The Power of Great Exterior Home Photos

Montgomery County Real Estate Podcast with Diane Cardano

Having good exterior photos of your home stored away can help you sell it quickly and for top dollar any time of the year. Spring is here, and that means if you’re selling your home soon or in the near future, it’s important that you get outside and take pictures of it. You need to have good pictures of your home no matter when you put it on the market, and the only way to guarantee that you always have good photos is to have some stored away. Exterior photos of your home are the first thing buyers see when searching online, and good photos will encourage your target market to see your home in person. Remember, your home’s first showing happens online—not at the house, itself. If you can’t keep a buyer’s interest past four or five pictures, you’ll never get them to come visit and look inside. AndiIf you can’t get a buyer inside your house, I can’t sell it for you. In the video above, I’ve provided a photo showcase to show you exactly what I mean. Starting at 0:58, you’ll see a slide of an exterior photo of a home that was taken last June. I sold this same home in January 2018 in just three days because it was the only listing that showcased beautiful outdoor pictures. In the next slide at 1:23, you’ll see an exterior photo of another home. This time, we included the property’s backyard and all its foliage in the photo. We took that photo a full two years before we put that home on the market, and when we did, we sold it in three days for $10,000 over asking price. “Having good exterior photos of your home stored away can help you sell it quickly and for top dollar any time of the year.” In the next slide at 2:04, you’ll see an outside photo of a home taken three years before we listed it. This home sold after just two days on the market, and it did so during a snowstorm for $23,000 over asking price. This particular seller attended one of my seminars first to learn about the importance of a photo showcase, and it paid off for them. In fact, my sellers who attend my seminars sell their homes four times faster than my sellers who don’t. In the next slide at 2:43, you’ll see a home whose exterior photo captured a tree in full bloom in its front yard. This picture was taken a year before the home was listed, and we sold it in nine days to a relocation buyer. That buyer was from Minnesota, and I doubt they would’ve been interested in seeing that house without that specific picture. In the next slide at 3:23, you’ll see some examples of how we incorporate drone photography into our listings. You’ll also see a couple of our drone videos. I only see drone photography used for about 1% of all the homes on the market, and usually only for high-priced listings. My team and I use it for all of our listings, no matter what price, and we do it because it captures everything. Most importantly, it gets buyers to click on those photos four times. After four clicks, you’ve got their attention. Those two drone videos were able to interest two relocation buyers for homes listed in very high-priced neighborhoods. One of those homes sold in just two weeks. The other sold before it even hit the market. You can learn more about taking good photos and other tips to sell your home at my next Home Selling Sharks Seminar on June 12 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania. For more information, check out www.homesharkseminar.com. As always, if you have any other questions or real estate needs, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be happy to help you.