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In the world of real estate, first impressions are not just important – they’re everything. 

In this digital age, potential buyers are scrolling through dozens of listings at a lightning pace. What will make them pause and take an interest in your property? The answer lies in the powerful appeal of high-quality real estate photos.

Whether you’re a professional real estate photographer, a savvy agent, or a home seller looking to attract serious buyers, this blog post shares key steps to harnessing real estate photos to build buyer trust.

Let’s jump straight in!

Top 7 Tips for Trustworthy Real Estate Photos

A picture is worth a thousand words, and in real estate, it could be worth thousands of dollars. 

The images you choose to represent a home can have a profound impact on a buyer’s emotions and their trust in the listing.

Here are 7 tips on how to build buyer trust with real estate photos. 

1. Understanding Your Target Audience

Before we snap that perfect shot, it’s vital to understand our target audience. 

Real estate photographers, agents, and home sellers need to cater to the expectations and preferences of prospective buyers. 

Try to research the target audience in your local area to understand how to best present the home you’re marketing. This will help you understand what your potential buyers value in a home and what features to highlight.

Remember to always use high-quality images that accurately reflect the condition and features of a property. This will reassure buyers about the integrity of your listing and avoid possible disappointments when visiting the home.

2. Honesty Is the Best Policy

The first rule in building trust is honesty. Your real estate photos should be a true representation of the property. 

Watch out to create images that are not necessarily based on reality. Photo manipulation is a bad idea that can be illegal when it comes to real estate marketing.

Making a property appear more attractive or desirable than it really is can be misleading and could potentially lead to disappointment or mistrust when buyers or renters see the property in person.

The potential buyer might get ticked off and will most likely leave without placing an offer on your home, and possibly even give the agent or seller a bad reputation. 

Additionally, avoid using wide-angle lenses excessively as these can distort space and set unrealistic expectations.

3. Quality Over Quantity

61.3% of brokers believe high-quality photography is ‘crucial’ for selling homes and 32% of homes with high-quality photographs sell faster than those without visuals. 

A high-quality image will say more about a property than a large number of lower-quality ones. So, ensure proper lighting and staging to showcase the property at its best, but stay true to reality.

Aim for natural colors and lighting. Strike a balance between enhancing a photo’s appeal and maintaining authenticity.

A tip to consider…

According to recent studies, using a twilight image as the listing’s main photo averaged 76% more views than listings without the use of twilight images. 

Twilight images look captivating and can enhance real estate photos if done correctly. But remember to not over-edit your images and make them look over-saturated and cartoonish.

4. Offer a Complete View of the Property With a Virtual Tour

Provide a comprehensive view of the property with a virtual house tour. Recent studies found that real estate listings featuring virtual tours are clicked on 40% more often than those using still photos alone.

Including a virtual house tour in your listing will offer buyers an interactive and detailed view of the home. They can explore it in real time, without physically visiting the property. 

This technology showcases the property’s features, space, and layout, as well as enables prospective buyers to get a complete understanding of the house they’re interested in buying. 

In other words, it gives potential buyers a full understanding of what to expect.

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5. Disclose Virtual Staging

Virtual staging by PhotoUp

Virtual staging is a powerful marketing and visualization tool that is popular amongst real estate professionals. This technology has some significant benefits such as:

  • It costs a fraction of the cost of traditional home staging. In fact, virtual staging is up to 97% cheaper than regular staging
  • You can use it to stage empty rooms, as well as do virtual repairs or redecorations
  • You don’t need to hire a stager to actually move furniture. Nor do you need to rent or buy furniture and decor
  • Virtual staging is way faster than regular home staging and can be done in under 48 hours
  • And you can cater to any market with the use of different design styles and furniture

If you use virtual staging to stage empty or outdated rooms, you need to disclose that your images are virtually staged.

This doesn’t only protect you against legal issues, but it also helps buyers understand that the home may not be properly furnished when they get there.

Simply, labeling your images as “virtual staging” and adding clear before and after photos of the space will prevent potential buyers from feeling deceived when they see the home in person.

If you can’t label your images, you can add a disclosure text that lets people know that your images are digitally altered.

Here’s an example of a disclaimer you can add to your marketing copy:

“Some images have been virtually staged to better showcase the true potential of rooms and spaces in the home.”

6. Reflect the Community

Don’t forget to snap some shots of the neighborhood or local landmarks. 

Pictures that show the surrounding community help buyers learn about the area and envision their potential life in the new home.

In these situations, aerial photography is your go-to tool to provide a bird’s eye view of the property. 

Drones are equipped with onboard cameras, allowing them to capture images from high up in the sky or from far away. 

Looking down from an aerial view can give potential buyers a better understanding of the size and layout of the property, as well as provide an overview of the surrounding area, ensuring buyers the property fits their needs.

Plus, statistics show that homes with drone photos or aerial photos sell 68% faster, which is worth considering.

7. Consistency Is Key

Maintain a consistent look across all your photos for professional coherence. Consistency reinforces credibility and helps buyers to visualize the property as a whole. 

The best way to ensure maximum consistency is to outsource your real estate editing to a PhotoUp dedicated editor.

PhotoUp Dedicated Photo Editor
PhotoUp Dedicated Photo Editor

Working with a dedicated editor means the same photo editor or a team of photo editors work on all your images and accounts. 

Besides, a dedicated editor can help you with additional tasks such as:

  • Photo culling and organization
  • Consistency of style and quality
  • Easy custom branding and labeling
  • Account management and photo delivery and placement

They can even help you with other real estate marketing tasks, including:

Overall, a dedicated editor can improve your real estate photos in the best, quickest, and most efficient manner, saving you time and money, while also building buyer trust with photo-realistic images.

Trust Is the Linchpin in any Real Estate Transaction

Real estate photos can make or break a sale. They are an essential tool in not only catching the eye of prospective buyers but also in laying a foundation of trust. 

Remember that trust is the linchpin in any real estate transaction. Once broken, it’s nearly impossible to regain. 

Therefore, ensure your images are high-quality and honest, and present the property in its truest form.

For real estate photographers, agents, and home sellers, every shutter click should be aimed at winning confidence as much as adorning the listing. 

Every image has a story to tell, and if told correctly, it should culminate in a signed deed.

By adhering to these guidelines, you’re on your way to creating engaging, trustworthy visual content that will help your listings stand out and sell. 

Good luck, and may your real estate photos build the trust that bridges buyers to their new homes.

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Need Help With Real Estate Photo Editing? Choose PhotoUp!

If you need help with real estate photo editing to boost image quality and trust, you should make PhotoUp first on your call list!

PhotoUp offers the leading full-time and truly dedicated offshore professionals in real estate photo editing, starting at the low cost of $1.10 per image depending on the subscription and complexity. 

Our skilled photo editors can help with the following issues:

  • Improper exposure levels
  • Harsh shadows, lack of light, etc.
  • Blurred images that were taken without a tripod
  • Images that need cropping or other effects
  • Lawn greening and sky replacements
  • Twilight editing and day-to-dusk conversions
  • HDR editing
  • Clutter and object removal
  • Line and angle corrections
  • And much more!

You will never have to worry about late deliveries with our fast turnaround time of 12-24 hours for basic editing. 

User-friendly and Intelligent Software

With our user-friendly software, you can easily send and deliver photos, request revisions, and deliver final images to your clients. As well as tap into an array of additional services to help grow your real estate photography business.

All you need to do is sign up for a free PhotoUp account and get started uploading your images. In less than 24 hours, you’ll be able to download your beautifully edited real estate photos and use them however you like!

PhotoUp Real Estate Photo Editing Uploader Demo

Check out how easy it is to get started using PhotoUp’s software in our real estate photo editing uploader demo:

It’s really as quick and easy as 1-2-3!

Join PhotoUp today and experience the convenience and quality that we offer. For a limited time, we even offer 10 free credits when signing up for an account that you can use for any of our services!

We hope this blog post showed you how to build buyer trust with your real estate photos. Before you go, you may also want to check out the following resources:

Stina Pettersson

Professional Blogger

Stina is an entrepreneur, digital marketer, and professional blogger who's passionate about real estate photo editing, being outdoors with her pup, and sweaty gym sessions. She loves the written word and has been writing for publications like Forbes and Thrive Global. Originally from Sweden, she's called South Florida her home since 2013.

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