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!

Introducing Brian Scott as Approved UniqueHomeSites Reseller

Real estate professionals in Gatineau now have the chance to take advantage of Scott Photography’s services with photographer Brian Scott. He is able to photograph homes in the Ottawa area as well.

Brian, as an approved UniqueHomeSites reseller, is able to provide his photographic services package to real estate professionals in the Ottawa and Gatineau area for roughly $130 dollars as an introductory price.

His package includes a visit to the property to take up to 20 web-ready still photos, and 3 panoramic virtual tours, as well as all the features and benefits provided by a UniqueHomeSite, including a unique domain name ( ie, www.123uniquestreet.com) and hosting of the site for one year.

To contact Brian, and to find out more, visit http://www.uniquehomesites.com/photographers

Photography for Real Estate – 10 Essentials on YouTube.com

Need some tips for your real estate photography?

Larry Lohrman has created a series of youtube videos that discuss his 10 essentials.

For those who don’t know, Larry  runs a blog called http://photographyforrealestate.net, which in itself is an essential for all real estate photographers out there.

Here they are:

10 Essentials introduction

Wide-angle lens

Burned out windows

Render rooms light and bright

Understand the purpose of the photo

Front exterior is the most important photo

Render straight lines straight

Simplify images

Don’t let color casts distract

Render verticals vertical

 

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.

Web services allow for easy distribution of real estate video podcasts

Real estate professionals who produce video for their property listings can now benefit from a FREE video podcasting service offered by TubeMogul.com.

For those who don’t know, a podcast is a collection of digital files which are distributed over the Internet, often using syndication feeds, for playback on portable media players and personal computers.   

The TubeMogul web service provides its user with a single point for deploying uploads to the top video sharing sites such as YouTube.com, Google Video, and Yahoo Video.

TubeMogul’s analytic technology also aggregates video-viewing data from multiple sources to give publishers improved understanding of when, where and how often videos are watched to effectively measure the impact of their marketing campaigns.

According to a recent RISMedia.com article, video has moved online in a big way and it’s use can be a huge differentiator for real estate professionals, helping build trust among existing and future clientele, as well as create a strong brand impression.

“Video can make a big impact on your marketing program, and of course, the Internet is where the buyers are. A big advantage of video over fixed content is that video involves more of the senses; it sells you and your service using sight, sound and emotion. When you communicate with your prospects through more of their senses, they become more engaged, and therefore, more likely to understand your message.”

Another popular video podcasting service is available at MLBroadcast.com, which is designed specifically for real estate professionals.

Michael Price, Co-Founder and President of MLBroadcast.com, was quoted as saying;

“Our service was designed to help real estate professionals take advantage of syndication technologies to distribute their listings and community content. Video sharing sites have matured into syndication destinations that provide not only additional traffic, but vast improvements in the ability for listings to be found in organic searches.”

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

Homes and Land Magazine expands to new Canadian centres

As further evidence that print advertising is not dead, real estate media company Homes & Land announced this week that it grew its magazine franchise division by 7.5 percent to 340 franchises in 2007.

While most agents will agree that placing their listings in these types of magazines likely won’t sell a home any faster, they will certainly agree that selling clients love to see their home showcased in high-gloss print.

Furthermore, prospective homebuyers (and the general population) love to browse through magazines like Homes and Land to see what’s on the market, which raises the profile of advertising agents within the community.

To help leverage their investment in print advertising, some of our clients have found that the unique domain names (i.e. www.123UniqueStreet.com) that come with our single property websites are a great way to ‘drive’ traffic to their presence on the web.

When readers see the easy-to-remember domain name, they are more likely to visit the property online, where they can access more photos, video, school information, and neighbourhood demographics.  

Additional Homes and Lands franchises can now be found in Red Deer and central Alberta; Muskoka, Haliburton and Parry Sound, Ontario; London, St. Thomas and Woodstock, Ontario; Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon, Ontario; York Region, Ontario; Niagara Region, Ontario and Montreal to Mont-Tremblant, Quebec.

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”.

New Video Podcasting Service Benefits Real Estate Professionals

This week, a new web service was launched called WhatIWantRealEstate.com, which provides real estate profesionals with an easy and low-cost way to try their hand at video podcasting.

As an added bonus, the results can be fully integrated within our UniqueHomeSites.com single property websites.

Here’s how it works - First, register your contact information (inc. logo and profile pic) with WhatIWantRealEstate.com. Second, upload your property photos and enter a text description of the listing.

The rest is taken care of by the folks at WhatIWantRealEstate.com. What they do is take the listing information that you supply and develop it into a video. Then, they distribute it to a wide variety of search engines – all for a one-time fee of $50 per property.

According to CEO and Founder Ryan Hoback, ”We place your video on Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Itunes, and many other directories to maximize the visibility. Our optimization strategies target viewers by geographic and keyword specific searches, so each viewing is highly targeted to localized areas.”

Once the property video podcast has been automatically uploaded to Google Video and YouTube by WhatIWantRealEstate, it can easily be integrated into your UniqueHomeSite.