My deepest apologies for bringing down the neighborhood with this preforeclosure listing but the truth is, I got the job done for my clients in a difficult market. Not to mention my sales in the neighborhood remain the highest priced non-builder resales. But it begs the question, How much responsibility does an agent bear when it comes to home values? Can real estate brokers actually drive prices up or down or do we simply enable the transaction allowing the buyer to pay what the seller will accept?

P.S. In case you were wondering. There is no such thing as an anonymous anything anymore. A Google search of the telephone number, his work number, gave me his employer. An insurance company. Insurance sales people are licensed in Colorado. A half hour cross-referencing names between the licensing database and neighborhood homeowners gave me his name and address. The FSBO around the corner that had been on the market for almost 2 years.

I’ve always tried to take the best photos possible for my listings. Sometimes it means making multiple trips to the listing just to get the right lighting. Recently though, I began employing new HDR (high dynamic range) photography techniques using my digital SLR camera that have significantly improved both quality of the pictures and the number of showings I get to my listings.

Often, HDR techniques are used for an artistic rendered effect but you can often take advantage of the process for difficult shots you would otherwise be unable to get.

Before I say how we do it, I just wanted to emphasize why you should. Most agents, take below average to slightly better than average photos. The key word in that sentence was “average”. I don’t want to be average. I want to look like the best. The way listings appear on the internet or on your local MLS will most likely be in the context of other home photos. I want to be the best on that list. I promise you, that even agents can be influenced by the photos. If an agent has 50 possible homes to show and will only have time to show 10-15 in a day (that’s a lot of homes), the agent has to screen out the good ones. Assuming that the homes are fairly similar, it often will come down to having the right photos.

Of course, you could just hire the local Obeo photographer or someone similar who offers a photography and virtual tour service. I use them too. But lots of other agents do too. Besides, don’t you want to do more than the next agent? Being better, especially when it comes to the visuals, will go along way in a listing apointment. But who wants to be slightly better than average? (If you answered “I do”, you should read “The Dip“.)

Think of it like this. When you watch a basketball game and you see the guy dunk over the defender. Just remember, nobody wants to be the guy being dunked over. (Here’s an example if you want to think about it some more) I would rather be the guy that is dunking. I don’t feel bad about it. It’s not my fault if other agents are not doing all they can.

Point is that being average isn’t the goal. More eyes, means more showings, which becomes more sales. I’m not saying that you should alter your photos, rather take use of modern technology that lets you take photos that previously only talented photographers using special film and dark room techniques could achieve.

Here’s what I’m talking about. On the left is the picture from the professional photographer (who I also hire) on the right, my photo.
In the Washington Park neighborhood, 900 S Vine. The professional’s usually do a decent enough job on the inside but usually don’t do anything more than a representational shot for the outside. When I decided to reshoot the front photo, it was winter so the trees didn’t look as nice anymore and the front was enclosed by flower boxes that had vines in them…the vines end up looking like dead twigs. To get around this, I went in close with my wide angle lens and did a long exposure HDR series before the street lights came on and made everything orange. Here’s the difference.

Here’s another example of 13706 E Weaver Ave, in Centennial, CO which just went under contract. North facing homes like this can be difficult to get good photo of, especially during the winter. HDR helps you get around that.

You can do the same for your interior photographs as well…

While everyone is going to have their own ideas about what they think is the better photo, in my experience, it’s really about what is going to ‘jump off the page more’. High dynamic range photography can help you get your properties noticed.

The process is simple, 3 or more exposures (minimum if you’re not shooting ‘in RAW’) bracketed 1 or 2 stops apart to achieve a series of under exposed, correct and over exposed photos (or sim), all from the same location using a tripod.

These photos are then merged into one HDR file that will then need to be rendered using a process that controls the ‘development’ process along the same ways photo technicians might ‘burn’ and ‘dodge’ a photo to make darker areas lighter or lighter areas darker. Only with digital, this process can be automated. My current software of choice is PhotoMatix but you can achieve the same results in new versions of Photoshop (CS3+) if that’s what you have.

This isn’t as hard as it looks, you can download the trial version of PhotoMatix and see for yourself. You may just be able to put to use that nice camera you bought.

These shots represent my first and second attempts at this, so I offer my apologies to the truly talented photographers out there as I run afoul their techniques and the execution of their art.