Home owners need to become more educated in what true, professional home selling representation is.

I'd like to take a moment and talk about educating the public, in this case the home seller, about understanding that they should expect nothing less than professional representation when it comes to their Realtor selling their home. This is about knowing it's okay for the home owner to ask that their home be photographed Professionally and seeing examples of the work that their chosen Realtor uses. All too often, the home owner signs everything over to the Realtor with high expectations, wanting top dollar with a high volume of potential purchaser's coming through the home. One way to get that volume or draw, is by having the home photographed in a Professional and inviting manner to create interest and show the home in its best light.

How often have you seen photographs of homes on MLS or a Realtor's website where no care or understanding of photography is used to represent the home? Over or underexposed, grainy and poorly composed images most often taken by the Realtor or an assistant using nothing more than a little point and shoot consumer camera. I have even seen images on MLS where the picture taker's finger is in the shot. It's not okay and it really is unacceptable! You, the home owner, will be giving tens of thousands of dollars to your Realtor for selling your home and you only get one chance at selling it for the optimum price. You need to attract as many potential buyer's to your home as possible within the first couple of weeks or your asking price may start to flounder. As discussed many times about today's Real Estate market, 85% of the buyers scan the internet before contacting the Realtor, and capturing their attention with great photographs of your home can do just that. Of course, having your home professionally staged by Designamove ( www.designamove.com ) will add the visual impact that Professional Photography can really take advantage of. Keep in mind that Designamove has a commited Realtor/Partner Program with Realtors that will have your home staged at little or no cost to the home owner thereby offering a service that sets themselves apart from the competition and takes one more step in making sure your home shows well and that leads to a quicker sale. Unless you're prepared to have your home showing its very best by having it clean and tidy and hopefully staged, it may not matter if your realtor takes a dark, crooked photo with the window light glaring out of control, a room so dark that you can't see it.

In summary, it's time to be educated and sophisticated in understanding that Professional Photography is part of selling a home and accepting less shouldn't be part of the deal between yourself and the Realtor. There is a "Home Owner" check list on the VSP website that will help you in getting your home prepared for the photography. Just click on the tab "What can you do?". Remember, be educated about the importance of Professional Photography and its impact on the selling of your home. If your Realtor already uses a great professional photographer, you can be sure that they are going the extra mile in assuring that your home is well represented. Although everyone has a camera ... not everyone is a photographer.