GUEST POST: THE BENEFITS OF PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY FOR RENTAL PROPERTIES
Marketing is a lot easier when you can speak face-to-face with customers. But sadly, this is not how people advertise most rental properties today. Even if most renters want to inspect the home before they rent, you first have to win their interest online.
Online customers are inundated with choices and have notoriously short attention spans. Within nanoseconds, they make up their minds if you have something to say to them or not. That decision will emanate from nothing other than the immediate impression your ad made on them.
When dealing online, your success is not from the value of your offer. It is by the ability of your message to grab eyeballs. The rental’s quality comes a distant second to the power of your marketing to win attention, says T-Square Real Estate Services. That is the reality when selling online.
The question is how do you make a deep enough impression, within split seconds, on the over-stimulated brain of your target to make them stop, look and listen?
MAXIMIZING IMPACT THROUGH VISUAL MARKETING
Visual marketing operates on the idea that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Images convey messages in ways that words cannot because you can pack images with emotions. To deliver the level of impact that an image accomplishes in seconds, you need words spanning several minutes.
Images can cram so much information into the brief moment that a customer’s eyes engage with them. That is why visual marketing has become the primary way to draw attention to a property, and the most basic form of visual marketing for real estate is photography.
It is not the photography everyone does with their Smartphone, but the art and science of creating captivating images that move people to take positive actions. There is a whole world of difference between taking a picture to capture a moment and taking a snapshot to sell a product.
When a professional photographer takes pictures of a rental property, they look at it through the lens of the target renter’s desires. They think of how the customer will view the lighting, colors, furniture, and décor in the room. They also look at what the customer would like to see in the rental.
Professional photographers use a combination of physics, interior design, color psychology, cultural attitudes, and the behavior of color in the digital medium to create the perfect images for a rental. That is why a professional photographer may take several hours looking for the perfect shot.
Amateur photographers, on the other hand, take only a few minutes. But the difference between the art created by an expert and the pictures taken by an amateur is the “wow effect” that makes people stop in their stride to look at the professional photos. That is what you want when you market your rental property.
WHY YOU SHOULD USE PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY FOR YOUR RENTAL
When a professional photographer creates pictures of the rental, the results are:
1. VIRAL MARKETING
Professional photos increase the reach of your marketing. If the images of a rental are attractive, even people who are not looking to rent the home will have the urge to view the ad and share the pictures. Professional photographs make your marketing more effective than it would have been otherwise.
2. THE PROPERTY RENTS FASTER
Professional photographs help you gain more inquiries from prospective tenants. Attractive and shareable images increase the chances of the advert landing in front of your perfect tenant. Getting more people to love the pictures of a rental property will help the home rent faster.
3. YOU ATTRACT HIGHER-QUALITY TENANTS
In a sea of mediocre photographs, a rental with professional snapshots will stand out. Prospective tenants who see the ads will view the home as a high-value rental property. The result is you will have higher quality tenants making inquiries about the home.
People treat their home as a status symbol, even when they are renting. A rental home that looks like it can confer status on the tenants will attract more inquiries. More inquiries mean you can minimize vacancies and maximize earnings from the property.
2. SERVE AS AN ACCURATE RECORD OF THE RENTAL AT TENANT MOVE-IN
In all probability, you will take detailed photographs of the home as part of your processes for documenting the home’s condition at tenant move-in. Pictures taken by a professional photographer can serve this purpose.
3. PROFESSIONAL PHOTOS ARE A TAX-DEDUCTIBLE EXPENSE
You can deduct the cost of professional photography before you pay your taxes. If you don’t hire a professional photographer, you lose in two ways. You will pay the money you should have paid the photographer to the government, but you will not benefit from having professional photographs.
4. PROFESSIONAL PHOTOS CAN HELP YOU SELL THE PROPERTY
Since you will probably sell the rental property at some point, you can use the same pictures you use when advertising for tenants to publicize for buyers. The cost of hiring a professional photographer is an investment because you can use the photos over and over.