Estate agent photos

[notarunner]

Our house went on the market last week - first time seller. How do estate agents usually take photos? I was very surprised that he turned up with nothing but an iPhone and in my opinion, the photos are crap. I've already asked them to be lightened up but they don't look of good quality to me.

We've only had one viewing request so far and I'm worried the photos aren't appealing to buyers.

I wouldn’t be happy with an iPhone being used to take photos. Did you pay for professional photos to be taken?

Our last two sales (one in England, the other in Wales) included photos taken by a professional photographer at no additional cost. The one in England also included drone footage.

We've also been encouraged to submit our own additional photos if we wanted.

When selling our last-but-two house, our EA informed us that the professional photographer they used only took eight photos, regardless of the property size (it was a five bed, three bath, three reception house with huge kitchen and 0.3 acre garden, so eight photos would never capture it all), but we were able to add as many of our own photos (taken with a camera) as we wished.

Their reasoning behind just eight shots was that it would give a flavour of the property whilst encouraging potential buyers to arrange a viewing.

When we sold the EA employed a professional photographer to take the photos. The photos were then photoshopped, grey clouds replaced with sunny sky, patchy brown grass replaced with lush green grass etc. Made the house look much better than it was.

They really should be taken by a professional photographer - it makes the world of difference - but I can imagine that if yours is a relatively low-value first-time-buyer type of property, they might not think they will make enough commission on the sale to justify paying a proper photographer's fees?

@hedgerunner it's just a set percentage on completion for their services. I wasn't expecting a professional photographer but I was expecting the estate agent turn up with a professional camera! It is a typical FTB type of property, so I guess that's why I'm more concerned that there has only been 1 viewing request as it should be gathering lots of interest!

I might have a go at retaking them myself as I think they're seriously uninspiring. They've made the rooms look small and gloomy.

We’ve had several and they’ve all turned up with extending tripods, stuff to take high level photos and every kind of digitised thing to do with photography. I certainly wouldn’t be happy paying for photos on a camera phone. They’ve all been there for ages too.

We had a professional photographer, who also took a video. Videos are common here.

Ours were done by a professional photographer - all included in the agent's fee. Photos taken and then edited and sent through to the agent.

Our photographer also carried out our EPC as well which was really odd! It was very much a tick box exercise though, so I don't think required much expertise.

Last time we sold, the photos were so crap that I went around and re-took them myself and sent them to the EA. I made a snazzy video as well and put it up on YouTube. I couldn't complain though, we weren't being charged for professional photos and we didn't get any!

I would argue it is not the tool, it is the person behind it.
I bet most folk could not tell an iphone photo from a DSLR photo if taken by a professional.
If the photo's are poor, it is the estate agent.

Estate agent photos of bathrooms (and sometimes kitchens too) always seem to be taken about three feet from the ground. WHY.

I can't stand it when pics are of items in the room, not the room itself. I don't care about someone's bed, toilet, or sofa. I want to see as much wall and floor as possible!

To be fair I was a professional photographer and my current entry level Samsung has 100x better features of my professional camera from when I started 20 years ago. My DH top range 2 year old Samsungs camera is incredible and can outshine my professional 5 year old canon DSLR (and very expensive lenses) for picking up details.

It use to be if you showed up with a camera phone you would be laughed at (because they use to be VGA or 2mp have the quality of a potato print) but now they are pretty amazing, whole industry award winning films have been shot on (what are now old) Iphones. The NHS are currently using Iphones for tele-dermoscopy.

Its no longer the equipment thats bad but how the user uses it.

Photos should be included as part of their fee and they should use a proper camera and set the rooms up to look their best. I would put it in the market with a 2nd estate agent, a bit of competition ensures they do a better job for you in selling the property.

You definitely need professional pics. I work in property and the difference in the number of clicks our houses get when they've had really good pics taken vs average ones is unbelievable. Even rubbish properties get literally double the hits than the good ones if they have decent pics. I wouldn't use an agent who didn't understand this as it is very basic and the quality of pics has improved and improved. Ask them to redo them properly. I found the photographer we use by asking the agents who always looked like they sold lovely houses who they used - they all used the same person - hence all their houses always presenting so well!!

Good luck.

Yes I think some EAs do offer a premium listing as it were, where the colours are made more vibrant.

House seller and buyer here. We had a professional come via our estate agent and he has made our house look amazing.
Conversely we have looked at some houses with poor quality photos and it can be off putting. I'm trying to remain open minded about it though.

We had ours done today, the estate agent had a proper camera on a tripod that also uses IR to accurately measure the size of the rooms to create a floor plan. He photographed every room from at least two angles - helped me to shuffle clutter about so he got good shots, took some of the garden and exterior which will be touched up as the weather was grey and he also took a 360 video. He was here (3 bed semi) for an hour and a half.

Came across this listing in NZ the other day. So many random photos. It's so hard here as all the homes are staged.
https://www.trademe.co.nz/property/residential-property-for-sale/auction-5216838134.htm

In all honesty and iPhone camera is as good as most professional cameras with all the advanced settings they have now. Quite often I take both my iPhone and my professional camera on days out and the quality is not much different.