillow in the USA displays their images. You should see the difference immediately.
If you’re an agent who wants to feed back to Rightmove about their current plans as they’re inviting you to do, that’s one area that should be improved to your benefit if they are prepared to take notice. Given the portal’s recent below-the-waterline holes punched into their brand, and their apparent new willingness to listen to those whose hands feed them, this would be a great time to ask them to improve the quality of the images they display for you. I’m sure it would benefit them as well as you. BUT, be aware that even if they display images at 100% instead of 150%, if your photos are poor to begin with, you will hardly be able to blame them for that.
So, what’s coming down the line (shortly for rentals and by the end of the year for sales) is a great reason to pay more attention to your photography
With not just one photo for each property but up to four, now would be a great time to steal a march on the market and get your photos looking awesome.
Naturally, DCTR is only too pleased to help you learn to take better photos– and to help you to optimise them. Never in the history of estate agency has your photography and your ability to present your properties to the market in a fantastic way, been more important.
Talk to us if you want to do better. We’d love to help.
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