Using Professional Photography in an Auckland Apartment Sales Process

Apartment Specialists Podcast No: 28

Summary:

What is the importance of photography in Auckland apartment sales? This is something that we will go to in detail for apartment owners' biggest question "How Do I Sell My Apartment?"

TRANSCRIPTION:

Andrew Murray, Apartment Specialists. So, I am going to ask one of questions I get asked a lot. How do I sell my apartment? What is the most important thing?

Now, what the most important thing is actually your online presence. These days, people don't like going all around - going from apartment to apartment. They prefer to do all their research on the web. So photos are absolutely paramount.

A buyer's got to be able to see your apartment on the net and in the best light. So that's why professional photography is an absolute must. And if an owner does not want to do professional photography - I do not care how cheap the apartment is - I simply would not sell it. And the reason for that is because it's doing the owner an injustice. It is making my job that much harder. And I am trying to achieve the highest price here. So if they are not willing to invest that in their apartment marketing, they should not be selling their apartment.

Anyway, so what I will do is I will just show you a brief example here.

These are listings that have  been done in the last two days. I will show you the ones that were done yesterday - since it is too close to show you the difference in the amount of views and activity that having professional photos does and not having professional photos. So you can see a few of my apartment's listings here and Barfoots - you know all the competition. Everybody here, Ray White, et cetera.

We will first start with a spacious studio. So, we are going to compare a studio here which is $275,000 and shows two photos of it. And another studio here which is $289,000 so very similar properties here. So when making a comparison, I want them to be actually comparable properties so there is no, 'Oh, what about that?'

Okay. So let us first look at the spacious studio. Okay, it is in the Lord Nelson. It does not come up very often. It is pretty rare. And how many hits it has got? 169 views. Why? It only got two photos. When you come down as a buyer, you are going, 'Well, I can't see what this apartment is. Why do I need to click into it? I know the price. What else do I need to know?' Okay, let me compare the one that does - With us forever, 289,000. Okay, you click through the photos 'oh, that's pretty nice. Yeah I'm going to have a closer look at that' - and I go in and I do and it is that simple.

And the professional photography, as you can see, makes it look more like a million dollar. And this is a tenant apartment - this is it. Having tenants does not mean it's an excuse for agents not to make the presentation good. Because you can create relationship with tenants. I go onto that later - but the views over 1000 and I go back again - over 1000.

So we're talking about at least five times more views and that apartment was actually listed slightly before - probably, maybe an hour before this one was listed. And that is a massive difference. Professional photography is an absolute must.

Okay, the next thing I am going to be talking about when people ask me how do I sell my apartment is about not just professional photos - but the professional photos that have to be showing your apartment in the best light possible.

Cool. Thank you.

Want to know more about setting up the perfect Auckland Apartment Sales process? Read our Guide.