Part Six - The Master Bedroom

Welcome to part six of our twenty two part miniseries on real estate photography and the role that it plays in marketing a home.  Today we are going to look at a master bedroom from a local listing, taken with a point and shoot camera, and then critique it and compare it to a shot from my site, PG Listings.ca

I'm feeling rather saucy tonight, so I think I'll turn things up to eleven and choose a higher end master bedroom, something that you might walk around in wearing a silk kimono, puffing away on your ivory tusk hand carved pipe while doing morning pilates....So with the goal of evoking that kind of imagery, lets have a look.

I don't know about my faithful readers, but this home, which is slightly under $400,000, is underwhelming to me.  That price point will get you a pretty nice place in this town, so it is alarming to see this kind of image.  In fact, I would almost go so far as to say that this image makes me want to visit the house even less than if there were no images at all!  What we have here is a classic case of the camera trying to expose both the bright windows and the dark interior at the same time, but it's little wee sensor can't handle the range in brightness, so it tries to split the difference, resulting in blown out windows anyway (which can be nice in certain situations), and a dark room, which is never nice.

Fun Fact: Turning on the lamp will do wonders for both the overall light levels, and it will add warmth and character to a shot.  Visualize the shot above with the bedside lamp on for a moment - It seems much nicer doesn't it?

Anyway, here's a shot from a similar price bracket from PG Listings.ca

Booyah!  If you don't want to don slippers and do pirouettes in this baby then you aren't a pillow loving human! Total difference in asking price is about $15,000 (my shot is from the more expensive home) and the difference in perceived value - priceless.  Actually, it's not priceless, I'm sure there is a quantifiable figure that can be applied, but whatevs.  To make a shot like this requires some off camera flash units as well as knowledge of photoshop - because you'll need to do some touch up after the image is taken.  This takes time, which is one thing that an active real estate agent does not have a lot of.

An ancient and wise real estate agent once blogged that the effective realtor applies 10% of the total commission toward marketing the home, and when you look at the kinds of dramatic differences that can be manifested by using a competent real estate photographer, that's good return on investment (I'm not biased)

Well that's it for today, I hope you are enjoying our two part series on home real estate photography, and I look forward to your comments!  Now it's time to don that robe and slippers!

Daniel Abraham
PG Listings.ca

Part Five - The Bedroom

This is going to be a lot of fun for me.  As a real estate photographer, I have seen a lot of bedrooms and I have to say that if there is one room that two minutes of prep work can work wonders on, it's this one.  The kitchen and bathrooms take a little more time because some things might be wet or covered in bio hazardous slime, but everything in a bedroom can usually be kicked under something or into something, making prep work a breeze.  In case you weren't already aware, we spend quite a bit of time sleeping and doing other things in a bedroom, so it ranks right up there in terms of 'rooms that really should look good to attract people to the home'.

So let's get right down to it.  As usual, I have snooped around the local active listings and drummed up a real winner this time.  Check this bad boy out.

From a technical standpoint, this image has some issues....
Most notable, the individual that took this shot failed to notice that about one sixth of the image is dominated by the door frame - which I suppose could have been done on purpose because they wanted to show that the home does indeed come with door frames, which is useful to know.

On the other hand, showing the door frame at an angle does not inspire confidence, and in fact, it appears that the whole house may be on an angle - Oh my! I can't live in a house that is on an angle!

So there are a couple of issues, all of which are glaringly obvious. First, the home doesn't come with a wardrobe so take the three minutes and move it from the right side of the frame.  Second, unless the home is on an angle, don't market it as such.  Finally, although door frames are handy, it is commonly assumed that homes have them already, so they don't need to be in the shot.  These are in addition to the usual issues from point and shoot cameras - drab colors, underexposure, and flash hot spots.

So let's have a look at a shot from PG Listings.ca from a similar price bracket.

Ok, so the price bracket here is pretty low, so the shots in general don't have a lot to show, but there are some pretty major differences between these two shots - differences that really only come down to an additional five minutes of time.  Move the stuff, straighten the bed out, and compose the image properly...That's mostly it.  Granted, the PG Listings shot underwent some enhancement in photoshop, but what we're looking at in today's example is more about composition than post processing. As I usually state, if a consumer were to look at these two images and choose one of these houses to visit in person, I strongly feel that they would pick the PG Listings home based on the quality of the pictures.

In case you were wondering, this shot was taken with one off camera flash, bounced off of one of the walls.  Unfortunately it created a shadow behind the lamp because the flash setting was quite high, but I had no choice here because I really wanted to catch the nice view out of the window.

Thanks for visiting, and tune in next time when we tackle the master bedroom!

Daniel Abraham
www.pglistings.ca

Comparisons - The Bathroom

If there is one room in a house that can either look like something out of a nightmare, or like a porcelain paradise, it is definitely the bathroom.  I have seen some bathrooms in my 140+ home shoots that would make you run screaming....And it's my job to make them look great and inviting.  What is it about bathrooms that make people not want to touch anything in there?  Not the books (especially), not the towels, nothing. 

A clean bathroom may have only three or four of these, a dirty one has eighty trillion of them.


Being a bit of a selective germophobe (symptoms manifest only when I'm in the bathroom of someone I do not know personally), I find bathrooms difficult to deal with for two reasons.  The first is that I don't want to touch anything or move anything or breathe anything while I'm in there.  The second reason is that bathrooms are notoriously reflective places that make taking a good picture really difficult if you plan on using a flash of any kind. 

So as mentioned in my last post, let's have a look at your standard issue bathroom shot, pulled randomly from one of the many listings currently active in the Prince George area.

I picked a good one this time, and if this picture makes you want to move in to the home immediately, then  you would be the perfect client and I can refer you to many real estate professionals who can show you lots of pictures just like this one.  Please call me to arrange a meeting.



If this was your bathroom, and you had hired someone for thousands of dollars to market and sell your home, how would you feel?  Would you feel that the person you hired is doing their absolute best to make your home look it's best and stand out from others in it's price range?  Probably not. The most common mistake that real estate agents make is that they use a point and shoot camera on auto mode (or their cell phone) which ends up basing the exposure on the bright window, resulting in a grossly underexposed interior. World, meet gloomy bathroom.

Here is a shot from a similarly priced home that was placed on PG Listings.ca.  To make this shot I used one remote flash to light up the bath tub, and one bounced off of the wall behind me to light up the room.  All of the reflective surfaces in a bathroom (sink, toilet, mirror, tiling) make placement of flashes critically important, something that I am working on every day. This image, to me, transmits a feeling of cleanliness and brightness that has a much more positive impact than the previous image. Please feel free to comment and share your personal thoughts on this comparison.

To summarize this short post.  Bathrooms, like kitchens, are of great importance to potential homebuyers because no matter how hard you try, you will be spending a significant amount of time in one.  Also, I personally feel that the 'eew' sensation that we sometimes get in other people's bathrooms can quite literally be transmitted through a picture, making it extra important to ensure that bathrooms are seen as clean, attractive places when it comes to marketing. 

Thanks for tuning in, next up we will have a look at the master bedroom!


Daniel Abraham
PG Listings
www.pglistings.ca

Part Four - The Anticlimax

This post is a sum of PG Listings.ca, because the past three posts really just talk very vaguely about how the site came about and the route that was taken. Truth is, the concept to build a local area listing site for real estate is not a new one, so I can't take credit there, and the idea to build something for Prince George was suggested by my family, so again, not mine.

My parents were moving to Creston and having a hard time finding a place, because not only did you have to look on MLS, but you also had to go to every agents personal website, along with private listing sites, which is truly a pain in the ass, especially if you are over fifty and not all that comfortable on the computer. To top it off, on each of these listing sites were truly terrible images, images so bad that if you actually wanted any sense of what the house was like, you would have to go there in person - which makes me think that perhaps agents take awful pictures on purpose.....hmmm.

Lets see if I can find you an example. Okay, here is a classic interior shot, taken by a realtor for an unnamed listing. And this isn't that bad an example even. Keep in mind the ancient Sumerian proverb "Images taken with a handy digital imaging device are worth one thousand words". So here you have an interior image who's purpose is to attract potential home buyers, enticing them to take that next step, all in a 640x480 frame.

I hope you find the advertising impact less than impressive. Here we have a $215,000 dollar home who's kitchen is being marketed by a point and shoot digital camera file, unprocessed and sized to 640x480. Keep these figures in mind because we're going to run through several other examples over the next few posts. First I would like to illustrate my point by pulling up one of my images from my most recent shoot, which is viewable full screen on PG Listings.ca.



I kept the size smaller than it's maximum, because I didn't feel the need to emphasize my point. If I was a home buyer looking at new homes in the area, my visual assessment of the quality and appeal of the kitchen (a pretty major feature) will be based solely on these images, and when it comes time to take the next step ie. selecting which homes to view in person, my list will be greatly influenced by my aforementioned visual assessments. As an interesting side note, the kitchen photograph from PG Listings is from a house that is actually priced lower than the one above, but we as consumers unconsciously connect the higher quality image with a higher price tag automatically, because that is what we are used to seeing in marketing of any product.

My point is that major advertising efforts that are dependent on visual assessments to attract potential clients should not be based on low quality images. It's a simple concept that has been used in almost every market online for some time, but surprisingly when it comes to the largest investment of them all, it's absent.

Over the next several posts, I will be introducing other images from active listings in Prince George and comparing them to images I have taken in a similarly priced home. Real estate photography works, and has been used all over North America for years, and there is no reason why it can't work here, because consumer behavior is nearly identical.

Daniel Abraham
www.pglistings.ca

Prince George Real Estate Grows Out of Infancy

So there I was, staring at 25 real estate agents at my first agency presentation, 49 eyes staring back at me (One of them has a glass eye). Anyone who has spent time in college presenting on something they know absolutely nothing about because they were too busy reffing beer fest the night before will know what I'm saying here. I literally knew nothing about real estate in Prince George before coming here - nothing about their procedures, nothing about their legal obligations, and nothing about the resources at their disposal. In retrospect, that was probably for the best; just as the ignorant Jehovah's Witness is comfortable presenting their philosophy at a Jewish doorstep, so was I comfortable presenting my business case before these experienced agents. Tabula Rosa right? Sure, let's roll with that.

Did it go well, you ask? No, not really. It seemed that fear of change, fear of doing something outside of the general status quo, was something that many were not comfortable with, after all, why would they alter their practice if eventually someone, somewhere would buy the house based on price alone? I generated a total of, wait for it, zero leads from that presentation, but I would not be deterred, and I pressed on with the cold calls. Over time I picked up a real estate agent here, another real estate agent there, and PG Listings grew, and soon another came on board, but my thirst for business was not yet slaked, and I asked myself "Self? What can I do to generate more business", and the response was "Go and create something that will help the real estate agent acquire more business! Something concrete!"

Wow did I feel clever, altering the system so that it could be used to acquire more listings in addition to helping to sell them. It seemed like a good idea so off I went. Here is a little sample of what I came up with - a nice little tri fold pamphlet describing what PG Listings does, with a few sample photos. Much like Kevin Costner the godawful actor, I heard a voice in my head and it said "hand them out, and they will come".

So ends part three of our great fourteen part series describing the construction of PG Listings.ca, the greatest real estate tool in Prince George since the mighty promotional fridge magnet.

Daniel Abraham
www.pglistings.ca

Part Two - The Genesis....Wait, doesn't that come first?

So, my dream of creating a real estate database for the city of Prince George was almost squished by 'the man'. Thankfully I had convinced the folks at Community Futures that my business concept was a good'un, and to top it off, I had obtained letters of intent from a few of the biggest names in the business, which I was told was the only thing that got my proposal approved.

So big hooray, I was approved, what exactly did that do for me and my infant little business sprout? Well, it allowed me to collect EI while developing the business and paying startup costs, which are higher than you might think. When you really sit down and think about the fees for processing business applications, obtaining a website and hosting service, acquiring new equipment, and all the other little bits and pieces you might need, it adds up.

After the final approval, off I went into the world of business with my shiny new marketing plan, and eyes wide with wonder and hope. Being a home based business, risk and overhead were quite low, and since business doesn't exactly come knocking on your door when you are a real estate advertiser, I hit the phones.

I must pause now to gather my strength before describing one of the most humiliating and painful experiences I have ever gone through - the cold call.

Those shiny eyes full of hope that I was talking about earlier? Well, they quickly became misty after trying to solicit business from what seemed to be jaded, angry, and altogether inhospitable real estate agents that were apparently going to be my customers for the foreseeable future. I sympathize with call center workers now, opting to simply put the phone down and go make a sandwich instead of performing a more vulgar act in response to their offer of a new cell phone.
Let it be known across the land, that the act of cold calling is not a happy affair, often resulting in lowered sex drive and reduced self esteem.

I persevered like a horny chinchilla, and after a few weeks had some agents who were willing to grant me twelve seconds to prove my worth. This was my chance to deliver my message with force and verve, to show my strength of character and colonic fortitude - the mighty agency meeting, where 25 potential clients would all be staring at me.

So ends part two of our dear hero's adventure, be sure to tune in next time for more tales of grandeur and impish hilarity.
Daniel Abraham of PG Listings
www.pglistings.ca

An Introduction: 9 Months In

So here I am nine months into the 'experience' of owning and operating a business, searching for a set of words that accurately describe what things have been like in that time.

Here goes: neat, disappointing, enlightening, exciting, shocking, fantastic, and frightening.

Quite the set of emotions in there, and to be honest I think I am forgetting several others, like constipating, or lets not forget euphoric-market-success-related-arousal. The cause of such varied sensations in undoubtedly related to my ignorance of the business development process, and sheer stupidity and unflappable enthusiasm that is present before the realization that not everyone thinks your business concept is the greatest thing in the universe hits home. In a nutshell, the past nine months have been a roller coaster to be sure. So maybe I will take a step back and offer up some history on how PG Listings began.

Before the PG Listings website began, I was an elementary school teacher in this district. As any local resident is surely aware, several schools have been closing due to budget cutbacks. Because of this, I was looking at a wait of at least two years before I had the necessary seniority to land a permanent contract. Being an impatient dandy, I decided that I wanted to do something a little more productive than wait at home for the phone to ring with a summons to a local school to look after Mrs. Whatever's class of midget primates while she was away dealing with the four million viruses and bacterial infections she had collected from the little cuties.

Anyway, on a whim I did a little investigating and found a nifty little program for EI applicants called the Self Employment Benefits Program, which was run with Community Futures Prince George. In a gentlemanly fashion I signed up, and was inducted into an interesting business development program centered around the construction of a solid and accurate business plan, designed by the acclaimed Dan Boudreau. Two months of classes ensued, sometimes run by fascinating local entrepreneurs like Howard Foot, and sometimes run by others of a more colorful and confusing nature.

I attended these classes and admittedly learned a great deal, and I soon realized that my business concept, although misunderstood by others and viewed with general negativity, was far more creative and innovative than those of my classmates. After completing the assigned tasks in handsome fashion, my business proposal went before a committee and was barely approved.

This ends part one of the story of PG Listings.ca, and the first blog post. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more of this amazing and thought provoking tale of hardship and glory.
Dan Abraham of PG Listings.ca
www.pglistings.ca