Why Seattle Real Estate Agents Need Professional Photography in a Hot Market | Erik Sven

If you had one chance to make an impression, what would you want it to look like? Hiring a professional photographer is more about selling yourself as an agent - even in hot real estate markets like Seattle, Bellevue and Sammamish.

People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Imagery provokes feeling.

Residential real estate photography of a home in the Seattle area. The three-story luxury home is nestled in among the trees at twilight. — Copyright Erik Sven Photography, LLC

With homes selling like ice cream at the beach, the best agents put the cherry on top by sprinkling the skillsets of a top-tier team all over their waffle-coned listings. Contractors, lenders, movers, landscapers, stagers and a professional photographer are all part of the team. Stunning real estate photography is extra important in that it paints everyone’s hard work in the best light. Yes the home may sell without it, but will you be the agent to sell it? Will you get the maximum offer? If your images aren’t selling you as an agent your seller may choose someone with a more impressive portfolio.

Here’s why:

Reason #1. As an agent, your brand is defined by how you show up, how you are seen, and how you stand out - and that determines if you win the listing.

When we’re talking about a real estate agent’s brand we’re talking about how potential clients react to your marketing - that includes print, website and social media materials.

For example, when a potential client remembers your flyer from the house down the street, what assumptions do they make? What images will you use to make sure you stand out in the Seattle market?

Photography is what potential clients notice first about an agent’s materials. You’re going to want standout photography if sellers hire an agent based on how they think their own home will be marketed. Using professional photos is a determining factor of how sellers envision their own homes to be marketed. Without professional photography, you may not get the chance to speak with the seller at all. They’ve moved on.

Brokerages using magazine-quality photography win more listings. They have more showings. More showings drive competitive offers. When the market cools down they’re not worried, because they know they’re in a better position to win listings over agents who market themselves with low-tier photos.

Furthermore, competitive offers and more volume from increased listings easily pays for the higher cost of imagery. My Seattle clients realize this and come back time and time again.

A beautiful view of the lake on a real estate listing photographed by Erik Sven Photography. — Copyright Erik Sven Photography, LLC

Reason #2. It’s not for now. It’s for later.

Homes are hitting the market and selling quickly, but this market will eventually change. It may take a while or it could happen quickly, but change is down the line and when that happens homes are going to take a lot longer to sell and listings will dry up.

Imagine that we have reached that day in the future where the number of new listings have slowed down. Home sellers are now much more selective about which agent they hire, because they know they need a good one if they want their home to sell quickly or for the maximum value.

Where do sellers go to find an agent? They go online and they look for agents in their area. They see flyers in their neighborhood.

What do they look for in an agent? The first thing they probably look at is the sales history for that agent. They will scroll through previous listings and look at the photos, videos and virtual tours the agent includes.

Seattle sellers are smart. Their decision as to which agents they speak with can be decided in those lists of past sales where they ask themselves this question: ‘Given how that agent presents homes to the Seattle market, do I want that agent treating my home the same way?’

And if the photos don’t look good, then they’ll probably answer that question with a decisive ‘no’.

Some homeowners might go further than that and dig into the numbers - looking at the agent’s sales history, how long do they take to sell a home and what price do they get? In a hot market those numbers can all look very similar, so the seller goes back to the marketing and photography approach taken by each agent.

Do they want to have their home sold this way by this agent, or that way by that agent?

That’s where professional photography in your real estate portfolio will win the listing. If you get it wrong and if your listings look undesirable compared with your competition then you can easily lose that seller to another agent.

In my experience, this is where twilight and drone photography comes into play. Twilight photos are highly impressive to potential clients. The same goes for drone imagery. You’re able to market residential and commercial listings in a way that other agents gloss over. Again, this is about setting yourself apart from the competition to win more listings - and often higher value listings.

Photography of the brightly lit interior of the same home from the previous image. — Copyright Erik Sven Photography, LLC

Reason #3. Sellers talk.

Imagine this conversation happening between a recent seller and their neighbor:

Sara: Congratulations on the sale of your home! How did things go for you?

Jill: It was great! I mean, obviously the market is super hot at the moment so it was no surprise that we sold in three days. Even so, we were really impressed with our agent.

Sara: Wow, that’s fantastic! Which agent did you use?

Jill: We went with KritsonisLindor, and they were fantastic right from the start. Even though it would be easy to cut corners in this market, they went all in - even spending hundreds to hire a professional photographer to shoot the photos and do a video for our home.

Sara: Agents still do that?

Jill: Some do and some don’t. I looked at some other listings in Seattle and the photos were obviously taken by the agent. I was really impressed by the photographer KritsonisLindor used. The quality of the photos was amazing! But again, it was their willingness to hire a photographer to present our home in the best possible way that really impressed me. I’d recommend them to anyone.

Can you imagine how things would play out if the agent had taken their own photos?

Sara would have sold her home, but the focus of the conversation would be on the speed of the market rather than the quality of the real estate agent. In that scenario our real estate agent KritsonisLindor would barely get a mention. Fortunately, they hire a top-tier real estate photographer and get great marketing reviews.

After the sale will your sellers boast about your willingness to hire a photographer even in a hot market, or will they only talk about the speed of the sale?

All images Copyright of Erik Sven Photography, LLC

Blog

If you had one chance to make an impression, what would you want it to look like? Hiring a professional photographer is more about selling yourself as an agent - even in hot real estate markets like Seattle, Bellevue and Sammamish.

People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Imagery provokes feeling.

Here’s why:

Reason #1. As an agent, your brand is defined by how you show up, how you are seen, and how you stand out - and that determines if you win the listing.

When we’re talking about a real estate agent’s brand we’re talking about how potential clients react to your marketing - that includes print, website and social media materials.

For example, when a potential client remembers your flyer from the house down the street, what assumptions do they make? What images will you use to make sure you stand out in the Seattle market?

Furthermore, competitive offers and more volume from increased listings easily pays for the higher cost of imagery. My Seattle clients realize this and come back time and time again.

Reason #2. It’s not for now. It’s for later.

Homes are hitting the market and selling quickly, but this market will eventually change. It may take a while or it could happen quickly, but change is down the line and when that happens homes are going to take a lot longer to sell and listings will dry up.

Imagine that we have reached that day in the future where the number of new listings have slowed down. Home sellers are now much more selective about which agent they hire, because they know they need a good one if they want their home to sell quickly or for the maximum value.

Where do sellers go to find an agent? They go online and they look for agents in their area. They see flyers in their neighborhood.

What do they look for in an agent? The first thing they probably look at is the sales history for that agent. They will scroll through previous listings and look at the photos, videos and virtual tours the agent includes.

Seattle sellers are smart. Their decision as to which agents they speak with can be decided in those lists of past sales where they ask themselves this question: ‘Given how that agent presents homes to the Seattle market, do I want that agent treating my home the same way?’

And if the photos don’t look good, then they’ll probably answer that question with a decisive ‘no’.

Do they want to have their home sold this way by this agent, or that way by that agent?

That’s where professional photography in your real estate portfolio will win the listing. If you get it wrong and if your listings look undesirable compared with your competition then you can easily lose that seller to another agent.

Reason #3. Sellers talk.

Imagine this conversation happening between a recent seller and their neighbor:

Sara: Congratulations on the sale of your home! How did things go for you?

Jill: It was great! I mean, obviously the market is super hot at the moment so it was no surprise that we sold in three days. Even so, we were really impressed with our agent.

Sara: Wow, that’s fantastic! Which agent did you use?

Jill: We went with KritsonisLindor, and they were fantastic right from the start. Even though it would be easy to cut corners in this market, they went all in - even spending hundreds to hire a professional photographer to shoot the photos and do a video for our home.

Sara: Agents still do that?

Can you imagine how things would play out if the agent had taken their own photos?

After the sale will your sellers boast about your willingness to hire a photographer even in a hot market, or will they only talk about the speed of the sale?