Author: Rachelle Moore

How to Stage Your Rooms for Amazing Virtual Staging Results
Real estate marketing is quickly evolving, with consumers finding multiple options with a few clicks and taps. Digital listings and social media platforms have made finding, buying, and selling real estate properties both easier and harder at the same time. More effortless due to the convenience of seeing all the offers without leaving your home, yet more challenging because several prospects are readily available.

Real estate agents compete on several listing websites and turn to experts for help. Virtual or digital home staging is one of the proven conversion methods of real estate marketing. This blog post will discuss virtual staging and how you can prepare your property for a photoshoot.
[lwptoc]

However, people ask how to do virtual staging without knowing why they have to do it. Before telling you how to set and style your home for a pre-virtual staging photoshoot, we’ll answer that question first.

Why You Need to Stage

Virtual staging is one of the many creative ways to present your real estate property to potential customers or buyers. Similar to showroom techniques developed by real estate companies, virtual staging reimagines a room, home, or property according to the target audience or demographic.

Digital staging is more cost-efficient than showroom decorating or actual home staging because you don’t have to buy new furniture or remodel the rooms. The cost for virtual staging is merely a fraction of what developers used to spend for illustrative home constructions. The next question would be, “how do you do virtual staging effectively?”

There’s an art to perfecting virtual staging. For starters, you have to prepare the spaces for the shoot. After which, you must find the perfect editor, app, or software to bring your virtual staging fantasy to life.

Preparing for Virtual Staging

You should design the entire virtual staging look before you take photos of your property. You need to know how virtual staging could affect your target buyer markets. The guiding principle is to reduce the amount of editing on the digital stage.

Here are some ways to plan for virtual staging:
- List down your property’s and neighborhood’s best features. Those qualities will be some of the many reasons your client will purchase that property. Those features will reflect the possible demographics, so ensure you take note of them before your virtual staging.
- Set a target demographic and create a buyer profile. Would your potential buyers be male or female? Would they be living alone or with family? Would they need space for a home office? Would they prefer a furnished or unfurnished home?
- Find inspiration online. It would help to know specific pegs before doing a photoshoot. This method would also improve your chances of getting the results you want when sending your raw images to professional real estate editors.
- Suitable photography equipment. You may opt to hire a real estate photographer or do it yourself with proper guidance from the virtual stagers. Either way, you need to include equipment in your plan considerations.
- Find a virtual staging company. You should know who will do your virtual staging as early as the planning stage. It would help if you knew how to do it yourself, but plenty of virtual staging companies are available online.
Once you’ve mapped out what you want and how to achieve them, it’s time to prepare the photoshoot areas appropriately.

Rooms to Stage

Prioritize the spaces you need to shoot because you won’t have the time or energy to do everything. You don’t need to orchestrate the entire house since your target market is more inclined to look at critical areas rather than the whole property or home.

According to the National Association of Realtors, these are the areas you need to stage for real estate listings in order of importance:
1. Living room or receiving area
2. Master bedroom or the largest bedroom
3. Kitchen or pantry
4. Dining area
5. Outdoor or yard
6. Bathroom or comfort room
Targeting specific parts of the house will improve your chances of landing a client from the listing alone. However, you also need to prepare even the rooms you’re not planning to style since you may get potential visits.

Photoshoot Preparations

After planning it all out, it’s time for the nitty gritty. You need to prepare the rooms and areas you want to stage for the shoot, whether you’re doing photoshoots yourself or employing the help of professionals. Physically preparing the spaces will lessen the time needed for virtual staging edits or reworks.

Here are some of the ways to visually orchestrate the rooms for virtual staging:

General

Clean the house as much as you possibly can. Even if you can virtually edit items and furniture, you should declutter the area to ensure a smooth virtual staging process. Trash and other unwanted objects would cost extra to remove during the virtual staging process; they may interfere with lighting and cause awkward shadows in post-production.

There are ways how to do virtual staging, effectively clearing things, but you should still remove personal effects and decor.

Indoors

Do a quick inspection of every room in the house to determine the ones you can submit for virtual staging and those you can do minor edits on. Remember that even when you put an image through post-production, your listing photo shouldn’t look too fake, or it may put off potential buyers.

Here are some of the tasks you should do before the pre-virtual staging photography session:
- Remove personal items and effects, especially photos or portraits.
- Clean and scrub the floors.
- Check and repair the walls.
- Rearrange the furniture to open up the space.
- Open or remove the curtains to expose the windows to full sunlight.
The indoor preparations often involve removal rather than replacement because the edits usually take care of adding items. You should clear the space by creating a blank canvas for your virtual staging.

Outdoors

Check the curb appeal since most people click on a listing with an attractive overall appearance. Aside from that, it would help if you also prepared your outdoors for a possible potential buyer visit since first impressions last. An excellent first impression could be the defining factor between an almost-purchase and a closed deal.

Here are some of the preparations you need to do on the property’s surroundings:
- Trim the bushes and mow the grass.
- Clean the pavement and walkways.
- Repair the cracks or faded paints.
- Inspect and fix the roof.
- Rake and clear the leaves.
- Arrange the plants and flower pots.
- Repaint the front door and porch if needed.
Most people don’t virtually stage outside their property unless through lawn replacement or virtual twilight, but it may end up looking disappointing when the potential buyer finally tries to visit.

Camera Settings

Employ a Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) High Dynamic Range (HDR) camera with a feature of bracketing exposure to prepare for virtual staging. The camera does half the work, so it should be suitable for the planned post-production treatment.

Here are some important reminders when shooting photos before virtual staging:
- Shoot in landscape.
- For indoors, the room should take up 2/3, and the ceiling should be 1/3 of the picture.
- Use minimum 18mm and maximum 200mm lenses, and avoid stylized, distorted, or warped ones.
- Make use of HDR at different exposure levels.
- Use external lighting instead of the built-in flash unless you want rigid shadow effects for virtual twilight.
If unsure about your camera settings, do test shots on specific areas with your tripod to estimate how each space would look.

Time Your Photoshoot Perfectly

For real estate photos in general, you should target the time closest to noon or the hour that the sun is at its highest or brightest in the sky. The sun’s natural lighting will improve your image’s post-production results. Taking indoor photos with a bright sun will also cast dramatic shadows and make the room look wider.

Influencers on Instagram are obsessed with the golden hour, the sweet spot, an hour before sunset, or the hour after sunrise. The golden hour is excellent if you plan to do twilight shots and create an eye-catching and picturesque main listing photo. Just be careful that you don’t underexpose your photo’s lighting during this time.

Make Sure Photos are in High Quality

Finally, you should use high-quality raw photos, especially when planning to stage them virtually afterward. The high definition would improve your image in the final photograph, and it’s easy to adjust natural pictures in HD than in lower ones.

Having low-quality photos would interfere with how you do virtual staging, mainly because anything externally rendered or added would look fake on your real estate listing. Aside from that, sending over low resolution would result to even lower resolution after edits.

Bottomline

These days, you can tell how virtual staging affects the real estate buying market, with 95% of buyers browsing through online platforms and 40% of buyers setting appointments after seeing homes staged virtually. Professionally-made real estate virtual staging images are gradually becoming part of real estate marketing standards, and Phixer offers high-quality outputs for attractive listing photos.
September 24, 2022
How is Photo Manipulation Different or Similar to Photo Editing?
The onset of digital technology has forever changed the way we process photographs. The days of processing images through films in darkrooms are over, as Digital Single-lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras have become the standard for photography. Computer programs and phone apps have also improved how quickly people can communicate, send or show pictures.

Photo manipulation and editing have also progressed with digital cameras, as most real estate post-production companies would only take a few days to accommodate your order. There are differences in how various companies treat real estate photos, whether through manipulation or editing.

When hearing about the different post-production methods, you may wonder, “Are photo editing and photo manipulation just the same?” Read on to learn more about the differences and similarities between photo editing and photo manipulation.

Photo Manipulation

First off, what is photo manipulation? Photo manipulation is the alteration or improvement of a photo by adding, replacing, and transforming various elements in the photograph. The modification could be as minor as replacing the sky or something significant, like creating new objects or features from scratch. These changes could be subtle or glaring depending on their purpose and creative vision.

The best photo professionally-done manipulations look as natural as possible, using elements that one would typically find in such environments. In real estate photography, innovative post-production techniques like creating twilight, replacing lawns, or virtual staging can be considered photo manipulations depending on the project specifics.

Let’s define photo editing before going into the similarities and differences.

Photo Editing

Photo editing is post-processing an image through software or program to enhance, improve and adjust the visual effect. Photo editing involves a wide range of tonal, brightness, contrast, shadow, spot, hue, tint, color balance, and other adjustments to help achieve your vision.

Current technology makes photo editing so readily accessible that you can even do it on your smartphone. Most phone apps have preset hue, tint, color, or saturation filters that accomplish specific looks or moods that are impossible to set on a camera.

At this point, you may wonder, “how do you differentiate photo manipulation from photo editing?” If you want simple terms to help understand the difference, photo manipulation means creation, while photo editing implies improvement.

Differences

Most people consider any post-production treatment photo editing, especially with flawless professional photo manipulations. There’s also a taboo regarding photo manipulation since people often expect pictures to be realistic rather than stylized.

Here are some of the critical differences between photo manipulation and photo editing:

Raw image elements

If you want to know what is the difference between photo editing and photo manipulation, the first answer is straightforward: the original image elements. If the original image is an exact copy of the treated image but has a different lighting or color balance, it falls under photo editing. Photo editing doesn’t change what’s inside the photo since it only adjusts the lighting, colors, mood, or temperature.

Photo manipulation alters reality. In the case of real estate photography, you may need photo manipulation to remove trash or unwanted objects in the background that your photographer missed during the shoot. Sometimes, you may want to remove sensitive information like a house number or visible address that is in the original photo.

You know the image underwent photo manipulation when it’s missing some of the original image elements or if it has new details.

Image layers

One subtle way to determine an edited or manipulated image is by checking the layers. An edited photo has only one layer, while a manipulated photo has several layers depending on how many added or removed elements. It’s often subtle yet still noticeable due to light and color patterns.

Here are some tips on checking the photo manipulation layers:
- Watch out for misplaced sharp and blurred edges or cut lines. Since photo manipulation adds or removes elements, there will be cut lines. Most artists blend these out with the blurring tools, but the blur will seem out of place.
- Check for repetitive elements like the same leaf or cloud formations since removals or subtracting elements will make it necessary for the artist to borrow some existing patterns.
- Notice the difference in lighting behavior. Sometimes, you don’t find light where it’s supposed to be, or you find light where it’s not supposed to be.
The untrained eye won’t immediately notice the layers, but with consistent practice and exposure, you’ll be a professional at spotting the differences in no time.

Skill level and effort required

Professional photo editing and manipulation take considerable skill, practice, patience, and hard work. You need to master these post-production techniques much like other endeavors or abilities. The more you do photo edits or manipulations, the better you’ll be.

Often, graphic designers that can perform professional and flawless photo manipulation have already mastered at least basic photo editing since they have to work with different elements and make them appear as if they belong in the same picture.

As a rule of thumb, the fewer layers in the picture, the less time you need for post-production. Photo manipulations take more time than photo edits because you need to remove or add elements to the original image.

Similarities

Photo editing and photo manipulation are comparable in enhancing images through post-processing. Although the former reworks color and shade while the latter creates new elements, they both modify a photo with creative intent.

In most cases, photo editing and manipulation require the same color and exposure adjustments. The difference is that photo manipulation uses them to stylize the entire image and blend new elements. Each result creates a specific style that matches the photographer’s creative vision.

Bottomline

You may be wondering what are the limitations of photo manipulation compared to photo editing? The answer lies in the artist’s ability to bring images to life as realistically and as seamlessly as possible. You can rely on experienced companies like Phixer to pull off excellent real estate photo editing and manipulations without the hefty price tag.
August 30, 2022
Top 5 Ways to Begin a Career in the Real Estate Photography Business 2022
Photography is one of the industries that will never go out of style as long as digital visual media exists. You may be wondering, “is real estate photography profitable?” especially when faced with intense competition from people thriving in the industry for decades, like post-production specialist Phixer. You may be intimidated to enter such a field at this stage.

The good news is that it’s never too late to start your real estate photography career, especially with rising demand and market movements as people go from urban to rural and vice-versa. The pandemic has shifted people’s priorities, and the reopening of communities has improved real estate value.

Read on to learn more about how to become a real estate photographer 2022.

Here are the top five methods to start a real estate photography career:

1. Start with a Goal in Mind

According to Benjamin Franklin, failing to prepare is preparation for failure. One of the first methods how to get into real estate photography is to create a plan or strategy to ensure you know how to go from start to success. A solid plan will help you build an excellent real estate photography career foundation.

A simple way to set your plans is through the SMART goal-setting:
- S – Specific. Specify your career direction from what you’re going to start on to what specialization you want to pursue (outdoor properties photographer, photographer for virtual staging, etc.)
- M – Measurable. Measure your success metrics by bookings or projects per month.
- A – Attainability. Check if your goals are achievable according to the current market activity and projections.
- R – Realistic. Compare your plans with other real estate photographers you know to determine if they’re realistic.
- T – Time-bound. Set a deadline for all of your efforts to ensure timeliness.
When you have a reasonable goal with the right expectations, you can efficiently work toward it without distractions or discouragement. Just put your mind to it, and focus on your objectives. You might start slow, but you’ll eventually book more projects.

2. Prepare the Tools You Need

Investment in the right tools is how to make money as a real estate photographer and build a long-lasting career. Your equipment will help determine your success in the industry, and you don’t have to buy the most expensive camera as long as your know your camera settings.

Here are some of the things you need to succeed in your real estate photography career:
- Photography equipment. You need photography tools like Digital Single-lens Reflex Camera (DSLR) cameras, lenses, lighting, tripods, and drones for aerial shots.
- Website or social media page as a portfolio. It would help if you had a portfolio to store your shots and samples for future clients.
- Marketing strategy for promotion and sales. You need to promote your photography business for profit and sustainability.
- Post-production software, application, or company. You should edit your photos according to real estate standards. If you’re too busy to do post-production, you can hire experts in the field.
- Industry best practices and language. Several terms are exclusive to real estate photography, like virtual staging, twilight editing, and lawn replacements.
You can work with what you currently have, as long as you don’t forget to upgrade your equipment from time to time. In photography, you can start with the basics and work towards specializations and better instruments.

3. Network with Real Estate Professionals

Having an extensive network of real estate professionals is one of the key ways how to become a real estate photographer 2022. Your friends and acquaintances in the industry will be your clients, or they will introduce you to people who would book you for projects.

It would help if you were well-acquainted with how they operate and when they need your services. Since real estate professionals often communicate with their peers, one good recommendation could open doors for you.

4. Understand the Principles of Shooting Great Real Estate Photos

Practicing and improving your skills are some ways how to get into real estate photography. People don’t instantly become successful niche photographers overnight, so you should give yourself enough room to start, understand the basics and improve according to growing demand and developing standards.

Here are some of the principles you need to understand while pursuing a real estate photography career:
- Considerations for excellent outdoor property photography
- Factors for beautiful indoor home or building photography
- Shooting angles, lighting equipment, and camera lenses to use
- Camera settings like dynamic range
- Marketing value of your photos
- Real estate photography industry standards
- Familiarize real estate listing photo compositions or presentations
You must understand the market needs to fulfill them successfully since your clients will request one or more of those shots. You must also communicate in the language real estate professionals speak, so familiarize yourself with their terminologies.

5. Take Care of Post Production

Post-production is one of the critical steps in real estate photography, and if you’re good at it, it’s one of the many ways how to make money as a real estate photographer. You don’t have to do it yourself, and there are apps available for real estate agents that help edit photographs. You can also collaborate with editors who can do the task better and faster.

However, you will get more clients if you provide final photos ready for posting. Because of this, some photographers opt to hire real estate photography editing experts while others learn to do it themselves. If you master real estate editing, you could also start a real estate photo editor career.

Conclusion

Most people would ask is real estate photography profitable before pursuing a career in real estate photography. The answer lies in how well you create the foundation to build your career and develop your real estate photography skills to match growing and upgrading standards.

As long as you continue practicing and improving your craft, more clients will book you for real estate shoots. As technology improves, you can also provide real estate virtual tours, augmented reality, and virtual reality photography services.
August 9, 2022
Top 8 Important Steps to Real Estate Success in 2022
The 2022 real estate industry trends involve higher demand for mental health and home office spaces. The real estate agent profession gains better traction as more people want to relocate from urban to rural and vice versa. There’s no better time to start venturing into the real estate industry than now.

When selling properties, half the effort involves vivid real estate listing photos from photography to post-production— the other half concerns making an excellent impression on colleagues and clients. Creating a successful career involves a critical balancing act of planning and execution.
[lwptoc]

Here are some of the best eight essential real estate agent tips for beginners in 2022:

1. Talk to Other Real Estate Professionals

The first and most important tip on how to be a successful real estate agent in 2022 is networking with other industry experts. You can also partner with other real estate professionals for mutually-beneficial arrangements for shared goals.

Here are some of the advantages of consulting with other real estate practitioners:
- Gain insight into current real estate trends.
- Network with like-minded individuals.
- Potentially create teams with other professionals.
- Get valuable real-time input or career advice.
- Understand how real estate pricing works.
Your real estate colleagues will be your best new and updated information source, so you should always make an effort to network.

2. Set Clear Objectives and Goals

After gaining insight on how to be successful in real estate sales, you need to set realistic and clear career goals. Your objectives will allow you to be purposeful and concise in your career approaches, so you must carefully outline them as detailed as possible.

Here are tips on making real estate career objectives:
- Follow the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timebound) goal-setting method.
- Make sure you find relevant goals that you can accomplish within your locality. For example: if you want to sell one house per month, ensure that there are enough houses for sale on the market first.
- Consult other real estate professionals on your goals to establish doability.
Objectives will dictate the flow of your real estate career plan, so you must ensure it can be a firm foundation.

3. Create a Real Estate Career Plan

There are several habits of successful real estate agents, including career plan adherence. Your real estate career plan can be as simple or complicated as you want, and you can create both short-term and long-term objectives. Tailoring your career plan according to what you believe is feasible and achievable is essential.

4. Build a Portfolio

One sure method of how to be a successful real estate agent in 2022 is creating an attractive portfolio. The portfolio is a summary or proof of your experience and competence, so it’s the best place to showcase real estate projects that you’re proud to have worked with.

Here are some tips on building a portfolio:
- Sort your achievements according to the significance and then recency.
- Include best photos of you with satisfied clients.
- Include graphics, especially if you made any marketing efforts.
- If you copywrote for listing descriptions, you may add them to your portfolio.
An excellent and well-constructed portfolio will do the talking for you, so make sure you take extra time to create it.

5. Deploy Best Lead Generation Practices

Lead generation is one of the most important real estate agent tips for beginners because it directly involves sales and profits. The better leads you get, the more chances of landing sales and commissions. Aside from that, you can also gain demand for partnerships and other opportunities.

Here are some lead generation practices you should deploy as a real estate professional:
- Social media location-based keyword targeting
- Search engine optimization
- Reach out to people in your area looking for a place to rent and offer more affordable choices
- Share your listing links with people online
Quality leads will create better opportunities, so ensure you maximize every single one.

6. Develop Your Digital Presence

If you have ever wondered how to be successful in real estate sales, you need to enhance, optimize and maximize your online reach. The digital landscape is the best place to advertise because you can signup and post content for free. Most real estate professionals create fan pages that would allow them to update on properties for rent or sale.

Here are some ways to manage your online presence:
- Create a particular brand or identity.
- Be active in responding to messages and comments.
- Promote engagement-worthy discussions.
- Create high-quality graphics and video content.
7. Time and Money Management

Time is one of the world’s most crucial resources, with everyone having the same number of seconds, minutes, and hours daily. It would help if you juggled how you manage your time and money resources to maximize your opportunities, reach, and real estate sales.

Here are a few ways to manage your money and time:
- Group your errands, home meetings, and buyer profiles for efficiency.
- Schedule all your appointments and visits according to location.
- Create a marketing budget of around 7 to 8% for less than $5 million in sales annually.
- Designate one or two days a week for ocular inspections before client viewing.
8. Continue Learning and Improving Skills

Successful habits of successful real estate agents include continuous industry development and skills updates. It would help if you continued to improve your services, accommodating the growing demand, standards and expectations to prevent stagnation or being outdated.

If you think that you’ve already perfected your craft, here are some of the skills you can develop to complement your real estate career:
- Branding
- Advertising
- Social Media Management (SMM)
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
- Content Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Customer Service
Bottomline

It’s never too late to create an entire career from scratch, especially with the proper planning and direction. Real estate success is not easy, but it’s possible with enough determination to build thriving career habits. Don’t forget to market your services on free digital platforms like social media to extend your reach.
July 18, 2022
6 Photography Tips to Best Sell Your Property

For most buyers, nothing beats a live viewing to really appreciate a property for sale. However, it’s expertly shot photos that catch people’s attention and get them interested in the first place. This is why photography is a big part of real estate.

Indeed, the importance of great pictures in promoting a listing is also why some real estate recruiters keep track of agents with photography and design backgrounds. Check this out if you want to know how meticulous the recruitment process can be for real estate agents. It may reassure you to know that recruiters and brokerages do all they can to help you sell your home for the best price.
[lwptoc]

With all of the above considered, however, you still need to learn how to take good photos of your property for sale. After all, you may not always have the money to hire professionals to do it for you. You can sometimes rely on real estate agents to help you with this, but remember as well that they also handle many other matters.

Here are some tips to get you started on taking good photos of your property that will attract potential buyers:

Focus on the Best Selling Points

It can be tempting to take photos of every corner of your house to showcase it, but it would be better to focus on a few rooms. Ask yourself this question: what is or are the best selling points of your house? Perhaps it’s the big but cozy living room that’s perfect for family gatherings. Maybe it’s the ultra-modern kitchen that will excite budding chefs.

By picking just a few things to focus on, you can create a more unified theme for your photos. You can even use these photos as a storytelling medium, which can boost the appeal of your property to your target market.

Open the Windows

Windows are a great selling point for many properties, particularly for homes with views. Another reason is that more windows mean more natural light, which is good for the body’s circadian rhythm and vitamin D production; it can even improve your mood!

When it comes to photography, natural light is your best friend. So throw open those windows and before taking your shots—you’ll be surprised at how much better they look! You can also get creative with the windows, such as using them to frame the outdoor scenery. Of course, make sure that the windows are clean before your photo session.

Take External Photos During the Golden Hours

Speaking of natural light, it’s a good idea to take photos of the exterior of the property during the so-called golden hours: before sunrise and right after sunset. The lighting that these times of day provide can provide a unique flair, highlighting features such as a well-tended garden or even a unique-looking front door. You may also want to include shots of the neighborhood, in case this is a big selling point of your property.

Depersonalize

To get the best shots of your property, remove as much clutter as you can. A clean and organized space is much easier to photograph. You should also minimize the number of personal accessories, such as family photos or collectibles. This will depersonalize the space, so it’s easier for the buyer to imagine them filling it with their own furniture and decorations. Cleaning things up also gives you a better backdrop to showcase what you want to showcase.

Take Corner Photos

The best way to present a space is showing its entirety. If you take multiple photos, potential buyers still have to imagine what these separate elements look like together. This can affect their perception. At the same, it can be difficult to capture an entire room in a single photo. Even panoramic shots using digital cameras or smartphones are tricky to get right.

To deal with this dilemma, try taking a photo from a corner. This will allow you to capture as much of the space as you can, as well as make the room look bigger. If the room has windows, open them or at least pull back the window treatments. The natural light will make things look brighter.

Choose the Best Ones

Strictly speaking, this isn’t a photography tip but it still needs to be said: don’t overload your listing with hundreds of photos. Yes, you should take as many photos as you can but this is so that you can choose the best ones to upload. Putting up too many pictures can also overwhelm the buyer and decide not to look further into your ad.

Consider the photos in your for-sale listing as a movie trailer, something that highlights the most exciting, most interesting parts of the entire film. Post just enough photos to create that initial curiosity, so buyers will want to see the property in person. If you want, you can ask your real estate agent for advice regarding the number of photos and which ones you should post.

Good luck on selling your property! We hope that these photography tips can help you find the best buyer.

June 30, 2022
Instagram for Real Estate Marketing

Even if you’ve never used the app, you won’t be surprised to hear that Instagram is perfect for real estate. After all, it’s a highly visual platform; it’s perfect for a business that relies so heavily on optics. But beyond that, it’s also got location data and geo-targeting functions that allow real estate agents and firms to target audiences within a close proximity.

And if that’s not convincing enough, Instagram’s 1.4 billion active users, many which engage with real estate pictures, should convince you have how effective it can be to market properties.

Therefore, whether you’re already on the platform or are still contemplating jumping on the bandwagon, here are some tips on how you can optimize Instagram for real estate.

Using Instagram posts, Reels, and Stories

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Scott Basile (@basilephoto)

First, the basics; it’s not enough to have pretty pictures on Instagram. You’ll also have to know how to market your content effectively and maximize the platform to your advantage. Familiarize yourself with Instagram’s basic features — Instagram posts, Reels, and Stories — and know what kind of content each one works best with.

Posts

Posts are the most easily navigable content on your account. When users visit your account, the first thing they’ll see is your profile, so make sure you curate your content in a way that is immediately pleasing to the eye. Take pictures of your properties’ rooms, amenities, and backyard if applicable. You can check out our post “Top 11 Amazing Real Estate Photographers to Follow” for some inspiration.
Instagram posts are also great for comprehensive and informative posts, such as house tours or real estate market guides — but we’ll get to that later!

Stories

Instagram Stories are versatile and casual and are perfect for letting you post at a higher frequency without congesting one’s feed. They expire within 24 hours, which is why they’re perfect for time-sensitive content, like personal updates on specific stagings or what campaigns you’re currently working on. You can also bump old posts to provider updates on the status of certain properties.

Reels

Instagram Reels are the newest feature on Instagram, created as a response to the viral short video platform TikTok. They’re best for fun and casual content, usually around 15-30 seconds. Instagram has a separate tab solely for Reels, so you can appear on other users’ feeds. Reels are perfect for practically anything — from interior design tutorials to tours or construction pictures.

Incorporating hashtags

Hashtags are an absolute necessity when it comes to real estate marketing. When you add a hashtag, it makes your posts visible to users who are looking for content under those specific hashtags. Ask Money’s marketing guide for Instagram explains how to do this strategically. Keep the hashtags at a reasonable number and use only the ones that will resonate with your audiences. You can use your location, school district, the style of the property, or the name of your brokerage that will enable other users to engage with your posts.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Coton House (@cotonhouse)

Hashtag trends are constantly changing, so you’ll have to do some experimenting to figure it out. The best way to do this is by looking at what other accounts similar to yours are doing and replicate the best practices to gain the best possible results.

Sharing informative content

For a complex industry like real estate, one of the best ways to earn followers is by posting informative content. Entrepreneur states that short-form video content has boomed in popularity because people don’t like reading or have enough attention span to watch videos over a minute. To this end, Instagram’s video options are perfect for delivering impactful and interesting information in digestible, bite-sized bits that won’t lose your audience’s attention.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tom Ferry 🌎 (@tomferry)

You can use the platform’s versatile features to talk about topics like mortgages, listings, or even design inspirations. Just keep in mind that the best way to establish yourself as a reliable authority is by posting this content at regular intervals.

Engaging with your market

Finally, allow your followers to get to know who you and your team are. An article from CEOWORLD states that building trust in your brand can be done by focusing on your customer relationships and engaging with your audience in a transparent and direct way. You can share personal stories, and opinions, or even promote your firm’s ethos by promoting your activities outside of regular operations, such as charity or local involvement, and what causes your support.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Nikol Klein (@nikolklein)

This may necessitate finding a balance between professional and personal content, but it’s a great way to build trust among potential clients.

Instagram is always changing, but it’s the best way to stay relevant and appeal to your target market. Although you’ll have to adapt at the start, in the long run, it will be a fun and creative way to engage with your audience!

June 21, 2022
Top 5 Exciting Real Estate Trends to Watch in the Year 2022
The real estate industry is changing its landscape to fit post-pandemic expectations and is more focused on comfortable homes with bigger living spaces. Most digital real estate websites have seen an influx of new audiences, especially those looking to relocate due to work-from-home options. This market movement of increased demand provides limitless possibilities.

There are exciting real estate trends 2022 for home buyers and sellers, so it would be the best time to hire professional photo editing companies like Phixer to drive up sales conversion in the competitive digital market. Your professionally-edited photos have a higher chance of getting noticed.
[lwptoc]

TL;DR: Here are some of the exciting 2022 real estate trends you should check out:

1. Prioritizing relaxing indoor and outdoor mental health spaces

The past few years have been exhausting due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other global issues. People wanted more breathing space and switched dense urban areas for quiet suburbs, so demand for these properties and homes remained high. Buyers want wide spaces to do numerous zen activities like exercising, yoga, or reading books. Therefore, home size plays a part in their decision-making.

According to Realtor.com, suburban home listing views have increased by 42.1% since the pandemic in 2020, with trends of bigger-sized single-family homes. According to the consensus of the National Association of Home Builders, the average size of new single-family homes has increased by 6.2%.

You can sell your home quickly in 2022 by featuring relaxing places for excellent mental health. Comfortable living spaces are critical real estate trends now, so it’s important to highlight how future buyers can attain wellness and peace in your property. Photos should include mental health spaces.

Here are some tips on selling your property faster:
- Improve the bathroom ventilation and overall aesthetic.
- Prioritize features that bring in natural light.
- Stage your listing with indoor plants and comfortable wooden furniture.
- Replace your windows with wider ones to accommodate more sunlight.
You will see an exciting trend for real estate in 2022 wherein buyers prioritize spaces that are good for their mental health, so you should consider interior design’s psychological effects when staging your listing. Interior design techniques can improve emotional stability and alleviate depression and stress.

2. Some markets have more affordable starting homes than rentals

Supply and demand are shifting rentals and sales prices in different areas. For real estate market trends 2022, there will be high home prices because people will want to rent while waiting for the market to cool down. More people are looking forward to working from home conditions. However, due to the rising rental demand, the rent prices around the country also shot up.

Therefore, purchasing a starter home is more cost-effective than rentals in the following places:
- Cleveland, Ohio
- Birmingham, Alabama
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Orlando, Florida
- Louis, Missouri
Although tech cities with more transient individuals or temporary occupants still have higher purchase versus home rental prices. This particular 2022 trend may also increase the demand for starter homes during the entire year. More cities might follow suit, so you should keep an eye out.

3. Homes use new technology

The information age made things more convenient for people to communicate information and ideas worldwide. People adapted to innovations and modern technology such as online home selling platforms, smart home tech, and apps in real estate trends 2022.

Here are some of the key new technology takeaways in the real estate industry:
- Artificial Intelligence plays a significant part in real estate, with management, design, and organization building as application areas.
- Real estate sellers and buyers use social media, online home selling platforms, smart home technology, and applications.
- Homes with updated smart technology have a higher chance of attracting new buyers.
- There is an expected demand increase from technology firms and startups servicing the industry as more people adopt these innovative tools.
- Companies prioritize making faster and more convenient transactions.
New technology will trend in 2022, and people might prefer houses with high-tech security features with the introduction of more innovative smart home techs.

4. Growth of Online Real Estate Services

Statistics say that 44% of buyers prefer to look at digital real estate property and home listings, and 12% search for information about home purchases. Therefore, online home selling, similar to ecommerce websites, may also see an increase in users for real estate trends now.

Here are some of the online real estate services available:
- Third-party buyers – companies like Opendoor buy your home and process repairs, inspections, and home sales efforts to resell it at a higher price.
- Virtual agents – companies like Redfin and other hybrid services handle transactions online to reduce the traditional commissions for agents.
- Mobile closings – you can buy or sell houses online with digital documentation, remote online notarization, and electronic signature applications.
Most buyers and sellers will have more convenient real estate in 2022 transactions so that neither will have to leave their houses. Because of the added convenience of digital space, people can do buying and selling transactions on their phones.

5. Low Mortgage Interest Rates

The mortgage interest rate average has recently been at an all-time low. According to statistics, the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage average interest rate decreased to 2.2% in January 2021, the lowest in 30 years. The rates were around 2.15% to 2.4% for the remainder of 2021.

Low mortgage interest rates mean that there will be a lower mortgage payment, and buyers are more likely to purchase homes than with higher mortgage interest rates.

Bottomline

The real estate market trends 2022 are shifting to benefit both sellers and buyers. There will be growing demand in the coming years as more people are looking for side hustles and businesses to earn passive income. Customers will be looking for various properties from short-term to long-term lease units.

The most common trend is the dependence on online presence, so you should take professional photos and edit them beautifully. You will be competing with other real estate companies and agents, so you may need specialists who know high-quality real estate image standards.
June 21, 2022
Real Estate TikTok – An Ultimate Solution To Effectively Sell Homes
Social media is one of the most inexpensive ways to introduce your brand into the world. You must constantly bring in your A-game as a real estate professional, adapting to the times and keeping up with the latest social media trends. A rising 2022 social media trend is TikTok for property, wherein real estate content creators showcase different properties available.

Most agents that deploy professional real estate post-production rely on visuals to captivate their audiences. Other platforms like Youtube’s Shorts and Meta’s Reels have replicated TikTok’s portrait video social media approach. Therefore, you can maximize TikTok for real estate agents by creating vertical video content to upload on multiple platforms in various timeframes.
[lwptoc]

TL;DR: Here are some ways how to promote real estate on TikTok:

1. Create a Video Content Plan and Calendar

You may want to get on the real estate TikTok trends, but you don’t know where to start. As with most successful ventures, you must begin by creating a plan that often involves content calendars. Creating an outline is like laying a foundation for your real estate video content career; you must do the preliminary hashtag and market research like reading up on competitive guides to selling a home.

Here are some of the things that a TikTok for real estate video content plan and calendar contains:
- Outline of story ideas/video concepts
- Thematic directions (indicate important local, national, and global dates and what occasions or events fall within those dates)
- Shoot, post-production, and publish dates with specific social media platforms
- Marketing and branding efforts
- Assignments (if working with a team)
No two content calendars are alike, so you have to customize your plan according to your needs and goals. A more detailed schedule will allow you to churn out regular and original content on TikTok efficiently. Your calendar and program will improve your chances of growing your channel.

2. Make Compelling Video Content

Creating excellent video content is essential in how to promote real estate on TikTok. You should construct a content creator persona when you begin a Tiktok account and develop branding strategies to earn the audience’s trust—the better your brand fares, the higher the possibility that people will recommend your channel to others.

Here are some tips on how to make successful videos:
- Summarize your entire content for the first ten seconds of the video or highlight remarkable parts.
- Tell a thrilling story with an introduction, body, and conclusion.
- Create mobile-friendly videos.
- Craft your TikTok for real estate video to be social media shareable.
- Draft a compelling thumbnail and title.
- Make a call-to-action (CTA).
- Switch up your video formats from time to time.
- Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques in your titles and captions.
- Speak to your target audience.
- Collaborate with other content creators.
- Engage in the comment section conversations.
Ensure your video is relevant and timely, primarily when catering to specific local audiences. Your video should be interesting enough to retain viewership from start to finish since people’s attention spans have significantly reduced over time. If successful, people would share and rave about your content.

3. Variety in Your Real Estate Videos

Variety is one of the best ways to develop your TikTok for property video content, especially when you post daily. People will look for better and more exciting content the longer you run your channel, so be prepared to draft different versions and try new approaches. You can also collaborate with other creators to add different personalities and styles.

Here are some ideas to add variety:
- Shoot a property at distinct angles and various times during the day to capture different lighting effects.
- Try to expand on different POVs for a particular topic. For example, you can tackle a subject from the perspective of both buyers and sellers to create two videos in one shoot.
- Summarize or expand on the points in your popular videos. Popularity reflects how well the audience receives your videos. You can create shorter versions of your most popular lengthy videos. You can also complete more extended versions of your most popular shorts.
- Create different formats from interviews, opinion pieces, lists, and perspectives.
- Occasionally tackle content on current events or various slice of life videos to seem more relevant and relatable.
You should maintain your predetermined brand image even if you develop various videos to prevent confusion. As long as you establish your branding, you should have no problem adding variety to your video content. The more published videos you have, the more you should mix things up.

4. Network with Other Real Estate Professionals

One of the best ways to create TikTok for real estate agents is by networking with other professionals in the field. It would help if you had various perspectives and insights to develop Tiktok videos about buying houses and other informative or entertaining content.

Knowing other people in real estate will help you gain rapport and an excellent reputation in the industry. As more industry experts weigh in on your videos, you will have the opportunity to improve your styles and approaches.

5. Don’t Chase Viral Status

Most established content creators gain a big spike of followers or fans from a viral video or post. While this could help produce a stream of new eyes to your channel, you must remember that viral videos happen randomly, and there’s no unique formula.

Sometimes, people find something funny or informative and share it with their friends who relate and re-share it on their platforms. If you make videos intending to make them viral, you will end up frustrated and disappointed because it’s not something anyone can control appropriately.

Takeaway

Video content is king in 2022. There are at least 123 million views for real estate TikTok trends hashtags, so you will have the opportunity to find an audience for your exciting real estate videos. If you develop your brand well enough, people will turn to your channel for advice and, eventually, real estate purchases. Publish your videos on numerous social media platforms to optimize your reach and network.
June 7, 2022
How to Attractively Stage Your Home With the Click of a Mouse
Over 4.95 billion people have been using the Internet worldwide, turning digital platforms into convenience, innovation, and smooth communication avenues. Most real estate professionals use the World Wide Web to connect with potential buyers, network with like-minded real estate practitioners, and market properties for sale. Multiple sites and programs can help you improve your real estate competency and conversion rates.

These days, you can accomplish a lot for your real estate listings with just a mouse click, whether virtual furniture staging or virtual staging. Moreover, you can enhance your post-production game with decluttering and editing apps requiring a few taps. Various innovations have improved the standards and processes for real estate photos.

Before we proceed further, let’s talk about virtual staging and why you should consider using it for your real estate listings.
[lwptoc]

What is Virtual Staging?

Virtual staging is a digitally-made showroom for real estate marketing and sales purposes. You can implement profiled looks and feels to a particular property and virtually stage a room to make it more presentable and aesthetically pleasing to potential buyers.

Why Should You Virtually Stage a Room?

There are many reasons to stage a home virtually. Most people want to focus on virtual staging furniture that allows them to dress up empty spaces according to exciting concepts and lifestyle pegs. Home staging came into practice long before the Internet was ever a thing, and developers used to spend thousands on physical showrooms.

These days, you can easily stage listing photos with a click of a mouse or a tap of a finger on your phone. You can improve your chances of attracting the right buyers.

How to Stage Listing Photos with a Mouse Click

You can virtually stage any listing photo even if you’re not a real estate photographer or professional graphics creative. Now that we’ve established the importance of enhancing real estate photos, here are the many ways to attractively stage your home with just a mouse click:

1. Digitally declutter images using photo editing software

Sometimes, you need to remove items, furniture pieces, personal belongings, and clutter found in the photo to add better ones. Staging opens up possibilities from your existing spaces to suit the lifestyle or image you want to project to potential customers. You don’t need to be a virtual staging expert to improve your real estate listing photographs.

Photo editing software allows you to improve your real estate pictures’ appearance by removing unwanted objects with just a few clicks, whether you’re using the classic cut-and-paste method, healing spot brush, or clone stamp tool. These techniques are pretty straightforward, especially for those with extensive photo-editing experiences.

If you can’t do it yourself and you need the help of an expert, Phixer can help declutter images with a click of your mouse.

2. Find home staging ideas online

You may want to virtually stage a room, but you don’t know where to begin. Luckily, many others have done the feat before you, and the Internet is an excellent place to search for lookbooks, inspiration, and ideas. Pinterest, for example, is a platform with many modern and traditional designs perfect for indoor and outdoor spaces.

You can search for the following information online:
- Home staging tips
- Virtual staging hacks
- Real estate listing photo examples
- Interior decoration ideas
- Furniture styles
Looking up real-life examples would immensely help the creative process if you want to have your staging professionally made. You can also show the samples to your potential clients, especially those staged with similar room sizes.

3. Try furniture using Augmented Reality (AR)

Like those dress-up apps, virtual staging furniture is a fun experience using AR technology. Famous retail brands like IKEA, Target, and Amazon have iOS and Android apps that allow you to decorate your room with pieces of furniture to scale. You can also access websites where you can upload pictures and try different types of furniture to check how it looks.

AR boasts a 90% conversion rate, and around half of the customers prefer shopping with AR assistance. You can expect better and more accessible AR technologies as ecommerce becomes more popular and people appreciate virtual illustrations more than traditional property visits.

Virtual furniture staging has become increasingly popular, especially among buyers looking for how specific furniture pieces look in the space. As better AR and VR technologies are available, people will soon hold real estate tours using VR headsets.

4. Use a Virtual Staging app or website

The best kind of staging is one made by experts. Aside from furniture apps, you can do virtual staging online through apps or websites. Companies like Phixer have a dedicated mobile app where you can capture listing photos and have them edited by experts.

Virtual staging websites can offer the same experience, especially those that allow you to save your edits instantly. You should be careful in choosing because some of those sites can be costly, especially if you don’t have a clear vision of the style you want.

5. Hire a Virtual Staging expert

Another way to digitally stage your property with just a mouse click would be to hire a virtual staging expert for post-production listing photos. If Photoshop or editing programs are too overwhelming or time-consuming, you can rely on professionals. Often, these real estate editing companies provide more than just virtual staging.

Here are some services that you can hire real estate photography and post-production experts for:
- Photo editing
- Video editing
- Drone shots
- Lawn replacement
- Decluttering
- Virtual twilight
Most companies offer 8 to 48 hours turnaround times depending on the request, and they offer consultations and customer support to ensure that you get the images you need. Some websites allow you to log in and upload your photos to monitor progress and check edit status.

Bottomline

There are many ways to approach virtual staging online, and more companies present real estate photography and post-production services. Fortunately, a lot of the current technology improves the aesthetics and appearances of regular property images. Someday, people will make quick decisions on real estate properties with digital ocular inspections.
May 24, 2022