Digital Magic Productions, Inc. is proud to announce a brand new upgrade to our brochure builder service found at www.ProHomeSites.com . This long awaited service is free to all users of ProHomeSites.com and allows you to build your brochure complete with listing information, the ability to pick background colors, textures, and layouts for all of your individual property sites. There are 16 million color selections, 8 textures that can be used and 4 layouts to build one or two sided brochures.
The process for making a brochure is very simple. Log into your account, go to Manage Listings, then click on edit for the listing you want and you will wind up at the Listing Overview page. On the right side of the page, below Online Presentation you will find the Brochure Colors/Overlays section. Click the edit link and that will take you to where you can select your colors. The default color is currently set to a solid mahogany and can be easily changed.
To change the colors, click on the colored block. That will launch a pop-up window with a color picker box. You can select your color by using the thin color bar in the center by clicking your mouse on the main color you want. Then you can refine the color by clicking in the large color window until you find the color of your choice.
Pick your Pattern from the Pattern Overlay section and then select the Image Border size you want, and you are done. You can then click on the Set As Default link to save those colors for all of your future listings.
We are very proud of this upgrade and the new functionality that it brings our users. For more information on our brochure builder please visit www.ProHomeSites.com, or give us a call at 303-797-7747.
– Written by Mike MacKillip, President and CEO, Digital Magic Productions, creator and developer of ProHomeSites.com. For more information visit www.digitalmagicpro.com .
Friday, March 4, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
What sets us apart from the rest.
I recently was asked by one of our customers about how are we different from the other virtual tour photographers in the Denver market? She caught me by surprise, mainly because I had done her photography for several years, but because I could clearly see that she was shopping in her mind and really didn’t know what sets us apart from the rest. In fact, it was clear that she didn’t know the real value featured in our services, and for that matter, I don’t think she knew what she was getting, other than pictures. So I set upon asking the questions necessary to help her with her dilemma and make me feel that we were doing the best job possible at the same time. On that short journey I found out that we really do offer a very complete marketing system for real estate agents, not just pictures, and that we are not the highest priced, or lowest priced, service in town.
The many times I have described Digital Magic Productions, Inc. as a photography company, I don’t think I’ve ever pointed out that we take lots of pictures and that every one of them is hand processed for clarity and color definition. Hand processing takes lots of time but it is the only way to get the correct colors contained in the view and one that highlights specific areas of the images. This is a really big deal when you compare us with the other companies that only offer “batch” processing for their images. In fact, most of the companies out there don’t even offer hand processing.
Another really big area is in the presentation. All of the other companies in the Colorado market only offer posting services for templates that are produced by other companies. Some of the photography companies are franchised, and others operate as a business affiliate of these 3rd party companies, but the photographer has no control over the product that they are offering the agent. So the final presentation is rubber stamped from beginning to end.
Our position is a bit different. We post all of our real estate photography on a site found at www.ProHomeSites.com. The big deal about ProHomeSites.com is that the site is wholly owned and and operated by Digital Magic Productions, Inc. We developed this site from scratch… a completely blank slate and built a product that our customers were asking for. In fact, we are the only company in Colorado that actually does their own programming in house. This is a huge advantage over the rest of the providers because we are in charge of the final product. That means we can change, customize, and deliver new features quickly and quickly adjust to changing market trends. We can do this because we have complete control over our product. The final result is a semi-custom property website for every agent that uses our service.
Another very strong feature is our ability to show each property in a true full screen presentation. There was a need by agents to be able to see our pictures in a larger size, so we made the changes and if they have a 52 inch monitor, guess what?? Our websites will display sharp and crisp images every time. We already shoot all of our pictures in the largest size our camera’s can produce, so all we had to do is adjust the code and we had a full screen view that went edge to edge on any size monitor that is produced, with no black “cheater” border.
Other good examples of our attention to details are our CraigsList Ad generator that produces virtually automatic CraigsList ads for agents to post and our ability to get your property website on your Facebook page with a minimum of effort. And then there are our brand new brochure choices, and our brand new brochure printing service, all of which has been created from suggestions that have been made by our customers and the simple fact that we are able to make the changes quickly. Simply stated, if something can be improved, we take care of it immediately.
We also produce movies. Lots of movies! Movies for real estate, promotional movies for agents, small documentaries, and even e-mercials, which are internet based commercials, and we have the ability to produce full blown commercials for television if needed. I mention this because the agent I was speaking to didn’t know that we produced movies, and they felt that having one for publication on the video sites would enhance their marketing. So I showed her an example of our movies and a full presentation that another agent had done right from my cell phone. It took a couple of minutes to sink in, but I think I got my point across because she was impressed with the presentation.
Now, I don’t know how effective my stumbling around was, but I was able to convince her that we really had her best interests in mind. Now it’s my job to tell others that we really are paying attention to the changing needs of our agent community and will continue to provide innovative solutions and high quality images with our products and services.
This article was written by Mike MacKillip, President and CEO of Digital Magic Productions. For more information visit us at www.DigitalMagicPro.com and www.ProHomeSites.com or call us at 303-797-7747.
The many times I have described Digital Magic Productions, Inc. as a photography company, I don’t think I’ve ever pointed out that we take lots of pictures and that every one of them is hand processed for clarity and color definition. Hand processing takes lots of time but it is the only way to get the correct colors contained in the view and one that highlights specific areas of the images. This is a really big deal when you compare us with the other companies that only offer “batch” processing for their images. In fact, most of the companies out there don’t even offer hand processing.
Another really big area is in the presentation. All of the other companies in the Colorado market only offer posting services for templates that are produced by other companies. Some of the photography companies are franchised, and others operate as a business affiliate of these 3rd party companies, but the photographer has no control over the product that they are offering the agent. So the final presentation is rubber stamped from beginning to end.
Our position is a bit different. We post all of our real estate photography on a site found at www.ProHomeSites.com. The big deal about ProHomeSites.com is that the site is wholly owned and and operated by Digital Magic Productions, Inc. We developed this site from scratch… a completely blank slate and built a product that our customers were asking for. In fact, we are the only company in Colorado that actually does their own programming in house. This is a huge advantage over the rest of the providers because we are in charge of the final product. That means we can change, customize, and deliver new features quickly and quickly adjust to changing market trends. We can do this because we have complete control over our product. The final result is a semi-custom property website for every agent that uses our service.
Another very strong feature is our ability to show each property in a true full screen presentation. There was a need by agents to be able to see our pictures in a larger size, so we made the changes and if they have a 52 inch monitor, guess what?? Our websites will display sharp and crisp images every time. We already shoot all of our pictures in the largest size our camera’s can produce, so all we had to do is adjust the code and we had a full screen view that went edge to edge on any size monitor that is produced, with no black “cheater” border.
Other good examples of our attention to details are our CraigsList Ad generator that produces virtually automatic CraigsList ads for agents to post and our ability to get your property website on your Facebook page with a minimum of effort. And then there are our brand new brochure choices, and our brand new brochure printing service, all of which has been created from suggestions that have been made by our customers and the simple fact that we are able to make the changes quickly. Simply stated, if something can be improved, we take care of it immediately.
We also produce movies. Lots of movies! Movies for real estate, promotional movies for agents, small documentaries, and even e-mercials, which are internet based commercials, and we have the ability to produce full blown commercials for television if needed. I mention this because the agent I was speaking to didn’t know that we produced movies, and they felt that having one for publication on the video sites would enhance their marketing. So I showed her an example of our movies and a full presentation that another agent had done right from my cell phone. It took a couple of minutes to sink in, but I think I got my point across because she was impressed with the presentation.
Now, I don’t know how effective my stumbling around was, but I was able to convince her that we really had her best interests in mind. Now it’s my job to tell others that we really are paying attention to the changing needs of our agent community and will continue to provide innovative solutions and high quality images with our products and services.
This article was written by Mike MacKillip, President and CEO of Digital Magic Productions. For more information visit us at www.DigitalMagicPro.com and www.ProHomeSites.com or call us at 303-797-7747.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
New website launch
It finally happened… We finally got the newest version of our website at www.DigitalMagicPro.com finished. This was a major project for us, mainly because our product lineup and services have changed so much over the years, and this make-over was absolutely necessary.
The biggest changes can be seen in our incorporation of www.ProHomeSites.com into the main format of the site. www.ProHomeSites.com is the marketing engine that we use for posting all of our photography, virtual tours and movies to the web and has been designed from the ground up to showcase property listings for agents that demand the highest visibility for their listings.
The www.DigitalMagicPro.com site also showcases our commercial photography offerings that are quite unique in our industry. We only offer true HD quality virtual tours with a viewing area that goes from ceiling to floor 360 degrees in all directions. Most tours that we see today are just panoramic pictures that may or may not go in a full circle, so they are not a true representation of the property.
We also see more of these tours showing huge distortion in their pictures that depict curved surfaces where they should be straight. This distortion is seen mainly in the counters, ceiling areas where the ceiling meets the wall and along the floors where they meet the walls.
We’ve made sure that our tours show the rooms accurately and are viewed with the highest quality viewers possible, and our products can be viewed with in a true “full screen” mode even on the largest monitors available.
The idea of making sure that you have the finest presentation is our main goal. We are absolutely dedicated to keeping Digital Magic Productions the leader in listing presentation development. – Mike MacKillip, CEO.
The biggest changes can be seen in our incorporation of www.ProHomeSites.com into the main format of the site. www.ProHomeSites.com is the marketing engine that we use for posting all of our photography, virtual tours and movies to the web and has been designed from the ground up to showcase property listings for agents that demand the highest visibility for their listings.
The www.DigitalMagicPro.com site also showcases our commercial photography offerings that are quite unique in our industry. We only offer true HD quality virtual tours with a viewing area that goes from ceiling to floor 360 degrees in all directions. Most tours that we see today are just panoramic pictures that may or may not go in a full circle, so they are not a true representation of the property.
We also see more of these tours showing huge distortion in their pictures that depict curved surfaces where they should be straight. This distortion is seen mainly in the counters, ceiling areas where the ceiling meets the wall and along the floors where they meet the walls.
We’ve made sure that our tours show the rooms accurately and are viewed with the highest quality viewers possible, and our products can be viewed with in a true “full screen” mode even on the largest monitors available.
The idea of making sure that you have the finest presentation is our main goal. We are absolutely dedicated to keeping Digital Magic Productions the leader in listing presentation development. – Mike MacKillip, CEO.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
The Real Real Reason for Professional Pictures
Why Go Pro? Easy…
Our pictures are always shot with the latest professional cameras made by Canon because they have the large lenses, flash units, and the ability to use custom settings we need. These are not point and shoot birthday party cameras. They are the real thing!
With small cameras, you can’t capture the picture you need… period. The lens is too small, the ccd chip is too small to capture the detail, and the flash isn’t large enough to light the area you need to see.
Never mind that the pictures don’t show the property in the right light, actually, there is an even bigger reason for you to use digital magic productions… Your pictures may actually be costing you sales, and listings. Consider this….
When you place a for sale sign in the front yard, the very first people that look at the property are the neighbors. .. and 16% of those neighbors are going to be selling their house in the next 90 days and they just don’t know it yet. Keep in mind that life changes are always happening and because of death, divorce, job transfer, or even a new member to the family, these folks are going to be compelled to call someone. So because you have a listing near them, they may be compelled to call you.
Now if you have taken pictures that are “good enough” and the neighbors that just decided they need to sell don’t like your presentation… guess what, they will absolutely call someone else that has better pictures and marketing. Sorry, but you just lost that listing because “good enough” isn’t really good enough.
The next scenario is similar… Mr & Mrs Buyer are sitting at the kitchen table flipping through listings and they click on your listing and they click off right away because the pictures were “not good enough” for them. They were “good enough” for you, but the buyer didn’t get to see all of the intricate details of the home because the pictures were dark, not formatted properly and too small to see anything. Mr & Mrs Buyer just went to see some other listing that had great pictures, and you just lost that sale… “good enough” just “wasn’t good enough” again.
These two scenarios are very real and we hear about them happening almost daily, and the thing I just don’t understand is why any agent would think that a professional photography package from Digital Magic Productions costs too much when in reality you are willing to bet your entire commission on your pictures because they are “good enough”.
The way I see it, unless you have had some training in photography, and have the right kind of gear to take the pictures with, you should leave this job to the professionals. In the long run, we’ll help you make your sale happen.
For more information see our website at www.DigitalMagicPro.com and to post your tour packages go to www.ProHomeSites.com .
Our pictures are always shot with the latest professional cameras made by Canon because they have the large lenses, flash units, and the ability to use custom settings we need. These are not point and shoot birthday party cameras. They are the real thing!
With small cameras, you can’t capture the picture you need… period. The lens is too small, the ccd chip is too small to capture the detail, and the flash isn’t large enough to light the area you need to see.
Never mind that the pictures don’t show the property in the right light, actually, there is an even bigger reason for you to use digital magic productions… Your pictures may actually be costing you sales, and listings. Consider this….
When you place a for sale sign in the front yard, the very first people that look at the property are the neighbors. .. and 16% of those neighbors are going to be selling their house in the next 90 days and they just don’t know it yet. Keep in mind that life changes are always happening and because of death, divorce, job transfer, or even a new member to the family, these folks are going to be compelled to call someone. So because you have a listing near them, they may be compelled to call you.
Now if you have taken pictures that are “good enough” and the neighbors that just decided they need to sell don’t like your presentation… guess what, they will absolutely call someone else that has better pictures and marketing. Sorry, but you just lost that listing because “good enough” isn’t really good enough.
The next scenario is similar… Mr & Mrs Buyer are sitting at the kitchen table flipping through listings and they click on your listing and they click off right away because the pictures were “not good enough” for them. They were “good enough” for you, but the buyer didn’t get to see all of the intricate details of the home because the pictures were dark, not formatted properly and too small to see anything. Mr & Mrs Buyer just went to see some other listing that had great pictures, and you just lost that sale… “good enough” just “wasn’t good enough” again.
These two scenarios are very real and we hear about them happening almost daily, and the thing I just don’t understand is why any agent would think that a professional photography package from Digital Magic Productions costs too much when in reality you are willing to bet your entire commission on your pictures because they are “good enough”.
The way I see it, unless you have had some training in photography, and have the right kind of gear to take the pictures with, you should leave this job to the professionals. In the long run, we’ll help you make your sale happen.
For more information see our website at www.DigitalMagicPro.com and to post your tour packages go to www.ProHomeSites.com .
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Post your marketing video at ProHomeSites.com
With the advent of YouTube, you have a brand new way of getting your message out to the masses in grand and glorious video. But there is a problem here, the problem of getting the right people to find you when they need you, and don’t necessarily remember exactly who you are. You know, those buyers and sellers of real estate in your area.
YouTube and the other video sites will host your video, but nobody is going to see it unless you tell them where to go to find it first. This isn’t a good solution for those people sitting at their kitchen table Saturday morning while they are deciding to call a real estate agent for help. Keep in mind that they will most likely call the agents that have sold property in their area, and will definitely call the agent with the sign down the street for an appointment, either way, they will be looking on the internet first.
We already know that buyers will be looking at your listings, and many of those buyers may not be working with an agent, so you need to be able to sell yourself without the benefit of having an appointment.
The point I am making here is that both buyers and sellers are going to be looking at your listings on line before they even call you, so why not focus your marketing on the listing and add video blogs, e-mercials, or video marketing pieces about yourself and your services, to help attract those buyers and sellers that are already looking at your presentations.
Adding personal marketing pieces to your listings is easy, and perfectly acceptable for all of the regular sites your listings go to, with the exception of IDX sites. ProHomeSites.com is the perfect place to post your listing photography, virtual tours, and movies, but it also will allow you to post all of your personal marketing videos too. A great example can be found at www.2481Kettle.com where the property gets the full treatment and the agent gets their marketing video posted on the Movie Tab. Once there, you will see two movies. One for the property that plays first, and one that markets the agent that plays automatically after the first movie.
I think I have made my point here. Use the tools that are available to you and start using video to promote yourself on your listings. ProHomeSites.com is a great place to start marketing your listings. It is a full featured site that allows all types of photography, virtual tours, video and whatever else you can think of to promote yourself and your listings. You can even have your favorite photographer take the pictures for you and then create the site at ProHomeSites.com. Then build yourself a marketing video, or call us to develop them for you, and you will be all set up for your next listing appointment and all of those new buyers too.
Give it a try… Your first ProHomeSite is free, so you can’t lose. Go to www.ProHomeSites.com to get started.
YouTube and the other video sites will host your video, but nobody is going to see it unless you tell them where to go to find it first. This isn’t a good solution for those people sitting at their kitchen table Saturday morning while they are deciding to call a real estate agent for help. Keep in mind that they will most likely call the agents that have sold property in their area, and will definitely call the agent with the sign down the street for an appointment, either way, they will be looking on the internet first.
We already know that buyers will be looking at your listings, and many of those buyers may not be working with an agent, so you need to be able to sell yourself without the benefit of having an appointment.
The point I am making here is that both buyers and sellers are going to be looking at your listings on line before they even call you, so why not focus your marketing on the listing and add video blogs, e-mercials, or video marketing pieces about yourself and your services, to help attract those buyers and sellers that are already looking at your presentations.
Adding personal marketing pieces to your listings is easy, and perfectly acceptable for all of the regular sites your listings go to, with the exception of IDX sites. ProHomeSites.com is the perfect place to post your listing photography, virtual tours, and movies, but it also will allow you to post all of your personal marketing videos too. A great example can be found at www.2481Kettle.com where the property gets the full treatment and the agent gets their marketing video posted on the Movie Tab. Once there, you will see two movies. One for the property that plays first, and one that markets the agent that plays automatically after the first movie.
I think I have made my point here. Use the tools that are available to you and start using video to promote yourself on your listings. ProHomeSites.com is a great place to start marketing your listings. It is a full featured site that allows all types of photography, virtual tours, video and whatever else you can think of to promote yourself and your listings. You can even have your favorite photographer take the pictures for you and then create the site at ProHomeSites.com. Then build yourself a marketing video, or call us to develop them for you, and you will be all set up for your next listing appointment and all of those new buyers too.
Give it a try… Your first ProHomeSite is free, so you can’t lose. Go to www.ProHomeSites.com to get started.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Crummy pictures will not sell your listing
Digital photography is one of the best overall tools for real estate that has ever been invented. However, you need to be “photo smart” and take into consideration some of the most famous pitfalls when being your own photographer. There is a large divergence between agents and their ability to take good pictures on their listings and those that don’t. Those of you that fit the great photography profile, congratulations! You are one of the few that understands that great photography sells homes faster. Those of you that are of the “my photography is fine” group may not understand that your photography may be costing you commissions and future listings. Either way, I want to shed some light on some common pitfalls that I see daily at www.ProHomeSites.com .
To set the record straight, I’m a professional photographer that has been shooting architecture for over 25 years and I was a broker owner of two major real estate franchises for over 15 years. I’ve done thousands of virtual tours over the years, and I’m the one responsible for the marketing program found at www.ProHomeSites.com , so I think I have the right credentials for evaluating photography that I have seen in an attempt to sell homes.
The single biggest problem that I see in trying to market a home is lousy pictures. Face it… crummy, out of focus, small dark pictures will not sell a house. Nor will they generate enough interest from a buyer to even click into the presentation. As it turns out, those crummy pictures will actually cost you more money by having the house not sell, and the possibility of your losing the listing.
Time and time again, I’ve had agents tell me that the house isn’t worth their investment to have a professional photographer shoot the property, so they will shoot it with their brand new pocket camera. If you cruise any site that has postings about camera gear, you’ll find that the most common cameras are those that are small with narrow field lenses, 24mm and greater, don’t have any manual adjustments, and don’t have a sufficient flash to light anything more than 6 feet away. They are point-and-shoot cameras and are not meant to stand up to the demands of real estate where you find lousy lighting and small hard to shoot rooms as a rule. Point-and-shoot cameras are meant for family vacations, landscapes and parties.
Hey, taking pictures of a home is an art form. When I enter a house, I can be carrying as much as $10,000 worth of really high quality gear, and sometimes that isn’t enough to take on the diverse lighting and room conditions that I find in the field.
If you are planning on taking your own pictures, you need a camera that can handle the job. Think of the camera as an essential piece of your marketing program. You need a DSLR, Digital Single Lens Reflex, camera, a really wide angle lens, think 10mm here, the largest flash unit made by the camera manufacturer, a tripod with an adjustable head, and a remote trigger. Nothing less will do the job properly. I also strongly recommend that you only purchase matching equipment from the manufacturer of the camera. Canon and Nikon have some great medium priced cameras with a full lineup of matched accessories that will do the job perfectly.
I’m not going to get into which camera gear is better. When purchasing a camera, it’s just as much about personal taste and your budget as it is about the capability of the gear. For real estate I shoot the Canon 7D with a Canon 580EX2 flash and the Canon 10-22mm wide angle lens. I use a Canon RS-80N3 remote trigger with every shot because you want every shot to be made from a tripod with some sort of pistol grip to level the camera.
I’m sure somebody will take the opposite side here and say that third party equipment is great, and I can agree to a point, but by purchasing everything that is matched to that camera, you will shorten your learning curve to getting really great pictures, and when you have a problem, and you will, getting the right advice to fix that problem will be far easier.
The next part is a bit more time consuming. You really need to learn how to use your camera. Purchase a guide book from “Magic Lantern Guides” that is specific to the camera that you purchased and read it. Read it to the point of memorizing it. Then read the manual that came with the camera and virtually memorize that as well. By accomplishing this you will know how the camera works and will be able to at least understand how to achieve some of what you are looking for, but you will still need to go to a photography class to really understand how to get the shots that you are looking for.
A class will teach you the basics of lighting, shutter speeds, ISO settings, and the difference in the mode functions that each camera offers. Knowing how to use the mode settings of (M) Manual, (AV) Aperture-Priority, and (TV) Shutter-Priority will give you much better results than by using the automatic settings of the camera.
A class will also teach you about how to compose the shot you want. Homes are difficult to showcase, however, keep in mind that you don’t want to have the shot hand held with you standing up while looking down at your subject. This will make the whole shot be out of perspective, especially in small areas like bathrooms and kitchens. You want the shot to be parallel with the vertical areas of each room. Doorways, cabinets, windows and closets will give you a great reference to align your shot with. Just don’t point your camera down. I’ve seen enough chipped sinks and toilet bowel shots to last a lifetime. Use a tripod and get the camera down to cabinet level. Yes… you will have to bend over, but your shot will be well worth it. Staying low is one of the secrets that the pro’s use all the time and your pictures will be instantly better.
A class will also teach you that taking pictures with the camera on edge is a no-no. On edge shots are for portraits, and flower arrangements. The shot should always be made with the camera held in a horizontal position for one really important reason. All of the pictures you are taking will most likely be posted to the listing and to the internet by means of a virtual tour package like those found at www.ProHomeSites.com . These sites show your pictures on a template that is designed to display your pictures with a specific width-to-height ratio. So when you post a picture that was taken with the camera on edge, the site you post your picture to will automatically squish the height of your picture to fit their site. This will definitely not produce the results you want.
That same class may even teach you how to process the pictures you take. Learn to use Adobe Photoshop, or one of the other photo processing packages as soon as you can. Many pictures you take will be dark. Digital cameras naturally take pictures that are dark for a good reason. If a picture is too light you lose data in the picture that you can’t recover because it is lost in the brightness, but dark pictures have full data that can be successfully lightened up and nothing is lost.
I know real estate agents have a really strong tendency to try to do everything when it comes to their listings and I understand that saving money is essential. However, I also believe that the Dirty Harry, “A man’s got to know his limitations”, approach is better suited here. If you are not willing to have really good equipment and learn how to use it, you are most likely better off hiring a professional photographer to take your pictures for you. You are going to get better pictures and you will sell your listings faster because the presentation is more appealing to the buyer.
A professional photographer may actually make you more money. They will cost you less to shoot your listing than you will pay for a high school year book picture and they will showcase your listing that just might convince others to list their home with you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the statement “Oh, I’ll do my own pictures because the seller isn’t paying me enough”, or “this listing doesn’t warrant paying for professional photography”. Face it… if you think the pictures you take are only sufficient, you might be missing the big picture here… getting to the closing table.
At www.ProHomeSites.com , we collect data on how many people view each page of the presentation, and also on how much time they spend on each page they viewed. It has been proven time and time again that people viewing listings spend more time on each site that has been professionally shot than those that are offering just agent photography. The data also shows that homes sell faster when they have professional photography and professional presentations. We’ve been tracking this data for over seven years and have also learned that those agents that have professional photography, and presentations get more listings. So you be the judge.
Invest in your business by getting up to speed. Get really good camera gear, take a couple of classes, learn how to PhotoShop, and build a professional presentation at www.ProHomeSites.com to show off your new found skills and you will definitely be rewarded.
To set the record straight, I’m a professional photographer that has been shooting architecture for over 25 years and I was a broker owner of two major real estate franchises for over 15 years. I’ve done thousands of virtual tours over the years, and I’m the one responsible for the marketing program found at www.ProHomeSites.com , so I think I have the right credentials for evaluating photography that I have seen in an attempt to sell homes.
The single biggest problem that I see in trying to market a home is lousy pictures. Face it… crummy, out of focus, small dark pictures will not sell a house. Nor will they generate enough interest from a buyer to even click into the presentation. As it turns out, those crummy pictures will actually cost you more money by having the house not sell, and the possibility of your losing the listing.
Time and time again, I’ve had agents tell me that the house isn’t worth their investment to have a professional photographer shoot the property, so they will shoot it with their brand new pocket camera. If you cruise any site that has postings about camera gear, you’ll find that the most common cameras are those that are small with narrow field lenses, 24mm and greater, don’t have any manual adjustments, and don’t have a sufficient flash to light anything more than 6 feet away. They are point-and-shoot cameras and are not meant to stand up to the demands of real estate where you find lousy lighting and small hard to shoot rooms as a rule. Point-and-shoot cameras are meant for family vacations, landscapes and parties.
Hey, taking pictures of a home is an art form. When I enter a house, I can be carrying as much as $10,000 worth of really high quality gear, and sometimes that isn’t enough to take on the diverse lighting and room conditions that I find in the field.
If you are planning on taking your own pictures, you need a camera that can handle the job. Think of the camera as an essential piece of your marketing program. You need a DSLR, Digital Single Lens Reflex, camera, a really wide angle lens, think 10mm here, the largest flash unit made by the camera manufacturer, a tripod with an adjustable head, and a remote trigger. Nothing less will do the job properly. I also strongly recommend that you only purchase matching equipment from the manufacturer of the camera. Canon and Nikon have some great medium priced cameras with a full lineup of matched accessories that will do the job perfectly.
I’m not going to get into which camera gear is better. When purchasing a camera, it’s just as much about personal taste and your budget as it is about the capability of the gear. For real estate I shoot the Canon 7D with a Canon 580EX2 flash and the Canon 10-22mm wide angle lens. I use a Canon RS-80N3 remote trigger with every shot because you want every shot to be made from a tripod with some sort of pistol grip to level the camera.
I’m sure somebody will take the opposite side here and say that third party equipment is great, and I can agree to a point, but by purchasing everything that is matched to that camera, you will shorten your learning curve to getting really great pictures, and when you have a problem, and you will, getting the right advice to fix that problem will be far easier.
The next part is a bit more time consuming. You really need to learn how to use your camera. Purchase a guide book from “Magic Lantern Guides” that is specific to the camera that you purchased and read it. Read it to the point of memorizing it. Then read the manual that came with the camera and virtually memorize that as well. By accomplishing this you will know how the camera works and will be able to at least understand how to achieve some of what you are looking for, but you will still need to go to a photography class to really understand how to get the shots that you are looking for.
A class will teach you the basics of lighting, shutter speeds, ISO settings, and the difference in the mode functions that each camera offers. Knowing how to use the mode settings of (M) Manual, (AV) Aperture-Priority, and (TV) Shutter-Priority will give you much better results than by using the automatic settings of the camera.
A class will also teach you about how to compose the shot you want. Homes are difficult to showcase, however, keep in mind that you don’t want to have the shot hand held with you standing up while looking down at your subject. This will make the whole shot be out of perspective, especially in small areas like bathrooms and kitchens. You want the shot to be parallel with the vertical areas of each room. Doorways, cabinets, windows and closets will give you a great reference to align your shot with. Just don’t point your camera down. I’ve seen enough chipped sinks and toilet bowel shots to last a lifetime. Use a tripod and get the camera down to cabinet level. Yes… you will have to bend over, but your shot will be well worth it. Staying low is one of the secrets that the pro’s use all the time and your pictures will be instantly better.
A class will also teach you that taking pictures with the camera on edge is a no-no. On edge shots are for portraits, and flower arrangements. The shot should always be made with the camera held in a horizontal position for one really important reason. All of the pictures you are taking will most likely be posted to the listing and to the internet by means of a virtual tour package like those found at www.ProHomeSites.com . These sites show your pictures on a template that is designed to display your pictures with a specific width-to-height ratio. So when you post a picture that was taken with the camera on edge, the site you post your picture to will automatically squish the height of your picture to fit their site. This will definitely not produce the results you want.
That same class may even teach you how to process the pictures you take. Learn to use Adobe Photoshop, or one of the other photo processing packages as soon as you can. Many pictures you take will be dark. Digital cameras naturally take pictures that are dark for a good reason. If a picture is too light you lose data in the picture that you can’t recover because it is lost in the brightness, but dark pictures have full data that can be successfully lightened up and nothing is lost.
I know real estate agents have a really strong tendency to try to do everything when it comes to their listings and I understand that saving money is essential. However, I also believe that the Dirty Harry, “A man’s got to know his limitations”, approach is better suited here. If you are not willing to have really good equipment and learn how to use it, you are most likely better off hiring a professional photographer to take your pictures for you. You are going to get better pictures and you will sell your listings faster because the presentation is more appealing to the buyer.
A professional photographer may actually make you more money. They will cost you less to shoot your listing than you will pay for a high school year book picture and they will showcase your listing that just might convince others to list their home with you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the statement “Oh, I’ll do my own pictures because the seller isn’t paying me enough”, or “this listing doesn’t warrant paying for professional photography”. Face it… if you think the pictures you take are only sufficient, you might be missing the big picture here… getting to the closing table.
At www.ProHomeSites.com , we collect data on how many people view each page of the presentation, and also on how much time they spend on each page they viewed. It has been proven time and time again that people viewing listings spend more time on each site that has been professionally shot than those that are offering just agent photography. The data also shows that homes sell faster when they have professional photography and professional presentations. We’ve been tracking this data for over seven years and have also learned that those agents that have professional photography, and presentations get more listings. So you be the judge.
Invest in your business by getting up to speed. Get really good camera gear, take a couple of classes, learn how to PhotoShop, and build a professional presentation at www.ProHomeSites.com to show off your new found skills and you will definitely be rewarded.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
ProHomeSites.com the Best in Marketing Real Estate
It’s been awhile since I’ve written a post here, but many things have changed, like our name. We are still Digital Magic Productions, Inc. but we are now doing business as ProHomeSites.com®, and for good reason.
ProHomeSites.com® is our fantasy upgrade to our virtual tours products that we have offered since our inception, but now these products are available to a whole new market, with a much larger list of features.
ProHomeSites.com® is designed to deliver premium home sites to anyone selling their home, apartment buildings, commercial buildings, FSBO’s, and doing rental units. It covers the full spectrum of real estate and it does it with a very robust interface that will accept any kind of photography, virtual tour, or movie without the hassles of converting formats or downsizing images.
Real estate agents love the format because it has been designed from the ground up to be 100% REITS compatible, and allows the agent a full marketing site for their listings that can be customized to their marketing requirements without having to pay for additional programming.
The sites are very flexible too. Without having to change sites, an agent can start package as a pre-listing package, then convert it to a listing package when the listing is secured, and then convert to a marketing package when the property is sold, all with just a click of their mouse.
Every ProHomeSite comes complete with a property specific blog, CraigsList ad generator, satellite view, brochures and the ability to display up to 255 pictures of the property. The agent can even upload full movies of the property, or marketing movies of themselves, or both for no extra charge.
Professional photography options are available in specific cities, however, the launch of our new affiliate program will allow us to have certified photographers throughout the country soon. Each affiliate will have full access to our complete line of products and will be able to post directly to ProHomeSites.com®.
So, as you can see, we’ve been busy, a lot busier than just a changing the name. We’ve moved into a new area and want you to know that we are on the move.
ProHomeSites.com® is a registered trademark of Digital Magic Productions, Inc. For more information you can contact ProHomeSites.com® at 303-797-7747.
ProHomeSites.com® is our fantasy upgrade to our virtual tours products that we have offered since our inception, but now these products are available to a whole new market, with a much larger list of features.
ProHomeSites.com® is designed to deliver premium home sites to anyone selling their home, apartment buildings, commercial buildings, FSBO’s, and doing rental units. It covers the full spectrum of real estate and it does it with a very robust interface that will accept any kind of photography, virtual tour, or movie without the hassles of converting formats or downsizing images.
Real estate agents love the format because it has been designed from the ground up to be 100% REITS compatible, and allows the agent a full marketing site for their listings that can be customized to their marketing requirements without having to pay for additional programming.
The sites are very flexible too. Without having to change sites, an agent can start package as a pre-listing package, then convert it to a listing package when the listing is secured, and then convert to a marketing package when the property is sold, all with just a click of their mouse.
Every ProHomeSite comes complete with a property specific blog, CraigsList ad generator, satellite view, brochures and the ability to display up to 255 pictures of the property. The agent can even upload full movies of the property, or marketing movies of themselves, or both for no extra charge.
Professional photography options are available in specific cities, however, the launch of our new affiliate program will allow us to have certified photographers throughout the country soon. Each affiliate will have full access to our complete line of products and will be able to post directly to ProHomeSites.com®.
So, as you can see, we’ve been busy, a lot busier than just a changing the name. We’ve moved into a new area and want you to know that we are on the move.
ProHomeSites.com® is a registered trademark of Digital Magic Productions, Inc. For more information you can contact ProHomeSites.com® at 303-797-7747.
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