Since early 2020 and into early 2022, the United States real estate market has been on fire. Inventory has been at historic lows as well as the interest rates. These two factors, combined with the Great Pandemic affecting the supply chain, meant that homes were flying off the market in days. Even now, with the interest rate hike, homes are still selling faster than historical norms. One may ask themselves if professional real estate photos are even needed. In one short answer, YES!

In the previous blog posts, we went a few of reasons why a Matterport virtual tour isn’t ideal. We also have discussed the differences between Matterport and Zillow in the past and how the Zillow tour is almost always the best choice for most real estate listings. In this post, we’ll discuss when and why a Zillow 3D Virtual Tour isn’t recommended.

To conclude this two part series, the third and final reason why a Matterport tour isn’t ideal for most residential real estate listings is it's near inability to shoot outdoor spaces. They can be done, but not without serious drawbacks.

If you are involved in real estate in Northeast Florida, you’re likely familiar with the Matterport 3D virtual tour. You can recognize these by the small “doll house” that the tour creates. Matterport is the industry standard when it comes to the aesthetics of virtual tours. The tours are buttery smooth and have some of the best image quality around. However, there are some major drawbacks with Matterport tours, and that is why I recommend a Zillow 3D virtual tour for most real estate listings. In fact, I don’t think Matterport has any business in the residential real estate space for a few very important reasons.

As a real estate professional, you can help your clients navigate this changing market by offering high quality real estate photography and also utilizing high quality 3D tours. This offers the best online representation of your clients home, and gives the most comprehensive showing of the home. A 3D home tour will allow your client to “walk through” a home in a different and more natural way than standard photography provides.

Zillow makes it easy to help listings stand-out over others with two features unique to the platform. Those two features are videos and 3D virtual tours. According to Zillow, listings with a video or 3D tour are 2x more likely to be viewed than listings without. It’s not the faux twilight or wet driveway hero shot that brings 2x more views.

This is the final part in a five part series on preparing a real estate property for listing. In this post, I’ll be covering my favorite part, the shoot day!

This is part three in a five part series on prepping a real estate property for listing. In this post, I’ll be covering the importance of landscaping your listing. If the goal is to make the most profit off the sale, these blog posts will highlight the major steps you must take before the home becomes available for showings.

Nothing will steer a potential client away more than a broken house. If the house needs paint, holes patched, window’s replaced, bathrooms caulked, gutters rehung, or the roof reshingled, you’re likely to lose out on that sale.

When it comes to preparing your home or listing to be sold, you must take action to make sure it appeals to as many potential buyers as possible. This part one of a five part series on prepping your home or listing to be sold.

What makes a great interior photo? It’s a tough and subjective question, but I attempt to answer it.

While on a paid shoot or expensive vacation, losing your footage or images can be painful in more ways than one. Not only do you lose those experiences, but potentially a client as well. You might even get sued! Now, you can easily back-up your drone or DSLR files while on the go, without a computer.

As a photographer offering services to Realtors and Brokers, one of my objectives to justify my existence is getting the property to sell as quickly as possible for the most money. Granted, I play a small role but it is an important one. Getting your listings to move is your number one objective.

Backing up your important digital files is as important as your annual health screening. Those 10,000 photos sitting on your iPhone are just waiting to be lost in the digital wasteland if you drop it into the toilet. That 56 page report, you’re putting the final touches on, is this close to getting zapped into nothingness when lightning hits nearby. Last year's taxes? The videos from your trip to Europe? Gone. This is serious, life altering sort of stuff I’m discussing here. So what can one do to prepare for the worst?