How you take pictures of rental property could determine how quickly the property will rent.
Photo: Real Property Management Dade
Pedro Cedeño, Lic. Real Estate Agent, Real Property Management Dade – Miami, FL
I take pictures of rental property for a Miami property management company. Below are some easy steps anyone can take to take decent looking rental property photos.
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Photo: Real Property Management Dade
Having the right equipment: If you’re a real estate professional, photography enthusiast, or just want to take really good real estate photos, you may be interested in investing in a DSLR camera. The setup below would set you back about $1000 but significantly less for used equipment.
What you’ll need:
- Camera body: You don’t really need all of the bells and whistles so stick to a basic body like a Canon Rebel T1i shown above.
- Camera lens: This is what will make your shots gorgeous and effective. It is also why a point-and-shoot camera just won’t produce the pictures you want. A wide-angle lens captures more of the space your prospective tenants want to see. The setup above is equipped with the Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 wide angle lens. The quality is excellent and the price is a bit lower than some other comparable lenses.
- Flash: The flash that comes with the camera usually doesn’t cut it. You want your interior pictures to be “bright” an “airy” like you described in the listing. Adding a flash like the Canon Speedlite 580EX II show above will greatly improve your interior shots.
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Photo: Real Property Management Dade with an iPhone 6
In a pinch: Have a camera phone with a panoramic setting? Don’t want to spend a grand in expensive photography equipment? Using the Panoramic feature on your phone’s camera will at least allow you to get the wide-angle effect without the wide-angle lens.
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Photo: Pixabay
Put it all together: Even free photo editing software can be a pretty powerful tool. Tinker with the following to make your pictures really stand out:
- Resize: The size of the picture can really vary depending on where you’re planning on listing it. You probably won’t need the large size of the original picture. We resize our images to 2048 x 1536 while keeping the same aspect ratio. Each photo comes out to about 400 – 500 KB. The smaller size helps with uploading the pictures to various online listing platforms. It also downloads quickly for easy viewing by prospective tenants.
- Lighten: Even with a good flash some areas may come out dark. Adjusting the lighting can enhance those dark areas making for a better photo.
- Saturation: Notice how the the sky in the first picture is ultra-blue? Adjusting the saturation slightly will allow colors to really pop, especially for the important “front” shot.
- Sharpen: Sharpen the photo to achieve the crisp, clean, polished look the rental property deserves.
- Watermark: With such great photos, someone may want to steel them. Watermark your photos to avoid your quality shots ending up on bogus listings.
There are definitely more in-depth articles on how to take pictures of rental property. It may seem overwhelming at times. Doing just some of the basics will definitely improve how prospective tenants interact with your listing. Snap away and let us know how its worked for you. Happy renting! 
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