UniqueHomeSites-approved Real Estate Photographer featured on Local News

Check out Jack Hillman, owner of Jumber Jack Photography in Ottawa.

He does great work and specializes in real estate.

He was also featured recently on the local news describing his business success as a real estate photographer.

Fishing for Sales with Good Photography

At UniqueHomeSites.com, we like to share ideas regarding real estate marketing on the Internet.

Today, we want to discuss something that many in the industry seem to ignore - great real estate marketing begins with great photos!

For consumers, there is nothing more frustrating than finding a listing through a search portal that passes the initial search parameters (i.e. price, location, size, etc), but fails to offer additional photos.

The typical reaction to a lack of photos is that something is wrong with the property.

In some cases, the listing agent may do this on purpose so that only the most interested home buyers will contact them personally for more photos.

Regardless, we feel that properties listed for sale on the Internet with only one or two photos are missing out on a huge opportunity to present their listing to as many Internet eyes as possible.

This is particularly true in today’s Internet age, where web surfers are becoming accustomed to open and instant access to information on-line.

One expert in this area is Larry Lohrman, operator of the Photography For Real Estate blog.

He offers some great tips and techniques for real estate photography, including the following tidbit:

“…the front shot is THE most important shot for marketing purposes.

Not only because Realtors have to use the front shot in all their marketing, but because of web site designs that make the thumbnail of the front shot the “lure” (as in fishing lure) that usually motivates the potential home buyer to take the first action (a click to look at more photos) that leads to a home buyer towards a home purchase.”

Fish on!

Re/Max Canada Introduces ‘Fit-to-Sell’ Home Staging Program

As home selling conditions across Canada shift to a buyers market, Re/Max Canada has taken steps to ensure that sellers have the information required to prepare their homes for sale through staging.

According to Michael Polzler, Executive Vice President and Regional Director for RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic Canada, there are three major factors that come into play when selling a home - location, price, and condition of the home.

The idea behind their recently announced ’Fit-to-Sell’ program is simple – focus on the condition of the home, as this is the one factor that a seller can influence directly.

Through the assistance of staging expert Carla Woolnough, RE/MAX has created a comprehensive package of videos and checklists on the top 10 priorities for preparing a property for sale, which are available online to the public at www.fittosell.ca.

At Base 10, we also believe that home sellers across the country will have to go the extra mile when marketing a home for sale in an increasingly challenging environment.

Activities such as home staging, professional photography, and single property websites are expected to become much more important during the home selling process.

Introducing Alex Lukey as Approved UniqueHomeSites Photographer

Ottawa-area real estate professionals can now benefit from having a UniqueHomeSites single property website, complete with the professional real estate photography services of Alex Lukey Photography.

As an approved vendor for UniqueHomeSites, Alex is able to provide his photographic services package to real estate professionals in the Ottawa area for a competitive price.

This includes a visit to the property to capture up to 20 web-ready still photos, and 3 panoramic images, and all the features and benefits associated with a UniqueHomeSite, including a unique domain name (i.e.www.123UniqueStreet.com) and hosting of the site for one year.

Do quality real estate photographs help sell a home?

As an extreme (and hilarious) example of why good photography is important in marketing a property for sale on the Internet, here are a couple of YouTube videos showcasing some of the worst real estate photographs ever.

Amazingly Bad Videos of Homes For Sale

Unbelievably Bad Real Estate Photo Hall of Fame

Looking for a Professional Real Estate Photographer?

Are you a Canadian real estate agent looking for a professional photographer?

Well, look no further than where the experts hang out at Larry Lohrman’s Photography for Real Estate blog.

Hiring a professional photographer will not only save you time, but will enhance your listing presentation on the Internet – something both sellers and buyers will appreciate.

Larry has an extensive directory of photographers from all over the world who specialize photographing in real estate.

Although, the list of Canadian’s is limited to a select number of cities, the directory will most certainly grow as this blog is a great resource for photographers.

Here is a list of Canadian’s currently listed in the directory. 

Jeff Hilbrecht	CA	AL	Edmonton	www.tridentphotography.com
Aaron Lagadyn	CA	BC	Nanaimo	www.tres.ca
Linda Sabiston	CA	BC	Sun. Coast	www.firstimpressionphotos.com
Yoree Grozenok	CA	BC	Vancouver	www.BrightLightPhotography.ca
Matthew Piers	CA	ON	Toronto	www.matthewpiers.com
Andrew Ptak	CA	ON	Toronto	www.andrewptak.com
Savi Creations	CA	ON	Toronto	www.savicreations.com
Justin Soles	CA	QC	Montreal	www.justsophoto.com

For those photographers who wish to be included in Larry’s directory, $20 will get you a lifetime listing. 

Also, for a limited time he will throw in a copy of his Photography for Real Estate e-book with registration if you ask for one in the comments part of the sign up page.

Not a bad deal given that his blog has #1 google ranking for the search terms “real estate photography” and “real estate photographer”.

Tips on Becoming a Neighbourhood Know-it-all

In our last post, we discussed the importance of including neighbourhood photographs in your listing presentation on the web.

In fact, some agents have achieved success by becoming known as a neighbourhood expert among potential home buyers in their community.

RISMedia.com offers ten tips in a recent article entitled ‘Niche Marketing: How to Become a Neighborhood Expert’.

Here is a summary:

1. Network with community leaders – school prinipals, local fire and police chiefs, local merchants
2. Know the local real estate market – street names, recent transactions
3. Know the schools – private, public, english, french
4. Know the local amenities – parks and rec, restaurants
5. Know the local businesses – meet the owners, include them in your marketing efforts
6. Know aboth local clubs, associations, and churches
7. Know about public works projects – road improvements, planning issues
8. Know about neighbourhood traditions – block partys, community events
9. Know about Homeowner Associations – if any, get involved
10. Know the local job market - major employers, commute times

Internet speaker and consultant to the real estate industry, Michael Russer (aka Mr. Internet) explains:

“For generations, real estate professionals have been building their businesses by focusing on a neighborhood, developing their knowledge of the area and letting everyone know about it. Becoming a trusted resource in this manner is a time-tested winning strategy.”

Use Neighbourhood Photos to Help Sell a Home

Its no secret we think Larry Lohrman’s Photography for Real Estate blog is an excellent resource for real estate professionals. He offers really great tips from both a photographer and a real agents perspective.

For example, he recently posted a simple, yet important, reminder to real estate agents to include photos of a property’s neighbourhood when presenting a listing on the Internet.

“Buyers have to be attracted to the neighborhood before they are going to by a home there.” Larry says, “Since most slide-show virtual tour formats can accommodate large numbers of photos there’s really no reason to not have plenty of photos of the neighborhood on listings.”

In a related post, check out the Future of Real Estate Marketing blog (another great resource for real estate marketing tips!) for pointing to this impressive video, produced by a real estate agent in Chicago showing how they are the neighbourhood experts.

At UniqueHomeSites.com, our single property websites allow for an unlimited number of photo uploads (still and panoramic’s), as well as video feeds from YouTube and Google Video.

Check out this recent UniqueHomeSite for a property in St. Catharines, Ontario (check the panoramics) - http://www.9mariastreet.com/

Top Real Estate Agents Contribute Ideas to New e-Book

During the annual NAR conference last week in Las Vegas, Steve Kantor, president of Best Agent Business, conducted a survey among top real estate agents to collect ideas on how to succeed at selling homes.

So far, Kantor has compiled over 1,000 ideas from hundreds of contributing agents and has compiled them into an e-book.

Although, the e-book is currently for sale at http://www.realestatein2008.org/ for a price of $19.95, real estate agents are still contributing ideas online for the updated version of the book, to be made available in December, 2007.

All agents who contribute an idea via the online survey by November 30th will receive a FREE copy of the eBook and be acknowledged in the books credits.

To complete the survey, visit http://www.bestagentbusiness.com/realestatebook2008.html

Canadian Real Estate Photographers Benefit with Single Property Websites

 .

UniqueHomeSites News!

We are currently seeking real estate photographers from across Canada to become approved UniqueHomeSites.com service providers.

The new program is designed for photographers wishing to capitalize on the growing use of photography and virtual tours when marketing a home for sale.

Under the program, photographers are able to set their own pricing for the services they offer. UniqueHomeSites provides a functional and professionally-designed single property website.

To learn more details about the program contact:

Andrew Ouellette
VP New Product Development and Sales
613-286-1511
Andrew@uniquehomesites.com