Visual Marketing for Different Kinds of Properties

Most real estate agents will tell you that quality photography is one of the most important tools for marketing their listings. In fact, great photography is at the very heart of marketing any property, allowing potential buyers to make an emotional connection to the home, even before seeing it in person. On the other hand, poor photography can also be an immediate turn off to potential buyers, causing them to bypass the listing entirely. Done poorly, it can even lower the perceived value of the property.

Photos Can Make or Break a Listing

These are more than just anecdotal opinions. NAR’s annual Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers is a long-standing resource from the association which evaluates consumer behavior and preferences. It has shown that listings with photography will hold a potential buyer’s attention for at least 20 seconds, compared to a mere 2 seconds for a listing without images. Most shockingly, 84 percent of home buyers said they wouldn’t even consider a listing if it didn’t include photos.

Use the Right Media for the Property

Different kinds of properties benefit from different kinds of visual marketing approaches. While you might want to set up an entire landing page with aerial video footage for a luxury property, the same approach would be overkill for a home that’s more closely aligned with the national median price point.

What’s more, visual marketing strategies and tactics are different for various types of homes (luxury condo, single-family home, vacation home, city vs. rural, etc), making it even more complicated. What works for your type of property in your particular market just depends.

You may wish to do a little competitive analysis and scope out how other colleagues are making their visual marketing stand out. If comfortable doing so, you can even go to them for tips and advice on how they got to where they are with their photography skills.

The Elements of Quality Real Estate Photography

So, given the importance of photography, how do you know the best way to visually market your listings? Whether you choose to work with a professional photographer or not, it’s important that you understand the basics of quality real estate photography. 

#1. The Right Skills

Only after you determine the type of visual content that will work best for the property—photo, video, aerial—can you determine who will be best to do the work. There is no right or wrong answer here (unless you’re talking about who is legally authorized to operate a drone). Depending on your skill level, in some cases you will be able to do the photography yourself. In other instances, you will definitely need to hire a professional.

#2. The Right Equipment

If you’re doing to work yourself, you’ll have to rent or purchase the right equipment. To get the shots that will really help sell your property, it’s time to consider putting down your smartphone. You may need an ultra-wide-angle lens, an external flash, a tripod, and editing software. It might be a great idea to make friends at your local photography store so they can advise you, or find a good online resource or tips guide.

#3. The Right Styling

There are some simple tips for preparing the home for your photoshoot. Prepare the house much in the same way you would for an open house—turn on all available lights, declutter the space, remove all cars from the driveway to freely show the entire exterior of the home, and more.  Learn from trial and error, as sometimes the only way to know what works is to play around with the variables of the shoot onsite and see what works best.

#4. The Right Composition

For real estate photos, there are some tips that you can use to help ensure that your shots of the home have the best composition. For instance, always show a third wall, show your rooms in thirds, use the lines of the room to draw the eyes through the space, utilize objects in the foreground, and more. It cannot be overstated how much of an impact lighting can have, so it will make sense for you to spend more time and resources on good lighting.

Taking It to the Next Level

While many real estate agents choose to work with a professional photographer, other agents choose to photograph their listings themselves. To learn more about the equipment you’ll need to shoot professional-looking shots, how to get the right exposure, tips for making your property photo shoot ready and more, sign up for our course How to Shoot Real Estate Photography Like a Pro today. This course was co-developed with VHT® Studios, a leading real estate consultant and service provider located in the Chicagoland area.


AgentEDU® is a platform where agents at every level can come to watch 10-minute video courses for the many situations that successful agents must master. From essential to advanced level and everything in between, AgentEDU® courses help agents become top producers with increased earnings and a plan for continued growth. For a 7-day free trial sign up here.

AgentEDU® is an Agent Publishing brand. For nearly two decades, Agent Publishing has been committed to providing residential real estate professionals with the information and training required to build successful and meaningful careers in their local markets. Agent Publishing’s influence extends to every career stage and reaches agents across print, digital, events and online learning.

Getting Online Reviews: 3 Tips for Real Estate Agents

As a real estate agent, your online presence and social media reputation play a vital role in your business — perhaps more than you may recognize. Nearly every homebuyer these days will begin their search online and look for online reviews to check out what people are saying about you.

Many business owners only think of Yelp, but reviews are everywhere online. Not surprisingly, 89% of clients search for information about a real estate agent online before making the decision to contact them at all. 

That said, glowing online reviews can not only help to enhance and build your online profile — they are likely the deciding factor in a potential buyer or seller’s decision to contact you or use your services. In fact, the NAR Profile of Buyers and Sellers indicates that home sellers value the reputation of an agent (31%) more than any other factor when selecting an agent to sell their home. 

So, whether you’re trying to gain more reviews on your Yelp page, on your Facebook business page, or for your realtor.com or Zillow profile, let’s look at some must-remember tips for success:

#1. Let Clients Know About Your Online Profiles 

There’s a fine line between making your clients uncomfortable by aggressively and openly asking for reviews versus simply letting them know about your online profiles and their ability to leave a review if they’re comfortable. 

To ensure your clients know about their ability to leave a review, consider adding your social profiles to your website and email signature. If you have a Yelp page, for example, you can add a Yelp button to your email signature, which can immediately take them to your profile. If you’re a broker, you may also consider adding social media icons to your brokerage’s storefront. 

#2. Make Engagement a Priority 

Most seasoned real estate agents run drip email campaigns that keep their sphere of influence up-to-date on market conditions, new listings, or even community events. 

As part of your ongoing engagement and lead nurturing, consider adding your new testimonials to the footer of your email. Or, perhaps you ask your client if you can feature their review in your latest e-blast or blog. Ideally, you would ask only after they’ve provided a review on their own terms — without you instigating it. 

This not only helps your testimonials and reviews be seen by a wider audience, but it can also be a nice way of showing your clients you appreciate the time it took for them to review you … which leads us to our next point … 

#3. Show Your Thanks 

Always send a quick note or Thank You card to your client for their review. And, if the review was less than stellar, you should still reach out. This is a great opportunity to acknowledge the feedback and put steps into place to learn and grow from the experience. 

If you find yourself getting too emotional about negative reviews, you might also consider asking a trusted confidant or admin at your brokerage to help formulate responses. 

Grow Your Online Reputation 

The importance of online reviews and your social reputation grows with every click of a potential client’s mouse. To learn more about increasing your online presence, sign up for our AgentEDU® course Yelp for Your Real Estate Business today. 


AgentEDU® is a platform where agents at every level can come to watch 10-minute video courses for the many situations that successful agents must master. From essential to advanced level and everything in between, AgentEDU® courses help agents become top producers with increased earnings and a plan for continued growth. For a 7-day free trial sign up here.

AgentEDU® is an Agent Publishing brand. For nearly two decades, Agent Publishing has been committed to providing residential real estate professionals with the information and training required to build successful and meaningful careers in their local markets. Agent Publishing’s influence extends to every career stage and reaches agents across print, digital, events and online learning.