• Digital camera overview
• 8 Items to Consider Before You Buy
• Make a Photo Book of Your Listings
• Buying Guide: Digital Cameras
  
  

Real estate professionals are early adopters of digital cameras, and they now scrutinize this tool with a pro-shooter’s eye. They’re selectively seeking those models and features that will help capture the listing’s appeal and using this expertise to gain a competitive advantage.

“The pictures we take are one of the key things we have to help sell a house,” says Sondra McFeters, GRI, broker-owner of Exit Realty in Portland, Ore. The Fujifilm FinePix S8000fd  with its 18X wide-angle zoom lens is her ninth camera since she first went digital.

“Many practitioners don’t seem to realize the lens size is the key to taking great pictures, and it takes a wide-angle lens to really show off a home,” McFeters says. She places so much emphasis on good photography that she also trains new associates on what she calls “Listing Pics 101, The Best Angle.”

“You’ve got to think about things like what angle to use to capture the character of a room, tilting the camera so there’s more floor than ceiling in the picture, and not to shoot from the end of the bed or that’s all you see,” McFeters says “There’s simple ways to really improve your photos.”

Take a Close-Up

Tanya Redic, e-PRO, a sales associate with Harold Cater, REALTORS®, in Tyler, Texas, says ease of use helps make the Canon PowerShot S2 IS one of the best investments she’s made in her real estate career.

“It was the 12X zoom that really sold me on it,” she says. “With all the foreclosures going on, I’m doing a lot of [bank-owned properties]. I can zoom in and take clear pictures of a home without getting out of my car or bothering the home owner.”

When associate broker Curt Amesbury Jr. with Prudential Discover Real Estate in Webster, N.Y., decided to upgrade his camera last year, he turned to a local camera specialty store for advice. “With the camera I had been using, I’d lose all the details in a room 25 feet deep,” he says. “I knew I needed a wide-angle lens to fit more of even a modest-sized room in a picture.”

The store clerk presented several options, and Amesbury chose the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 with its wide-angle 10X zoom lens.

“It’s very easy to operate and gives me a lot of flexibility,” Amesbury says. Another recommendation — a wireless remote flash — has dramatically improved photos. Set in the back of the room, it trips when his camera flash fires, highlighting the entire space in photos.

“In my listing presentations, I point out that I take professional-quality photos, and that’s not something a lot of my competitors can say,” Amesbury says. “With so many buyers looking on the Web, those photos are the crux of the marketing we do now.”

Camera-Video Combo

Jennifer Bunker, GRI, CRS®, broker-owner of Coldwater Creek Properties in South Ogden, Utah, has pushed imaging to the next level, using video as a listing tool and to promote properties online. She replaced her camera with a Flip digital camcorder. Bunker creates video tours of listings on her computer and posts them on YouTube. She also can pull still images from the recordings for flyers and marketing materials.

“With video, I walk from room to room, get in all the important features, and talk about the home,” she says. “I’m in control of the information I provide and buyers get a much better idea than they can from a photo tour. This is how to sell property.”

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8 Items to Consider Before You Buy

Here are some key considerations when you decide it’s time for a new camera:

1. Camera, camcorder, or camera phone? Still image capture and video recording are now functions of digital cameras, camcorders, and camera phones. Do you want a multifunction device for all your needs or specialized products?

Top-end camera phones now rival an entry-level digital camera for picture taking. For images on the fly, a good camera phone will serve. Video camcorders offer the most features but still images captured by most are good enough for the Web only. If photography is your primary concern, you can’t beat a true camera.

2. Wide-angle. Unless your budget dictates an entry level camera, a wide-angle lens should rank high in preferred features. Defined as a 28mm lens or less, it’s the only way you can fit an interior room or entire home in a single shot. There’s now a good selection of compacts with this feature. With the pricier digital SLR, a wide-angle accessory lens is just one of many options available to you. (Learn more: Tech Watch: Wide-Angle Cameras See the Big Picture )

3. Zoom. The more powerful the zoom, the more options you have when shooting and highlighting details. “Optical zoom” describes the lens; “digital zoom” is a software function that mimics the effects of true zoom.

4. Megapixel. How much is enough? For your purposes, 5MP ... and if you'll only post pictures on the Web, you can get by with 3MP. Unless you plan to print large-format posters and signs of your listings, anything more is overkill.

5. Movies. Video is the next standard for property tours online. If you're not ready now for a camcorder, any camera that captures video at 30 frames per second (fps) will still produce movies that look good online.

6. Monitor. On more cameras, the LCD is where you frame pictures and review the results. Look for one that’s comfortably large and bright enough to display in sunlight.

7. All those buttons. Camera designs vary from ultra-compacts to boxy throwbacks to the days of film. You won’t know the difference, so find the best fit for your hand until you’ve seen and tried several.

8. Trust the experts. Follow the same advice you give clients about hiring the professional to guide them through a challenging process. Pre-screen choices by reading reviews online, then visit a camera specialty dealer, explain your intended uses and preferences, and heed their expert advice on which cameras may be best for you.

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Make a Photo Book of Your Listings

With virtual photo tours now becoming routine and video tours the new thing, what else can the innovative real estate professional do with images to show off your marketing prowess?

Consider creating a photo book for that one-of-a-kind listing.

Recent advances in digital printing technology now make it possible and cost effective to create a hard-bound book, rich with photos, in quantities as few as one. Software programs such as iPhoto on Mac computers, Adobe Photoshop Elements, or tools and services online or at your local photofinishing center provide the page templates to create the kind of book you’d expect to find on a coffee table.

Choose a design theme, drag and drop your photos, add text, and then place or upload your order. It really can be that simple and cheap: $30 for a 20-page hardboard book with dust cover through iPhoto services.

Of course, not every property warrants such special handling, but for high-end homes, distinctive architecture, and breathtaking views, browsing a photo book can be a proper introduction when potential buyers visit your listing. And for listing presentations, it’s another marketing strategy that says you’re full service when it comes to promoting your listings.

The opportunities don’t stop there. The same imaging software and services also allow you to create professional-quality paperbacks, calendars, picture postcards, and even custom stamps and other novelties from your photos.

The possibilities are only limited by your imagination: promote the area, sell the development through its story in words and picture, chronicle the construction or renovation of a home, or create a picture guide of local landmarks — and do it all with style.

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Prices are the vendors’ suggested retail prices and are subject to change. This list isn’t comprehensive; NAR doesn’t evaluate or endorse these products and isn’t responsible for changes in product info.

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