Our Best Tips: How to Create Stellar Pictures & Videos of Your Property

Do you crave success as a new housing developer? Creating and using high-quality property pictures and videos would magically enhance all of your marketing projects – this is a fact. Today, fewer potential buyers and renters are touring properties in person and are opting, instead, to find information on new housing developments via the Internet. This means that now more than ever, eye-catching pictures of your property in your digital marketing materials can single-handedly reel in prospects during the first stage of their buyer journey.

Amazing-quality videos of your property can propel your marketing success to the stratosphere. All marketers know, by now, that video advertisements drive higher engagement and conversion rates than ads centered on still images. Landing pages that include video drive conversions by up to 80% — these also garner more organic traffic from search engines. Know that a video tour on your website can close the conversion gap for interested prospects when they are not able to visit in person.

So how do you create pictures and videos that ‘pop’ and attract attention to your marketing materials? Read on for some good tips:

How to Create Pictures that Work for You

First, hire the right photographer to shoot high-quality pictures for you (or have your agency partner step in to do that for you). Whichever option you decide, there are a number of things you can do to make sure the assets on your property website, marketing collateral, social media sites, display ads, and Google My Business page, reflect quality and your brand message.

The Right Camera Angles

Interested prospects want to see as much of your new housing development project as possible, and you, in turn, want them to see the best side of the entire new community. Careful curation of your shot list will mean both you and your potential clients get what you’re looking for.

First, evaluate what key competitive advantages your property offers in the market and take shots that illustrate these handsomely. Is the property in a to-die-for location? Take exterior shots that show off the neighborhood and how well your community meshes within it. Do you have a state-of-the-art gym on the property? Be proud to feature it! Does your on-site staff provide world-class service? Take pictures of the smiling team in the sales or leasing office.

When you’re proud of what your developer team built, show it off! Make sure your interested potential customers can find pictures of as many amenities as possible of your new community, particularly the home’s amenities. Prospects will be eager to know what the bedroom, living room, kitchen, bathrooms, and living room look like – this is vital to having them dreamily envision themselves living in your new community in the future.

Whether you’re photographing the gym, the pool, or the interiors of a home, it’s important to have good photo composition. Have your photographer show interiors and exteriors from the point of view of your prospects, as if they were touring in person, but also have them photograph areas proven to generate the most visual interest, such as pleasing aesthetics. For example, capture your kitchen from a spot that features the custom cabinetry, the modern lighting, the stainless-steel oven, and the kitchen island all-in-one; avoid taking pictures that only show a few elements – like the sink and dishwasher only – amid empty space such as floors and ceilings.

Mind the Lighting

Good-quality lighting is absolutely critical with natural lighting being the best, even for interior shots. According to the experts, the best times to photograph your community space, when you want natural lighting, are a few hours after dawn and a few hours before sunset, otherwise known as the golden hour. These times ensure optimal light without magnified shadows or harsh brightness.

If you have little or no natural light in an indoor space, consider contributing an additional light source (one specifically made for photography, if possible) that diffuses light well, but doesn’t create exaggerated shadows or photos that are too washed out with light.

Stage the Property

Do maximum justice to your new home community by not featuring empty homes and apartments in your photographs. When possible, carefully stage your model unit with stylish décor so that its full potential highly impresses your prospects. This means throwing in warm, homey items like towels that hang in the bathroom, a rug that highlights the dining room furniture, silk flower plants on the kitchen island that accents the room, and so on. Stylish staging is key to having your prospects fall in love with your brand-new home. Be careful of clutter though, plants, books, and vases might look great for a model tour, but they can look messy in a photo.