propertyextra.com.au - Blog

Nielson Netratings has released state by state unique browser figures and it shows REA Australia to have a resounding lead in. As I have mentioned before I have no real interest in Nielson as far as getting an overall view of the industry as it only has about 15 - 20 real estate sites indexed out of 8,000, but to know who is on top then this is a reasonable measure.

So here is a graphical excerpt from the Nielson Ratings State by State.

I have long been an advocate for real estate agents who take their own photography and virtual tours to educate themselves about the process. Finally there is an eBook that deals directly with real estate photography and tells it all in very easy to understand terms. The Author - Larry Lohrman is an real estate enthusiast who has his own weblog that I feel should be a must read. He like all of us is not 100% right all the time but he does know photography and real estate and I suggest you at least visit his site. I am sure if you contacted him directly he would give a great discount for multiple orders.

You can order this eBook for $15 USD (about 17 AUD) by clicking here. I ordered my copy and it is around 70 pages and a great read and I picked up some great tips. I think this is a must have for any agency that takes its own photography.

I am a strong believer that the future is all about content and presentation of your vendors listings to separate yourself from your competition.

Below is a table of contents of the eBook

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Why did I Write this Book?
Who is This Book Written for?
What do You Need to Know?

Chapter 1 Photography For Real Estate
What is Real Estate Photography?
Why are Good Real Estate Photos Important?
Where and How are Real Estate Photos Used?
How do You Learn Good Interior Photography?
The Front Exterior Shot is the Most Important

Chapter 2 10 Essentials of Real Estate
1-Understand the Purpose of Each Photo
2-Use a Wide-angle Lens to Shoot Rooms
3-Simplify Images
4-The Primary Exterior Shot is THE Most Important Photo
5-Render Interiors Light and Bright
6-Render All Vertical Lines Vertical
7-Straight Lines Must Appear Straight
8-Don’t Let Burned Out Windows Distract
9-Remove Color Casts
10– Use Only Horizontal Mode Photos for Real Estate Websites
Moving Beyond These Rules

Chapter 3 Choosing a Real Estate Camera
Why a Wide-angle Lens is Essential
Compact Point-an-Shoot or DSLR?
What About Megapixels?
Can I Get Wide-angle Shots on My Compact Digital Camera?
Digital SLRs and the Crop Factor
Recommended Cameras and Lenses for Interior Photography

Chapter 4 Lighting
How to Get Good Interior photos
Why use External Flash?
What Flash Should You Get?
How Should You use External Flash?
Using Multiple Flash Units and Continuous Lighting
How do I Work with Only Natural Light?
How do I Avoid (or Fix) the “burned out window” Problem?
How do I Handle Color Casts and White Balance?
Why are the exterior Shots of a Home so Important?
What are Some Guidelines for Photographing Exteriors
Case Study 1—Shooting a Contemporary Lake View Home
Case Study 2—Shooting a View Home on Acreage

Chapter 5 Shooting Exteriors
Why are the exterior Shots of a Home so Important?
What are Some Guidelines for Photographing Exteriors
Case Study 1—Shooting a Contemporary Lake View Home
Case Study 2—Shooting a View Home on Acreage

Chapter 6 Shooting Interiors
Guidelines for Photographing Interiors
Case Study 1—Shooting with Natural Light Only
Case Study 2—Shooting with an External Flash

Chapter 7 Photo Software
Guidelines for Photographing Interiors
Case Study 1—Shooting with Natural Light Only
Case Study 2—Shooting with an External Flash
What Software Am I Going to Need?
What Software Should I Use to Manage and Organize My Shots
Why Should I Use an Image Editor?
What Image Editor Should I Use?
What About the Ethics of Modifying Photos?

Chapter 8 Fixing Common Problems
Using Image Editors
How to Tune-up Exposure
How to Straighten Falling Walls
How to Get Natural Looking Color
How to Increase Saturation
How to Fix Curved Walls (Barrel Distortion)
How to Remove Distracting Elements
How to Deal with “burned-out” windows
How to Bring Back Sharpness to Your Photos

Chapter 9 Virtual Tours
What is a Virtual Tour?
Why Use a Virtual Tour?
What are the Common Features of a Virtual Tour?
Panoramas
Creating Flash Slide Shows with Lightroom
CDs and DVDs as Buyer and Seller Gifts
How Do You Create a DVD Slide Show of Your Photos?
How Do You Create a DVD Slide Show of Your Photos?

Chapter 10 Trends in Real Estate Photography
The Need for Speed!
Web Advertising
The Use of Video
The Use of Virtual Tours is Surprisingly Low
Increasing Use of Flash Slide Shows
Competition in Real Estate Photography

From time to time I receive phone calls and emails from companies telling me just how great they are and what an amazing new service they offer consumers or agents. Most of them require little more than a roll of the eyes, but every now and then I look at something and say cool. I receive about 4 emails a week. A few weeks ago I met with a company (homesource.com.au/”>Home Source - Home Assist) that allows home owners and real estate agents to pay an annual fee for a service that gives them a 1300 number for their tenants to call in case of an emergency. The cost is around $125 per annum, per property - although I guess if you have a large amount that fee could be negotiated.

For properties that are covered by the service; when tenants experience a plumbing, electrical or locksmith emergency, they call homesource.com.au/”>HomeSource. homesource.com.au/”>HomeSource then arranges for one of their fully qualified and insured tradespeople to go out and assist. And they cover the cost of getting the tradesperson onsite and half an hour of labour.

One of the features of the service is that the property manager isn’t harassed at 3am when the plumbing decides to burst. Also, since the issues are dealt with by trained professionals, landlords minimise damage to their property – as can happen when tenants attempt repairs themselves or worse, just left. For those agents that are loyal to an existing trades supplier, homesource.com.au/”>HomeSource is happy to work with them as long as they work to the homesource.com.au/”>HomeSource code of conduct.

Now I do not know how good the service is, but I think it is a pretty neat idea and the company now has over 10,000 tradespeople and users. They have also got contracts with pharmacies and hairdressers across the nation. Pretty cool idea I think. I have had problems in the past with agents where they just do not answer calls late at night or on weekends - which is fair enough I guess. Not to flash if you lock your self outside in a towel.

Note: I am not aware of any other companies providing this service.

So what is my house worth? Well there are many websites out there that can tell you. The problem is these are just lead generation companies that take your details and pass them onto Agents for a fee. I see a massive decline in revenue for these companies over the years as anyone that would use such a service - would probably never do so again! I think they are all miselading as none of these companies clearly tell the consumer exactly what they do. The sooner they go by the wayside the better as far as I am concerned.

Google is under investigation from the ACCC. It seems the Google Search Results did not clearly identify what was advertising and what was organic and that is the case they are up against. I am pretty sure it is from a past version because it is reasonably clear these days (although not perfectly) what is and is not advertising. It probably makes it harder since everything is just text, but I for one am a big supporter of the ACCC and what they do for consumers in Australia. Many of the real estate portals do not have this problem - in fact I think the problem with sites like REA is trying to find the property content - rather than the advertising from the 3rd parties which is harder! Yes that is a dig!