Virtual Staging, Allow Buyers To See The Potential In A Home

You have a home with a ton of potential, but the sellers have moved out. You have a home you are listing that has just been renovated and is vacant. How do you show the prospective buyers the potential of the home? This is where virtual staging is a possibility. Through the use of digital editing, furniture can be virtual placed in the room in your photos.

Take a room that looks like

And turn it into

Virtual staging gives you the possibility to give an interested buyer a view of what they could do with a home, for the fraction of the cost of traditional staging.

If you were to stage a home it is likely to only be on a higher end listing. Why? Well, let's be honest and the costs involved would be prohibitive for most people, on most homes. To stage a home you have the costs of furniture rental, moving, installation, and removal.... for the entire period you have the home staged. That's an added cost for the time period from photos, to private tours, and open houses.

When virtually staging, yes unfortunately this applies only to the photos. However for an affordable rice you can give viewers impressions of what a home could be with their special touch.

The goal isn't to change the room. The goal is to show the potential.

Should every room be virtually staged? Every possible photo be staged? That is entirely up to you. Depending upon your marketing budget for the home, depending upon your vision for how you plan to market the listing, YOU decide what should be virtually staged. Many times you might decide just one or two rooms, just a few angles. When checking out your photos, if you decide that a couple need virtual staging to add that pop to stop the scroll, let your photographer know. It might take an extra day to get those few photos, but having the right content for your listing is better than rushing to market and possibly turning away prospective buyers.

Now I am not saying every room needs virtual staging. Honestly most homes I would only look at staging the living room and master bedroom. This is because, along with the kitchen, these are the rooms most people spend the most time in.

So now that you have seen a bit of what virtual staging is about, take some time and think... was there a home that could have benefitted from virtual staging? Do you remember that home that many people couldn't realize the potential? Could virtual staging helped market that home, and led to an earlier offer? Release your vision and have one more item you can offer the potential client at your next pitch.

NEW Real Estate Marketing options

With the ever-changing real estate market around us, we have teamed up with a company to offer you some affordable options to help with your marketing. Our goal is to give you the most flexible options that you can use to promote your properties. Many people post photos to their social media pages, use brokerage resources to print mailers and flyers, and post the listing on MLS and the company webpage. We want to offer you a way to stand out a bit more.

We now have an affordable marketing package! Simple slide show videos with music, social media tiles, webpages, and flyers are available that you can customize to meet your needs. How often have you debated getting videos made, but could not justify the cost? Most places make each video individually, which takes time, and costs money. Even if these videos are a slideshow you are expected to cover the costs of editing. Now we can supply these in 4 versions that you can download and use where you see fit. Need a square teaser video for Instagram?

Do you want a branded slideshow video for your company webpage?

Do you need an unbranded slideshow video for MLS?

Yes, we can provide all of these easily, and efficiently, for any of your needs. Yes these are just a slideshow (due to shooting time required regular video is still an extra charge) but if you need something quickly, they are available within minutes. Yes minutes, after all sometimes your client wants the listing posted yesterday.

One way to make your posts stand out is to make sure they are not just a gathering of photos with a comment. We have templates that you can adjust, to customize your post and include your personal branding. Make your client realize that you are placing their home first and foremost on your priority list.

Show your customers that you care, and are publishing their home to as many places as possible across the internet. With an effective use of hashtags, knowing which social media groups to post in on Facebook, and effective expanding of you social media following and friends, you can spread your listings quickly throughout the area.

These social media tiles can be in either horizontal, square, or vertical format. The choice is always yours. Each has a beneficial use with horizontal on a wide screen (computer), vertical is best for mobile media uses (cell phone), and square is the default format for Instagram. When you combine them with effective hashtag use a simple post can quickly reach throughout the area; not just to your followers and friends, but to other realtors and anyone searching that hashtag.

Also included is a way to really wow you clients, a custom website! If you have the home you really want to show off, a home that you need to push a little more, or you want to make sure you stand out as the realtor that always goes the extra mile you can have a webpage for your listings that you can either have branded or unbranded.

These websites can be used in multiple ways: promote your listings online, elevate yourself as a realtor in your market offering more than the basics, create a QR code that you can post at your open house allowing visitors to see the details as the view the home.

The options are endless. We can even create Facebook posts that link directly to the website. The website traffic can be tracked, and the information is able to be continually updated. Take your listing from Coming Soon, to Live, To Sold. The websites have the slideshow playing at the top, with all relevant information. you can include regular videos, property photos, 3D tours, floorplans, contact information, and a map of where the property is located.

All of this is available for one affordable cost, and is able to be done quickly (through the use of templates) eliminating the waiting time you might have previously experienced. When utilized with the efficient use of hashtags (like #rocrealestate) you can broaden your reach and make sure your clients home stands out.

Always remember if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us.

matt@beckphotoandvideo.com

585-729-2243

Airbnb listings versus Real Estate listings…. No, they are not the same.

When most people start planning to open an Airbnb, the last thing they think about is marketing. They are occupied with the process of getting the property, then rehabbing and furnishing the home. When it finally comes time to create your listing on Airbnb where do you look to get your photos taken? Do you take them yourself? Do you hire a photographer? If you hire a photographer, where do you look?

Most people would think to look for a real estate photographer, and for most people this would work perfectly. However, if you look to elevate your listing you need to educate both yourself and your photographer. I explain it this way… For an MLS listing you are taking photos to sell the home. For an Airbnb listing you are taking photos to sell the EXPERIENCE of being at the home. Some of your photos should do more than just show the room but try to show the experience they could have on the property.

This starts with having a conversation with your photographer. Make sure they understand your goals and are prepared to execute what you desire. When taking real estate photos, shots are commonly as wide as possible and shot from the corners. The goal is to highlight the entire room. In addition, you can take shots head on, or show just a small portion of the room. Look for opportunities to show key items in a room, or angles that give a first-person perspective. Shot like these give the viewer a mental image that places the person in the room.

Unique things about Airbnb listings are that they are closer to a hotel listing than a real-estate listing. Your approach should use items that are in the home in an active way to highlight how they can enjoy the home. A pair of glasses next to a pool, or a book and a cup of coffee on the porch, these examples give the viewer ways to see themselves relaxing at your property.

Finally, you should realize that your property listing will be active until you stop the service. This means you should periodically update your listing. Real-estate photos are hoping top be up for a month or two at most. The goal is to sell the home as quickly as possible. With an Airbnb the goal is to get to booked as often as possible. This means you need to update your photos to allow people to see what the experience would be like throughout the change of seasons. This might not mean a total change in photos, but certain photos should be updated. Try to envision ways your property could be used throughout the year. Is it near a body of water? If so, think of ice-fishing in the winter and swimming in the summer. Is it in a forested area? If so, shots of the trees in various states are essential, many people like to go look at foliage in the fall.

I hope I have given you a few things to think about. If you would like to discuss ways to use photography to market your short term rental, feel free to reach out. We are willing to answer any questions you might have.