How to Sell Faster and For More Money (55-Point Checklist)
There’s two things every homeowner wants when it comes time to sell their home:
1. They want to sell it as fast as possible. A home that sits on the market for longer than 30 days becomes significantly harder to sell - especially if a setback occurs or if a buyer pulls out of the deal. Potential buyers could see the home as cursed or in need of costly repairs if it sits on the market for too long. Sellers might end up having to reduce their asking price just to get offers back on the table. As a realtor, this means you might be looking at a reduced commission or even no commission at all. Your seller might be looking to change up their realtor because, clearly, something you’re doing isn’t working.
2. They want to sell it for as much as they can possibly get. Who doesn’t want to make more money? Every good realtor knows the value of curb appeal and how small changes can make impactful results towards increasing the value of a home. Paint is a cheap way to refresh a space and increase it’s value, for example. There are a ton of things you can do to give your client’s home a little love while increasing the asking price at the same time.
People are visual creatures.
We are all influenced by advertising whether we are aware of it or not. From when you wake up until you go to sleep you are experiencing professional media. You watch high-budget commercials on TV. You see professional food photography on the boxes in your pantry. The books on your shelves, the videos and apps on your phone. You consume more media now than any other human being in the history of our species.
And that is the importance of professional photography when selling/listing your home. You’re not just competing against other listings, you’re competing against every piece of media your sea of buyers has seen that day. If the quality of your listing is sub-par, it’ll stick out like a sore thumb.
Start off on the right foot.
Study after study confirms that professionally photographed homes sell for more money and reduce the time spent on the market.
And it makes sense when you think about it. We often don’t know why we like what we like, but we’re all so accustomed to professional-caliber media from years of life experience. We can tell when something is “off” or lacking in quality, even if we don’t know how to articulate exactly what the problem is.
And that’s why it’s so important to start off on the right foot with potential buyers. The last thing you want is for them to see photos of the home for the first time and have them think that something is “off” with the place.
“Listings with nicer photos gain anywhere between $934 and $116,076 when compared with listings where professional photography was not used.”
As an agent, it behooves you to give your sellers what they want by featuring their property in the best possible light. You only get one chance to make a first impression on potential buyers, so don’t shoot yourself in the foot by taking cell phone pictures of a poorly-prepared home.
The cost of hiring a photographer is negligible given what you get in return from a higher selling price. Not to mention the reduced time on the market, freeing you up to get more clients and more commissions. Better photos mean better results. Better results lead to more listings. More listings lead to more commissions.
Goodlook knows exactly how to provide the best first impression.
We believe in "bright and light" photography. All of our photos are shot and edited in the same style as professional interior design - meaning we treat every shoot as if it were destined to be in a magazine. Even more, we work with clients to bring a natural feeling of interior home design into Raleigh real estate photography.
We’ve created a 55-point photography checklist that we give to every agent and homeowner for absolutely free. This checklist has been shown time and time again to be worth it’s weight in gold by providing a simple room-by-room way to increase the perceived value of the home. These are small and easy to make changes, but they have a HUGE impact towards selling your home. They ensure that your photos will look stunning and your home will be magazine-quality when combined with Goodlook’s shooting/editing style.
The Raleigh real estate market is red hot. Homes are receiving multiple offers well above the listing price. So if you’re an agent or homeowner in the Raleigh area, do yourself a favor and hire a professional photographer. Watch those multiple offers roll in well above asking price because the perceived value of your home commands those higher prices. Sell faster and for more money with Goodlook.
Click the button below to be taken to our 55-Point Photography Checklist.
Coming Up Next Month
We’re going to be conducting an experiment this January. Starting on January 1st we are going to keep a running count of every listing within Goodlook’s Raleigh service area and how many of those listings use professional real estate photography, videography, aerial photo/video, or virtual tours. We’re going to break it down and see exactly how Raleigh real estate agents are using (or not using) professional photography services.