Photos are the #1 factor when selling a house. For 87% of buyers the photos determine their initial assessment of a property, and 83% cite it as the most useful resource for evaluating. That’s why we must get this piece right. 

It is a common misnomer that summer photos are the best photos. The best photos are current photos.

Susan Engel points out that the Fall listings that show Summer pictures have probably been on the market too long. That’s a clear signal it’s a stale listing. 

Now, with the newfound interest in “private listings” the risk of using old photos is doubly true, signaling that a house might have been out there in the private market for some time.

There is a subconscious reaction against the Summer photo in Winter, kind of like the assault on our senses when we encounter Christmas decorations in October. We want what is appropriate for the season. Now is the time for apples, not oranges, and since Connecticut houses look beautiful in every season, let’s celebrate seasonality. On a side note, in Connecticut we put our white pants away after Labor Day and rediscover them next Spring.

Some photos are timeless: the architectural ones, full of right angles, surfaces and textures, solidly grounded with an horizon line. For example, the kitchen photo, a symphony of wood and stone and stainless steel might include a bowl of lemons for color, resisting any effort to reveal to the viewer when it was taken. 

Include fresh flowers to introduce a splash of color on photo day. Long after the flowers have expired they’ll live in our memory, and in our listings. I once sneaked in a chocolate labrador in a listing shot and was promptly reprimanded. Cat people buy houses too.

Can I take a moment to rage against bad drone photography? Don’t misunderstand, there’s a place for it; we need a drone shot to tell the story, give some context to the story we’re telling. The problem is that most drone shots are abstract and roofs are ugly. People don’t fly (yet) so we’re not trained to grasp most homes from the sky, all roof and asphalt, a patchwork of greens. Without (superimposed) property lines we’re lost, wondering what’s included. A drone shot, preferably from a low angle, showing off the relationship between house and pool, and relative privacy of the setting, is a good thing. Houses with drone shots sell 68% faster. Make it a good one.

How many photos is enough? There are two schools of thought on this and one right answer.

One says if the system let you upload 40 photos, then upload all 40. More is better. They believe the Internet is like shopping in a supermarket, where more shelf space means occupying more of a shopper’s attention.

Conversely Miller’s Principal says we absorb and remember about 7 images, so limit yourself maybe a dozen. This is a hard rule to follow when the house is large and the property complicated.

The sweet spot, according to Zillow, is 20-27 images. Buyers perceive listings with few pictures as incomplete or suspicious.

Agents will complain “Why are there no bathroom photos? Is it because the bathrooms are awful?” Maybe It’s because it’s hard to get a good picture in the bathroom, maybe it’s misplaced modesty. I say put it all out there. Bathrooms are no longer private spaces and the best of them will make a difference when marketing the house.

We always need a full set of what I call documentary photos to, well, document the house. Every room, probably from more than one angle, reminding us of everything we saw on the tour of the house, reinforcing, detailing. Sometimes buyers will ask what happened to this or that, something they saw in the photos. Better to remove any fixture you don’t want included before it becomes part of the record and a potential pain point.

Every iPhone now comes with an ultra-wide lens that provides 120-degree field of view. Please, fight the urge to use it, that lens was never meant for real estate. It is a natural human tendency to try and get the whole room in the shot. The first thing we do is we find a corner and shoot to the opposite corner so that we can capture two of the four walls and everything in between. And if we can’t capture everything, we switch to the ultra-wide lens on our phone. What I have just described is the worst possible photograph in real estate, a photograph that is all floor and ceiling, with the subject matter pushed further away and distorted edges.  Nikon introduced the ultra wide lens in 1976 but in 50 years you’ve never seen examples from it in the pages of Architectural Digest or Country Living. Pick up any house magazine and notice that most of the shots are straight on, with a clear horizon line. 

It’s true of many family photos or any large group. You don’t want to be on the edges of a wide-angle photo because the edges are distorted and makes us look fat.

Some photos are moody. That’s not the first set of photos. That’s the second set of photos, where you’re asking yourself, “How do I cut through the clutter of houses that all look alike? How do I stand out in the crowd?” Buyers are clicking, “Seen it, seen it, seen it, oh, is that a new listing?”

We use them to breathe new life into a listing that everyone has seen, a way to present it in a different way or to call attention to some quality we think the world missed.

I include a moody photo of from my listing on Brushy Ridge by a photographer we affectionately call “the prince of darkness”. Alan Barry’s signature style relies on high contrast in his photos with a direct light on specific features. It’s cool, but it’s not for everybody. It’s risky to set your listing apart with a theatrical look.

Notes from the Monday Meeting: Why are we always surprised at the seasonal slowdown in activity? It happens every year. There are fewer listings coming out, fewer open house visitors, fewer showings. But this does not necessarily mean wait till Spring. In January we compete with the anticipation of new listings, and by April we are competing with the actual abundance of new listings, and only then does the energy begin to change where buyers begin to think that they’ve seen everything that’s coming. All of this suggests that there is no bad time of year to list or buy, only trade-offs.

John Engel is a broker on the Engel Team at Douglas Elliman, and he wants more fireflies, bees and butterflies. A wildflower meadow is a long-term commitment that firefly expert Bill McDonald says starts with no pesticides and clean water. When the native pollinator plants flourish the bees, butterflies and fireflies will follow. This month the New Canaan Garden Club is gathering seed heads from the meadow, preparing for Spring (and so can we). John is planting Joe-Pye weed, Ironweed, Milkweed, Asters and wants to try native Connecticut Blue Flag Irises. Wildlife thrives on native plants, and it’s got to be healthier for the rest of us, and our pets and children as well.

Check out John Engel’s Podcast, Boroughs & Burbs, the National Real Estate Conversation here.

Read this article on the New Canaan Sentinel website here.