Sign InCommercial Real Estate Photography Guide: Tips For First-Class Property Listing Photos
Visuals make all the difference when creating compelling real estate listings. When potential buyers browse listings online, they want to quickly assess the space and whether it meets their specific needs.
That’s why investing in high-quality commercial real estate photography is crucial for agents and brokerages. Research shows that professional photography upgrades listings—no surprise there—but it also helps agents sell properties 32% faster.
Shorter time on the real estate market is far from the only advantage you’ll experience when you use commercial real estate photography. Learn how (and why) real estate agents and professional photographers can work as partners to better market properties to buyers. Below, you’ll also find a roundup of the right tools and techniques you’ll need to get your photos just right.
3 proven benefits of commercial real estate photography
With the proliferation of state-of-the-art smartphone cameras and less pricey camera equipment, high-quality property visuals have become table stakes. Every home or commercial property listing needs imagery to catch the wandering eye of potential clients.
But not all photography is created equal. Snapping some quick photos on your smartphone isn’t enough for many discerning potential buyers. They prefer commercial real estate photography to get a clear, detailed view of a home or commercial space. Purchasing a property is typically one of the biggest transactions of your life, so buyers want to ensure they’re making the right investment.
Commercial real estate photography requires a range of special tools to get high-quality images, including DSLR cameras, 360-degree cameras, drones for drone photography/drone video, tripods for setup, wide-angle lenses, and light equipment. So, it often makes sense to hire an expert. And yet, just over a third (35%) of real estate agents use commercial real estate photographers to capture their property portfolio.
Although commercial real estate photography is an investment, it boasts a variety of advantages for real estate agents.
1. Make the right first impression
Photos are the first thing buyers notice when perusing online property listings. And a positive first impression can’t be replicated.
High-quality images (photos, videos, virtual tours) effectively show off the positive assets of a property. Buyers get an understanding of the layout, the style, architectural features, and how well it’s maintained just from a single photo.
Buyers not only take notice professional photos—they also rely on them to narrow down their options. Based on NAR statistics, 66% of all buyers revealed that property photos were very important when selecting the homes they’d visit.
So, it’s no shock that properties with more images sell faster and for higher prices. Homes with 20 photos were typically snatched up within a month compared to 70 days on the market for homes with just one photo.
Adding multiple types of high-quality images to a listing can drum up even more interest from potential buyers. For example, agents can use a three-dimensional virtual replica of a property—dubbed a digital twin—to generate a detailed, virtual walkthrough. These 3D tours alone can increase sales calls by 95% lead to a 9% increase in sales prices.
2. Reach a broader audience online
While printed materials and ads still play an important role in marketing properties, buyers do the bulk of their browsing online. And, as we’ve mentioned, professional photography is how you make those listings stand out and reach a wider audience.
Great images—whether they’re photos, videos, and/or 3D tours—drive more engagement and interest online. Professional photos alone help real estate listings get 61% more views, Virtual tours get a whopping 87% more views, and listings with videos see 403% more inquiries.
Virtual tours and videos significantly increase engagement on property listings. Source
Beautiful images also encourage potential buyers to spread the word about a property they’re excited about. Real estate listings with pro photos see 1,200% more social media shares than those without images, which helps agents reach exponentially more potential buyers.
3. Enrich your real estate marketing campaign
Professional photos are, first and foremost, meant to promote properties. But high-quality images are versatile assets agents can use to promote their specific services and successes as well.
For example, beautiful images lend themselves well to any medium. Agents can leverage high-quality commercial real estate photography in any promotional materials—whether it’s in print, on billboards, bus benches, on your site, or on multiple listings services (MLS).
Using pro images in real estate marketing will also help you stand out and ultimately win more clients. In one study, 72.2% of agents agreed that high-quality real estate photos helped them secure more listings. These results can go a long way to differentiate agents from competitors as well. For example, Texas-based Real Estate by Design used Matterport digital twins to create 3D tours for their properties. Within the first few months, the firm’s average days on market plummeted from 30 to 21 days, and the average sales price spiked to 97% (up from 93%). Quicker sales and better offer prices are worth shouting about from the rooftops—and both buyers and sellers took notice of the firm’s success.
Try these commercial real estate photography tips to get buyers’ attention
Commercial real estate photography is crucial for listings—more than 61% of real estate brokers agreed. High-quality images can make or break sales, so it’s important to prep for photos to get the best shots.
Take the time to set up the space and plan in the following ways ensures that your property images are clear and compelling for potential buyers.
Declutter by defurnishing or virtually staging a space
If you skim through an album of subpar real estate photos, you might notice one quality in common: clutter. Unnecessary items can be distracting in photos and the goal is for buyers to assess the space, instead of focusing on how tidy it is. If you find yourself spending time or stressing a client out about moving their clutter, using technology like Matterport is a way to forego this stress altogether. The defurnish feature is a low-impact, low-touch way of offering clients the flexibility to showcase their space without moving their existing furniture.
If a property doesn’t have furniture or is sparsely furnished, consider using a Matterport digital twin to virtually stage the space. With virtual staging in Matterport, it’s easy to add digital furniture and decor to a physical space.
An empty property can feel like too much of a blank canvas for some potential buyers. Adding furniture and decor—even virtually—can make a blank space feel inviting. Staging helps prospective buyers build a connection to the space and envision themselves living there.
Choose the best timing
When scheduling a photo shoot for a property, the time of day matters. For example, you’ll want to highlight a property’s floor-to-ceiling windows by shooting photos when it’s bright outside. That way, you capture how well-lit and airy a room can be (a major selling feature!).
Natural light makes for crisper photos of a property’s interior, so aim to capture a property in the early morning or late afternoon (often referred to as “golden hours”). If you can’t swing a shoot during these timeframes, you’ll likely need additional lighting equipment to ensure the space is appropriately lit.
Create different types of visual materials
Don’t be afraid to mix mediums when capturing visuals of a property for listings. High-resolution photos are just the start when it comes to commercial real estate photography. Adding digital twin capture to your portfolio gives you more flexibility with creating media for the property because you can extract different shots and angles from the digital twin scan and offer your clients a holistic visual package than if you were just capturing with a DSLR.
Using multiple types of visuals in your listings offers buyers a holistic view of a property—they can explore every nook and cranny of a space without physically stepping foot inside it. It’s easier for them to vet each prospective home and make a short list of the ones that check all their boxes.
Providing curious browsers more ways to view a home can also drive more interest in a property. Research showed buyers are 300% more engaged with properties with a 3D tour versus listings with only 2D photos.
How to get first-in-class commercial real estate photos
While handy techniques like those above can help you get clearer, more compelling images, the real trick is using the best tools for your commercial real estate photography. Photograph your properties with ease with one of Matterport’s top-of-the-line cameras or using one of its photography services.
Matterport has partnered up with VHT Studios to offer all-in-one real estate marketing solution for realtors and brokerages. Whether you want to invest in the right cameras to take property photos yourself or rely on experts to capture a property, Matterport + VHT has you covered.
Choose from three state-of-the-art cameras to take beautiful images or generate digital twins. If you want an easy-to-use camera that beautifully captures properties in 4K, try the Pro 2. Agents can rely on this model to crisply and accurately scan homes, apartments, commercial buildings, and hotels for 3D models and virtual tours.
If you need a more advanced camera to scan outdoor conditions and larger commercial properties faster in any light conditions, we suggest the Pro 3. This top-of-the-line model takes millions of measurements, both indoors and outdoors, from up to 100 meters away for a quick turnaround for your images.
For highly portable options with fast speeds and accurate images, check out Matterport’s suite of 360 cameras. And for agents who are more comfortable with their smartphones, try the Matterport Axis. This tailor-made phone mount stabilizes your images so you can capture pro-level 3D digital twins of properties for a budget-friendly price.
You can also lean on Matterport + VHT to photograph and create other high-quality imagery, including:
High-end photography
Drone imagery
Still have some questions about commercial real estate photography? Review our roundup of common queries below.
