Professional photography is an often overlooked element of a commercial property listing. With great photos, your property will sell faster, for more money, and with more offers. It’s incredibly important, but many commercial brokers skip this step and use Google Maps pics, GIS photos, or even no photos–to the incredible detriment of their client.
- “A good photograph is one that communicates a fact, touches the heart and leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. It is, in a word, effective.”
— Irving Penn
Why do many commercial brokers skip this step?
- They’re lazy
- I see listings regularly where it looks like someone downloaded GIS photos, used Google Maps photos, or drove by the bulding and took some pics with their phone (often didn’t even take interior pictures). How is a buyer supposed to understand what the interior looks like? That defenitely puts that listing at a disadvantage, especially for an out-of-state buyer.
- They’re cheap
- Good photography is expensive. Either a broker needs to hire a professional photographer, or have someone on their team with the training and equipment to do the photography.
- They’re disorganized
- I think life is too busy for many brokers, and although they have intentions of getting decent photography done, they don’t have time and drop the ball. They have to get the listing online and use whatever they can find.
- They put their own time above their commitment to their client
- Some brokers truly don’t care. These are the guys that stick a sign in the ground, put it online, and forget about it.
What does great commercial real estate photography look like?
- Staged
- Often, this means that the owner has to be motivated to make the property presentable, and sometimes this is as simple as having the property cleaned, getting the lawn cut, or more.
- Well Lit
- Making sure the time of day is right, the lights are on, and that additional lighting is available is crucial.
- High Resolution
- This is mostly an issue with brokers using “borrowed” pictures. If you’re taking a photo from Google or Zillow, by the time you get it into Loopnet or Crexi the resolution is going to be terrible. Take your own pictures.
- Edited and processed
- A professional is going to edit and process his pictures. This will bring out the color, correct for some issues with lighting, and make them look great.
You may want to hire a professional photographer, or you can find a firm such as Meybohm Commercial that will handle professional photography for you. What are the worst commercial real estate photographs you’ve seen? We’d love to see them in the comments.