Happen to have a rental property? Then it’s likely you want to entice the best tenants you can find, and there’s no doubt that the top way to do that is to create and utilize incredible photos online. That’s where potential tenants are searching, and they’ve got a lot of rentals to choose from, so if you want a crowd of people trying to rent your home, then expert photos will definitely go a long way.

This might vary across markets, but we see that a lot of sales agents are using a professional photographer to shoot their listings. However, a lot of rental agents still seem to be living in 2009 and are still taking their own (often abysmal) photos, hoping that photos will be enough to attract a flood of tenants willing to pay a top monthly rate for the honor of living in that property.

Sorry guys — it just doesn’t work that way.

When poor photos are used, it reduces the number of inquiries, so you have fewer interested parties contacting the agent, and that can eventually place sliding pressure on the monthly rent. Renters aren’t any different than buyers — they still want to see what the property looks like, and they are drawn to homes that look amazing.

According to a study by Carleton University:

“…it takes less than 50 milliseconds to form a first impression, and that’s going to be largely dictated by the visual elements the viewer sees, not the written elements since they don’t have time to read that much in just a fraction of a second.”

How do you snap great photos of a rental property?

It may seem easy enough, when all you need to do is push the shutter button on your phone, but it’s harder than it looks. For example, if you are looking directly at a window, it will be excessively bright, or the interior will turn shadowy. Although upgrades to phones have come by leaps and bounds, you’ll often get strange colors that detract from the overall presentation.

Another issue is the color being cast by the lights in a room. Tungsten lighting can make a room look orange, and other lights can make a room look rather blue or green, and quite different to how it actually looks.

How can Metro Virtual Tours help?

A photographer has the skills and equipment to overcome poor lighting to make sure every room looks its best. You don’t want your photographer to create a false expectation, rather, a realistic view of a room that will entice the kind of tenant that is looking for a home with those specific features and styles. An experienced real estate photographer will do that.

Another way that your real estate photographer can help is that they can capture the room with no furniture, or even poor quality furniture, or they can digitally insert virtual furniture. A few other options? Doing aerial photography, a virtual tour or a walkthrough video (for those looking from afar).

This is a great way to hide the private possessions of current tenants, or any nicks and scratches that may be present. It’s also a great way to show the amount of furniture that can fit in a space. Many people find it difficult to imagine what can fit in an empty space, but your photographer will be able to fix that by adding appropriate furniture at a fraction of the cost of hiring stagers.

Think about your forthcoming property owners

When a rental agent uploads the photos of a new rental property, what are those photos saying to future landlords about the level of professionalism shown by that agent?

Do those photos give the impression that the agent handling that rental cares about their listings to the point that they will do all that they can to present them in the best imaginable way?

Instead of seeking the most inexpensive route to get a property listed online, rental agents and property managers need to take a step back and examine the whole scope and look at how those photos impact the business in totality. When they do that, I think they’ll find that hiring Metro Virtual Tours to shoot their rental property makes a whole lot of sense.