A conversational video (podcast-style) discussion about whether real photos of land are required when buying or marketing vacant land. Hosts debate viewpoints: photos and drone/video help marketing and buyer confidence but are not strictly necessary; many sellers start marketing without photos, use nearby-area photos with disclosure, or request visitor photos. Remote buying/selling of out-of-area properties is presented as practical and common.
Chapters
Last week we didn't get to this topic, but. And we come back to this topic all the time, but for those people that are maybe tuning in for the first couple of times, or those people that are just getting into this business, there was a ton of chatter about this topic last week in the Facebook group on, I think, two or three different threads. And people were asking about pictures. Do I need real pictures of my property? And I thought we could talk about that a little bit. We had some people say, yes, you absolutely need real pictures of the property. We had some people say, I refuse to buy land outside of my immediate area because I want to get boots on the ground and I want to go there and take pictures and I want to know what I'm buying. And then you had other people on the other end of the extreme saying, you need no pictures. You don't need to go to the land. You don't necessarily need to know exactly what you're buying. So. So it's kind of an interesting panorama.
Yeah.
Of people.
So you're saying that some people's point was before I buy the property, I want to see it, and other people's point was that I want to have it for when I market the property. And so there's sort of two different sides there we're looking at. Right.
Yeah, There's a couple topics embedded in this one topic, I think. So first off, let's talk.
We'll never get through this one topic because of that, just so you know.
First off, let's just talk about pictures. What's your viewpoint on pictures? And I can chime in as well. Mark, you can chime in.
Would you like me to talk about pitches, like, before I buy or after I buy, or is it my choice?
It's your choice. Your choice, but I think you got for that one.
I knew you'd say that.
Yeah. I think a lot of people were really talking about marketing. Do they need real pictures to market property?
All right, you don't need them, but they can help. I mean, that's the short and sweet answer. I mean, not that they can help. They will help. I'm not going to lie. You don't need them, but they will help. Do I get pictures of my properties 80% of the time or more? I do. I do. I like to have pictures of my property. I like to have drone video of my property. I just like it now. Could I sell them without it? Of course. But I just like to have those. And I think it's a nice little add on to show to my prospective buyers and like, hey, would you like to see a drone video of that property? Great. Oh, I want to go see that probably first. Well, how about this? I'll show you right now. I have a drone tour of that property. You know, so you don't need it? No. There's plenty of stock photos out there of the area and so on and so forth. But I think it can make your life a little easier if you do have them. I think that's an honest an answer. I'll start with that.
No, I. I love that answer. I think it's an honest answer as well.
You think I'm lying?
No. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Here's the thing about pictures. Like, it's amazing what sells when you don't have pictures. I mean, so let's put it this way. Do I like to have pictures of my properties?
Sure.
Am I paying an arm and a leg to get pictures of my properties? Typically not. I will start marketing the property without pictures, and we get a lot of interest. My favorite way of getting pictures is from somebody who's going out to visit the property. Hey, would you mind taking some pictures for me? I want to see what's going on out there. I would be glad to reimburse you for the pictures. And nine times out of 10, they say, don't worry about it, we had fun, and they send you pictures and videos and whatnot.
Yeah.
So the other thing too, to remember is that a lot of times we work in areas where we worked for years now, over years, you are going to collect pictures from the area. And there's no problem with using pictures in your marketing from a property a mile away. As long as you disclose on your website or to a person in a conversation that, hey, I just want to let you know that. That this prop. The. The property, the picture that you're seeing is from a mile away. But here are some great aerial views. Here are some great Google Earth overlays. And the property looks very similar based on, you know, what we know about the area. So. So, yeah, I think it's, you know, it's kind of interesting. There were some people saying, you absolutely need pictures of the property. And I don't necessarily agree with that.
No. I say that there's no rule like that. They. No, no rule like that. They'll sell. They'll sell with just regular photos and so on and so forth. To me, the selling point more than the pitches is the price and the easy monthly payment and the lack of a credit check and how it just is a little guarantee in there. I mean that's the selling point. You know, these people, many of them just want to own land and you know, as an investment and they're not overly concerned with, you know, exactly how it looks and so on and so forth. So it can help. But it's certainly not necessary. Certainly not necessary. I mean there's times like you said, well, we'll not times we do people, we have, we create an email in our follow up boss of up and coming properties. There's no pictures of them yet. There's just like a guy like you said, a Google Earth type view, a map to it and so on and so forth. But if you want to cash in early and be ahead of the crowd, take a look at these. They're up and coming.
Yeah. And I think, you know, a couple of the comments, you know, they may lead somebody to believe, especially if they're new to this, that you need to be near your property, that you should take great care purchasing property, that you need to see it. And that's just absolutely not the case. I mean, I'm in Wisconsin. I'm not buying and selling land in Wisconsin. I've done a couple deals in Wisconsin but my main, you know, my bread and butter deals are out west and in the southwest. Have I been there to see those properties? No, I have not. I can do this from Wisconsin. I can buy and sell land out west. You can do this in Massachusetts and buy and sell land in the south and the west and. And have you had any issues doing that, Mike, in the five years you've been doing this?
No, no. Don't fear if you're not near.
Oh, add another quote to the wall, buddy. Don't fear if you're not near MZ.
