Real Estate Listing Photos: Where to Draw the Line
A good listing photo can go a long way in helping you sell your home. Just don't make it too good to be true.
The Internet is rapidly becoming the preferred tool for homebuyers searching for the perfect house. In a recent survey conducted by the National Association of REALTORS®, over 80 percent of home buyers polled said they'd hunted for a home online, and 25 percent said they found the home they eventually purchased via the Web.
Since the Internet is primarily a visual medium, listing photos have become more important than ever. A poorly lit photo or an unflattering angle can sometimes mean the difference between a click-through and a scroll-past. So, in an effort to make their homes look as visually appealing as possible, some sellers and real estate agents have taken to digitally altering their listing photos.
Ethical considerations
There is some debate in the real estate industry as to how just how much retouching of listing photos is too much, or even if the process is ethical at all. Currently, there are no hard-and-fast rules governing the manipulation of real estate photos. However, there's a general acceptance of some alteration so long as the physical attributes of the house and property are not distorted.
It could even be argued that a little photo retouching has become accepted as part of the marketing process. But while we may consider it OK for a model in a magazine ad to be air brushed to remove certain imperfections, we expect the products the model is promoting to be portrayed accurately.
Minor touch-ups
Photo editing can be extremely helpful if the seller's photography skills are limited or if the photos were taken at a time of day or year that isn't particularly flattering. With a few clicks, you can adjust the lighting, change the contrast, eliminate shadows and crop the frame (this is especially handy if you've accidentally shot too much of the sky or the ceiling). These sorts of adjustments don't misrepresent what the house actually looks like.
More advanced photo manipulations involve changing the sky from overcast to sunny, tinting brown grass a more appealing shade of green or removing power lines or distant treetops from the background. In most cases, this is considered acceptable; the house itself remains untouched and will look pretty much the same in real life as it does on-screen.
Intentional misrepresentation
Photo retouching could negatively impact a sale if a potential buyer feels that they've been intentionally misled. A heavily altered photo may make the buyer wonder if there's anything else that's been misrepresented about the home.
It's never advisable to alter a photo in a way that would give an incorrect impression of the house that is for sale. Changing the exterior color, adding or removing elements such as TV antennas or shrubbery, or altering the position of neighbors' houses to make them appear further away, could come off as direct misrepresentation to potential buyers. Also, if a photo is edited to, say, delete a dead tree from the yard, a potential buyer may expect the tree to be removed before agreeing to the sale.
Professional help
The best way to make your house look great in photographs is to hire a professional photographer to take your real estate snapshots for you. Most real estate agents will offer to either take photos of your house themselves or arrange to have a photographer who specializes in home listing photos do it for you. A real pro will take many shots from multiple angles, both inside and out, to ensure you get images that make your home look its best.
