Too much exposure can be a bad thing
How many photos are overkill for a listing?
By Bernice Ross, Friday, July 11, 2008.
Are you marketing your listings with just one picture or are you marketing with 20 or more? Is it possible that too many pictures online is preventing buyers from looking at your property?
The research is clear that having only a single photo of your listings online causes Web visitors to search elsewhere. The challenge is how much is enough and how much is too much? A new study from Point2 Agent suggests that the more pictures you have the better it is. Jeff Turner, the CEO of RealEstateShows.com, argues that based upon attention-span research, five to nine pictures is about all the brain can handle in 30 to 60 seconds.
Point2Agent has just released a new study that measures the impact of photos in terms of marketing listings online. This study replicates the results of a study the company conducted in 2007. The current study examined three variables and plotted them against the number of pictures on each site:
1. Detailed views
2. Interest in terms of interaction with the listing on a Web site (i.e. how many times visitors viewed a virtual tour, viewed the listing on a partner site, completed a mortgage calculation for the property, etc.)
3. Leads generated
The study evaluated all Point2 listings entered into their system during the first quarter of 2008. The sample consisted of more than 100,000 listings and included listings from all 50 states, every Canadian province, plus other countries worldwide. All price ranges were represented.
Results
1. Listings that lacked photos performed poorly in the study, generating little consumer response and business. Those that had one picture performed better, but not nearly as well as the sites that had 21 to 36 photos. In fact, those listings that had no picture generated 0.02 percent of the number of listing views as compared to those with 21 or more photos.
2. Compared to listings with only one photo, those with 21 or more photos generated more than triple the number of Detailed Views, more than double the amount of interest, and double the number of Leads.
3. Compared to listings with no photos, those with 21 or more photos generated more than 55 times the number of Detailed Views and nearly 27 times the amount of Interest.
4. Comparable results were obtained when plotting these three key variables against varying numbers of photographs per listing.
5. Views, Interest and Leads jumped 20 percent or more as the number of photos increased from 15 to 16.
The study seems to confirm that having additional photos on an agent or broker Web site affects the stickiness of the site, which leads to substantially higher lead conversion.
RealEstateShows.com's Turner makes a fascinating counterargument. According to Turner, "We've spent a lot of time researching how the brain works when viewing property online. A key point to consider is attention span. There's a reason that television commercials are 30 or 60 seconds. Rather than doing a three- or four-minute movie or virtual tour, we have found that that the brain can absorb about five photos in 30 seconds or nine photos in 60 seconds. If you create a video that is longer than 30 to 60 seconds and that is packed full of pictures, you will exceed the amount that the brain can absorb."
Turner uses himself as an example. When he and his wife were looking for house, his agent showed several properties they did not like. Even though they were adamant about purchasing a single-family residence, the agent encouraged them to look at a duplex. After continued requests, they looked at the duplex and fell in love with it.
Turner goes on to say, "This sale would never have happened if my wife and I had been looking online. We would have never looked at the property because we would have ruled it out when we set up our search criteria. This is exactly the problem with giving Web visitors more and more information. The more information you give them, the easier you are making it for them to exclude your listing from the ones they want to see. Your role in Web marketing is to get them to come out and see the house -- not to give them so much information that they decide not to look at your listing."
The Point2 study clearly indicates that having multiple pictures is a smart idea. Increasing them from 15 to 16 generates 20 percent more leads. On the other hand, we have no way of knowing how many buyers ruled out a specific property because they viewed it online.
What should you do? You can track your page views using Point2's system, Google Analytics or one of the many other tracking tools on the Web. Change the number of pictures and watch your results to determine what works best in your market.
Bernice Ross, national speaker and CEO of Realestatecoach.com, is the author of "Waging War on Real Estate's Discounters" and "Who's the Best Person to Sell My House?" Both are available online. She can be reached at bernice@realestatecoach.com or visit her blog at www.LuxuryClues.com.
Ross will speak at Real Estate Connect in San Francisco, July 23-25, 2008. Register today.
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Submitted by David Sherfey on July 11, 2008 - 3:45am.
There are many ways to sell residential real estate, and for the past year we have chosen the 'more information is better' route, with better success, we think. However, we have also found the obvious: people don't look at houses online when they are overpriced, and they pass them over when the lead photo is weak - and as a result they take longer to sell. We had two similar homes several houses apart, with the better of the two priced a little higher than the other and with a dull-looking lead photo. The better home took three months longer to get an offer.
The quality of the photos probably was not a factor in the Point2 study, and must have had an impact. Looking at the pictures in our MLS tells me that Realtors don't think about this enough. It looks like they walk around quickly just taking snapshots, which is NOT effective marketing.
You need to use a wider angle camera and a little knowledge of how to shoot interiors to get good photos. I would strongly suggest checking out the "Techniques for Real Estate Photography" e-book available from Larry Lohrman at his blog http://photographyforrealestate.net to understand RE photography yourself or to be able to know how to work with a professional photographer.
That lead photo is the moneymaker. Shoot the house when the sun is on the front and blue sky is in back to get a winning photo. A few puffy clouds are helpful too. Stormy clouds are not good.... Square up the sides as much as you can and stand on a ladder if necessary. Don't take snapshots, take photos, and take your time. It is worth going back to get a better shot, if necessary.
It helps to be able to write, too, but that is another topic entirely....
Submitted by Michael Taylor on July 11, 2008 - 5:01am.
I think that Turner makes a very valid point when he says that people are looking to eliminate you property when looking at it online. In fact, that is what all buyers do all of the time. They look at houses online or in person so they can eliminate it from their list to make their decision easier.
Does that mean you should only show a few photos? Who knows? The study seems to indicate quite clearly you should have as many as possible. I think if you have a good quality photo that will showcase the home, add it.
Indianapolis Foreclosures | Zionsville Indiana Homes
Submitted by Norm Biller on July 11, 2008 - 5:22am.
Attractive properties in top condition tend to feature more pictures than properties that have been neglected. I'm guessing that factored into the results, even though it wasn't mentioned in the article.
Norm Biller
The Biller Homes Team
Keller Williams Bluegrass Realty
2424 Harrodsburg Rd, Suite 101
Lexington, KY 40503
(859) 223-8373
www.BillerHomes.com
Norm@BillerHomes.com
Submitted by Karen Rice on July 11, 2008 - 5:40am.
I agree with Jeff - when it comes to a virtual tour. 30 - 60 seconds is perfect for a virtual tour, because people's attention span is quite short. However, having additional pictures - as long as they are good quality - is perfect for those who hunger for more.
Being able to click that little arrow to see more and more is very different than having to sit through a 5 minute video. I love pictures but I also hate watching stuff like long videos on line...
As stated before, I think the quality of the pictures is more important than the quantity - but that said, people DO notice when a picture is missing (say for a bathroom) and they assume that it is hideous and needs work, or else it would be included!
I sold one of my listings myself, and the thing that sold the house was the pictures. I had over 20 pictures online, as it was a unique house and needed every nook and cranny to be visible. Turns out the buyer just loved the teensy little breakfast nook off the kitchen (an area that other agents before me skipped - I was the 3rd agent to list this house.) Other agents took less than 10 photos.
THe buyers told me they fell in love with it because of the pictures.
So, I agree with Jeff for tours, but not for having only a few pictures. My goal isn't to have people come SEE the house, my goal is to SELL it. If that means that fewer people will visit it, so be it - I don't want to waste my time or the seller's time bringing people though the house who will absolutely hate some attribute of the home that can't be changed, when they could have seen it online and eliminated it.
I realize this comment is too long and most of you won't read it, LOL, but oh well... hee hee
Northeast PA / Pike & Wayne County Real Estate Agent
Lake Wallenpaupack Real Estate Website
Submitted by Renata Kane on July 11, 2008 - 5:46am.
There are also two factors that have not been mentioned: quality of the photos and photo omissions.
Many listings have many photos, but the quality of the photos is so poor that it leaves a bad impression of the house. I'm not just talking about photos that are poorly framed or don't show off the features of the house; I'm talking about photos that are out of focus, blurry, poorly contrasted, taken in poor light conditions, or focused on the wrong thing. Digital cameras these days have many features that, used incorrectly, can actually cause more problems than they solve. One such feature is an autofocus feature that lets the camera decide what to focus on. This can lead to photos like one I saw yesterday on a listing that gave a lovely clear view of a deck rail but no view of the backyard beyond. Agents who are taking their own listing photos need to take some time with their cameras to learn how to use (and in some cases override) the features.
And photo omissions can tell as much about a listing as what's included. Listings that do not include photos of key features (particularly kitchens or bathrooms) raise immediate red flags, particularly if the copy clearly states that these have been recently renovated. The potential buyer is left to wonder why these photos were not included, and may bypass a listing because they suspect a problem where one may not actually exist.
Submitted by Robert Dawson on July 11, 2008 - 6:27am.
People need to udnerstand the ease of digital cameras. I think many still take pictures as if they had to go get them developed. Takes pictures of EVERYTHING and then delete the useless ones. Nothing worse than looking at a listing online with minimum or no pictures.
Robert Dawson
Submitted by Wade Treadway on July 11, 2008 - 6:31am.
Great topic. Photography is the key to getting buyers to the property. I would agree that the more photos the better, however, I feel very strongly that the less you focus on the details, kitchen appliances, bathroom fixtures, hot tub, etc. the better you will be. Focus on the mood, character and essence of a property, the setting of the house, the views, the neighborhood. We deal mostly in rural country properties and as I have always said the more nature you show the less there is to dislike. Who doesn't like blue sky, green grass, flowering shrubs and gardens with a classic white clapboarded cape house thrown into the mix.
Remember, you know the property, the potential buyer only knows the images they are seeing. Make them compelling.
Wade I. Treadway
Marketing Director
Vermont Country Real Estate
1211 Route 12
Woodstock, VT 05091
802-457-0000
wade@vermontcountryrealestate.com
Submitted by Patrick Kane on July 11, 2008 - 6:46am.
I think the point that Mr. Turner missed is very simple. The pictures or online marketing in general is designed to create enough interest for the viewer to contact a real estate professional. In the example that he uses, his agent asked enough questions to clearly uncover his and his wife's true wants, needs, and desires. Every skilled real estate professional knows that what a buyer says they want and what they truly mean is quite often different. I wonder if Mr. and Mrs. Turner would have bought any house off of the internet? What they needed in the end was a skilled professional real estate agent.
Submitted by Catherine Mopas on July 11, 2008 - 8:11am.
From a consumer standpoint, it is certainly important to have photos of the property but it is just as important, if not a bit more so, to have floor plans and information about square-footage. For example renting an apartment/duplex in Portland at $735/mo. for 3 bedroom, 2 bath sounds great until you look at the floor plan and compare it to the 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath with about the same square footage, give or take 50-100 sq-ft. That 3 bedroom looks cramped compared to the 2 bedroom when compared!
What can be better still is to have the floorplans and access to a space planning tool on the website that allows one to arrange appliances and furniture to scale in that space and print it out.
Submitted by John Rowles on July 11, 2008 - 9:54am.
As an eCommerce consultant, I have worked with many clients who, at first, wanted to re-purpose their offline content from catalogs and other advertising for use on their Web sites. It was always a challenge to get them to develop Web-specific content, especially new product photography.
One we got them to make the investment in decent photography, in every case, their conversion rates went up at least 30%.
As for the argument that you should withhold information to get people to look at the house in person, that is just dumb. It sounds a lot like the argument that many MLS boards (like the MLSPIN in MA) use to keep addresses out of IDX feeds.
John Rowles
Managing Director
MainRhode LLC - Google-Powered IDX Search
www.mainrhode.com
Submitted by Daniel Rothamel, Inman Community Manager on July 11, 2008 - 10:09am.
There are a lot of different angles from which to approach this issue (I promise to avoid the photo-related puns).
I think that, in the end, every house is different and will require a different approach when it comes to photographic marketing. I take all of the listing photos for our listings. I have taken thousands of pictures this year, and we have displayed hundreds of them. One thing that I figured out very early is that not every house is going to yield 20 pictures, even if you want it to. You can easily achieve the same, or even better, results, with 10 excellent pictures of a home compared to 10 excellent ones and then 10 decent ones.
The purpose of photos, from the perspective of the listing agent, is not to document the house, but to MARKET the house. Marketing requires using the best images you can, whether that's 5 pictures or 20.
I think Jeff is dead-on about attention spans, though. I think that a lot of agents don't think of the fact that buyers must view the pictures in some sort of order, and that the agent can control that order. If you have 20 pictures for a listing, you had better put the best 10 up there first. Otherwise, you could risk losing someone's attention just because they didn't like the first 3 bad pictures, so they didn't bother with the 10 great ones.
The other major factor at play here is that agents sort of ignore the importance of pictures in general, and therefore don't take as good ones as they should or could. If your pictures are terrible, it doesn't matter how many of them you take. If you don't want to learn something about photography so that you can take good ones, no problem, but you might want to consider hiring someone who does.
http://www.RealEstateZebra.com
Submitted by Paul Eastwood on July 11, 2008 - 10:42am.
Its not only the number of photos but the METHOD of presenting them.. and the SEQUENCE.
Its just like any sales presentation!
Get the important ones that make the key selling message UP FRONT. Then add in all the details (the other photos) behind.
If you carefully plan your photos, and use a tool that gives you simple drag-and-drop photo re-sequencing, then you will have a great sales pitch. If you just throw them out in any order then results may vary, as they say!
If you take this approach then you can have 10, 30 or even 80 photos (as some of our clients do). In fact I think more is better.
I also think the method of presentation is vital. There are too many virtual tour systems that tend to ram photos down the viewers throat (flash movies you can't stop, fish eye, panaramas etc) . Our many thousands of customers tell us that a large number of high-resolution images presented very simply and under the control of the buyer is extremely effective and makes the presentation sticky.
Being able to simply present unlimited, high resolution images is, in fact, one of the key features of the SPS real estate marketing system. You can see what I mean here:
http://www.1122MainStreet.com
Submitted by Lenore & Alex Wilkas on July 11, 2008 - 11:29am.
I concur with both Daniel and Paul, not all homes warrant 20+ pictures. We have a listing with 115 pictures and most of them, not all, but most of them are online because this is a huge property. It took a lot of pictures to tell the story about it.
Pictures are worth a 1000 words... remember that one? It's true. I find it amazing how many agents still don't upload even one picture with their listings! Our MLS only allows 9 pictures and even a small property can use those to its advantage.
I don't take my pictures I use a professional photographer and he knows what to do to make the rooms and spaces brighten up. He takes many pictures and I then select what I want to use.
If you don't have good pictures you can't have a good virtual tour and that tour must have a sequence and flow of the property for the prospective buyer. It's our job to control that and our job to market the listing at its best.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lenore Wilkas
Prudential CA Fine Homes International
Read Our Blog @ www.SanMateoRealEstateNews.com
Submitted by Real Estate Marketing - Misty Lackie on July 11, 2008 - 5:03pm.
I agree that 30 to 60 seconds is the max for a video or virtual tour. Personally I don't have the patience to sit through a virtual tour or video. I would rather go to a “more photos” page that displays some nice, high quality photos. The amount of photos you offer buyers on your listing pages and the length of a virtual tour should be 2 different things imo. I would rather just bypass the virtual tour or video and see some nice, high quality photos I can scroll through. I think it is very valuable that a "more photos" link is offered that takes the buyer to a page with lots of nice, high quality photos and then give them the option to watch a virtual tour or video rather than forcing it upon them. Or give them both options (virtual tour and static photos page). Just my 2 cents.
Your Friends at ClassifiedFlyerAds.com - Online Advertising That Works!
Submitted by Jay Groccia on July 31, 2008 - 3:07pm.
There is a reason that the top real estate agents in Massachusetts have me on their speed dial and that reason is that we deliver images that get their listing noticed and shine above the competition.
Not one client has ever told me that we supplied 'too many photos'.
When I read that line, "five to nine pictures is about all the brain can handle" hit me like the line in Amadeus where the Italian composers were describing Mozart's music has "having too many notes". Quite frankly, it is hogwash.
The real reason people click away from online presentations is that they simply found the photos - and therefore, the house - uninteresting.
When I look at our server logs, I'm see that consistently, people view our OnlinePropertyShowcase™ tours on average over FIVE MINUTES per house.
You tell me - how long would you spend exploring this home?
http://www.OnlinePropertyShowcase.com/showcase/10240
Here is the video of the same house - do you think people are watching it to the end?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4elk0f-620
We do and we found that fully 1/3 of the people that watch the video, click over to the OnlinePropertyShowcase™.
Our clients also report that people are watching the videos, viewing the tour, and then contacting the agent and that's why we work for them again and again and again.
There, finally a bright spot in this market.
Cheers,
Jay Groccia, Principal Photographer
OnSite Studios
http://www.OnSiteStudios.com
http://www.OnlinePropertyShowcase.com