Dallas Real Estate Photography : Greener Grass!
Thomas Crosson: Hey, this is Thomas Crosson with Gretchen Mikulich with Full Package Media. To learn more about us, you can visit us at fullpackagemedia.com or give us a call at 972-885-8823. Today, we are here to talk about– what are we talking about Gretchen?
Gretchen Mikulich: [chuckles] Today, we are here to talk about some things to look out when you’re choosing a Dallas real estate photography company. A couple of things include post production editing. That’s a real big one, real big topic, on what post-production editing can one is allowed, two, what can your Dallas real estate photography company actually do and three, does it really help you sell the home.
Thomas: Yes, that’s exactly right. And today, specifically, we’re talking about object removal which is kind of a interesting thing and there’s a little bit more that goes into doing that versus the sky or grass replacement. That’s, kind of, more standard things but object removal not only is more intensive for the post production work but it’s also more of you have to be knowledgeable about the MLS regulations and stuff like that.
So when you’re finding a Dallas real estate photography company, you have to make sure that not only can they take good take pictures but that they are knowledgeable of the laws, and the rules, and the regulations of your local MLS board so that you as the realtor are not getting in troubles for deceiving a potential buyer.
Gretchen: Yes. So what are the rules? The rules are that you cannot be deceiving in the way you portray the home. So they don’t really outline, “Oh, you can remove this, you can’t remove this,” but there are some general practices and some general things that you can’t remove and a couple of things are going to deal with the structure of the home. You can’t change anything about the structure of the home or the area around it.
So, for instance, if you have a telephone pole that stretches across your backyard, that the wires across your backyard, you cannot remove those telephone lines because that’s deceiving, right? That might turn a home buyer off. They might not buy a home because of that, right?
Thomas: Yes. If you say you had a home and you have a huge oil refinery right behind your house and you maybe did object removal or sky replacement, you just removed all that, maybe you had a out-of-town buyer that is relocating for work and they didn’t have the luxury of being able to view that property in person and they were just buying off maybe the photos alone, they will be pretty disappointed when they got to that house and realized, “Oh, There’s oil refinery with steam coming out of it 24/7 and bright lights, and trucks coming in and out.”
That’s really not right on all sorts of levels. That’s not right for the seller because they’re just going to have to deal with the issue of maybe that buyer getting in there and saying, “No, I changed my mind, and it’s going to mess up the lenders, and the bank.” Of course, the buyer now they might have moved to a different city and now they don’t have a home because they don’t like the oil refinery that’s behind their house.
File name: Episode 5 Full Package Media 1.28.17 Dallas Real Estate Photography_mixdown.mp3
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Gretchen: Right. And that’s a big kind of example but it goes down to even finer details. You have a couple of cracks in your foundation and the editor just smudges them out, right? fills in the cracks, gets [unintelligible 00:03:26] of them. Well, now, it’s very deceptive because foundational issues are a huge problem.
Thomas: Yes. It’s a kind of a catch-22 because you can do some great things and you can a help a house so well but you also can really deceive someone and like Gretchen said, a foundation issue of a Dallas real estate photography company, it’s so easy to do; just removes the little crack or something like that or a leak in your foundation or something like that. That can change your whole perception of a house.
Gretchen: Right. So what are some things you can do? You can remove stuff that it’s not going to be sold with the home. So, for instance, if you have a trampoline in the backyard but you plan on moving it with you, it’s absolutely okay to remove that trampoline, right? Because that trampoline is not going to be there with the home so it’s not deceptive in any way.
Thomas: Yes. That’s exactly right. Stuff that you’re going to take with you. So if you wanted to, you could remove your furniture or sometimes, we have clients that maybe you have big family portrait up on the wall but you don’t want the whole world on Zillow and the internet to see pictures of your family, maybe your babies and your kids, so we can just remove that object off the wall instead of having to– maybe it’s a huge piece of artwork and you don’t want to have to pay someone to take it off or uninstall it and then have to have it reput up while your house is on the market.
so we can just leave it on the wall, shoot it as is and then just do the object removal and post production. And that’s something that’s kind of unique to us as a Dallas real estate photography company. That we do these things at an affordable price compared to some companies that are just charging outrageous amount.
Gretchen: Right. And again, you might ask, ” Well, how much is it?” And honestly, we don’t know right at the top of our head because it really depends on the complexity of the object you’re trying to remove. So, usually, it ranges from 5 to 10 dollars. And again, complexity is everything, right? If you’ve got kids who have 50 soccer balls in the backyard and you want them all removed, that might be a little more difficult than the photo that Thomas was just talking about.
It also goes on, when you’re looking for a Dallas real estate photography company, you want to make sure that they’re good at it, right? You don’t want to have a object removal and then it just looks so unnatural and weird that you like, “Shew, I’ll just take the photo with the object in it.”
Thomas: Yes. That’s definitely the case, I think. Even sometimes, we have to remove things that maybe aren’t our fault or the homeowner’s fault. Like I remember one time we had a dog and he poked his head up in the little corner of the window, and we were able to take that out and not sell the house with the dog.
Gretchen: Yes, right. No dog came with the house [laughs]. We had an instance where we had a realtor leave her purse on one of the chairs and photographers get
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there, they shoot as is and she wants us to remove it. So, no problem. We went ahead and removed it and, now, there’s no purse on the chair.
Thomas: Yes. That’s right. You talked about the complexity and to her, that was easy, “It is the purse. Just take that out.” That would have been easy if it was on maybe a stained concrete floor with a white wall but this is on a intricate-designed wood floor on a super designer chair type thing. It’s really difficult to remove, but definitely something that we can do.
Gretchen: Right. It’s easy to remove something that has a clear background and you can really delineate what’s the object and what should be behind it. But when you have something like that chair that’s intricate with a detailed fabric pattern, it gets tough. But, again, that’s something you got to look for when you’re scoping out Dallas real estate photography companies and you want that high-quality service and skill set.
Thomas: Yes. I would definitely say not every Dallas real estate photography company can do the object removal that we do. And like we said before, not everyone is this knowledgeable about the rules and regulations, so we help you not to get in trouble with your MLS board and that kind of thing. And we can help educate you on what is and what’s not allowed.
Gretchen: Right. And big one, It’s kind of funny, this, how it affects your photos. The big one is leaf removal, right? you have one day, you’ll get the landscaping done, the house will look beautiful and then you know that you have the photographer come the next day and leaves are everywhere. How frustrating, right? You don’t want to pay again to get all that stuff done the same day.
Thomas: Yes. That happens [laughs], Especially in the fall. I’ve done shoots and, literally, the landscapers are there. When I get there and they are packing up and by the time I get to the backyard, the backyard is covered in leaves again already just because, maybe, it’s a windy day and all those leaves are falling. So instead of having to be out there, again, to rake them or blow the leaves, we can just remove those for you.
Gretchen: Yes. It turns out that your photographers are also landscapers.
Thomas: Yes. We do it all. We’re a one-stop shop. Dallas real estate photography company in–
Gretchen: That’s really what sets Full Package Media apart. It’s that service and that skill set. Again, we offer a variety of editing services. Our post production editing services that range from sky replacement, grass replacement, adding fire in your fireplace and object removal.
Thomas: And something people have asked us like, “Hey, I got this photos done before I met you or heard about you guys, can you all fix this in my other photos?” Unfortunately, It’s not something we can do due to copyright laws and stuff like that. We can’t alter the photos of someone else. We just recommend that we come out and take those photos ourself, not only to improve the quality but then allow us to
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remove any objects that you want or edit that photo in any way that we want to without having to get caught up in copyright rules and stuff like that with other companies.
Gretchen: Right. So, how does this affect commercial customers? Right? They might want a nice photo for their website or even a nice photo to hang in their office. So, when you have something that’s sticking out, maybe it was a box that was delivered that you didn’t realize that’s still in the photo, that’s an easy removal for us, right? We can remove that box and turn that photo into a beautiful office mural.
Thomas: Yes. That’s exactly right. We can really change a lot also with object removal. We can also do object addition afterwards. Maybe that’s taking out the furniture that you have and putting in new furniture virtual staging or maybe it’s adding a image to a TV screen, put a picture of the city that you live in; of the skyline at night or something like that kind of just makes your photos pop a little more.
It’s really just kind of a fun thing to do to help you market yourself as a realtor. But when looking for a Dallas real estate photography company, make sure that they can offer these services and that they are not going to charge you a crazy amount. To learn more about this and our company, you can visit us online at fullpackagemedia.com or give us a call at 972-885-8823. Thanks.
[00:10:51] [END OF AUDIO]
File name: Episode 5 Full Package Media 1.28.17 Dallas Real Estate Photography_mixdown.mp3
972-885-8823