Table of Contents
- Why Is Photo Editing Important in Real Estate?
- How Professional Editing Helps Sell More Homes
- Before & After Professional Real Estate Photo Editing
- What’s Allowed and Not Allowed in Post-Processing?
- The Future of Real Estate Photo Editing – AI & VR
- Your Real Estate Photo Editing Partner – PhotoUp
In today’s highly competitive real estate market, the power of professionally edited photos cannot be overstated. With 100% of homebuyers starting their property search online, the quality of listing photos plays a crucial role in attracting potential buyers.
High-quality images not only capture attention but also help sell homes faster and at higher prices.
In this blog post, we’ll share how professional real estate photo editing can help do just that! We’ll also provide you with some before and after photos of the most popular edits.
Let’s begin by explaining why editing your photos is crucial for real estate sales.
Why Is Photo Editing Important in Real Estate?
83% of buyers said pictures were very important in helping them choose which homes they would visit.
Captivating real estate photos are crucial to drawing in buyers, and sometimes getting the perfect photo means going that extra mile with photo editing.
However, real estate photography often faces challenges such as:
- Poor lighting
- Distortion
- Unwanted objects
- Or unappealing skies
Professional real estate photo editing solves these issues, ensuring that every image represents the property in its best light while maintaining authenticity.
For instance, editing enhances clarity, corrects perspective, and ensures consistency across all images in a listing.
Something important to consider is also the fact that top-quality real estate photography generates returning business. Your clients will likely come back for more and also spread the word about your business to other agents and Realtors.
In other words, you’ll not only improve your online portfolio but also brand yourself as a professional real estate photographer.
With this in mind, let’s take a look at how professionally edited listing photos can help sell more homes.
How Professional Editing Helps Sell More Homes
Here are 5 reasons why professional real estate photo editing helps sell homes faster at higher prices.
1. Enhancing Curb Appeal
First impressions matter. A well-edited photo can improve a property’s curb appeal by adjusting lighting, correcting colors, and enhancing contrast to make homes look inviting and well-maintained.
Studies show that listings with high-quality images receive 47% higher asking prices per square foot compared to those with low-quality photos.
2. Increasing Views and Engagement
Professionally edited real estate photos attract more online views, leading to higher engagement rates.
Listings with stunning images receive 118% more clicks than those with unedited or poorly taken photos.
The more engagement a listing receives, the greater the chances of securing potential buyers.
3. Creating an Emotional Connection
Home buying is an emotional decision. High-quality, well-edited photos help buyers visualize themselves in the home, making them more likely to schedule a showing.
By utilizing techniques like virtual staging and twilight conversion, real estate photographers can evoke warmth and a sense of belonging, which can ultimately influence a buyer’s decision.
For example, using a twilight image as the listing’s main photo averaged 76% more views than listings without the use of twilight images. Their captivating nature draws potential buyers in.
4. Captures Buyer Interest Quickly
Professionally edited photos stand out in crowded online listings, attracting more views and engagement.
Consider these statistics:
- 68% of potential buyers say that great photos made them want to visit the home
- Real estate listings with high-quality images receive up to 61% more views compared to those with amateur photos
- Also, property listings featuring high dynamic range (HDR) photos sell 50% faster and increase online views by 118%
- And homes with drone photos or aerial photos sell 68% faster
5. Enhances Perceived Property Value
A polished presentation makes the home appear well-maintained and more valuable.
Here are some compelling statistics indicating that professionally edited listing photos increase the perceived value of a property:
- Quality photography can enhance a property’s perceived value by as much as 39%, influencing buyer perceptions
- Overall, 61.3% of brokers believe high-quality photography is ‘crucial’ for selling homes
- Listings with pro-quality listing images close between $934 and $116,076 higher than comparable listings with low-quality photography
- 52.02% of Realtors who use professional photography believe that professional photography increases sales prices
As you can see, edited real estate photos have the power to captivate potential buyers, increase curb appeal and views, create an emotional response, help with offer prices, and sell homes faster.
Have You Ever Thought To
Outsource Photo Editing?
Try it today with 10 free edits from three professional photo editors.
Before & After Professional Real Estate Photo Editing
To show you the power of professional editing for real estate photography, we’ll provide you with some before and after photos of some of the most popular edits.
Color Correction
White Balance Adjustment
Decluttering/Object Removal
Sky Replacement
Perspective Correction
Day-to-Dusk Conversion
Lawn Enhancement
HDR Blending
Window Masking
Virtual Staging
Virtual Tours
We hope these examples gave you an idea of what professional editing can do to enhance your images.
But what’s allowed and not allowed when editing real estate photography? Let’s look at that next.
What’s Allowed and Not Allowed in Post-Processing?
While editing is essential for marketing, it must follow ethical guidelines to avoid misleading buyers.
Here’s what’s allowed:
- Color Correction and Exposure Adjustment: Ensuring that colors and lighting are accurate and appealing
- Sky Replacement: Swapping out dull skies for vibrant blue skies to enhance curb appeal
- Perspective Correction: Fixing lens distortions and straightening lines for a natural look
- Decluttering and Object Removal: Removing minor items like trash cans or cars that do not permanently belong to the property
- Virtual Staging: Adding digital furniture and decor to empty rooms to help buyers visualize the space
Not allowed edits:
- Altering Structural Elements: Editing out or adding walls, windows, or features that do not exist in reality
- Changing Property Size or Layout: Misrepresenting room sizes or making spaces appear larger than they actually are
- Falsifying Views: Adding a scenic background that does not exist in reality
- Over-Editing Colors and Lighting: Making a home look significantly different from its actual appearance
By following these guidelines, real estate professionals can create visually appealing images while maintaining honesty and trust with potential buyers.
Now, let’s take a look at what the future of editing has to offer.
The Future of Real Estate Photo Editing – AI & VR
The future of photo editing is evolving rapidly with advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and automation.
AI-powered editing tools like AgentUp AI Editing and Luminar now allow for faster, more precise adjustments, reducing turnaround times while maintaining high quality.
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are also shaping the industry, enabling immersive home tours and interactive experiences that bring listings to life.
As real estate marketing continues to evolve, high-quality edited photos will remain a key factor in selling homes efficiently.
Leveraging professional:
- Real estate photo editing
- Virtual tours
- 2D/3D floor plans
- And virtual staging ensures that listings stand out, attract more buyers, and ultimately lead to faster and more profitable sales
For real estate professionals looking to maximize their listings’ potential, investing in professional photo editing is no longer optional—it’s a necessity.
Let’s share the quickest and easiest way to ensure professionally edited listing images – outsource to PhotoUp!
Have You Ever Thought To
Outsource Photo Editing?
Try it today with 10 free edits from three professional photo editors.
Your Real Estate Photo Editing Partner – PhotoUp
For real estate photographers looking to outsource their editing to ensure quick turnaround and top-notch images, PhotoUp has got you covered!
With services starting at just $1.50 per image for on-demand editing, PhotoUp ensures your photos look polished, consistent, and visually stunning—helping you establish a strong, memorable brand.
PhotoUp’s professional editors specialize in:
- Overall imagine enhancements
- Perspective correction to ensure images are visually aligned
- HDR blending for vibrant, well-balanced lighting
- Sky replacement to enhance exteriors with beautiful skies
- Virtual staging that turns empty rooms into inviting spaces
- Day-to-dusk conversions to add curb appeal to property listings
- And much more!
With a fast turnaround time of 12-24 hours and an easy-to-use photo management platform, we make it simple to upload, review, and receive your images.
Plus, our attention to detail ensures your brand stays consistent, appealing, and professional—whether you’re managing a single property or an entire portfolio.
But that’s not all…
An Eco-System of Real Estate Marketing
On top of that, PhotoUp also offers an interconnected system of real estate marketing services that can make your business even more effective, including:
- Virtual staging
- Virtual house tours
- Floor plans
- Single property websites
- Real estate photographer websites
- House portraits
- Property flyers
- And Virtual Assistants
By partnering with PhotoUp, you’ll not only improve your real estate photos and expand your product offerings but also enhance your brand’s image, boost client trust, and stand out in a competitive market.
How to Get Started
Getting started with PhotoUp is super easy – this is what to do:
Step 1. Sign up for a free PhotoUp account.
Step 2. Upload your photos to our easy-to-use software.
Step 3. Choose the level of editing that you need and provide instructions (optional).
Step 4. Wait for PhotoUp professional editors to edit and return the photos in less than 24 hours (48 hours for virtual staging).
Step 5. Download and start using your beautifully edited photos.
PhotoUp Real Estate Photo Editing Uploader Demo
To see how easy it is to get started with PhotoUp, check out our photo editing uploader demo:
As simple as that! So why wait?
Sign up for a free PhotoUp account and start outsourcing your photo editing needs today.
Best of all, when you sign up for an account, you’ll receive a bonus of 10 free credits you can use on any of our services.
We hope this blog post helped you see the value of professional real estate photo editing to accelerate home sales. Before you go, you may also want to check out the following resources:
