Do you make these 5 property management photo mistakes?

11 Jul Do you make these 5 property management photo mistakes?

Property management photos for marketing are extremely important when posting a property to advertising. While fancy expensive cameras are wonderful if you have one, they are not necessary to take great/ professional looking photos and you can usually get the job done with a standard smart phone camera if you follow some basic best practices. Here are some common mistakes you should avoid when snapping shots of your new hot property.

Exterior – Too close/Too far away

Every listing should include at least one exterior shot of the front of the home. This is usually your primary photo on most listings and will be displayed more than any other photos so make sure it’s a good one! Don’t get too close to the house or too far away. A general rule of thumb that I use is that the house itself should occupy about 60% of the top to bottom space of the photo. The remaining 40% should be split between the sky above the house and the yard in front of the house. If the yard is a feature that you want to draw attention to, you can always take separate photos to highlight it. But the primary photo of the house should follow the 60/40 guideline.

Exterior – Sun behind house

In a perfect world, the sun would be behind you shining gloriously onto the front of the house when you’re taking the photo. Even mid-day with the sun straight up above you is acceptable. What you don’t want is the sun behind the house. The glazing brightness of the sun will play havoc with the exposure making the front of the house appear dark and unwelcoming.

Under exposed

When taking interior photos, the sun coming through the window can force a lot of cameras to auto-focus on the window since it is the brightest object in the room. The camera will usually auto-dim the photo to compensate for the blaring light coming in the window which will make the room appear extremely dark. Don’t post photos like these where all you can see is what’s outside the window and not inside the room. Most smart phones allow you to adjust the exposure. Try taping your finger on a darker area of the room and the camera will probably adjust automatically to focus the exposure to that area instead of the window.

Over exposed

The reverse of under exposing the photo is overexposing it which causes everything to get washed out. This usually happens in a naturally dark room when you try to force the photo to be brighter to compensate. While you should definitely try to brighten the photo some, don’t take it so far that it begins to washout the photo.

Distracting subjects in the photo

You want people focusing on the features of the property when looking at your marketing photos and not drawing their attention to inadvertent objects. This includes accidentally getting yourself in the photo when taking pictures of areas that have mirrors such as bathrooms. Also, make sure that there aren’t any other people or pets in the photo. If taking photos while on a listing appointment with the owner and the owner is in one of your shots, politely ask them to step into the next room. Another distracting object is having a television turned on. You don’t want to prospect trying to figure out what show was on instead of falling in love with the property. This example photos has both a TV turned on and the top of a child’s head… don’t do that.

Ben Parham

Founder at Property Management Training Headquarters

Ben Parham is the Founder of Property Management Training Headquarters as well as the President and Managing Real Estate Broker of Integrity Realty & Management, Inc., a cutting edge real estate sales and property management brokerage operating throughout the Greater Denver Area. Ben served as the 2018 President of the Denver Chapter of the National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM) and currently serves NARPM National as a Southwest RVP Ambassador. Ben is a U.S. Navy veteran where he was a Cryptologic Technician (Technical) and was awarded the Joint Service Achievement Medal, two Navy Achievement Medals, and a Good Conduct Medal. He has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and is licensed as a real estate broker in both Colorado and Florida.