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How Real Estate Photography is becoming an essential component of any healthy real estate marketing campaign?

August 28, 2021

Exceptional real estate photography is an essential component of any healthy real estate marketing campaign. After all, high-quality photos help to sell homes faster and at higher prices. They attract more buyers and keep them engaged for longer periods of time. And top-notch photography helps you to build your brand.

Think about it. Photography runs through nearly every aspect of your marketing arsenal. Consider the most popular tools used by agents. Which of the following do you rely on regularly?

Social media
Email marketing
Direct mail
Listing videos
Print ads
3D tours

It is likely that you wield most if not all of these weapons in your marketing campaigns. What do they each have in common? Photography. Elevate the quality level of your photography and you automatically raise the bar for your entire marketing effort.

The potential for quality photography has risen in recent years with advances in digital technology. Even the iPhone in your pocket is a powerful photographic device when wielded properly. Likewise, a host of creative applications within real estate photography has made it possible to appeal to a wide audience.

Whether you choose to take your own pictures or contract with a professional real estate photography service, remember that the quality of your product across all of these trending topics will be a hallmark of your business and a key to your success.

11 Important Real Estate Photography Trends in 2021 and Why They Matter

Online searches. Nearly all home buyers today begin their home searches online, and most of them find photos to be highly useful. In fact, stunning imagery is the number one feature that grabs and holds their attention. Not only do quality photographs attract potential buyers, they keep them on the page longer, especially if there is an ample supply.
Social media. In today’s market, the influence of social media cannot be overlooked. Forbes suggests that social media is “the biggest factor in the new real estate market.” And why not? Many buyers will search on social media for homes that match their preferences, using hashtags to help them find all the little niches in which they are interested.
Mobile devices. Nearly three-quarters of buyers use a mobile device – a cell phone or tablet – to search for properties online. That fact makes it important to ensure that your photographs are mobile-friendly, that they are optimized for the technology.
Professional photography. In a hurried world, where there are far more responsibilities than hours in a day, many real estate agents are turning to professional photography services. That way, an agent can focus on cultivating leads and building relationships rather than on trying to figure out which photographs to get right and then spending hours editing for print and digital publication.
Editing services. Of course, there are plenty of agents who prefer to take their own photos. Some are quite skilled. But snapping the pictures is not the end of the job. For a photoshoot to be successful – and professional – a considerable amount of time with tedious editing is still necessary. So, for those agents who have a knack for a camera, subletting that process to a professional photo editing service is a solid option.
Virtual staging. Putting together a photoshoot begins long before the lens cap is removed from the camera. Time spent cleaning up the clutter, setting up a living room, or preparing a kitchen for photography gives the lens something worth capturing. Even better, home staging can put a set of images over the top. But time and budget do not always allow for staging. That is where virtual staging comes in handy, where an image of a relatively empty room can be digitally rearranged to appear fully furnished.
Image enhancement. Sometimes a shoot does not go entirely according to plan. A stray sock is left on the floor. A mark goes undetected until it is too late. Or the sun simply refuses to come out when it is time to take the pictures. Image enhancements can allow images to be altered after the fact to accomplish anything from removing a scuff mark to creating a blue sky in the background to augment the view through a window.
Twilight photography. Another emerging trend in real estate is giving some listings a boost. Photos shot during the “golden hour” (also known as Twilight photography) shortly after sunrise or just before sunset can yield stunning images of outdoor spaces, waterfront views, landscapes, city skylines, and more.
Drones. Videography from a bird’s eye view can capture the imagination of home buyers as much as any marketing tool. More and more agents are finding that they can not only use drone footage to feature a property but also to highlight area attractions, update buyers on the progress of their new construction project, check out the condition of the roof, and other property details that are not accessible from the ground.
Walk-through videos. People love a good story. It is no wonder that three hundred hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute and five billion videos are viewed every day! Real estate videos allow an agent to tell a story while highlighting a home – or the route to the neighborhood elementary school, coffee shop, or other attraction.
3D virtual tours. Agents are learning that homes sell faster and often at higher prices when their listings come with 3D tours. Although the technology has been trending upward for years, services like Matterport have become the new open house in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Statistics

Good visuals like photos play a big role in the work of photographers, real estate agents, and even home buyers. If you’re still wondering about the power of images, here are real estate photography figures you should know.

Google searches about the process of buying a home soared 950%. Coincidentally, a report by the National Association of Real Estate Agents shows that 87% of homebuyers on the internet found images to be among the most useful features of listing websites when looking for new homes they might like.

This is why viewers spend 60% of the time checking images and only 20% on the description. Moreover, 80.2% believe the front photo is the most important picture in the shoot.

Here are more figures that show the importance of professional real estate photography to a seller or realtor.

72.2% of realtors agree that high-quality photography helps them win more listings.
Houses with aerial footage and photographs sell 68% faster than those without visuals. People who outsource photography work earn twice as much commission compared to others. However, only 35% of agents employ professional photographers.

Effects of Photography on Selling Strategies

Photos tell a thousand words, and a professional photographer can take quality images. Selling properties faster requires you to provide accurate depictions of a home or space, which is why 69.8% who use professional photography believe that doing so decreases days on the market.

About 61.3% of brokers believe high-quality photography is ‘crucial’, whereas 31.0% think it is ‘important in selling homes.

However, only 15% of homes use high-quality photography, and half of over $1 million properties use poor-quality photographs. If you want to be among the buyers, sellers, and photographers who can beat the competition, use high-quality listing photos to improve credibility and grow clientele.

According to IMOTO, 88.0% of realtors agree that professional photos help increase showings and online listing views. Additionally, the majority of realtors believe interior videos are most likely to win listings.

TOP WEB DEVELOPMENT TRENDS COMING IN 2020

By: Varun Markanday

December 11, 2019

The web development field sees new trends and ideas every year. And those who are about to build a website or web app should be aware of them. After all, following development trends brings better user experience, and improves your website’s performance and ranking.

It also helps you cope with the tight competition in the field.

So here are 8 promising web development trends we’re going to see in 2020. Let’s check them out.

1. Inclusive Websites

Inclusive websites aren’t a new trend in web development, but they’re not going to be less relevant in 2020. Building inclusive sites means building websites that are available and easy to navigate for all users, including those who are differently-abled.

Here are the basic steps for building inclusive websites:

Keep the layout simple and clear, don’t overcrowd the screen.
Add large buttons.
Enable font size customization.
Check if keyboard navigation works.
Add video subtitles and transcripts for audio.

If you’re following these steps, you’re making the site more usable in general. For everyone. In turn, you will get more page visits, increase the time users spend on the page, and make it easier for them to buy an item from your e-store.

2. PWAs

The popularity of PWAs (progressive web apps) pushes web devs to make browsing on a website closer to searching in native apps. And this makes the whole process more user-friendly.

What a progressive web app? Simply put, it’s a website that offers functionality close to a native app so that users can get push notifications, use the app when offline, get access to hardware features, and more.

The Global Digital Future report shows that mobile devices are more popular than desktops and tablets. Users spend much more time using mobile apps than using mobile browsers on their smartphones. Users spend 80% of their overall time online using native apps.

But those who choose progressive web app development have a big chance of changing that. By eliminating poor user experience and slow website performance, as well as other common issues, and providing offline access, they can make websites great again.

3. AMPs (Accelerated Mobile Pages)

Google has made giant steps towards providing an excellent browsing experience for mobile users. That’s why they presented AMP in 2015. Today, this is still a trend.

AMPs encourage the creation of sites that load in seconds and work as required on different platforms. Accelerated sites need about two seconds to load, compared with the 22 seconds that regular websites need.

Plus, Google likes fast sites, and the use of AMPs increases a website’s visibility and helps it reach a higher position in search results.

4. Voice Search

Voice search wasn’t so noticeable before, as results were mixed (and often awful). Plus, the products with high-quality voice input were anything but cheap. But now, optimized voice search is going to be first in line for 2020.

Back in 2017, Gartner predicted that 30% of all searches will be made by voice before 2020. And this looks to be more or less true now. Today, you call Uber by voice, activate Apple’s AirPods, and check up Google Home and Amazon’s Echo, or interact with virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa.

And that’s another trend coming from the mobile experience. Introducing text on small mobile keyboards is quite complicated and leads to lots of spelling mistakes. Now, voice search and commands rule over websites too.

5. API-First Development

Today, we have a large number of mobiles, wearables, and other devices that integrate. New products should be ready for connecting with other apps, and APIs are great helpers.

We often see the following: a company focuses on building a web or mobile solution but doesn’t pay much attention to API development. At best, it’s just a side project, not properly designed and tested.

Another reason: API development takes too much time (and thus money).

Here’s the traditional API development cycle:

The R&D team creates a design.
Back-end devs work on a prototype.
QA and front-end devs get access to the prototype (as soon as it’s ready).
In case of any bug or any improvement, repeat the cycle.

API-first development helps to get rid of this circle. Its development happens simultaneously: one part of the team doesn’t need to wait until the other finishes its work. The process is faster since API is a mock and the whole team gets to work on it.

6. Smart Chatbots

We’ve talked about voice search, and here comes another AI use case – chatbots, which are getting smarter fast.

As it turns out, a simple base with a huge array of data isn’t enough. Chatbots don’t work when dealing with FAQs, because FAQs themselves don’t work. They don’t help customers as FAQs contain obvious answers, but people come to support when they’re dealing with complex questions.

The chatbots of 2020 study customer behavior and understand how to tackle different situations. Many websites already have smart chatbots. Bots are ready for any questions, and they can even pick up the required products and place orders.

7. Dark Mode

Why is everyone crazy about the dark versions? It’s simple – the mode makes your content easier to read. Especially if you’re dealing with blog posts or articles. Making the website as readable as possible is great for stimulating user experience. If a blog has the ‘Dark Mode’ option, there will be less chance of eye strain. That’s why you see ‘Switch to Dark Mode’ buttons more and more often.

But it should be an actual switch – give visitors a chance to use the ‘light’ or ‘dark’ theme, whichever they like. You should treat the mode as a good-to-have secondary option when it’s appropriate for the context and use – like Hulu does.

Conclusion:

Web development trends aren’t that different from those of previous years. But if you’re planning to update your website and make it ready for 2020, it’s surely a good idea to take a glance through the modern trends and find out which might come in handy with your web product.

MVC – Why it is better?

By: Varun Markanday

November 20, 2019

MVC is an acronym for Model, View, and Controller. It’s a product development architecture. The traditional approach of programming works on Input -> Process -> Output approach while MVC works on Controller → Model -> View.

During, the traditional approach of programming, the UI coding, business logic, and application data domain was written into a single file which creates a lack of maintainability, testability as well as scalability of the application.

With the emerge of MVC approach, it helps you create applications that separate the different aspects of the application (input logic, business logic, and UI logic), while providing a loose coupling between these elements. The pattern specifies where each kind of logic should be located in the application. The UI logic belongs in the view. Input logic belongs in the controller. Business logic belongs in the model. This separation helps you manage complexity when you build an application because it enables you to focus on one aspect of the implementation at a time. For example, you can focus on the view without depending on the business logic.

The MVC model or “pattern” is commonly used for developing modern user interfaces. It provides the fundamental pieces for designing programs for desktop or mobile, as well as web applications. It works well with object-oriented programming since the different models, views, and controllers can be treated as objects and reused within an application.

Below is a description of each aspect of MVC:

1. Model

A model is data used by a program. This may be a database, file, or a simple object, such as an icon or a character in a video game.

2. View

A view is the means of displaying objects within an application. Examples include displaying a window or buttons or text within a window. It includes anything that the user can see.

3. Controller

A controller updates both models and views. It accepts input and performs the corresponding update. For example, a controller can update a model by changing the attributes of a character in a video game. It may modify the view by displaying the updated character in the game.

IMPORTANT BENEFITS OF MVC MODEL

1. Accelerated Development Process:

How can you increase the development speed by adopting MVC architecture? Whenever an MVC architecture is being employed in developing a web application, one developer can concentrate on the view component whereas the other can focus on controller and create business logic. Therefore, when compared to other development models, the MVC model results in higher development speeds i.e. up to three times.

2. Develop Multiple View Components for your Model:

The MVC architecture empowers you to develop different view components for your model component. As you can witness an ever-increasing demand for new ways to access your web apps, MVC architecture is your one-stop solution for developing different view components. Also, the MVC model limits code duplication and separates the business logic and the data from the display.

3. Supports Asynchronous Method Invocation (AMI):

Undoubtedly, MVC architecture works cohesively well with JavaScript Frameworks. As a result, you can run MVC apps on desktop widgets, site-specific browsers, and PDF files. The MVC architecture supports asynchronous method invocation (AMI) that bolsters developers in building quick loading web apps.

4. Modifications do not Affect the Entire Model:

Your web app’s UI gets new updates every now and then than your actual business model/rules. These include optimizing the color, layouts, font family, font size, and additional support for mobile/tablets. As already said, since the model, view and controller are independent components, making changes in the MVC architecture is very easy. Moreover, making changes in the model component will not have any adverse effects on the architecture.

5. MVC Model Returns the Data Without Formatting:

You can use and call the same components and put them into use with many interfaces. For instance, you can format data with HTML.

6. Ideal for Developing Large Size Web Application:

MVC architecture works exceptionally well when your web app demands the support of a huge developer team, and for web designers who require complete control over the app’s behavior.

Therefore, MVC architecture is a one-of-a-kind approach to building web apps. As the MVC frameworks come packed with the above-mentioned advantages, it is easy to implement in your framework. The adoption of MVC architecture results in the lesser expense of time & money, and the ability to create multiple views makes it the best architecture for web app development.

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