In this article Mary Ellen Podmolik, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune’s business section who covers the local housing market, discusses real estate photos, staging and online marketing.  She shares how these items ultimately reflect on the agent and how they may affect the sale of the home.

When it comes to online real estate photos, the devil is in the details – chicagotribune.com

This article from HGTV FrontDoor Real Estate offers 8 helpful hints for making your home more attractive to buyers.  Whether you are working with a Realtor or going FSBO, these are some great tips to help your home really shine.

Do market your home in different ways.

Almost 80 percent of home searches start on the Internet, so why not finish them there too? In lieu of the traditional method of selling through a real estate agent, some home sellers are turning to the Web to sell their homes. If you choose to sell with a Realtor, make sure their marketing plan extends to the Internet with virtual tours, photos and more.

Read more of this article at the link below.  Or contact Ark-La-Tex Virtual Tours to learn more about our online marketing services for both real estate agents and For Sale By Owners.

Slide Show: Selling Dos and Don’ts : HGTV FrontDoor Real Estate

Panoramic Sign Riders Stand Out and Grab Attention

Panoramic sign riders are a great innovative marketing solution for real estate agents or For Sale By Owner properties. These riders are designed to capture the attention of passers-by and to stand out from the crowd of other real estate riders.

A drive through any neighborhood in the Shreveport/Bossier City area will reveal a host of real estate signs and their respective riders. Most of these provide information such as the listing Realtor, a phone number or maybe a website address. However, PanoRiders are not your typical sign rider. A PanoRider offers a full color, high resolution panorama of the interior of the property. Text alone is not enough any more, this sign rider will capture interest with a glimpse inside the home.  This is exceptionally great if there is a competing sign in the yard next door.  Our sign rider will make your yard sign unique and attention grabbing.

Once interest is peaked, a buyer can gain the information they are seeking with the single property website located on the PanoRider. This single property web address is the address of the listing itself. Once online, the buyer will see a virtual tour of the entire interior of the home along with lots of additional photos, detailed text description and the listing agent’s or owner’s contact information. But wait, there’s more.  The website is accessible from your smart phone!  How awesome is that.  It’s like marketing – with superpowers.

Next, of course, the interested buyer calls the agent and offers double the asking price for the home, then requests to bring a check by that afternoon……Ok, no, that part doesn’t really happen. But, this sign rider does generate highly interested leads.

This innovative marketing tool harnesses the power of the internet together with the power of a yard sign to gain exposure for real estate listings. If you are a real estate agent or an FSBO who wants to stand apart from the crowd while maintaining cost effective advertising, this is worth your time to investigate.  No more soggy flyers or empty flyer boxes.  Panoramic Sign Riders are full color and weather proof.

Contact Ark-La-Tex Virtual Tours, your Shreveport/Bossier City virtual tour company, to learn more about innovative marketing solutions for your property.

Photo of Panoramic Sign Rider on a Rainy Day

The photo of the front of the home is the single most important photo on the listing.  This photo is the buyers very first impression of the home.  It is the one that helps determine if the buyer will continue to look further into the listing or move on to the next one.  It is important to spend the extra time and energy to get the “perfect” shot of the exterior of the home.

Whether you do your photos yourself or hire a professional photographer, here are some important things to consider in photographing the front of the home:

• Straight on is not always the best option.  Try photographing from one side, especially if there are interesting architectural features.  Also be certain to include all of the home in the frame.
• Choose your time of day.  Photograph when the sun is on the front of the home, not behind it.
• Choose your day.  Don’t photograph on dreary, gray, overcast days.  Bright and sunny is preferable.
• Properly expose the photo.  Make sure the color balance is correct – a strange blue or gray cast is not good.  Make sure the photo is bright and cheerful and competitive.

Remember that your photo will be compared to other homes of similar size and price.  If your photo is dark, awkwardly colored or generally uninviting, then it may leave the buyer feeling less than impressed with your listing.  Possibly for reasons they can not even identify, they will just know that the house seems dreary.

Great photos should help bring buyers to the property.  If you do not have the time in your busy day to take competitive photos, you might consider hiring a professional photographer.  This is a small expense that can be recouped in freeing your time to actively sell homes.  Not to mention that your seller will be very impressed with how their home is being marketed.

Mortgage rates sink to record low – Real estate- msnbc.com

7 Home Improvements NOT to Make | Shreveport Real Estate

Some inexpensive things that can be done which could regain your investment and then some:

• Fresh paint – covering up faded or scuffed up paint gives your home a fresh and well maintained look.  Choose neutral colors to enable buyers to envision themselves in the home.
• Clean carpets – Dirty and stained carpets can have buyers thinking in terms of dollars it will cost to replace.  Have the carpets cleaned.  It is inexpensive and will have buyers seeing an asset rather than a hindrance.
• Remove clutter – Clear table tops, under the beds, and bathroom and kitchen counters.  Maximize and show off the space available.  Leave only a decorative item or two on tables and remove all toiletries from the bathroom counters and that basket of mail from the kitchen counter.
• Remove oversize or extra pieces of furniture – Rooms which are packed with furniture give the impression of being too small.  Remove extra furniture to storage.  Choose pieces that fit the size of the room and keep only enough to make a warm and inviting space.

These few simple and inexpensive things can increase what a buyer may be willing to offer for your home.  Get some tips for staging your home for real estate photos by clicking on the “Preparing for a Virtual Tour” tab to the right.

The best answer for eliminating camera shake is a tripod.   But when that is just not a feasible answer, there are some other things you can do.  This article from Darren Rowse at DPS has several tips for reducing camera shake when shooting hand held photos.

How to Hold a Digital Camera

One little trick I use when I don’t have a tripod available is to place the camera on a firm and level surface such as a table top.  Just be careful not to move the camera when you press the shutter button.

Ark-La-Tex Virtual Media is located in Shreveport/Bossier City, La and provides real estate photography, virtual tours and website design to real estate and commercial clients.

10 Best-Kept Secrets for Selling Your Home : Real Estate : Home & Garden Television

If you are thinking about having your home professionally photographed, these tips are great for getting your home into picture perfect condition.  Remember, the photos or virtual tour used to advertise your home are the buyers very first impression.  The photos can often determine whether a potential buyer decides to visit your home in person.  Too see a few more tips about preparing your home for photographing visit our “Preparing for a Virtual Tour” page.

Nancy Bain at Supernova Studios in Nova Scotia has some great pointers to make sure that your online networking efforts stay on track.

Facebook | Nova Scotia Virtual Tours – Supernova Studios: Netiquette – Online Etiquette

Ark-La-Tex Virtual Tours Facebook Page

So this begs the question – are do it yourself photos adequate?  The photos not only speak to the property being marketed, but also to the quality of marketing being provided.  And ultimately, to the professionalism of the marketer.  Are sellers happy with photos that may pale in comparison to other properties similar to theirs?  And does this reflect upon the agent doing the marketing?

Here is what one agent in San Diego had to say.

More on do-it-yourself listing photography. It reflects poorly. — The San Diego Home Blog