【3D Virtual Tour Scanning】Exterior Real Estate Scans: Benefits, Challenges, and How to Get the Best Exterior Shots

【3D Panoramas Scanning】Exterior Real Estate Photography: Benefits, Challenges, and How to Get the Best Exterior Shots

Exterior Real Estate Photography Tips to Overcome Challenges and Make Photos Stand Out 

The National Association of Realtors' 2023 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report found that 96% of homebuyers use the internet to search for homes. While people of all ages consider photos to be the most useful feature in property listings, 49% of potential buyers' next step after viewing a listing online is to take a virtual tour. 42% of potential buyers eventually contact an agent, and 35% of buyers visit the exterior of the home and its surroundings without entering the property in person.

Real estate photographers and agents must work together to make listings as appealing and immersive as possible to maximize buyer interest and reduce listing time. Creating this interest begins with exterior real estate photography.


4 Benefits of Including Exterior Real Estate Photos in Your Listings

The first impression buyers have of a property comes from its exterior, and photos allow buyers to visually experience the property's overall living experience (not just the interior of the home).

While these four benefits ultimately enhance the overall appeal of a listing, real estate photographers should consider them individually when thinking about how best to capture these elements in exterior photos.


Highlight Incredible Views

Aerial or drone photography is ideal for capturing properties from above or from a distance. Long-range shots provide an overall perspective of the property, which lays the groundwork for agents and photographers to discover and highlight elements of the property, such as stunning views.

Once buyers see the beautiful views, they will understand why the property is listed at such a high price.
 

Residential apartments share many amenities and are in close proximity, which must be highlighted to give buyers a sense of community living and interaction with neighbors. If a listing shows schools or parks near the home, families with children will be more invested in seeing the property in person. If homeowners have developed a garden in their backyard, showcasing and describing the garden will prompt potential buyers with a green thumb to view the surrounding area.


Highlight the Property's Narrative and Uniqueness

Exterior real estate photography provides visuals for the property's story from multiple angles. If the listing highlights unique features of the property, potential buyers will interact longer with the listing by clicking through more photos.

Real estate photographers can photograph the property at different times of the day, like Airbnb's most popular treehouse, to showcase the natural light and ambiance experience from morning to night.

Increase the Competitiveness of Your Listing (Including Your Market Competitiveness)

Real estate marketing tools, such as social media platforms and real estate agent websites, require visual assets to attract homeowners and potential buyers. Professional real estate photography can demonstrate a significant investment and careful consideration of the property, benefiting both the listing and the real estate agent. Strong real estate visuals help create the expectation for potential buyers to interact with you and the current homeowners when they view the property in person.


4 Exterior Real Estate Photography Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Post-production techniques are helpful for many exterior shots, but real estate photographers want to accurately represent the property and remain as true as possible to its natural, everyday appearance. Of course, post-production and Photoshop still cannot completely avoid some challenges, but when real estate photographers and agents collaborate and plan, they can ensure the property looks incredible.

Here are the four most common challenges in exterior real estate photography — and real estate exterior photography tips to help you find solutions.

Weather
Weather is the biggest challenge for any professional exterior real estate photographer. To get the best real estate photos, whether exterior or interior, you need as much natural light as possible.

If the weather is overcast, diffused light will appear. While soft light minimizes shadows, it can affect how you highlight the property's exterior selling points, such as stunning views or a perfect summer garden.

Solution: Reschedule or Use Photoshop
Rescheduling the shoot is the primary way to deal with bad weather. If the shoot must take place on the day, you can wait for the weather to improve, as the sun may break through the clouds, bringing a soft, tranquil atmosphere to the property and community.

Exterior real estate photographers can also leverage their post-production skills. Some editing and Photoshop platforms offer sky replacement features. If you want to lean towards a natural landscape, you can also bracket the landscape, such as the sky, house, and path, and then stitch the photos together with HDR.


Lighting
For quality images of any property, lighting is like "Goldilocks and the Three Bears": Too dim, and you'll spend hours in Photoshop. Too bright, and you'll have to deal with harsh shadows.

Solution: Shoot During "Golden Hour"
Complete as many exterior shots as possible during "golden hour" (approximately 1-2 hours after sunrise and before sunset) to take advantage of warm tones and soft shadows. If you're shooting all day, start with exterior shots, then take indoor photos in the late afternoon and evening, and finally take outdoor photos to showcase the house throughout the day.

If you must work in direct sunlight, you can use diffusers to redistribute and evenly scatter light, thereby reducing contrast and shadows.


Landscaping and Eyesores
Messy yards, withered lawns, dilapidated fences, and clutter can detract from the aesthetics. Neighbors' yards might also have branches extending into them, creating some shadows. If the property overlooks new construction or is directly adjacent to an old property, its appearance should be minimized in photos.

Solution: Tidy Up and Focus on Angles
Typically, real estate agents work with homeowners to ensure the entire property looks good, inside and out. Schedule a site visit before the shoot to identify areas that may need tidying or touch-ups.

Real estate photographers can frame and adjust angles for exterior photos to showcase the home's selling points, such as the potential for a garden or architectural features that highlight the property's history. Agents can also add notes about the property's potential and surroundings to inspire prospective buyers to envision their potential new home. You can also try retouching any elements in real estate photo editing software!


Limited Shooting Time
Despite thorough preparation and considering external factors like weather, some homeowners can only provide limited shooting time due to scheduling or last-minute emergencies.

Solution: Create a Must-Have Shot List
Collaborate to create a must-have shot list. Ideally, this includes the front, back, and sides of the property, as well as any interior photos you may be responsible for taking. Ensure you can visit the property to plan any angles that maximize curb appeal. If necessary, ask if you can bring and set up any possible equipment the day before the shoot to ensure you can get started quickly.

 

How to Get the Best Exterior Visuals for Your Property

While high shutter speeds and ISO values help capture exterior real estate photos in low light or less ideal conditions, real estate photographers must consider how much work and time it will take to edit these photos to their standards.

Matterport offers the ideal platform and workflow for capturing high-quality images (especially exterior real estate photos) and creating immersive 3D tours of entire properties from the inside out. All you need is a Matterport camera, the Matterport platform, and these helpful exterior real estate photography tips to successfully photograph properties!

Capture High-Quality Images and Create a Digital Twin with the Matterport Pro3 Environmental Scanner

The Pro3 environmental scanner uses a LiDAR sensor and a 12-lens system to easily create high-quality exterior images and digital twins for indoor and outdoor spaces, day or night.

Compared to other high-quality digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras, this camera can capture data from over 100 meters away, providing a powerful experience. Since the camera captures each scan in less than 20 seconds, you can quickly check for alignment issues and any quality problems. But these problems are rare, as the custom 20-megapixel sensor covers an ultra-wide angle, producing vivid 2D photo colors and immersive, accurate digital twins.

Ready to practice these exterior real estate photography tips with a Matterport environmental scanner? It will help your exterior real estate photos come to life and allow you to create digital twins, which can not only help you expand your real estate photography offerings but also enable you to build more valuable partnerships with real estate agents!