The National Association of Realtors has several surveys of home buyers proving 20+ quality photos make a home sell faster and for more money. Eighty-four percent of home buyers say that photos and detailed property descriptions are the most important feature when searching for homes online. Professional photos get 61% more views and sell for a higher price!

Quality photos make a difference

Point and shoot digital cameras have revolutionized the industry but they do not make professional grade photos.  If you want professional results, get professional equipment! A Digital SLR (DSLR) with interchangeable lenses is needed! Operating one of these cameras isn’t incredibly difficult, but it does take time and education. Not only do you have to think about the camera body but more importantly the lenses. The lens really determines the quality of the photo and how much of a room you can get into a frame. Smaller rooms can sometime be a challenge to get the room in one frame, point and shoot cameras will cut off part of the room or give lenses distortion making the celling look like its bending. A DSLR camera with a wide angle lens can get that photo! DSLR cameras also will accurately display colors. You spent the extra money for Brazilian Hardwood floors, you wanted the right color and look, and don’t you want it to be right in the photos?

Having an “eye” for images is something that can’t be taught! So even if two people have the same equipment the results will be dramatically different. Knowing the right angles or zoom level takes an “eye”.  Again, the goal is for your home to stand out in a positive way.

As a homeowner, you may want to really think about how much you have in a room. Clutter will distract a buyer and make your home appear small. See our post on clutter!

We have lots of great photos, now let’s get them online!

The Lynchburg and Roanoke Board of Realtors allows up to 30 photos of a property in their Multiple Listing Service (MLS). While this is a great place to shop for homes it is not user friendly such as sites like REALTOR.CO, homes.com, or Zillow.com.  Year after year more home shoppers use these three sites than anywhere else on the web with looking for a new home. REALTOR.COM only gives most agents 4 pictures per listing. So, only 4 photos of your home will appear unless the agent has subscribed to enhanced listings allowing up to 25 photos of each listing. Many area homes do not appear on Zillow.com and Homes.com because the agent doesn’t upload their listings to the service. That is right, two of the three places to best market your home many agents are not using! Therefore your home is only being shown to 1/3 of the market place.

Why Witt-Fogleman

Scott Fogleman is a published photo journalist. He work has appeared in many national, regional and local publications. Wendy Witt first started photography when she was in college, showing lots of promise she became an avid hobbyist. They use Canon DSLE cameras with a variety of Canon, Sigma, and Tamron lenses.

Wendy and Scott are a husband and wife Real Estate team who co-list everything (no additional charge). We serve Lynchburg, Bedford, and the surrounding area.

We subscribe to REALTORS.com enhanced listing service, giving each one of our listings up to 25 photos. We also use REALTOR.com featured homes, this places one of our listings at the bottom and the top of each page when a person searches inside our zip codes.

We offer showcase advertising on Zillow.com and homes.com, meaning your home will come up first in any search where your home means the criteria.

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