When a Real Picture Is Not Good Enough

What Is Truth?... Last week's Dispatch, How Real Is a Real Estate Picture?, (Jan 12) generated tons of feedback, which got me thinking. Maybe photographs are like "puffing." Nobody really believes a "puff" ("The world's greatest hamburger") to be literally true. Can a photograph sometimes be a puff?

Justin Stensrud of Apartment Matching in Irving, TX, writes. "The ability to use your property tours in outreach marketing ... is where the real value is for a property owner. ... Our studies have found that a renter is 6 times more likely to lease at an apartment community that offers virtual tours online." Click here for a cool virtual tour.

Ben Black with KrekowJenningsInc in Seattle writes. "In some cases, a physical visit is not possible because the building is under construction. We recently engaged Visarc to deliver images of a space when there was nothing yet to take a picture of. In this case, we had a client with a specific and demanding conceptual vision about how to build out a space. With a significantly limited budget and schedule, it was not possible to experiment with physical mock-ups. ... So, in a way, 'real' was not good enough."

Skip Case at Case Industrial in Columbia, MD, writes. "There is absolutely no substitute for being 'on-the-ground' looking at a distribution center first hand -- nothing, nada, zip. I do use digital images (and many, many of them) to support my 30- then 40- and now 50-something memory. However, there is no way that I would be accountable to my clients without first-hand, on-the-ground information."

Michael Jakubiec at Michael P. Jakubiec Investment Real Estate in St. Charles, IL, writes. "I am utilizing video clips to display properties I am currently marketing. The response has been tremendous because it allows the opportunity to view a property as if the purchaser was actually on site. The clips that I use are short (only 15 seconds max) and only take 15 seconds or so to load, provided they are using DSL or some other high speed connection."

Spread the Word... Many thanks to AvidXchange for sponsoring this week's Dispatch. Click the banner to the right to learn how to automate your invoice-approvals process. Click here for Dispatch sponsorship details. Thanks!

-- Peter Pike