Key Factor number 1 - Photographs of your property are your #1 marketing tool.

Don't underestimate the marketing power of photos. That is especially true on Maui.  The National Association of Realtors states that over 76% of those people nationwide looking to buy real estate, start their search on the internet.  Because of Maui's remote location, that number can only be higher for those seeking to purchase Maui real estate.  It's logical to conclude that photographs serve even a greater role in the marketing of your Maui property.

To take full advantage of photographs for your listing, your realtor should take enough photographs of your property to be able to sort out 30 of sufficient quality to present your property in a professional manner.  Why 30?...Because the Maui MLS systems allows up to 30 photos per listing.  It frustrates me when I see listing after listing with only 3, 4, or maybe 8 photos.  What an opportunity lost.  With all those buyers searching for Maui real estate on our MLS, photos are the primary way they are going to preview each of the properties that fits their search requirements.  The prospective buyers impressions of each property are primarily influenced by the images they see of each property.  Sellers think hard about what you want buyers to see when they preview your property via the Maui MLS through hundreds of search portals on the Internet.

Maximizing the number of photos is the first step; making sure each photo is a quality image is the second.  Only those skilled in photography are likely to obtain professional appearing photos.  Balanced lighting, color tone, view angles and clarity are just a few of the many characteristices that go into composing a high quality image.  Since the Internet and digital photography, the days of the one black and white photo stuck in the catalog sized MLS book are gone.  But the transition to full utilization of the capabilities of digital photography has been slow in transition within real estate marketing.

Great photographs count.  They are the number one tool in selling real estate, particularly when selling Maui real estate....particularly now, with a significant increase in inventory (lots of competition) and a large number of buyers doing their real estate searching on the internet.

To see some examples of photographic presentation for properties, go to my featured properties page.  The photos for each of these properties were taken with a professional digital SLR camera and interchangeable lenses to suit each specific scene.   Many times a raw photo will not be properly exposed - poor lighting will yield poor color tone and appear dark or too light, blurring can occur, aberrations can appear due to ghosting or an inadequate flash, grainy or texturing can be present - these or any number of other factors can effect the quality of the image.  Many of these factors can be corrected using photo editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop.  Such programs can turn a lackluster photo into a professional image.

When I take photographs for a listing, I'll take at least 150 shots to yield 30 photos.  I typically spend 6 to 8 hours processing the images to yield the kind of quality in the featured properties section of this website.  These photos are of sufficient quality to used in magazine ads, brochures and pamphlets, and to be upload onto my website so they can be downloaded by prospective buyers searching the Internet or by other realtors to be shared with clients interested in like properties.

If you have any questions, please call me at 879-9939 or e-mail me at mailto:bob@bobstaples.com.