Selling a home in this competitive housing market can be a challenge. While several studies have pointed out what works and what doesn't, pictures have always been a key to attracting potential buyers. And to amp it up a little more, realtors have started staging their listings, giving them virtual makeovers.
A new feature by CNBC sheds light on the trend of staged home listings, where the online listing photographs are polished by an expert. The virtual renovations reportedly work like magic.
CNBC cites a listing by Halstead property, where realtor Matthew Leone put a 4,000-square-foot home on the market with normal photographs, but later hired an architect to make the home look what it would like when latest appliances and interior décor touches are added. Traffic on the listing, after the makeover, reportedly went up by 30 percent.
"When you're in a highly competitive market like New York City, you're always looking to do something that the competitor does not have," Leone told the website.
"Our job is to help sell that listing; it's also to help get our next listing. If we represent the client right, that broker is going to be referred to many others because we're going the extra mile," he added.
Real estate marketing has indeed taken sharp turns at several levels with technological advancements. The entire experience of pitching a house to prospective buyers has taken a completely different angle. Old school solicited home tours are gone.
A recent study by VHT Studios, one of the largest real estate photography firms in the U.S., found that homes with professional interior photos sold 32 percent faster than those that didn't have an expert behind the lens.
In the modern era of technology, staged home videos have also become popular where the realtors tell a story while using all the features of the house giving it a movie-like feeling.
Some realtors believe that videos will help maximize the number of audience a seller usually reaches to. Curt Hahn, CEO of Filmhouse, believes that videos could help people fall in love with homes that they never considered earlier, according to an earlier feature on ABC News.
But it's not just that. The home has to be authentic to its pitched promises. Experts assert that it's important that a buyer inspects a property physically before making a final purchase decision because "nothing beats the naked eye", according to Highlands Today.
