• February 2010
• Visit Site

Selling a House Online

There are a lot of houses for sale is this recovering market. Southwest Missouri is no exception. It takes extra effort to get your listing noticed. The MLS is no longer enough and good luck getting your real estate agent to do any more than fill out a few forms and help you close (assuming you can persuade a buyer). The owners of this Nixa residence had enough and want to really stand out in the market.

The Challenge

Design a site that is very findable, shows off great photography and provides a place to deliver everything a Realtors one sheet can not.

The Solution

Architectural photography is all about finding the right lines in the space. This is what draws a viewer into the image and conveys depth, composition and overall quality. A super wide angle lens is absolutely necessary to capture the atmosphere of a room. I used my trusty Canon XTi with one of my favorite lens, a SP AF17-35MM F/2.8-4 Di LD Aspherical with IF (that’s lens speak for awesome). I prefer to shot in RAW and edit in Camera RAW/Photoshop. This gives me maximum control over the image and the outcome.

The website is an important part of this challenge. Great photography doesn’t mean anything if there is no where to showcase it. The site is running on a self hosted wordpress with a modified theme. This allows for easy publishing and updating. Wordpress has evolved from just a blogging platform into a real content management system (CMS). It also simplifies task like search engine optimization and XML site maps which help make it findable.

The Result

Within 24 hours of launching the site it had over 200 unique visitors. This is a substantial amount of interest compared to the lack luster methodology conventional Realtors had to offer. The site launched February 17th and is still on the market. Check it out here, it would be perfect for a small family or a first time homeowner.