Web Appeal
What are the three most important factors in real estate? The old answer (and arguably still the best answer) is location, location, location. And since it’s three “locations,” I’d like to break those into three types of locations — location of property (no duh), the location of dollars (where does the value of the house fall in relation to comparable houses), and the location on the Internet (like it or not, most home buyers are first browsing the Internet to find your home).
Web Appeal is the new Curb Appeal
Now, I’m not a real estate agent, so I can’t expertly speak on the first two types of location. However, I do know that having property in a great location will increase the value of your property (or, at least retain its value) and will likely produce more interested buyers. But if it is not priced right, then those interested buyers may become less interested. So if your house is in an extremely desirable location but it’s priced $50,000 higher than comparable houses, then you’ve just dropped the value of the second “location” — which is price. You’ve located the price beyond it’s attractiveness.
So when selling your home, there is definitely a relationship between actual location and price. But what about location on the Internet? Where does that fit in? Well think about it. According to sources like Realtor.com and other Real Estate portal Web sites, something like 80% of home buyers start their search online. That means that someone who is likely to purchase a home within the next 30 - 60 days is surfing the Net right now. According to the National Association of Realtors, there were something like 18,000 homes sold in the first quarter of 2009 in NJ — that is, if I read their stats correctly. So maybe there’s 18,000 or so families looking for homes right now and 80% of them (14,400) are searching online first.
Now, I don’t know how many homes are actually available for sale in NJ. But if you are selling your home, you should try to find out what other homes are for sale in your neighborhood. This will give you an idea of what you are up against. Likely, you’ll do this research on the Internet, rather than walk around the neighborhood. As you do this, you will see pictures of homes for sale. And if you look at the homes that are comparable to yours, you will see some homes with good photos and others with poor photos.
I did a search in my area and found quite a few listings for homes similar to mine. If I were to put my home up for sale, how would my home stand out in among these others? Well, for one thing, I could drop the price significantly so that I’m the cheapest of the homes of my caliber. That will certainly get attention. But you know what many real estate agents have told me? They tell me that price is the single-most effective sales tool. If your house is priced right, you will get offers and you will sell your house in a timely manner. Now every real estate agent is saying the same thing to every potential listing: “Price it right for your market.”
If most of those homes you see listed on Realtor.com took that advice, then most of them are priced right. How does a house that is priced right then get noticed in among other homes that are priced right? Quality photography.
Poor photography or no photography reduces the perceived value of the home. Some home browsers are going to skip right over your listing if you are not delivering what they expect — good photographs of your home! Maybe I’m just saying this because I am a real estate photographer, and it’s in my best interest to convince you that professional-quality photos are important to selling your house. However, if this weren’t true, then there wouldn’t be a market for what I do. Everyone would just take their own pictures of their homes and be fine with that. If it weren’t true then sites like these wouldn’t exist:
http://www.uglyhousephotos.com/
And even other agents recognize it:
http://activerain.com/blogsview/1180018/one-of-my-pet-peeves-bad-mls-photos
http://photographyforrealestate.net/2008/02/12/unbelievably-bad-real-estate-photos
http://www.edmontonrealestateblog.com/my_weblog/2008/01/edmontons-unbel.html
So, Web Appeal is the new Curb Appeal. And it’s not just photos — location, location, location is key!
Photography, Real Estate, Sam's Ramblings
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