5 Ways to Boost Your Real Estate Listings Visually

Humans are visual creatures. In fact, 90% of the information we absorb is visual, and we process images 60,000 times faster than text.

This is why real estate listings rely so heavily on quality listing photos. Without them, it’s hard to get buyers’ attention.

Plus, 90% of home buyers search online during the home buying process.

So, if you want your real estate listings to stand out from the rest, they need to have powerful visuals.

Fortunately, you’re no longer limited to just photos. Here are five different types of visuals you can use to enhance your listings:

1. Professional photos

First, every real estate listing needs photos to help show off the home’s true value and drive more clicks and showings.

However, there’s a difference between amateur photos you can get with your phone and images taken by a professional photographer.

Professional real estate photography involves all of the following:

• Art direction. A trained eye will know which shots will make your property shine. Sometimes it’s about quality over quantity.
• Staging. Staging the home with furniture and interior decorations gives viewers more of a feel for what it’s like to live there, while an empty house doesn’t have nearly as much appeal.
• Getting the best angles. Optimizing shot angles will make your property look more desirable.
• Scouting before the shoot. Experimenting with interior and exterior lighting at different times of the day helps ensure your photos stand out.
• Professional editing. Using professional photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop puts the finishing touches on your listing photos.

You might be tempted to think professional real estate photography is only necessary for expensive luxury homes, but this isn’t true.

Small homes benefit from professional listing photos as well because they help the home sell faster and for more money. So even though it will cost you somewhere between $110 and $300 per shoot, it could help you sell your property for thousands more.

2. 360° images

Want to level up your real estate photos? Try 360° images. These are 360-degree panoramic images that viewers can maneuver by dragging their mouse (or finger) across the screen.

This is a great way to show your property from all angles and provide buyers with an immersive viewing experience. This way, they can better imagine what it would be like to stand in the house without actually being there.

360° images are made by taking multiple shots from the same position at different angles and then stitching them together to create one seamless image.

3. Aerial photos and videos

Expand the view of your property by investing in aerial photography. These days, you can hire a drone photographer to shoot your entire property for a few hundred dollars.

Drone imagery and video give your property an extra wow factor by showing buyers a new perspective. Expansive shots and angles, breathtaking backgrounds, and increased visual context help tell the full story of the house.

For example, aerial imagery lets you capture the surrounding area and neighborhood and gives you a better sense of the size of the house. It allows you to capture things in a way you couldn’t in any other way.

Is it worth it? Well, according to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), properties with aerial imagery are 68% more likely to sell than those without it.

4. 3D virtual tours

3D virtual home tours are just many 360° images put together. Viewers are then able to walk through the entire property virtually to get a dynamic feel for the space.

So why use them?

For one, 3D virtual tours offer homebuyers more convenience. Instead of having to go to lots of showings, they can do a virtual tour on their own time and as many times as they want (which is ideal since many homebuyers like to visit a house more than once).

Secondly, virtual tours are more efficient. Hosting open houses and showings is time-intensive work. Let interested buyers tour the property in advance and do away with all the back and forth between buyers, realtors, and sellers.

Lastly, virtual tours help you land more sales. People are more likely to proceed with the home buying process if they can envision the space early on. Consider these statistics reported by Matterport:

• Virtual tours get clicked on 40% more than listings without virtual tours.
• Properties featured with virtual tours get 95% more phone inquiries.
• Properties featured with virtual tours get 65% more email inquiries.
• Virtual tours generate 49% more qualified leads.

If you want to increase your sales, you can’t go wrong with 3D virtual property tours.

5. Floor plans

A floor plan gives you a proportional view of a property’s layout. It lets you see the relative sizes and positions of each room in the house.

Floor plans have been around for a long time, but today’s are more detailed and interactive than ever. They can be 2D or 3D. Partner with a floor plan company to create one.

Floor plans help buyers visualize a property’s layout at a glance. They let buyers move in mentally and imagine how they would furnish and interior design the space. But that’s not all.

Floor plans are also considered a standard part of any property listing. In fact, 1 in 5 buyers would ignore a property listing completely if it didn’t include a floor plan.

Adding it all up

At the end of the day, there are many ways to visually enhance your property listings. Try a few and see how your listing traffic increases.

Though professional photos, 360° images, aerial imagery, 3D virtual tours, and floor plans all have upfront costs, they are well worth the investment.

And if you don’t know where to start, Green Residential is here to help. Contact us today for a free consultation. We can help you level up your listing marketing in no time so that you can get the most out of your rental business.