The Importance of the Internet for Marketing Homes

A recent article on examiner.com adds further weight to the conclusion that the Internet is a major resource for homebuyers and a well prepared home and strong photos of the home will make the best use of this critical marketing venue: Sellers, here's how buyers find homes .

Note the comment about the ideal situation involving a large number of multiple offers. The more potential buyers that a listing attracts, the more likely that this ideal can be achieved. The photos of a home are one of the very first things that home buyers look at online. When homebuyers have a number of choices, they may tend to overlook listings with poor photos, or at least give them less consideration.

Copyright Matters

Here is an excellent article in the magazine Florida Realtor relating to the usage of copyrighted material. While the intended audience  is real estate agents, the article really applies to anyone using images (and other intellectual property) that are not their own, whether for commercial purposes or not: No No Photos.

Another Satisfied Client

"Thank you so much for the beautiful photography that you have done on 619 Tennyson. I am very happy with the end result. Enclosed is the brochure for your portfolio, it turned out great."--Samia Cullen-Alain Pinel Realtors

Real Estate Photography: What it is all About

"Our very nice client is particularly focused on the quality of photography-- so our association with you really helped secure the listing." This quote comes from  the business manager of a client of mine who is a very successful real estate agent in Silicon Valley. This client handles a lot of listings in some of the most affluent parts of the San Francisco Bay Area. I think this quote illustrates very nicely that top listing agents use high quality professional photography not only to help market their listings, but also to help market themselves, to help them win more listings. Viewed this way, the cost of professional photography is really an ongoing cost of marketing a business, rather than just a cost that relates only to each individual listing; and it is important that, rather than being merely "good enough", the photos need to be of sufficient quality that they will stand out among all the routine photos typically used to market listings. That is, high quality photos that exhibit an individual style and have high technical quality can help realtors to promote their "brand" and present an image of uniqueness in the marketplace. Fundamentally, it is about images that are truly marketing photos, rather than just illustrations for informational purposes.

A Copyright Primer

Many people do not understand copyright law with respect to photos. While many have some understanding that it can be illegal to reproduce movies, recorded music, software, etc., they seem to be under the impression that photos are available for anyone to use for any purpose, and the Internet facilitates this kind of illegal use.

In the United States, copyright to a photo belongs to the photographer, from the instant it was taken, the only exception being photos taken under conditions of work for hire. A photographer may transfer the copyright to someone else or license usage of a photo under certain specific terms. However, no one should ever assume that they have the right to use someone else's photo unless they have clear instructions from the copyright holder that this is okay, or unless their usage of the photo falls under fair use.

Here is a useful blog article that serves as a kind of primer on copyright: How Small Businesses Can Avoid Photography Copyright Infringement

A Recent Case of Copyright Infringement

A recent article in the British Journal of Photography examines a US lawsuit between a freelance photographer and Agence France Press (AFP) and the Washington Post. The judgement in the case went in favor of the photographer/copyright holder. In short, AFP and the Washington Post copied the photographer's photos from his Twitter posting, without his permission, and used them in their publications. You can read the article here:

Agence France-Presse infringed on photographer's copyright in landmark Twitter case

Another Article About the Importance of Quality Real Estate Marketing Photos

Forbes, the well-known business magazine, recently published an article that provides yet more support for why high-quality photos are vital for real estate marketing: Photos of Your Home Matter in Real Estate.

While I agree with most of what the article says, one thing I take issue with is the implication that it is the quality of the camera that matters most, and that a homeowner or realtor might be able to take decent marketing photos with such a camera. In my experience, this is usually not the case. In fact, I would say it is often the case that professional photographers who are not practiced at photographing architectural and interiors subjects will not do a great job either, though they are still likely to produce better results than amateur photographers. As I have mentioned previously in this blog, photographing buildings well is actually one of the more challenging types of photography, in terms of composition, lighting and even the digital processing of the photos.

Another thing I take issue with in the article is about choosing the right time of day for the photos, so that the property can be photographed with the best lighting. While this is the ideal, and is what professional architectural and interiors photographer try to do as much as possible, it is often not possible for most real estate photography. First of all, all parts of the house will not receive the best light at any one time of day, and the modest marketing budgets that are available for marketing most homes do not permit hiring a photographer to shoot throughout an entire day or more. For most real estate marketing of individual homes for sale, the marketing budget does not usually allow for more than an hour or two of photography (perhaps a bit more for larger homes), in one session. To compensate for this, a skilled photographer will often use supplementary lighting, perhaps with some specialized Photoshop techniques; however, with occasional exceptions, for standard real estate photography, using supplementary lighting is not practical for photos of the exterior, in which case it is usually best to try to schedule the photography for a time of day when the front exterior of the house receives good light, since the front exterior is usually the key marketing photo. Nevertheless, some exterior views will never get good light during the day, because of obstructions (such as trees or neighboring buildings) shading that side of the house from direct sunlight, which is generally the best kind of light for daytime exterior photos. Twilight photos can sometimes be an alternative in these cases, and can yield especially attractive and compelling photos, but they entail more time, which usually means a higher cost.

Deciding how much money to allocate to different marketing material can be a challenge, and there is no scientific way of determining what will provide the best results for the marketing dollars spent. However, whatever the overall marketing budget, because of the importance of the Internet as a marketing medium, I would argue that the photography should take precedence in the marketing budget.

Why High Quality Photos Matter for Marketing Homes

An excellent article in the Chicago Tribune explains why Quality photos make all the difference in marketing your home. I don't think I could have explained it much better myself. 

The article notes that lighting is extremely important. The camera sees different light sources (daylight, fluorescent, incandescent, LED) differently from the human eye, and mixed light sources can create significant problems for photography, resulting in a mixture of unpleasant, clashing color casts that do not look realistic. Furthermore, the basic quality of the light in many homes, including even high end ones, is often not that appealing photographically, and time and budget limitations tend to restrict considerably the ability to wait for the best ambient lighting in each room. Supplementary lighting is the best solution for this situation, and lighting interiors is a specialized skill that a portrait, product or event photographer is not likely to possess unless he or she also spends a lot of time shooting interiors. Usually, a specialist in architectural and interior photography will produce the best results.

One thing I take a bit of issue with in the article is the suggestion that it was the advent of mobile devices that drove the need for high-quality photos for marketing homes. Mobile devices have certainly enhanced the need for such photos; however, even before the widespread use of mobile devices for Internet viewing, realtors could present the homes online in dedicated single property websites, or on their own websites, to provide a larger and clearer view of the photos than is generally possible with the major online real estate portals (such as Zillow, Trulia, Movoto, etc.), which access the listing photos directly from the MLS feeds. I note that one major real estate portal, Redfin, has recently started displaying listing photos significantly larger and clearer than the other real estate portals.

A Hopeful Sign for the US Economic Recovery

A recent article in The Economist indicates improvement in the US housing market. Historically, housing has tended to lead the economy out of recessions, and it has largely been weakness in the housing market that has hindered the recent economic recovery in the US. The slowness of the recovery of the housing market has been due to a massive oversupply of homes, resulting from  overbuilding and foreclosures on mortgages, and the slowness of lenders to deal with troubled loan portfolios.

Link to the article: Pulling its Weight at Last

Group Exhibition Announcement

I will be participating in a group exhibition, curated by Robert Becker, and hosted by the San Francisco chapter of the American Institute of Architects and the Center for Architecture and Design. The exhibition will run from February 16 through April 26, 2012. See the link below for more information.

Presenting Architecture @ AIASF and Center for Architecture + Design

Joseph Eichler, Architect?

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and people often asked if I am related to "the" Eichler, the...um...architect. They mean the founder of Eichler Homes, Joseph Eichler, who was my grandfather. He was not an architect but a developer; however, he was very much interested in architecture and modern design, and he worked with some very talented architects (among them Quincy Jones, of the firm Jones and Emmons) to achieve the unique Mid-Century Modern style for which he became well known. You can find out more about him here: Joseph Eichler

What it is all about-Why High Quality Photos Matter for Real Estate Listings

A quote from a homeowner whose house I photographed for a real estate listing: "There is no doubt that your stunning photographs of our mother's home at 728 Gailen Ave, Palo Alto, added 10s of thousands of dollars to the sale price of this home.  We are signing papers today and should fund by the end of next week."  Not only did the photos help the home sell faster and for more money than it otherwise would have done, a direct benefit to both the seller and the listing agent, the photos can also help the listing agent to gain more business. I can't say this enough: quality real estate photographs are not just about the immediate listing; they are also about helping listing agents to enhance their profiles in the marketplace.

The Apple-Eichler Connection: Eichler Homes Were a Primary Inspiration for Steve Jobs

I was just listening to an interview with Charlie Rose and Walter Isaacson, the author of the recently released biography of Steve Jobs, in which Isaacson mentions that Jobs lived in an Eichler home in Silicon Valley when he was young and was strongly influenced by the experience. In fact, Jobs reportedly cited Eichler Homes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Eichler) as a direct inspiration and described their design as a "first vision for Apple." Furthermore,  Apple's co-founder, Steve Wozniak, also lived in an Eichler Home when he was young. What a connection: Eichler Homes as an inspiration for one of the most important companies of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

For anyone who is not familiar with Eichler Homes, here are some books about the company and the homes: http://www.amazon.com/Eichler-Homes-Design-Jerry-Ditto/dp/0811808467 and http://www.amazon.com/Eichler-Homes-Design-Jerry-Ditto/dp/0811808467. Also, this may be of interest:  http://www.amazon.com/Quincy-Jones-Cory-Buckner/dp/0714848433/ref=pd_sim_b_8.  Quincy Jones was one of the architects who did designs for Eichler Homes.