$116,000: The Difference That Good Photos Make

• October 5th 2010

by Mark Wellborn

Back in April 2009, UrbanTurf wrote an article asking why so many home listings on the internet were marketed with poor quality photos. A commenter wrote the following:

“As someone who got a great deal from a listing with bad photos, I must ask that you stop telling people about this issue. The last thing I need are sellers wising up and putting better photos up, and buyers realizing that photos often don’t to a place justice. It’ll only drive up prices!”

It appears that this comment was right on. Redfin recently did a study on the power of professional photography in selling home listings, and it concluded that sellers are “likely to receive thousands more if [they] list [their] home using DSLR photography [instead of] a simple point-and-shoot camera to take the photos.” Specifcally, the study reported that listings with professional photography gain anywhere between $934 and $116,076 over those that do not use professional photos.

Here are some other interesting findings from the study:

• Only 15.4% of homes in the listings Redfin studied were marketed using professional photography.
• Homes photographed using a DSLR camera receive an average of 61% more views than comparable listings, and have a 47% higher asking price per square foot.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the_difference_that_photos_make/2543.