upfront fees: professional pictures

pinkteapot

My main deciding factor between EAs was the quality of their Rightmove listings, particularly photos.

Our EA used a wide-angle lens (it's very hard to get the whole of the room in a shot with the focal length on a standard camera, though too extreme a wide-angle and it looks distorted, so has to be used with caution) and did good shots of the rooms. This wasn't extra and was included in their standard fee.

Unless I was selling a £2m property through a 'premium' EA, I wouldn't bother with 'professional' pictures personally. As far as I'm concerned, decent online listings are an essential skill for EAs these days and where I am, a few EAs are doing it really well without getting a separate professional in.

kinger101

ReadingTim wrote: »

Given a non-professional is an amateur like you and I, why don't you have a go yourself, see how the snaps come out, and think how happy you'd be with those as your advertising medium?

Suggest you take some pictures on a cheap compact or even a smartphone, download them to your computer and have a long hard look at how well they come out. If they're a bit lacking, hire the pro!

Finally, think how many Rightmove ads you skip over due to poor photos.....quite a few I should imagine, unless you try some reverse psychology and advertise on this thread.....

A professional photographer will have the correct equipment (wide angle lenses etc), more knowledge, and more experience. There's no way a amateur will get the same effect with a smartphone. Every week there's a post on here where some crappy independent EA has awful picks of one third of a dimly lit room taken at obscure angles.

You get what you pay for IMO.

DRP

Not required.

As long as you present the place well, the photos are decent.... and the price is sensible (most important), you will get viewers.

Once you get viewers it doesn't matter how professional the photographer was.

itsnotarace

I can't advise on whether it's worth it to get professional photos taken, but there is a house across the road from us are using a large well known estate agents who haven't changed their awful photos in the 2+ years the house has been on the market.

The house is in a nice area and is reasonably priced but the photos make it look really bad. One of the photos is clearly taken from the front upstairs bedroom window looking down, but they never opened the window so you can see all the reflections in the shot. And thats almost the least of the faults.

Those pictures were a major factor in deciding what EA we went with to sell, and I'm sure it's also a big factor in how long it's been on the market when houses round about it are selling.

jjlandlord

Do check who will own the pictures and floor plan, and have it stipulated that you do.
At least that way everything is yours and you can re-use them as you please.