Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The best marketing agents recognize that it's not about just showing a home. It's about how the buyer's story improves by living in that home.
With more and more consumers making judgments about a home based on pictures they see online vs. actually walking the home, pictures can make or break the exposure and demand for your listings and if they ever experience what their story could be like living in that home. We have Darryl Glade, CEO and Co-Founder of Stilio.com, on the Think Bigger Real Estate Show to talk to us about why good pictures are important and how they can help build up our brands.
Show Notes
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. Real Estate photography today matters more than ever. My wife and I, for example, toured about 1000 homes virtually, toured one physically, that was the home we bought. So Case in point, real estate photography matters if you want to be a great listing agent, and I'm really excited today to have on the show gentleman by the name of Darryl Glade. Darryl is the founder and CEO of stilio.com, which is a marketplace to connect real estate agents, and great photographers, they do a full vetting process and training program to make sure that the photographers that they bring to the table, understand some very key principles of which we're going to be discussing today. So I want to, first of all, thank Darryl for being on the show today, Darryl, welcome.
Darryl Glade 0:43
Thanks for having me, Justin looking forward to it.
Justin Stoddart 0:45
Yeah, based on what you've built, you're, you're a big thinker, which I'm excited to have someone like you, who not only has been a top agent, right? for 10 years, you're a top agent in New Orleans, found your passion within kind of this niche of real estate. And now you're pouring into the industry in a different way. So very cool, excited to have you here to extend really my mission of my passion, which is to help agents think bigger. I know that when that happens, they themselves grow. And their business follows suit, which opens up options and impact that they've always wanted. So thank you again, for being here. Let's dive into this there'll, you know, one thought that I've had actually taught a class this week, as I was mentioning to you previously, called becoming a powerful marketer through storytelling. And I believe this that the great marketers, and great agents out there, don't just say, hey, let me show you a house. Right? They say, let me tell you about what your story what your life would look like living in this house, there's a much deeper emotional connection. And people really start to see their story transform and having that home be a part of it. How do you feel like photography plays a part in helping people see the story, their story being in that home,
Darryl Glade 1:57
it's got to be the easiest way to do it. You know, there's a great stat that says 90% of buyers say that the most important part of any real estate listing is the photos. And so it's not the flowery language. And if you're trying to tell a story and trying to get a certain message across, the easiest way to do it is by photos. And it's really the cheapest way to do it as well. I mean, it's not a very big investment. And the listing agent and homeowner can work with a photographer to really set the stage to tell that story to get your point across. So exactly like you were talking about in your presentation, the photos are a key part to accomplishing that goal.
Justin Stoddart 2:39
You know, so many people, again, I think maybe an indicator of where we're going as a society, right, Facebook was the big deal for a long, long time, they were wise enough for a small investment of a billion dollars, they bought Instagram, but what's Instagram, Instagram is image heavy, and text light right there. So Case in point of what you're saying here is that you can have great copy, and you need to have great copy. But if you don't have good photography, no one's ever going to get to your copy.
Darryl Glade 3:07
Now you're exactly right. And, you know, to expand that further, the Instagram generation and in Facebook still, all anybody cares about is content, all these agents are trying to create content to get their own personal brand across and to get that listing information across its photos. So if you commit to getting great photos, and all your listings, you've got all that content built in right there ready for you, ready for you to extend your brand and to get that listing messaging across. And it's just so easy. All you gotta do is get your listing photographed. And then right there, you got 20 or 30 pieces of content ready for you to post to extend your brand online.
Justin Stoddart 3:48
Well, how important it is, you're right, because you're not just listing at home, you're listing your business, if you will, right. You're demonstrating what kind of marketer you are. And I believe that when people evaluate a real estate agent, it used to be just on like, who have your friends us and who do you trust. And I believe that now people have more of a discerning eye. Yes, they want to know that. But they're also vetting you to see if you're also a professional marketer, not just a good real estate agent. But are you a professional marketer? Are you showing up in the video? Or do your images look like they were taken on your phone? Or do they actually look like it's amazing, Darryl, that how many agents and I say, well, you go through our MLS, and you can identify a much higher percentage than you would expect, are still doing photos on their own, oftentimes on a mobile device, right?
Darryl Glade 4:28
I always say our biggest competitor is not necessarily another professional photography company. It's the agent with their own cell phones. And yeah, technology is expanding every single day, and the cameras on the phones are just that much better. They're outstanding. But the fact is, you need to know the angles you need, which features you need to know the camera height. And then not only that a huge part of getting really good professional photography for real estate is the post-processing. It's the editing afterwords. And that's where still to other professional photographers really get the job done.
Justin Stoddart 5:05
Well, you say, I know you guys do, again, pretty, pretty deep vetting process when it comes to the photographers that are part of your kind of ecosystem, right? What are some key things that you look for when you're choosing photographers in an agent should be saying, you know, that's some criteria that I need to look at now, obviously, going through studio com, they're going to get this, but talk to us about kind of what criteria you look for.
Darryl Glade 5:28
Yeah. So, you know, it's important that we vet all the photographers that get access to our marketplace, and, you know, still is a lot different than the other professional photography companies out there we are the marketplace, we are not the photography company. So that means agents are going to go and find their local photographers. And then those photographers are the ones that are creating and giving the service to the agent. So if we want to make sure that that marketplace is only full of vetted important, really good photographers are all the agent will never come back again. Right? So when the photographers submit their application, they have to submit photos, so we have to see their existing work, they also have to create a profile. So if for example, the profile says, you know why hire me I because I love photography, something like that, well, they're not professionals, they need to have a professional profile, they need to submit their camera equipment. So if they don't have professional grade equipment, they're not in. And then not only that, they have to take a test, if they can't pass this professional, it's a test for real estate photography, not just general, professional photography, if they can't pass the test, they're not live. So these are some of the things that we want to make sure that of the 6000 applications that we got the last six months all around the country, we are a nationwide marketplace, that only those that are the best can get to the real estate agent. So that we're really taking our time making sure that the top photographers are on our platform.
Justin Stoddart 7:05
Darryl, when you look at real estate photography, like what's a pet peeve of yours, what's like, oh, my goodness, that's terrible. Like,
Darryl Glade 7:12
let me say, I guess to right off the bat, I can think of the easiest example is, you know, look at that window behind me, that's a great example is the windows of the real estate listing. So when you take a normal picture, one of two things is likely going to happen, you're either going to be able to see through the window, and have a beautiful shot of outside and the view but the inside is incredibly dark, you don't see the furniture, for example, or the exact opposite, which is what you're seeing in here, the window is completely blown out. And then but you can see the inside. So a good professional photographer knows how to blend those two extremes, those two light levels, you know, to keep it sort of basic and not too technical. And so you can see through the windows, and then also see inside that the house as well, that would be one. And then the other would be diverging lines, you want to make sure that the verticals, we can call it that the let says the corners of the walls, and the edges of the door frames don't sort of look away from the viewer and are not vertical when you're standing in a room, they go up and down. So the photos should be the same as well. So you want to make sure that the verticals aren't diverging lines, in a sense is sort of a technical term. And the way that that can be solved is the obviously correct placement of the camera, the right settings, but then also the post-processing the right editor, make sure that any sort of slight diverging lines are edited to make sure your verticals are up and down.
Justin Stoddart 8:48
You know, I remember being a high-end home builder. This is in a previous life. It was probably 2008 we were building a home that was preparing to go into the what was essentially the parade of homes is what they call it a street of dreams type feels. And it was a beautiful home. Don't get me wrong. 6000 square feet like high end finishes everywhere. And I was in love with the home. It was beautiful. I would have moved in I would have moved my family and I was building it not buying it though. If they weren't quite to that. That point life. Yeah, but the thing it was interesting is it like we had a good professional photographer come out and take pictures and it was like the Twilight photos. And I thought to myself like is that that same house like I really thought was beautiful. But then I was like, you've got to be kidding me like and in fact, I think I still have those photos somewhere else so proud of him. I was like yeah, I thought it was building a cool house until I saw the full really great house does.
Darryl Glade 9:39
And then even you talked about the Twilight photo. There are statistics that show that Twilight photos get more clicks than this same house, same exterior, but or a daytime photo. And if you think about it if you're looking on like an MLS or a Zillow, for example. And there's this big laundry list of photos of x terrier houses that darker shot of the beautiful Twilight with a nice sky is going to stand out more. So you're going to click on that more. So you know if you're looking for a photographer, you'd love to be able to make sure you get those. Those Twilight photos or even people are doing virtual Twilight's now editing daytime photos to make them look like night. Interesting. Yeah.
Justin Stoddart 10:20
Let's talk about this component of storytelling, we touched on it a little bit. But there are certain scenes that you found really good photographers take that actually don't just show the shell of the home, right? The kind of nuts and bolts of the home or like here's a bedroom, here's a kitchen, but show life in that right not necessarily bringing in like paid actors or anything. But is there some way to demonstrate that? And maybe it is you bring people into it? I haven't seen that. But is there some way to demonstrate life in a home as opposed to just house?
Darryl Glade 10:49
Yeah, you know it, that's a subtle way of taking the photos. And there is a couple of different schools of thought that the typical photographers, not a typical real estate photographer are not necessarily creating art, they're creating a marketing tool to sell the house. And then the other extreme is the Architectural Digest photography, where it's really beautiful photos that aren't necessarily giving the viewer, the buyer, all the information, they need to be able to make a decision on whether or not they want to see the house.
But Justin I think you're right in that, you have to encourage them to come to take a look at the house because like you and your wife, you're looking at a ton of houses online, and you're not going to go take a look at a bunch. So the storytelling via the photos has to be compelling enough to get them out of their chair out from behind their, their computer and go walk through the house. So there's a nice fine line between just the very basic real estate photography, the shell plus and then the Architectural Digest version. And that can really be done by having high-quality photography with really good at. And so you want to make sure that you're giving the viewer a taste of what they could get when they go see it. And what I like to recommend is you can give subtle cues in photography. And those subtle cues could be for example, if you have a photo of the entryway, let's say and in the corner on the right side of the entryway, you could see the doorway into the living room. And so you can position the camera to give a little more that doorway into the next room. And then the next photo should be of that room. So for example, if that room is purple, or they have a purple wall, let's say a highlight wall. on that second photo, you want to make sure that that camera is pointed at that wall. So it's a subtle cue to bring the viewer through the floor plan of the house. And the photographer, the homeowner, the real estate agent can create that story like we're talking about subconsciously, almost by having the photos in a certain order and picking it and having one blend off the other.
Justin Stoddart 13:10
You know, that's a really, really interesting, talk to us a little bit about what a photographer should do, or maybe even a real estate agent should do prior to the photographer coming. Yeah, I'll kind of set this up a little bit, I had a client of mine show me a like a listing that he took over. And he showed me the previous pictures of like, it was like the BBQ, not even it was just off the deck on the dirt. Like just the way they position the kind of the staging ahead of time, there was it looked like a desirable place of a barbecue was before it was like that's kind of an awkward deck. But he did like a maybe an aerial shot. And he did like just reposition the BBQ in the chairs and got some junk. And it would totally change the whole feel like I could feel myself like Oh man, I hope I would get invited to a barbecue at that house. Right? Like, that's kind of awkward. It was my first thought when I saw the previous one. So go ahead tell us kind of how somebody should walk through a house. With that in mind of like, how do we make this to where someone says, oh, man, I would love to either live there or visit that place or go see it?
Darryl Glade 14:07
Yeah, I would say that the primary responsibility for that setup should fall on the real estate listing agent, the listing agent's shoulders because they're the one that's going to make that decision. Most photographers are that they are really good at photography, they're not necessarily stagers. Now, there are the good real estate photographers have an eye for staging, and will assist with basic staging setup. So for example, they should make sure the toilet covers down, right, and the trash cans are out of you. But in terms of setting the stage, it's really on the agent beforehand, to getting that exactly like you said, making it compelling to want to go in and have a barbecue at that house. You know what I like to say that the easiest thing for an agent to do, the starting point would be you should have every room in the house feel like it's a room in a hotel is to a certain extent, they're there, that recommendation is because the things that are typically in a hotel room are there because they're being used for certain reason. They're not necessarily there, just to be there. They're there for a specific purpose. And so yeah, the homeowner needs to live in the house, obviously. So if it makes having that particular family photo, let's say if that's really important to them, then leave it that's the homeowner needs to be there. But do they really need 50 photos on the piano? they likely don't. So you want to make it it's clear out the ancillary quote unquote junk. Yeah, make it so that the things that are in the room, they are there on purpose, they have a purpose for being on the kitchen countertop, you know, does the coffee maker need to be out there in the showing in the photos of likely not. But you know, say there's a paper towel built into the underneath the shelf? Well, making it look, not taking up the paper towels probably don't look doesn't look very good. So included, it has a purpose. So there's a fine line and the agent can create that and create that feeling before the photographer gets there, and then use the photographer as a sounding board. These photographers are in hundreds, if not thousands of houses. So when the agent is there, and the photographer gets there, say hey, how does this look, look through the camera before the photo is taken or even after the photo is taken. And say this is the story we're trying to tell this is the brand we're trying to create. So maybe we need to move that autumn and a little to the right. And you know most photographers first should be able to tell you right off the bat that this is the staging we're looking for.
Justin Stoddart 17:05
Love man such great stuff. I actually interviewed somebody this week. Taz Weatherly, those of you that haven't seen that episode. In fact, it was even in the episode it was after the fact I posted a video within the Think Bigger Real Estate Group. And it was a video that she did with her phone while the photographers were doing their work. And I thought that was brilliant. And she said why she's doing it that her clients deserve to have top grade professional photography done. And it was the what and it was the why. And it set her apart. Right even though probably most real estate agents actually do that. The fact that she documented it and showed what was happening in the background, and had a narrative around that and a real reason as to what that did for the homeowners. I thought that was brilliant, I think I don't know if you've seen people do that before. But a great idea too, if you're doing something at a high level like photography, why not document that creates a story around that,
Darryl Glade 17:54
it is such a simple thing to do to increase that brand of the agent. So just getting on the phone and doing a Facebook Live, or whatever it may be, or Instagram story. It's just content, as we talked about before you the more content that you have that's relevant to what you're trying to get across the better. And again, making your brand set yourself apart from your competition as a real estate agent. It's such a simple, very cost effective way of doing it, you've already invested in the photos you're going to use, you're already going to use it for your listing, hopefully, you'll use it for some of your personal Facebook posts to set yourself apart. And now you've created a video which people love to learn about who you are your personality, how you present yourself, you're going to get more and more listings for a very simple 32-second free video that you're going to post.
Justin Stoddart 18:47
Well, it's interesting. I often I'm friends with a lot of real estate agents. So you can imagine that my newsfeed and probably are you like, are you as well. my newsfeed is filled with real estate agents organic and some paid but mostly organic. And it's, it's interesting to me how often I will see them do the front elevation of the home as the only thing that they demonstrate from the house. And maybe that's appropriate because that home has an amazing front elevation. But oftentimes, there's some component of that house that would actually appeal to people, even more, maybe it's a fireplace that they could then tell a story about their fight. Like there are many ways to engage people using that content, like you're saying, like if you're doing good photography, and you should be and if you're not, I'm going to direct you to stilio.com to go find a good photographer, Darryl has personally vetted himself. Absolutely. But that this concept of taking that content, I love that you said that Darryl take that content and reuse it, don't just use the front elevation and don't just copy the link out of RMLS like that, that interests about 2% of the people that are going to see it because only 2% of the people that you are in your friends based are shopping for home at any given time. But if you can give some components of that home that's really compelling, it's going to appeal to, you know, a much, much higher percentage and, and and just emphasizing what you said also, that if you have photographs from a phone, tell people about the way you market, right? Like, think of yourself as a photographer with a portfolio. And any photography that you do on one of your projects is going into that portfolio is that going to upgrade your portfolio or downgrading like even for the selfish reason of like, this is my brand. So I'm not going to let crappy photography, whether or not the like the listing needs it or not have some personal pride and what's attached to your brand. Is it? Is it phone photos? If so then you probably deserve to be replaced by technology. I'm sorry, but you're not helping our industry. Right?
Darryl Glade 20:36
You're exactly right. And then you know, the theme of the pot of this podcast, think bigger. If you're going to market that you're thinking yourself, Well, I already do professional photography, everybody does professional photography, well use it a little differently, or maybe step up, get a floor plan with it, get those drone photos or get a small video walkthrough, or simply use them differently. A very basic example and that you talked on you hit on is don't use the MLS size photos in your streams, they're poor quality, your professional photographer should be giving you at least two different sizes, the MLS size, so you can get them in your local MLS plus an original size and much larger size, that's a better quality. Put those photos online, put those photos on your website, most likely, you're an agent that you have a website through your broker. And that broker probably pulls the MLS photo feed in. And they also likely have a feature that lets you replace those photos. So if you're, you know, Stilio does have API setup to pull the better photos into certain companies.
But if your company is not
one of those, you likely have a way to manually override those photos. So take a couple of minutes, have your system take a couple of minutes and put the bigger photos into your personal website. Again, it'll make your brand look better when somebody is clicking on your photos at all make your listings look better than the competition because it's got a higher quality photo.
Justin Stoddart 22:05
Yeah, and we all know that increased demand causes the price to go up, you know, your clients are going to love that you can pull stats on, you know how your listing sell compared to other ones. And all of that stuff matters.
Darryl Glade 22:16
And we did studies and I've got those stats, of course off the top of my head, professional photographers, sorry, listings with professional photography, so 39% closer to the actual list price than those without it. And that is taken to account, natural prod natural price drops for those listings. So on a $300,000 house that can equate to about, I can't remember the exact number 10 or $20,000 more into the pocket of your client. I mean, you do the math there that commission on just that price increase alone covers your costs for photography, then not only that they sell 50% faster, but that's also half the time on the market that gives you money more time to get more listings coming through. And then what is it, it's 139%? Over 100% more eyeballs on your property. So you're getting more clicks with professional photography. So I mean, just those stats alone covers the very minimal cost of investment. And then combine that with all the other uses that you're going to do use it for like we've been talking about in this podcast, it's a no brainer to get professional photography.
Justin Stoddart 23:30
Would you do us a favor, Darryl, that when we get done with this episode? Would you find those stats and send them to me? And I'll be Sure, absolutely. Is that right there is should be included? I believe in a listing agents presentation that if the fee is a concern, let's talk about the numbers. What happens when you start looking for for a discount broker, they're going to be making discounts Guess what, on their end as well, because they're not making as much so guess what their photographer is going to be subpar. And their photographer might even be in their pocket, right like their own. And so if you really want to talk to the client about what they care about, which is how much they nets, right, and how much they pay, and people how much they net at the end of the day, there's some great, some great data to be able to show them. What happens when you use a professional Realtor that uses like high-end professional photography.
Darryl Glade 24:19
Great. So absolutely no, I mean, you're exactly right in the statistics to show that it's an absolute no brainer.
Justin Stoddart 24:25
I'm going to put up here on the screen for everybody that's super interested in learning more about what Darryl has created. Keep in mind, he was a top agent. So he gets this, right. But this is the site that he's put together stilio.com and you can come here and you can find a photographer in your market. Now I know our audience extends outside of where Darryl is at, which is New Orleans, outside of where I'm at Portland, Oregon, and in other parts of the country. To encourage you to go on here, I get vetted these guys, the stuff that he's been talking about is what they had to pass a test to make sure that they've got the right equipment, they've got the right mindset, the right skill set to be able to deliver this kind of awesome some high value. So go to stilio.com and and and upgrade your photographer, I would highly recommend it. So any kind of final words before my last signature question that you might not be prepared for. But
Darryl Glade 25:12
uh, yeah, I mean, a couple of quick notes, we are in every major market across the country, we're in 48, out of the 50 states were on every single Island and Hawaii. I mean, we've got a great photographer presence that has been vetted. And one thing that's interesting and unique about still Leo is that you are able to purchase certain products from each of these photographers, and you can purchase still do edit photography. So we have a centralized editing facility that gets you the photos back in less than 24 hours. So if you're worried that all right, maybe they are good photographer, but I don't know about their editing, you can always choose the products that are still co-edited, we guarantee the quick turnaround time we know we're doing in terms of the editing. If you have listings in multiple markets, perhaps and you want them all to look the same doesn't matter that you hire a photographer in Mississippi versus California. If it's all coming through our centralized editing, the photos are going to look exactly the same.
Justin Stoddart 26:10
What a killer offering I'd forgotten about that part of what you guys do, it's not just connecting photographers to agents. But you guys have a whole in house operation that assures that you have you know, the people get the results that they want.
Darryl Glade 26:24
Yeah, absolutely. It is there,
Justin Stoddart 26:25
because of all right signature question, Darryl, what is it that you intentionally do to think bigger,
Darryl Glade 26:33
I read, I'm a big reader.
I'm also big on education, I've got a number of degrees, but really the reading is where I'm learning the most, you're able to find tips and tricks from people working in different industries. And that you can apply to your own business and I'm running a couple of businesses. And so I'm constantly looking at ways for, you know, decision making from my clients in the photographers, you know, so I do a lot of reading of, you know, like people like Dan Ariely. I think that's how you pronounce it and Daniel Kahneman, those are psychologists that help with decision making that you can then say, Well, if you know for the real estate agents with a buyer is making decisions this way, perhaps I should be presenting my listings in a different manner. And then I have employees. So how do you work with employees and get their engagement and motivation up? I really liked biographies. Walter Isaacson, he actually lives in New Orleans, but he does a number of really cool biographies that can get into the nitty-gritty and maybe you could pick up things like what's Elon Musk doing or wouldn't Leonardo da Vinci do that could potentially help me with my personal business and then, you know, I also like fun books to to split it up, normal john Grisham style easy reading. And so just it just helps you think about the amount of time that agents spend in their country you know, get an audible subscription or even your local I the way I do it is my local library has a free subscription service that you can get books for free. So I just plug it in and listen, then the amount of books that you can read by simply listening to books all to and from listings is astonishing.
Justin Stoddart 28:20
I love that. I love that. It's I heard actually, Tony Robbins said this past week, he said, you know, on the idea of-of a seminar, right, and I would even add a book is you take someone's lifetime of lessons and you condense it down into a couple of hours. Like you can live a really good life and have a lot bigger impact in this world. If you would take that to heart and realize like how many lifetimes of lessons you can consume in a month, right? Like one person's lifetimes and at least one per month would be ambitious, but not overly ambitious, that you could consume that person's life lessons in a very condensed amount of time. Pretty powerful. Absolutely. Good stuff. My friend. This is such a value-packed episode again, I want to direct everybody go check out still do.com if you're by chance at Real Estate photographer, one of these markets might be interesting for you to go take a look at what they're doing as well. So I want to thank you again, Darryl, for your value poured into the think bigger real estate audience. And I want to thank everybody for tuning in and thanks a lot.
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. Real Estate photography today matters more than ever. My wife and I, for example, toured about 1000 homes virtually, toured one physically, that was the home we bought. So Case in point, real estate photography matters if you want to be a great listing agent, and I'm really excited today to have on the show gentleman by the name of Darryl Glade. Darryl is the founder and CEO of stilio.com, which is a marketplace to connect real estate agents, and great photographers, they do a full vetting process and training program to make sure that the photographers that they bring to the table, understand some very key principles of which we're going to be discussing today. So I want to, first of all, thank Darryl for being on the show today, Darryl, welcome.
Darryl Glade 0:43
Thanks for having me, Justin looking forward to it.
Justin Stoddart 0:45
Yeah, based on what you've built, you're, you're a big thinker, which I'm excited to have someone like you, who not only has been a top agent, right? for 10 years, you're a top agent in New Orleans, found your passion within kind of this niche of real estate. And now you're pouring into the industry in a different way. So very cool, excited to have you here to extend really my mission of my passion, which is to help agents think bigger. I know that when that happens, they themselves grow. And their business follows suit, which opens up options and impact that they've always wanted. So thank you again, for being here. Let's dive into this there'll, you know, one thought that I've had actually taught a class this week, as I was mentioning to you previously, called becoming a powerful marketer through storytelling. And I believe this that the great marketers, and great agents out there, don't just say, hey, let me show you a house. Right? They say, let me tell you about what your story what your life would look like living in this house, there's a much deeper emotional connection. And people really start to see their story transform and having that home be a part of it. How do you feel like photography plays a part in helping people see the story, their story being in that home,
Darryl Glade 1:57
it's got to be the easiest way to do it. You know, there's a great stat that says 90% of buyers say that the most important part of any real estate listing is the photos. And so it's not the flowery language. And if you're trying to tell a story and trying to get a certain message across, the easiest way to do it is by photos. And it's really the cheapest way to do it as well. I mean, it's not a very big investment. And the listing agent and homeowner can work with a photographer to really set the stage to tell that story to get your point across. So exactly like you were talking about in your presentation, the photos are a key part to accomplishing that goal.
Justin Stoddart 2:39
You know, so many people, again, I think maybe an indicator of where we're going as a society, right, Facebook was the big deal for a long, long time, they were wise enough for a small investment of a billion dollars, they bought Instagram, but what's Instagram, Instagram is image heavy, and text light right there. So Case in point of what you're saying here is that you can have great copy, and you need to have great copy. But if you don't have good photography, no one's ever going to get to your copy.
Darryl Glade 3:07
Now you're exactly right. And, you know, to expand that further, the Instagram generation and in Facebook still, all anybody cares about is content, all these agents are trying to create content to get their own personal brand across and to get that listing information across its photos. So if you commit to getting great photos, and all your listings, you've got all that content built in right there ready for you, ready for you to extend your brand and to get that listing messaging across. And it's just so easy. All you gotta do is get your listing photographed. And then right there, you got 20 or 30 pieces of content ready for you to post to extend your brand online.
Justin Stoddart 3:48
Well, how important it is, you're right, because you're not just listing at home, you're listing your business, if you will, right. You're demonstrating what kind of marketer you are. And I believe that when people evaluate a real estate agent, it used to be just on like, who have your friends us and who do you trust. And I believe that now people have more of a discerning eye. Yes, they want to know that. But they're also vetting you to see if you're also a professional marketer, not just a good real estate agent. But are you a professional marketer? Are you showing up in the video? Or do your images look like they were taken on your phone? Or do they actually look like it's amazing, Darryl, that how many agents and I say, well, you go through our MLS, and you can identify a much higher percentage than you would expect, are still doing photos on their own, oftentimes on a mobile device, right?
Darryl Glade 4:28
I always say our biggest competitor is not necessarily another professional photography company. It's the agent with their own cell phones. And yeah, technology is expanding every single day, and the cameras on the phones are just that much better. They're outstanding. But the fact is, you need to know the angles you need, which features you need to know the camera height. And then not only that a huge part of getting really good professional photography for real estate is the post-processing. It's the editing afterwords. And that's where still to other professional photographers really get the job done.
Justin Stoddart 5:05
Well, you say, I know you guys do, again, pretty, pretty deep vetting process when it comes to the photographers that are part of your kind of ecosystem, right? What are some key things that you look for when you're choosing photographers in an agent should be saying, you know, that's some criteria that I need to look at now, obviously, going through studio com, they're going to get this, but talk to us about kind of what criteria you look for.
Darryl Glade 5:28
Yeah. So, you know, it's important that we vet all the photographers that get access to our marketplace, and, you know, still is a lot different than the other professional photography companies out there we are the marketplace, we are not the photography company. So that means agents are going to go and find their local photographers. And then those photographers are the ones that are creating and giving the service to the agent. So if we want to make sure that that marketplace is only full of vetted important, really good photographers are all the agent will never come back again. Right? So when the photographers submit their application, they have to submit photos, so we have to see their existing work, they also have to create a profile. So if for example, the profile says, you know why hire me I because I love photography, something like that, well, they're not professionals, they need to have a professional profile, they need to submit their camera equipment. So if they don't have professional grade equipment, they're not in. And then not only that, they have to take a test, if they can't pass this professional, it's a test for real estate photography, not just general, professional photography, if they can't pass the test, they're not live. So these are some of the things that we want to make sure that of the 6000 applications that we got the last six months all around the country, we are a nationwide marketplace, that only those that are the best can get to the real estate agent. So that we're really taking our time making sure that the top photographers are on our platform.
Justin Stoddart 7:05
Darryl, when you look at real estate photography, like what's a pet peeve of yours, what's like, oh, my goodness, that's terrible. Like,
Darryl Glade 7:12
let me say, I guess to right off the bat, I can think of the easiest example is, you know, look at that window behind me, that's a great example is the windows of the real estate listing. So when you take a normal picture, one of two things is likely going to happen, you're either going to be able to see through the window, and have a beautiful shot of outside and the view but the inside is incredibly dark, you don't see the furniture, for example, or the exact opposite, which is what you're seeing in here, the window is completely blown out. And then but you can see the inside. So a good professional photographer knows how to blend those two extremes, those two light levels, you know, to keep it sort of basic and not too technical. And so you can see through the windows, and then also see inside that the house as well, that would be one. And then the other would be diverging lines, you want to make sure that the verticals, we can call it that the let says the corners of the walls, and the edges of the door frames don't sort of look away from the viewer and are not vertical when you're standing in a room, they go up and down. So the photos should be the same as well. So you want to make sure that the verticals aren't diverging lines, in a sense is sort of a technical term. And the way that that can be solved is the obviously correct placement of the camera, the right settings, but then also the post-processing the right editor, make sure that any sort of slight diverging lines are edited to make sure your verticals are up and down.
Justin Stoddart 8:48
You know, I remember being a high-end home builder. This is in a previous life. It was probably 2008 we were building a home that was preparing to go into the what was essentially the parade of homes is what they call it a street of dreams type feels. And it was a beautiful home. Don't get me wrong. 6000 square feet like high end finishes everywhere. And I was in love with the home. It was beautiful. I would have moved in I would have moved my family and I was building it not buying it though. If they weren't quite to that. That point life. Yeah, but the thing it was interesting is it like we had a good professional photographer come out and take pictures and it was like the Twilight photos. And I thought to myself like is that that same house like I really thought was beautiful. But then I was like, you've got to be kidding me like and in fact, I think I still have those photos somewhere else so proud of him. I was like yeah, I thought it was building a cool house until I saw the full really great house does.
Darryl Glade 9:39
And then even you talked about the Twilight photo. There are statistics that show that Twilight photos get more clicks than this same house, same exterior, but or a daytime photo. And if you think about it if you're looking on like an MLS or a Zillow, for example. And there's this big laundry list of photos of x terrier houses that darker shot of the beautiful Twilight with a nice sky is going to stand out more. So you're going to click on that more. So you know if you're looking for a photographer, you'd love to be able to make sure you get those. Those Twilight photos or even people are doing virtual Twilight's now editing daytime photos to make them look like night. Interesting. Yeah.
Justin Stoddart 10:20
Let's talk about this component of storytelling, we touched on it a little bit. But there are certain scenes that you found really good photographers take that actually don't just show the shell of the home, right? The kind of nuts and bolts of the home or like here's a bedroom, here's a kitchen, but show life in that right not necessarily bringing in like paid actors or anything. But is there some way to demonstrate that? And maybe it is you bring people into it? I haven't seen that. But is there some way to demonstrate life in a home as opposed to just house?
Darryl Glade 10:49
Yeah, you know it, that's a subtle way of taking the photos. And there is a couple of different schools of thought that the typical photographers, not a typical real estate photographer are not necessarily creating art, they're creating a marketing tool to sell the house. And then the other extreme is the Architectural Digest photography, where it's really beautiful photos that aren't necessarily giving the viewer, the buyer, all the information, they need to be able to make a decision on whether or not they want to see the house.
But Justin I think you're right in that, you have to encourage them to come to take a look at the house because like you and your wife, you're looking at a ton of houses online, and you're not going to go take a look at a bunch. So the storytelling via the photos has to be compelling enough to get them out of their chair out from behind their, their computer and go walk through the house. So there's a nice fine line between just the very basic real estate photography, the shell plus and then the Architectural Digest version. And that can really be done by having high-quality photography with really good at. And so you want to make sure that you're giving the viewer a taste of what they could get when they go see it. And what I like to recommend is you can give subtle cues in photography. And those subtle cues could be for example, if you have a photo of the entryway, let's say and in the corner on the right side of the entryway, you could see the doorway into the living room. And so you can position the camera to give a little more that doorway into the next room. And then the next photo should be of that room. So for example, if that room is purple, or they have a purple wall, let's say a highlight wall. on that second photo, you want to make sure that that camera is pointed at that wall. So it's a subtle cue to bring the viewer through the floor plan of the house. And the photographer, the homeowner, the real estate agent can create that story like we're talking about subconsciously, almost by having the photos in a certain order and picking it and having one blend off the other.
Justin Stoddart 13:10
You know, that's a really, really interesting, talk to us a little bit about what a photographer should do, or maybe even a real estate agent should do prior to the photographer coming. Yeah, I'll kind of set this up a little bit, I had a client of mine show me a like a listing that he took over. And he showed me the previous pictures of like, it was like the BBQ, not even it was just off the deck on the dirt. Like just the way they position the kind of the staging ahead of time, there was it looked like a desirable place of a barbecue was before it was like that's kind of an awkward deck. But he did like a maybe an aerial shot. And he did like just reposition the BBQ in the chairs and got some junk. And it would totally change the whole feel like I could feel myself like Oh man, I hope I would get invited to a barbecue at that house. Right? Like, that's kind of awkward. It was my first thought when I saw the previous one. So go ahead tell us kind of how somebody should walk through a house. With that in mind of like, how do we make this to where someone says, oh, man, I would love to either live there or visit that place or go see it?
Darryl Glade 14:07
Yeah, I would say that the primary responsibility for that setup should fall on the real estate listing agent, the listing agent's shoulders because they're the one that's going to make that decision. Most photographers are that they are really good at photography, they're not necessarily stagers. Now, there are the good real estate photographers have an eye for staging, and will assist with basic staging setup. So for example, they should make sure the toilet covers down, right, and the trash cans are out of you. But in terms of setting the stage, it's really on the agent beforehand, to getting that exactly like you said, making it compelling to want to go in and have a barbecue at that house. You know what I like to say that the easiest thing for an agent to do, the starting point would be you should have every room in the house feel like it's a room in a hotel is to a certain extent, they're there, that recommendation is because the things that are typically in a hotel room are there because they're being used for certain reason. They're not necessarily there, just to be there. They're there for a specific purpose. And so yeah, the homeowner needs to live in the house, obviously. So if it makes having that particular family photo, let's say if that's really important to them, then leave it that's the homeowner needs to be there. But do they really need 50 photos on the piano? they likely don't. So you want to make it it's clear out the ancillary quote unquote junk. Yeah, make it so that the things that are in the room, they are there on purpose, they have a purpose for being on the kitchen countertop, you know, does the coffee maker need to be out there in the showing in the photos of likely not. But you know, say there's a paper towel built into the underneath the shelf? Well, making it look, not taking up the paper towels probably don't look doesn't look very good. So included, it has a purpose. So there's a fine line and the agent can create that and create that feeling before the photographer gets there, and then use the photographer as a sounding board. These photographers are in hundreds, if not thousands of houses. So when the agent is there, and the photographer gets there, say hey, how does this look, look through the camera before the photo is taken or even after the photo is taken. And say this is the story we're trying to tell this is the brand we're trying to create. So maybe we need to move that autumn and a little to the right. And you know most photographers first should be able to tell you right off the bat that this is the staging we're looking for.
Justin Stoddart 17:05
Love man such great stuff. I actually interviewed somebody this week. Taz Weatherly, those of you that haven't seen that episode. In fact, it was even in the episode it was after the fact I posted a video within the Think Bigger Real Estate Group. And it was a video that she did with her phone while the photographers were doing their work. And I thought that was brilliant. And she said why she's doing it that her clients deserve to have top grade professional photography done. And it was the what and it was the why. And it set her apart. Right even though probably most real estate agents actually do that. The fact that she documented it and showed what was happening in the background, and had a narrative around that and a real reason as to what that did for the homeowners. I thought that was brilliant, I think I don't know if you've seen people do that before. But a great idea too, if you're doing something at a high level like photography, why not document that creates a story around that,
Darryl Glade 17:54
it is such a simple thing to do to increase that brand of the agent. So just getting on the phone and doing a Facebook Live, or whatever it may be, or Instagram story. It's just content, as we talked about before you the more content that you have that's relevant to what you're trying to get across the better. And again, making your brand set yourself apart from your competition as a real estate agent. It's such a simple, very cost effective way of doing it, you've already invested in the photos you're going to use, you're already going to use it for your listing, hopefully, you'll use it for some of your personal Facebook posts to set yourself apart. And now you've created a video which people love to learn about who you are your personality, how you present yourself, you're going to get more and more listings for a very simple 32-second free video that you're going to post.
Justin Stoddart 18:47
Well, it's interesting. I often I'm friends with a lot of real estate agents. So you can imagine that my newsfeed and probably are you like, are you as well. my newsfeed is filled with real estate agents organic and some paid but mostly organic. And it's, it's interesting to me how often I will see them do the front elevation of the home as the only thing that they demonstrate from the house. And maybe that's appropriate because that home has an amazing front elevation. But oftentimes, there's some component of that house that would actually appeal to people, even more, maybe it's a fireplace that they could then tell a story about their fight. Like there are many ways to engage people using that content, like you're saying, like if you're doing good photography, and you should be and if you're not, I'm going to direct you to stilio.com to go find a good photographer, Darryl has personally vetted himself. Absolutely. But that this concept of taking that content, I love that you said that Darryl take that content and reuse it, don't just use the front elevation and don't just copy the link out of RMLS like that, that interests about 2% of the people that are going to see it because only 2% of the people that you are in your friends based are shopping for home at any given time. But if you can give some components of that home that's really compelling, it's going to appeal to, you know, a much, much higher percentage and, and and just emphasizing what you said also, that if you have photographs from a phone, tell people about the way you market, right? Like, think of yourself as a photographer with a portfolio. And any photography that you do on one of your projects is going into that portfolio is that going to upgrade your portfolio or downgrading like even for the selfish reason of like, this is my brand. So I'm not going to let crappy photography, whether or not the like the listing needs it or not have some personal pride and what's attached to your brand. Is it? Is it phone photos? If so then you probably deserve to be replaced by technology. I'm sorry, but you're not helping our industry. Right?
Darryl Glade 20:36
You're exactly right. And then you know, the theme of the pot of this podcast, think bigger. If you're going to market that you're thinking yourself, Well, I already do professional photography, everybody does professional photography, well use it a little differently, or maybe step up, get a floor plan with it, get those drone photos or get a small video walkthrough, or simply use them differently. A very basic example and that you talked on you hit on is don't use the MLS size photos in your streams, they're poor quality, your professional photographer should be giving you at least two different sizes, the MLS size, so you can get them in your local MLS plus an original size and much larger size, that's a better quality. Put those photos online, put those photos on your website, most likely, you're an agent that you have a website through your broker. And that broker probably pulls the MLS photo feed in. And they also likely have a feature that lets you replace those photos. So if you're, you know, Stilio does have API setup to pull the better photos into certain companies.
But if your company is not
one of those, you likely have a way to manually override those photos. So take a couple of minutes, have your system take a couple of minutes and put the bigger photos into your personal website. Again, it'll make your brand look better when somebody is clicking on your photos at all make your listings look better than the competition because it's got a higher quality photo.
Justin Stoddart 22:05
Yeah, and we all know that increased demand causes the price to go up, you know, your clients are going to love that you can pull stats on, you know how your listing sell compared to other ones. And all of that stuff matters.
Darryl Glade 22:16
And we did studies and I've got those stats, of course off the top of my head, professional photographers, sorry, listings with professional photography, so 39% closer to the actual list price than those without it. And that is taken to account, natural prod natural price drops for those listings. So on a $300,000 house that can equate to about, I can't remember the exact number 10 or $20,000 more into the pocket of your client. I mean, you do the math there that commission on just that price increase alone covers your costs for photography, then not only that they sell 50% faster, but that's also half the time on the market that gives you money more time to get more listings coming through. And then what is it, it's 139%? Over 100% more eyeballs on your property. So you're getting more clicks with professional photography. So I mean, just those stats alone covers the very minimal cost of investment. And then combine that with all the other uses that you're going to do use it for like we've been talking about in this podcast, it's a no brainer to get professional photography.
Justin Stoddart 23:30
Would you do us a favor, Darryl, that when we get done with this episode? Would you find those stats and send them to me? And I'll be Sure, absolutely. Is that right there is should be included? I believe in a listing agents presentation that if the fee is a concern, let's talk about the numbers. What happens when you start looking for for a discount broker, they're going to be making discounts Guess what, on their end as well, because they're not making as much so guess what their photographer is going to be subpar. And their photographer might even be in their pocket, right like their own. And so if you really want to talk to the client about what they care about, which is how much they nets, right, and how much they pay, and people how much they net at the end of the day, there's some great, some great data to be able to show them. What happens when you use a professional Realtor that uses like high-end professional photography.
Darryl Glade 24:19
Great. So absolutely no, I mean, you're exactly right in the statistics to show that it's an absolute no brainer.
Justin Stoddart 24:25
I'm going to put up here on the screen for everybody that's super interested in learning more about what Darryl has created. Keep in mind, he was a top agent. So he gets this, right. But this is the site that he's put together stilio.com and you can come here and you can find a photographer in your market. Now I know our audience extends outside of where Darryl is at, which is New Orleans, outside of where I'm at Portland, Oregon, and in other parts of the country. To encourage you to go on here, I get vetted these guys, the stuff that he's been talking about is what they had to pass a test to make sure that they've got the right equipment, they've got the right mindset, the right skill set to be able to deliver this kind of awesome some high value. So go to stilio.com and and and upgrade your photographer, I would highly recommend it. So any kind of final words before my last signature question that you might not be prepared for. But
Darryl Glade 25:12
uh, yeah, I mean, a couple of quick notes, we are in every major market across the country, we're in 48, out of the 50 states were on every single Island and Hawaii. I mean, we've got a great photographer presence that has been vetted. And one thing that's interesting and unique about still Leo is that you are able to purchase certain products from each of these photographers, and you can purchase still do edit photography. So we have a centralized editing facility that gets you the photos back in less than 24 hours. So if you're worried that all right, maybe they are good photographer, but I don't know about their editing, you can always choose the products that are still co-edited, we guarantee the quick turnaround time we know we're doing in terms of the editing. If you have listings in multiple markets, perhaps and you want them all to look the same doesn't matter that you hire a photographer in Mississippi versus California. If it's all coming through our centralized editing, the photos are going to look exactly the same.
Justin Stoddart 26:10
What a killer offering I'd forgotten about that part of what you guys do, it's not just connecting photographers to agents. But you guys have a whole in house operation that assures that you have you know, the people get the results that they want.
Darryl Glade 26:24
Yeah, absolutely. It is there,
Justin Stoddart 26:25
because of all right signature question, Darryl, what is it that you intentionally do to think bigger,
Darryl Glade 26:33
I read, I'm a big reader.
I'm also big on education, I've got a number of degrees, but really the reading is where I'm learning the most, you're able to find tips and tricks from people working in different industries. And that you can apply to your own business and I'm running a couple of businesses. And so I'm constantly looking at ways for, you know, decision making from my clients in the photographers, you know, so I do a lot of reading of, you know, like people like Dan Ariely. I think that's how you pronounce it and Daniel Kahneman, those are psychologists that help with decision making that you can then say, Well, if you know for the real estate agents with a buyer is making decisions this way, perhaps I should be presenting my listings in a different manner. And then I have employees. So how do you work with employees and get their engagement and motivation up? I really liked biographies. Walter Isaacson, he actually lives in New Orleans, but he does a number of really cool biographies that can get into the nitty-gritty and maybe you could pick up things like what's Elon Musk doing or wouldn't Leonardo da Vinci do that could potentially help me with my personal business and then, you know, I also like fun books to to split it up, normal john Grisham style easy reading. And so just it just helps you think about the amount of time that agents spend in their country you know, get an audible subscription or even your local I the way I do it is my local library has a free subscription service that you can get books for free. So I just plug it in and listen, then the amount of books that you can read by simply listening to books all to and from listings is astonishing.
Justin Stoddart 28:20
I love that. I love that. It's I heard actually, Tony Robbins said this past week, he said, you know, on the idea of-of a seminar, right, and I would even add a book is you take someone's lifetime of lessons and you condense it down into a couple of hours. Like you can live a really good life and have a lot bigger impact in this world. If you would take that to heart and realize like how many lifetimes of lessons you can consume in a month, right? Like one person's lifetimes and at least one per month would be ambitious, but not overly ambitious, that you could consume that person's life lessons in a very condensed amount of time. Pretty powerful. Absolutely. Good stuff. My friend. This is such a value-packed episode again, I want to direct everybody go check out still do.com if you're by chance at Real Estate photographer, one of these markets might be interesting for you to go take a look at what they're doing as well. So I want to thank you again, Darryl, for your value poured into the think bigger real estate audience. And I want to thank everybody for tuning in and thanks a lot.
Creators and Guests
Host
Justin Stoddart
What is Think Bigger Real Estate?
The road to success for real estate agents is well-marked. The road to significance is not. Here, we help you to Think Bigger than just your business. We inspire you to seek success AND significance, income AND impact. We do that by interviewing the biggest thinkers and highest achievers in the real estate industry, extracting the secrets to having it all.