Featured image credit: Envato
We’re a long way from grainy photos of the latest home listings in the Sunday newspaper. But no matter how professional the technique, how wide the angle, how high the resolution, or how careful the staging, there are still certain elements of the immersive experience that don’t translate into a listing’s photos. Today, we’ll take a look at some of the elements that color a home’s first impression on buyers, but that you won’t see in even the most professional real estate photography.
Accurate Scale Assessment and Proportional Flow
Real estate photographers often employ wide-angle lenses to give rooms a brighter, more spacious appearance. Therefore, if a buyer is relying strictly on the photos in home listings to assess a home, they will likely struggle to understand the true scale of the property. An in-person tour of a property doesn’t just help prospective buyers recognize the actual height of the ceiling or width of a corridor. It clearly defines the way these spaces interact with one another as part of the home’s flow. In person, buyers can more quickly and accurately judge whether a home’s space is open and airy or tight and claustrophobic.
The Way Homes Look in Different Lighting
Since the whole point of a listing’s photos is to clarify the features and design of a home, photographers strategically aim to capture properties when natural lighting presents the house at its most flattering. But when a potential buyer visits a property, it may be at a different time of day than when listing photos were captured, allowing them to see how light changes throughout the space over time.
An in-person visit can also give you insight into a house’s orientation, a particularly important consideration in the LA market. Westerly-facing windows tend to capture the afternoon heat and blinding sunshine, while northerly-facing rooms maintain cooler temperatures with even lighting throughout the day. All of this, including the way shadows fall and sunlight moves, can influence a home’s livability.
Sounds of the Streets
Of course, there’s more to a home than the visuals. Therefore, the pictures on home listings won’t be able to accurately give you an idea of nearby traffic noise, neighboring construction, flight paths, or even the community energy surrounding a property. But if one of these is a consistent problem, a buyer is bound to notice mere minutes into a walkthrough. Maybe it’s the ever-present hum of freeway traffic. Or an unbearable bump in activity during rush hour. These aren’t necessarily deal breakers, but they are factors buyers should be aware of before signing on to the biggest purchases of their lives.
Something in the Air
Even if it were possible, we doubt that scratch-and-sniff home listings would really catch on. But the fragrance of a property is a very real concern. The aromas of fresh paint, household cleaners, wet dogs, baking cookies, or obscured mildew can all leave immediate impressions on touring buyers.
Then, there are more permanent fixtures, like whether the home is downwind from a sewage treatment plant. Gross? Yes. A realistic concern? Unfortunately. Expect a seller to prepare their home with pleasant olfactory experiences. But even with the bets hedged, potential buyers can often still get a feel for the air quality and ventilation in a space. Damp, dank, stuffy homes will doubtlessly struggle to attract the same interest as fresh, well-maintained abodes.
Engaging with Craftsmanship
High-res images may capture finishes, but they still miss out on some of the more subtle details that are much easier to notice in person: craftsmanship. This is where interacting with an environment comes in handy. Buyers often turn on water faucets, open doors, and generally feel out the quality of a home’s craftsmanship. Common points of observation include flooring transitions, paint lines, the way cabinetry lines up, and hints of wear and tear.
Making the Promises of Home Listings a Reality
There’s no doubt that the photos used in home listings are a powerful introduction to a home, but they’re far from a complete picture. It’s often not until that first in-person walkthrough that the true character of a home shines through. Sensory details and space are just as integral to a living experience as the visual elements. It also pays for sellers to understand how facilitating an entire sensory experience means thinking beyond the staging. It’s about bringing to life the vision promised by the listing photos, and assuring clients that the listed property is much more than a pretty face.
With a brand that says as much as JohnHart’s, Senior Copywriter Seth Styles never finds himself at a loss for words. Responsible for maintaining the voice of the company, he spends each day drafting marketing materials, blogs, bios, and agent resources that speak from the company’s collective mind and Hart… errr, heart.
Having spent over a decade in creative roles across a variety of industries, Seth brings with him vast experience in SEO practices, digital marketing, and all manner of professional writing with particular strength in blogging, content creation, and brand building. Gratitude, passion, and sincerity remain core tenets of his unwavering work ethic. The landscape of the industry changes daily, paralleling JohnHart’s efforts to {re}define real estate, but Seth works to maintain the company’s consistent message while offering both agents and clients a new echelon of service.
When not preserving the JohnHart essence in stirring copy, Seth puts his efforts into writing and illustrating an ongoing series entitled The Death of Romance. In addition, he adores spending quality time with his girlfriend and Romeo (his long-haired chihuahua mix), watching ‘70s and ‘80s horror movies, and reading (with a particular penchant for Victorian horror novels and authors Yukio Mishima and Bret Easton Ellis). He also occasionally records music as the vocalist and songwriter for his glam rock band, Peppermint Pumpkin.
