We made a wager with a landlord. We both won.

How big a part do the quality of your photos have on your ability to find tenants fast? We decided to run a test to see… and the results may surprise you.
When searching for their new home, photos are the main thing home-hunters look at. Provided the price is realistic, photos are the single most compelling factor when it comes to making an enquiry.
We already know from Rightmove data that adverts with just 1 photo will generate 800% more enquiries than adverts with none, but we decided to find out what sort of effect professional photos have on tenant enquiries.

The Wager

We asked one of our landlords whether he’d considered professional photography for his new advert. He said he wasn’t interested: He already had some ‘pretty good’ photos that he’d taken himself, and he couldn’t be bothered with the ‘faff’. So we made him a wager…
We bet Mr B. that professional photos would increase the number of enquiries he got by at least 50%. And told him that if he let us use his property as a case-study, we’d give him the photos free of charge. He agreed.

The photos

Mr B’s photos…

One reason we chose Mr B was that he was right: the photos he already had were pretty good. There was a bit of clutter and the quality wasn’t perfect, but they weren’t bad. In fact – compared to some you see – they were great! But we were out to prove how big an impact top quality photos have on enquiries… even compared to ‘pretty good’ photos.
 
 

The professional shots

Making careful use of lighting, angles, and equipment, the professional cameraman was in and out in under an hour. Just 2 days later the finished photos were uploaded to Mr. B’s advert for him and sent to him to keep…. hardly a ‘faff’.
 
 

The test

We ran two adverts for Mr. B’s property on Rightmove, Zoopla & Primelocation. At the same time. At the same price. All we changed between the two adverts were the photos.

Mr B chose to put an exterior shot as the lead photo. This is a very common move, and is actually normal practice for sales. However, in our experience, interior shots (usually kitchens) perform best when it comes to lettings.

We chose to put his lounge as the lead photo. Usually, we suggest putting the kitchen first, but it’s a judgment call – the most important thing is that your lead photo is your best photo.
By comparing the performance of the two adverts side by side, we found that adding professional photos increased the number of tenant enquiries on Mr. B’s advert by 60% (16 enquiries to 10).

What Mr. B had to say…

“I was a bit doubtful that it would make much of a difference, but the advert with pro photos ended up with several more enquiries and I let the property in less than a week. Very pleased with the photos and the service in general, I’ll definitely be using these photos next time”

Source: easyproperty.com