People, including agents, often underestimate the importance of photographs in home listings. Given that most home buyers now start their search online, it is critical that there be photographs of homes and that the photos are good.

Some agents are a bit lazy and neglect to put more than one or two photos. This should be unacceptable to sellers because it does not properly showcase the home and in this market sellers need every advantage they can get. I often see listings that have 1 photo and it is a screenshot from Google Earth. While Google is great, using a street view photo as a lead photo in a listing is not good marketing.

Most good agents take the time to provide a sampling of photos that show many of the attributes of the home. In some cases, even with the best intentions, the photos just don’t do justice to the home. I ran across this photo the other day. The listing is great and has lots of detail, there are many photos and most are great, but this one photo was just not up to the par of the others.

Nice home, but out of focus photo

I recently found a great new camera that can help solve these types of out-of-focus shots. The Lytro camera would have helped with this photo, because the agent could have corrected the focus when he got home even if the original shot was a little off.

This camera is not only great for real estate agents, it is also great for any camera user. Using the Lytro to take a photo of kids playing allows you to go back and change the focus later. It is great for action shots.