I know everything is bigger here in Texas, but I didn’t quite realize how much bigger. Look at it this way, the video below shows a young man living in NYC in a 78 sq/ft apartment, yet Texas could fit the entire world’s population and provide each human 1,100 square feet to stretch their legs.

Luke Clark Tyler, I commend you.

I’d like to thank Lance Selgo and Unique Exposure Photography for the guest contribution that follows.  UEP is a great company that provides excellent photography and digital services to real estate agents across the DFW Metroplex.

1. How many buyers searched the Internet for a home?

In 2006, 80% of home buyers searched the Internet when looking for a home. Four years later, in 2010, the percentage of home buyers that searched the Internet when looking for a home jumped to 89%. Consumers are purchasing and becoming competent with more technology devices such as laptops, iPods, iPads, tablets and smart phones. These consumers are home buyers, and they want to shop online. Their trend is showing us that they recognize how useful technology is and therefore they are going to be better at noticing professional versus point-and-shoot photos.

With all of the competition on the market, it is important to have professional photos because they are your first, and maybe only impression, to the majority of buyers who are searching for homes on the Internet.

2. How many more clicks do professional photos receive?

Using professional photos can draw more attention to your listings and result in more clicks by potential buyers. Papilios Real Estate Photography examined listings that used their photos and compared the click rates to listings both in the same MLS area and Zip Code. They found listings that utilized professional photos generated an average 139% increase in clicks compared to similar listings.

Although more clicks do not guarantee a sale, it does mean more potential buyers are viewing your listing. Reaching more buyers with your listing betters your chance of finding the right buyer.

3. What percentage of homes sold were sold with photos from a professional camera vs point-and-shoot?

The Wall Street Journal published a graph to show that in the majority of price brackets, more homes sold that had photos from a professional camera compared to photos taken with a point-and-shoot. A professional camera can affect how a buyer looks at a listing and the benefits can be seen starting in the $300K price point. This data was obtained in bulk and therefore the image data was examined to see if a professional camera was utilized to take the photo. No consideration was taken to determine if a professional photographer was controlling the camera. Most likely if the data represented photos taken by a professional photographer, not just an image taken with a professional camera, the benefits would be even greater.

4. What percentage of active listings use professional photos?

Unique Exposure Photography researched local MLS listings for Dallas, TX and Fort Worth, TX and made note of listings utilizing professional photos and listings that were represented with point-and-shoot photos. Overall, Dallas, TX is more progressive and about half of the local listings are marketed with professional photos. Around 32% of Fort Worth, TX listings are marketed with professional photos. As expected, the higher the listing price, the more likely professional photos are utilized.

If you are listing a home in a higher price bracket, you need to use professional photos to match the rest of your competition. If you are listing in a price bracket with little professional photography being used, take advantage and stick out from the competition by embracing professional photography.

5. Make professional photography part of your brand.

As a realtor, you may have to compete with your peers to obtain listings. Professional photography is a great way of improving your marketing portfolio when meeting with potential sellers. If a seller has to choose between a realtor that uses professional photography versus a realtor that uses a point-and-shoot, they are more likely to go with the realtor that uses professional photography. Their home is a big investment and they want it marketed to the best of your ability. Using professional photography, you are solidifying your marketing and showing the seller you mean business.

A lot of real estate business comes from referrals so it is important you give your clients something to talk to their friends and family about. Show your clients you operate professionally and they will bring you more business.

6. Save time and stress, have a professional photographer handle the photos.

Taking photos takes time. As a realtor, you have to drive to the property and go room by room snapping photos. But your work does not stop there. Once you get back to the office you have to pull the images off your camera and place them onto your computer before you can upload them to the MLS. It is easy to get stressed when something goes wrong with your computer and your photos do not download correctly. If you happened to take a blurry photo, you have to decide to discard it or go back to the property to retake the shot. Otherwise you risk posting a photo to the MLS that does not meet your standard of quality and you end up advertising your brand in a poor manner when potential clients view your listing online.

A professional photographer will not only take the photos, but they will re-size them and send them to you over email or through their website. All you need to do is download the image files and upload to the MLS. Interested in a Virtual Tour? Your professional photographer should provide that for you. They also can probably link the Virtual Tour to sites like realtor.com for you.

Some shots also benefit from tools that real estate photographers carry with them, such as poles for extending the height of their camera. There might be a slope in the back yard so when you take a photo of the pool, all you see is landscaping. A professional real estate photographer will utilize a pole to put the camera 12+ feet into the air to capture the best angle possible.

7. A professional real estate photographer might be your best all-around marketing teammate.

Ask your real estate photographer if they can help in other areas of marketing so you get the best exposure possible for your listing. Ask if they can help you print brochures or fliers. Having them design and print marketing materials gives you a unique product to represent your listing, allows you to spend your time on something more important and guarantees the photos you paid for are going to be crystal clear on your print materials. Have you ever used a two-sided brochure where one side is a full 8.5” x 11” photo of the property and the other side has smaller photos plus supporting features? Wow your clients – ask your photographer to design your print material.

It is important sellers know you use a professional photographer. Ask them to give you brochures that showcase their work and show examples of their photos. Include a brochure in your marketing materials and leave it with the buyer so they can see the excellent product you are about to deliver if they choose you as their realtor.

Have an outdated headshot? Ask your professional real estate photographer to take a headshot and represent yourself online with a strong, professional photo.

Think outside the box and take your business to the next level. Ask your photographer if they shoot video. 73% of homeowners say they are more likely to list with a realtor offering to do video, yet only 12% of the real estate industry currently have YouTube accounts. Video is very powerful and can act as the first walk-through for a buyer. If they call to view the property, you know they are serious and interested in the property. Quality buyers matter!

8. How do you choose a professional real estate photographer?

• Examine what they offer. Ask them if they are willing to work with you to create additional marketing materials.
• Develop a relationship. If your photographer is shooting home after home and doesn’t have time to talk, they are more interested in getting paid. Find a photographer that wants to improve your business and is willing to listen to your ideas.
• Look at their portfolio online and make sure you like the work they have posted.
• Ask them what they wear. Your photographer is an extension of you and your business and they will be representing you at the property. If the seller is present, make sure your photographer dresses appropriately.
• Find out if your photographer does anything to help out the community.
• Decide what is more important to you. Cheaper up-front cost with inconsistent results, or a little more money up front with consistent, personal service and ultimately a better valued product.

What to avoid when choosing a professional real estate photographer:

• Inconsistent results. Choosing a big photography company will most likely save you money, but you will not know who is shooting your properties and the results will not be consistent.
• Distorted architectural features. Homes are built with vertical walls. If wall joints and ceiling joints are curved, the photographer is using a wide-angle lens incorrectly. Make sure all horizontal and vertical lines are straight.
• Poor compositions. If the photographer is in a hurry, they will make poor composition choices. Your photo should not be of the back of a sofa. Your photographer should take enough time to examine the space and find the best compositions. Using composition correctly, a photographer can omit items from the home such as a dog kennel.
• Fake “painting” photos. HDR (High Dynamic Range) is a process used to merge multiple photos together to create a great exposure. Although this process can be done correctly, many real estate photographers end up with a product that looks painted and fake. If their photos look painted, cartoon-like or “too good to be true”, you will want to avoid that photographer so buyers are not greeted by a home that does not appear to be like the photos they saw online.

Lance Selgo is a co-owner of Unique Exposure Photography, specializing in Dallas/Fort Worth Real Estate Photography and Video to assist real estate agents in marketing their properties.

Can you believe that in the state of Texas it takes more education to be licensed as a manicurist than it does to become a real estate agent? It takes 3 times the education to cut and paint nails than it does to be granted access to every home in the MLS. Scary.

How do you feel about the perception of Realtors?  Let us know in the comments below.

(Yes, we know manicurist do a lot more than paint nails, but come on…. It’s still scary!)

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We’ve been proud to wear the Better Homes and Gardens brand for 1/2 a year now and recognize the power behind it.  I’d love to write a novel about what it means to us, but the video below sums it up better than I ever could.

There is a reason that the newspapers and magazines of the world are failing and going out of business. NO ONE READS THEM ANYMORE!! I’m not saying that promising to advertise a house in the newspaper won’t help you get listings with some of your “wise” clientele, but I will tell you that it will never help you sell a house. It’s on you to inform your client that advertising in those outdated mediums won’t do them any good and is a waste of money. I could go on and on about the statistics of today’s home buyer’s searching habits, but the video below touches on them in a more entertaining way. Enjoy…

Thanks to Joe Manausa for the video!

And so it was with the idea of “Brunch.”

Scoff if you like, but I believe brunch is one of the greatest gifts mankind has ever given itself. And I’m not alone:

Instead of England’s early Sunday dinner, a postchurch ordeal of heavy meats and savory pies, why not a new meal, served around noon, that starts with tea or coffee, marmalade and other breakfast fixtures before moving along to the heavier fare? By eliminating the need to get up early on Sunday, brunch would make life brighter for Saturday-night carousers. It would promote human happiness in other ways as well. Brunch is cheerful, sociable and inciting. It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week. -    Guy Beringer, “Brunch: A Plea,” Hunter’s Weekly, 1895

“… promote human happiness … cheerful, sociable … sweeps  away the worries and cobwebs …”  Imagine – all that just from a meal! With results like that, we should have brunch every day!

Unfortunately, brunch has become relegated these days to only special occasions such as Christmas and Mother’s Day. While I think that’s a terrible waste of a wonderful meal, the good news is one of those special occasions is right around the corner – Easter!

So prepare yourself for some cobweb sweeping and to be satisfied with your fellow humans. Below are some links to recipes and websites the most wonderful of all meals …

BRUNCH!

http://www.bhg.com/recipes/breakfast/brunch/step-by-step-guide-to-brunch/

http://www.bhg.com/recipes/breakfast/brunch/brunch-recipe-ideas/

http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/brunch-at-bobbys/index.html

http://www.breakfast-and-brunch-recipes.com/

http://www.lhj.com/recipes/easy/comfort-food/weekend-brunch-recipes/

The Old American – Hole 18

For many, it’s the American Dream: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of… Golf Course Living. In 2011, the first Baby Boomers turn 65 and the demand for golf course real estate in Sunbelt states will likely skyrocket as Boomers look for homes in a climate conducive to their hobby.

But those who have long dreamed of living adjacent to fairways and greens could be

disappointed. Development of a golf course community is exceedingly rare in this slumping economy. After almost two decades during which new golf course communities spread like wildfire across the Sunbelt, both the real estate and golf industries have suffered major setbacks.

In 2010, builders started on 15,000 homes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, according to Ted Wilson of Residential Strategies, Inc. That’s down nearly 70% from the 51,000 housing starts in 2006.

New golf course construction has also taken a major hit. The overbuilding of courses in the 90’s and early 00’s oversaturated the market. When the recession descended upon the industry, many courses were forced to close, some in the middle of construction.

With every rule, however, there is an exception. In 2010, only one course opened in The Metroplex. What vaults this course from exception to veritable anomaly is it is part of a residential community.

The Old American Golf Club, located in The Colony’s The Tribute Resort Community, opened its doors to public play in September 2010. In addition to fairways, greens, bunkers and water hazards, The Old American features brand new residential lots alongside select sections of the course and dozens more just off it.

The Old American and The Tribute were brought to life by Matthews Southwest, a DFW-based developer. In The Tribute, Matthews Southwest said they saw the opportunity to deliver a suburban community where people could enjoy one of their hobbies right outside their door.

Even in the down economy, Matthews Southwest reported a more than 100 percent year-over-year increase in residential lot sales at The Tribute in 2010.

As Baby Boomers and golf enthusiasts search for a place to live in harmony with the game they love, they may be hard up as developers and builders continue to tighten purse strings. However, The Tribute serves as proof that golf course real estate still has a pulse in the Heart of Texas.

I’m on the “almost worthless” side of this argument and have been for the past 5 or 6 years that I’ve been hearing about QR codes…  They’ve always been sold as the next big thing to revolutionize marketing, and yet year after year that never happens.  Why would that change today?

I been trying to come up with the words to use to speak about QR codes for a few weeks now, but then I read this wonderfully written article by Gahlord Dewald.  He took the words right out of my mouth, and if I actually put them back in my mouth he’d make me sound a lot smarter…

Check out this great article by @gahlord on Inman.com

I encourage you to read the article on Inman.com, but if you are not a member, you can read it below here as well….

Best practices for QR codes in real estate

Gahlord Dewald

I just couldn’t resist it any longer. Every time I go to a conference or open my Twitter stream someone is talking about them. You know what I’m talking about: QR codes. Sometimes the conversations about them get really involved.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, QR codes (QR stands for “quick response”) are those square “bar-codey” things you see popping up on business cards, signs and other printed real estate materials. These things were designed for use in warehouses and look like it, too.

When you run into someone who has just blown a wad of cash implementing some sort of QR code solution, he or she usually starts with something like, “These are really big in Japan.”

Here’s the basic breakdown of how QR codes work in a typical real estate setting:

• Real estate professional pays someone for a bunch of QR codes to print on printed stuff like business cards or signs.
• A customer sees the QR code — in the real world, away from their laptop — and scans it.
• A Web page opens on the customer’s phone.

Please note that the following must be true for the customer to scan and interpret a QR code:

• Customer possesses a Web-enabled phone.
• Phone has a camera.
• Phone is capable of running apps.
• Customer has downloaded a QR code-reading app to the phone.
• Customer knows that there’s a QR code on the printed stuff.
• Lighting is such that scanning the QR code is possible (example: if the code is on a sign this is all happening during bright daylight hours).

You can see some of the issues here. But my problem with QR technology really doesn’t have that much to do with the sliver of the homebuying public who can readily make use of it.

Article continues below

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It’s in the missed opportunity.

Opportunity No. 1: Own the platform

Among the bottlenecks in creating a QR-enabled customer is getting the customer to download and use a QR reader — the software that is essential to make the camera and phone turn into a QR code interpreter.

There are something like 200 different apps for the iPhone that let you read QR codes. Which is the best one? How does the customer decide what to get? All the time spent thinking about this is time not spent thinking about finding a house.

The opportunity in QR codes isn’t in putting the bar codes on all printed matter. The opportunity in QR codes is in owning the QR reader software.

What if there was a real estate-specific QR app? This could be as simple as rebranding one of the existing QR apps to be about real estate and then marketing it as such. Then, whenever real estate consumers see a QR code on a sign — anyone’s sign — they may choose to use your real estate QR app.

If you really want to own the platform though, you’ll have to get more involved than simply rebranding an existing QR app.

Opportunity No. 2: Own the interaction

Current usage of QR codes is mostly limited to opening Web pages. They’re just a fancy way of opening a Web page that places a lot of criteria on the customer.

But QR technology isn’t limited to opening Web pages. All the tech does is turn a physical image — the “bar-codey thing” — into some numbers and letters. Those numbers and letters could be anything.

If you own the platform, the QR code reader could be used to alert you to which specific customers were looking at which specific QR code. Here are some ways to own the interaction once a customer scanned a QR code into your own QR platform:

• Save the property to a profile (that can be shared with an agent).
• Display a list of similar properties (show me houses like the one just scanned).
• Connect directly to customer relationship management software for tracking and response.
• Initiate a showing and add it to a calendar.

By hooking a QR reader app directly into your customer relationship system or your website profile, you can deepen the level of service you provide to customers. This goes beyond opening a Web page for the consumer to bookmark or email to themselves or forget.

Opportunity No. 3: Own the narrative

Once you’ve got a handle on creating a more meaningful experience than showing a Web page, you could go deeper still. The series of locations that customers scan in will tell you something about their interests in terms of property or price or neighborhood or whatever.

You can use this data to create a path for the visitor’s next on-the-street outing to look at property. You could partner with neighborhood businesses to get their establishments into your neighborhood QR reader software. You could use QR codes to personalize the narrative of location for your customers.

QR technology is definitely in its infancy. Whether it gets off the ground or not, who knows.

But if the primary benefit of going through the steep technology and conceptual requirements is simply a Web page — even if it’s a Web page with … (wait for it to download, please) … video — then who cares?

It’s an additional tool for a listing presentation, at least, I suppose.

Gahlord Dewald is the president and janitor of Thoughtfaucet, a strategic creative services company in Burlington, Vt.

As a native Dallasite, I feel like I have done almost everything this great city (well, really the Metroplex if you throw in Fort Worth) has to offer.  But today I came across an article in D Magazine “The 52 Things Every Dallasite Should Do.”  I figured I had this one made.  Well, I came out discovering I have done far less than I thought.  24 out of 52.  I guess not bad, but it definitely made me realize there are still a few things to do on my bucket list with regards to DFW.  It was fun to read through the list and see what the magazine considers “essential experiences” for this area.  Now it’s your turn…How many have you done?? 

http://www.dmagazine.com/Home/D_Magazine/2011/April/Things_Every_Dallasite_Must_Do.aspx