Proof That Great Photography Sells Homes
August 18th, 2010
Yesterday I noticed that Kris Bjarne Haug over at Papilios Real Estate Photography in the New Orleans-Baton Rouge area has some fantastic statistics that he is using in his marketing.
With the help of Latter & Blum, Inc (a broker site in the New Orleans- Baton Rouge area) Kris has compiled a months worth of traffic statistics for listings he has photographed compared to statistics for comparable listings in the same zip code all from the Latter & Blum site. The Latter & Blum site carries all listings in the Baton Rouge Area and gets roughly 500,000 unique visitors per month (home buyers).
The message from these stats that stands out loud and clear is that the listings that Papilios Real Estate Photography (Kris’s company) photographs get a average of 134% more traffic than comparable homes in the same Zip and a average of 145% more traffic than comparable listings in the same MLS area.
I know what some of you are going to say, “…just because the listings Kris photographs get more traffic on a broker site doesn’t mean they sell faster.” I think it does mean the listings sell faster! After 10 years of tracking traffic on our broker site, showings and sales of our own listings, more traffic on our broker site always means more showings and more showings always means a faster sale. I would go so far as to assert that if you could do this kind of study and include listing market time (the number of days a listing is on the market before selling) you would find that increased traffic on the the broker site has a high correlation to reduced market time. Unfortunately, days-on-the-market is typically not a stat that MLSs feed to broker sites so it may be a challenge to correlate professional photography directly to decreased market time.
This data is the closest thing to “proof” that great photography sells homes that I’ve seen. Anecdotal evidence and intuition strongly suggest that photography is a huge factor in marketing homes but I’ve been looking for a more scientific way to demonstrate that relationship for a long time. I think this is it!
Thanks to Kris for coming up with this technique and being willing to share it with everyone . Hopefully others will be able to do similar studies and confirm this statistical relationship between great real estate photography and faster sales.
14 Responses to “Proof That Great Photography Sells Homes”
Abraham Walker August 18th, 2010 at 9:39 pm #
Kris helped me sell a house in less than 3 weeks with no Open Houses. Homes was located in a very undesirable part of town. But with the help of his photos, pricing, and some of the best seller clients I’ve dealt with (they did everything I asked when it came to staging and getting the home ready to sale) we were able to get a full price offer and close in less than 45 days.
greetingsvirginia August 19th, 2010 at 2:28 am #
Kris has helped many by sharing his technique with us. The property ads attracts the viewers only by Great photographs. I would suggest some tips to take perfect pictures for a fast, fuss-free sale.
1. Hiring a professional photographer.
2. Photos should be taken with a clean and clutter free background.
3. Use more and bright lights.
4. Do some interior decorations and dress the home with appropriate scenes.
Never underestimate taking good looking photos. In today’s competitive market we need to go little extra mile to be successful
paula August 19th, 2010 at 5:34 am #
It’s the equivilalent of foot traffic for a retail establishment.
I owned two gifts stores at one time and I can tell you that the number of feet walking past the door caused the cash register to ring more.
Ian Haseltine - Real Estate Photographer August 19th, 2010 at 3:29 pm #
This is a great example of how beneficial good real estate photographs are. My clients always explain that they get a greater number on inquiries and showings on listings that we photograph. We can’t set the price, or influence the sale, but we can bring the buyers in!
I took time to view Kris’s work…it is great!
Jo Frances August 19th, 2010 at 5:57 pm #
Ian Haseltine, you just contradicted yourself.
If you “can’t influence the sale”, then what the hell is this topic about?
The whole point of it, IS to influence the sale.
Brad Proctor August 19th, 2010 at 6:33 pm #
This is great info to be able to show prospective clients.
Scott Webb August 25th, 2010 at 5:53 pm #
I am trying to gain ground in this space in my city. My main issue is finding clients that are willing – I don’t know how to go about it – other than cold calling or I am about to just take it on myself to drive around my city taking photographs of the exterior of homes for sale and then contacting them.
I was trying to grasp the content in this post. I totally believe that great photography will sell homes and I know it did it for one of the homes I shot for. I got an awesome testimonial – photography critical in sales process.
These stats take it many steps further than I could express to anyone right now at the start of my own work. For that I am so glad I follow this blog and I’ll continue to of course. Question:
Do people view the homes on that website? or Is the Latter & Blum site like an MLS website for the Area? or is there then another separate MLS? Are they listed by Realtors or listed privately? I’m trying to figure a few things out to compare to my own area in London, Ontario Canada.
Thanks
larry August 25th, 2010 at 6:14 pm #
@Scott- The Latter & Blum site that the stats are from is a broker site, not the local MLS site. Broker sites are typically run by large real estate offices where many agent work out of. The MLS typically feeds data to all the local broker sites so they have all the listings in an area just like the MLS. MLS sites are typically only accessible to agents where as broker sites are public and tend to be the main sites home buyers use to search for homes. So Latter & Blum in New Orleans is equivalent to http://www.royallepagetriland.com/ in London, Ontario… in most large metro areas there are at least 5 to 10 of these large broker sites.
Scott Webb August 25th, 2010 at 6:24 pm #
Ah okay! Thanks Larry, that helps me out a bunch. This article is perfect timing with some thoughts I’ve recently been trying to put on paper. This will be sure to be referenced in an upcoming article.
Paul Viau - Nova Scotia homes September 6th, 2010 at 4:58 pm #
This is great data! It’s too bad that data isn’t readily available that clearly shows —
The #days on the market vs the # of photos. Also the quality of photos has to be taken account of somehow?
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