It’s been over two years since I launched Salem Realty Media in the Spring of 2022. It’s been a fun ride! As an aside, I run another business, TradeshowGuy Exhibits, but that’s another story. But I mention it because it’s significant to how I approach running Salem Realty Media. I embrace the same philosophy in Salem Realty Media as I have for the last thirteen years with TradeshowGuy Exhibits: If you look good, I look good.
Since starting the business in ’22, I knew that aerial photography was critical in the overall picture of my success. Drone photos are big in the business as they show off a property, while ground photography simply cannot. But when I started, I’d never flown a drone, and I didn’t know what it took. No matter, my good friend, Tony Marino, has a company, Aerial Northwest, that’s been doing drone photography for several years. He’s been my go-to drone pilot and has done a great job for me. But from the start, I told him that I would eventually be doing it once I was ready.
I got ready over the winter. I studied what it took to pass the Part 107 FAA UAS (Unmanned Aerial System) exam, did my homework, and, long story short, I passed the exam on May 1, which made me an officially certified UAS Pilot. In early April, I purchased a DJI Mini 4 Pro, and have spent a lot of hours learning how to fly. I’ve gotten very comfortable, so much so that yesterday morning, I was navigating through the trees in a beautiful shaded backyard, easily grabbing nice shots and staying away from the branches. And it was a piece of cake. A fun job.
With each house shoot, I learned more about what angles are best, how many pictures to take, what is pleasing to the eye, and so on. It’s not hard, and in fact, it’s great fun. But as I posted on Instagram yesterday, it’s also serious. You have to approach it from a careful, detailed, and process-oriented standpoint, going through checklists, checking out the weather, tools, etcetera.
One big thing that I think I’ve almost figured out (fingers crossed!) is the aspect of getting clearance quickly in certain airspaces. Salem is heavily regulated for drone flying, in particular, within five miles of the airport. As a pilot, I’ve learned what needs to be done to get authorization to fly in certain areas. For example, one shoot I did this week is in an area where a UAS pilot needs ATC (Air Traffic Control) authorization to fly, period. In many areas, instant authorization can be obtained to fly up to fifty feet AGL (Above Ground Level), but to fly higher, a special request must be made (with certain exceptions, drones are limited to flying up to 400 feet AGL anywhere in the country).
The challenge with the request is that once it’s been submitted, you’re told it can come within 30 days—or as much as 90. If it isn’t approved, you may never hear back from them at all. It kind of leaves you in the dark. But I’ve made a handful of requests, and they’ve all been approved, most within a few days, but that timeframe is not guaranteed.
The other thing I learned is that there is a huge community of UAS pilots. They’re all enthusiastic about the activity and willing to offer feedback and answer questions. This means that it’s not hard to get real-world experience from people who’ve been there and done that, making it all that much easier.
Want some drone shots of your next listing? Reach out. We’re happy to help!
Shooting a house from the air opens up myriad possibilities to showcase its strengths, from its location in relation to its surroundings to its size and overall layout. However, it also opens up possibilities to showcase its weaknesses, especially if the house is not adequately prepared for the photoshoot.
Sure, you could engage a photographer and have him or her come out the next day, but I would advise that you sit down with the owner and discuss how best to prepare the property for its moment in the spotlight as seen from the air. After all, first impressions are essential, and you and the owner should do all you can to ensure that the house looks good from all angles. To that end, here’s a list of items to check off before the aerial photographer shows up:
1. All People Inside
– Ensure no people are visible during the aerial photography to maintain focus on the property.
2. Vehicle Management
– Remove all cars from the driveway, and do not park directly in front of the house.
3. Trash and Recycling
– Tuck trash cans away inside the garage or place them close to the side of the house out of view.
4. Patio and Deck
– Arrange patio cushions neatly on furniture.
– Set up umbrellas to add color and dimension to the outdoor space.
5. Pool and Hot Tub
– Remove the pool cleaner and store it out of sight.
– Open the hot tub cover to display the interior, making it look inviting.
6. Lawn and Garden
– Mow the lawn and rake any fallen leaves.
– Prune overgrown shrubs and remove weeds.
– Add fresh mulch to garden beds to make the soil look rich and tidy.
– Decorate with colorful potted plants or flowers to add vibrancy.
7. Roof and Gutters
– Clean out gutters and remove any debris from the roof.
8. Outdoor Lighting
– If the shoot is scheduled for late afternoon or early evening, turn on exterior lighting to give the home a welcoming glow.
9. Sports Equipment and Toys
– Store sports equipment, bicycles, and toys out of sight to minimize clutter.
10. Fences and Walkways
– Ensure all fences are in good condition and that gates are closed.
– Sweep walkways and driveways to clear any debris or leaves.
11. Windows and Blinds
– Clean all windows to remove smudges and streaks.
– Adjust blinds or curtains to present uniformly; either all open or all closed to ensure a neat appearance from an aerial view.
This list should help ensure that the property is well-prepared and presented in its best light for aerial photography, making it more attractive to potential buyers.
In today’s competitive real estate market, standing out is not just an advantage; it’s a necessity. Aerial photography has soared in popularity, offering a distinct perspective that can significantly elevate your property listings. Here’s how to harness the power of aerial shots to captivate potential buyers and showcase your properties like never before.
Showcase the Entire Property
Aerial photography provides a comprehensive view of the entire property, highlighting features often missed at ground level. This is particularly beneficial for large estates or properties with unique landscapes. By displaying the full scope and layout of the property, including outbuildings and land, aerial shots ensure that prospective buyers can grasp the true value of the entire premises without setting foot on it.
Showing the full property and how it fits in the surrounding area is critical on some properties
Highlight the Neighborhood and Surroundings
Aerial images can encapsulate the broader context of a property’s location, showcasing proximity to amenities, access to major roadways, and even the quality of nearby schools and parks. For listings in visually stunning areas like Oregon’s Willamette Valley, aerial shots can beautifully capture the lush surroundings and scenic landscapes, adding a strong emotional pull to the visual narrative of the listing.
Delineate the Specific Lot
Outlining lot or plat lines in aerial photographs is crucial, mainly when the size of the lot is a key selling point. For instance, highlighting that the property extends beyond a visible fence can significantly enhance its appeal. Demonstrating the full scope of the lot can motivate buyers by revealing the true extent of the property, which might otherwise go unnoticed.
Differentiate from the Competition
In a sea of standard property photos, aerial imagery stands out. It provides a high-tech feel to your listing and suggests a professional marketing approach, setting the property and the realtor apart. Utilizing drones for aerial photography adds value to the presentation and boosts the perceived innovation and effort invested in marketing the property.
Optimal Lighting and Conditions
Consider the time of day and weather conditions to make the most of aerial photography. Early morning or late afternoon offers soft natural light, enhancing the aesthetic appeal of your property with warm tones and long shadows. Clear, sunny days are ideal, but a dramatic cloud formation can add an intriguing element to your visuals, ensuring they grab attention and stir curiosity.
Compliance and Safety
Always ensure that aerial photography is conducted by a licensed professional, adhering to all local regulations. Safety and legality are paramount, as unauthorized drone operations can lead to fines and other legal issues.
Incorporating aerial photography into your real estate listings enhances the visual appeal and provides a fuller understanding of a property’s potential. By offering these unique bird’s-eye views, you’re not just selling a property but providing a dream and a lifestyle.
You can do dozens of things to create a buzz for a new listing: social media, staging (virtual or physical), professional photography and videography, and more. We recently sat down with Molly Edwards of HomeSmart and quizzed her on how she uses a cohort of professionals to make her listings stand out.
Video Transcript:
(:00 – Narrator): When professionally capturing real estate photography, what does it really take to transform a house into a home? What does it really take to sell a home quicker and for the highest possible price? How proficiently you proceed as a professional real estate photographer and successful real estate broker is primarily dependent upon your process technique and creative vision.
Let’s consider the three imperatives: process, technique and creative vision in the context of real estate photography and real estate marketing. In this presentation of professional teamwork, real estate photographer Tim Patterson of Salem Realty Media explains how he proceeds when capturing stunning real estate photography, and real estate broker Molly Edwards of HomeSmart Group Salem shares some of her best practices when developing and implementing her real estate marketing strategy.
First, we begin with the process. In real estate photography and real estate marketing, the process is a systematic series of steps designed to transform a property into an appealing home. This involves organized planning, coordination, and execution, from understanding client needs and property features to the final delivery of marketing materials. Tasks include scheduling, property assessment, photography, sessions, editing, and the development of marketing strategies. A well-structured process ensures efficiency and consistency, contributing to the successful presentation of a property as a desirable home.
(2:09 – Molly) I find integrating professional photography and videography in my marketing plan is essential to bringing in the most interest in a property and helping my sellers get the most value they can when selling their home. 70% of home buyers are finding their next property online.So it’s very important for me to put their home in the best light possible from the get-go. So that means having the professionals take care of the photography, the drone footage, the videography so that people can get a real sense of what that home looks like from outside to inside the neighborhood that it sits in and so forth. It’s so important.
(3:00 – Tim) I’ve owned my own business for over a dozen years, and my philosophy has always been, if the client looks good, I look good, no matter who that client is, whether it’s a marketing person for a big company or whether it’s an agent that’s trying to sell a new home. So I wanna make sure they look good. And the way I do that is focus on what makes the home special when I’m shooting real estate photography.
(3:22 – Narrator) Next, we consider technique in real estate photography and real estate marketing technique is the artful application of methods to showcase properties optimally. This involves mastering the technical aspects of photography, such as composition and light and utilizing post processing for effective feature highlighting. Beyond photography, technique extends to understanding the target audience, selecting suitable promotional channels and leveraging digital tools for maximum effect. Successful real estate professionals, especially photographers, must adeptly balance technical finesse with strategic marketing elements to create compelling visual content that resonates with potential buyers.
(4:15 – Molly) I have noticed that visual tools such as floor plans and video walkthroughs have become so important, especially post-COVID. And during COVID, we saw a lot of people moving during that time and a lot of people starting to be able to work from home. So location, where they were living, didn’t necessarily need to be close to their workplace. So we’ve seen a lot of migration during that time and we’ve seen a lot of people buying from out of state. And depending on their travel, what they’re able to do, not everybody is able to get into a property to tour it in person. So having floor plans and video walkthroughs is a very important piece of the marketing plan so that more people can see that property and get a sense of what it feels like without even having to step foot into it.
(5:08 – Tim) In my work with real estate agents over the last 18 months or so, I find that I ask them, ‘what do you like?’ And answers are not the same as you might imagine. But what’s kind of common is that most people like a very straight up and down vertical line and very straight horizontal lines. So that’s one of the goals and you have to set up your camera and there’s a couple of things, there’s a leveler on the camera that I always set and then, I want to make sure that I’ve got the, the height right. And it’s a, uh, my waist height or a little bit, uh, more than that, that’s the perfect height. Too high and everything looks distorted, too low, everything looks distorted. So that’s kinda how I start the setup of taking pictures at a, at a home.
(5:46 – Narrator) And finally, we focus upon creative vision. Creative vision in real estate photography and real estate marketing is the artful perspective that transcends the mere capture of physical attributes. It involves making imaginative choices to telling a compelling story about a particular property. Photographer Tim Patterson and Broker Molly Edwards, utilized creative vision to highlight a living spaces, warmth, showcase unique property characteristics, and convey an aspirational lifestyle to potential buyers. This distinct creative approach adds a memorable quality to marketing materials, setting them apart in the competitive real estate markets.
(6:36 – Molly) I try to bring a higher level of professionalism to all of the work that I do, whether it be with a listing or with a buyer. But on my listing side, in particular, I like to pull on my team and part of my team is a professional photographer and videographer as well as an interior designer/stager. I find that using are pulling on these professionals to help bring everything togetherrteally elevates the listing itself and helps it sell for more. So I will bring in a interior designer to walk through the home at my expense and go through room by room to give suggestions and make tweaks to how the home is set up currently. I can also then hire that same designer to bring in supplemental staging pieces that will photograph really well and make the home appeal to a wider audience. So I feel like doing those things and having those team members to help boost my, what I do, the product that I put out really helps my seller in the long run.
(7:49 – Tim) I wanna make sure I ask the agent if there’s anything special about the house and often, especially in older houses, there are details such as door handles or, or cupboard pulls that are, are unique to that house very old, for instance, but they look great on camera. Other things might be uh a backyard barbecue or something like that or a built in pool. Those types of things. Uh They wanna make sure they call them out and get a good picture of those as well. So I make sure to ask the agent to give them what they really want to serve them the best as I can.
(8:22- Molly) I always look for potential obstacles that a listing may present when I’m marketing it to the public. So a recent example of a property that presented with some obstacles up front was a beautiful home that was located on a busy street. It was located on a busy street with traffic at all hours. Plus it had a very steep driveway. Both of those things could be potential barriers to selling a home. So it just makes it that much more important that I focus on all of the positives that the home has to offer and the potential that it holds for potential buyers. So in that case, what I did was I pulled on my interior designer right away. We emptied the house of the owner’s contents. We brought in beautiful staging materials that would appeal to a mass audience. And then of course, I used my professional photographer to take top-notch photos and video and that really just helps market the property and gets more buyers in to see it. If people just get stopped at an obstacle and don’t give the property the opportunity that it deserves, then it’s going to be so difficult to sell that home for what it’s really truly worth. I felt like bringing in staging material curtains, rugs, different textiles, really helped dampen the noise of the street traffic and so forth. And I think that helped quite a bit. We had steady showings, steady interest and were able to sell the home successfully, despite what could have been something that deterred buyers.
(10:16 – Tim) Every home is different. Some homes which are great are unoccupied and staged, and those are the easiest homes to shoot. But there are certainly homes, uh, that I’ve shot that, uh, the family was still there. The dog was running around, kids were running around and they’re, they’re certainly aware that there’s a photographer there. But, you know, and I’ve been to homes where they’ve, uh, ready to move out, there’s plastic bags everywhere. So I’ve had to spend time moving everything out of a shot and then taking a shot and then moving everything back so I can take another shot. So every home is unique and it’s just I think flexibility about making sure you get the best shot you can under the circumstances is probably the challenge that a lot of real estate photographers and if they can manage that, then they’re going to do a good job.
(10:59 – Narrator) The synergy of process technique and creative vision is key to transforming a house into a home through real estate photography and real estate marketing, professional, real estate photographer Tim Patterson’s meticulous process seamlessly aligns with real estate Broker Molly Edward’s strategic marketing, emphasizing that success hinges on their collaborative efforts. This dynamic partnership, rooted in the photographer’s creative lens and the broker’s market expertise, not only enhances individual proficiency but elevates the industry’s impact. Recognizing the paramount importance of teamwork, these two professionals collectively create a comprehensive and immersive experience, turning properties into emotionally resident homes that speak to the aspirations of prospective buyers.
Thanks to Tony at Aerial Northwest for the video production and narration and for being one of the finest drone pilots around. And thanks to Molly Edwards for putting up with us. 😁
Navigating the world of real estate photography can be a complex yet essential part of a real estate agent’s toolkit. Understanding the nuances of photography rights for real estate agents is fundamental, especially when it comes to differentiating between purchasing licensing rights and acquiring full ownership of photographs. As an agent, collaborating with a professional photographer like Salem Realty Media can elevate your listings, but it’s vital to comprehend the legalities of the images you use. This guide will delve into the key aspects of these rights, ensuring your marketing efforts are both effective and legally sound.
What You’re Really Buying: A License, Not the Photo
When you collaborate with a photographer, you’re entering into a world of licensing rights. Our company’s licensing agreement is a prime example. It states: “[Client], who purchased a license for these photos, is hereby authorized to a worldwide, limited, fully-paid license to use said photography for the purposes of marketing [Full Address] for as long as [Client] represents the property. This license does not grant or constitute a transfer of ownership for any intellectual property rights, which are all explicitly held by Tim Patterson and Salem Realty Media.” This means you, the agent, are granted extensive rights to use the photos for marketing the property.
However, it’s essential to understand that this is not a transfer of ownership. The intellectual property rights remain firmly with the photographer. This distinction is significant compared to the corporate world, where companies often pay a premium to own the full rights to photographs, including intellectual property.
Why This Matters to You as a Real Estate Agent
This licensing agreement empowers you to use the images for all your marketing needs concerning the specific property. Whether it’s for listing on websites, brochures, or social media, you have the freedom to showcase your property in its best light. However, the limitation comes into play if you wish to use these images beyond the property you represent. Want to use that stunning living room shot for a general marketing campaign? That’s where you’d need to renegotiate your rights with the photographer.
The Perks of Licensing: Cost-Effectiveness and Flexibility
Choosing a licensing arrangement, as most real estate agents do, offers cost-effectiveness. You’re paying for exactly what you need – the right to use high-quality images for your current listings. This approach also provides flexibility, as you can negotiate different licensing terms for different properties, adapting as your portfolio evolves.
Embracing Flexibility and Cooperation: The Salem Realty Media Approach
It’s important to remember that the world of real estate photography is as varied as the properties we showcase. While many photographers, including myself, adhere to the standard guidelines of licensing, it’s not a one-size-fits-all scenario. Every photography and media agency, like us at Salem Realty Media, brings its own flavor to the table, with unique nuances in their agreements.
We believe in a collaborative approach, especially when misunderstandings arise. Our philosophy isn’t to engage in drawn-out disputes; such battles rarely have clear winners. Instead, we focus on open communication and education. We’re here to ensure that both agents and photographers fully understand their rights and responsibilities. This cooperative spirit underpins our mission: to provide breathtaking visuals that help agents represent their properties in the best possible light. After all, in the vibrant world of real estate, fostering strong, understanding partnerships is key to illuminating every home’s story.
Final Thoughts
In the fast-paced world of real estate, effective marketing is your lifeline. Understanding the nuances of your agreement with your photographer ensures you can use your visual assets effectively while respecting legal boundaries. Remember, while you may not own the photographs, your license is a powerful tool in your real estate marketing arsenal, allowing you to present your properties compellingly and professionally.
