Justin Stoddart 0:00
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. Real Estate photography today matters more than ever. My wife and I, for example, toured about 1000 homes virtually, toured one physically, that was the home we bought. So Case in point, real estate photography matters if you want to be a great listing agent, and I'm really excited today to have on the show gentleman by the name of Darryl Glade. Darryl is the founder and CEO of stilio.com, which is a marketplace to connect real estate agents, and great photographers, they do a full vetting process and training program to make sure that the photographers that they bring to the table, understand some very key principles of which we're going to be discussing today. So I want to, first of all, thank Darryl for being on the show today, Darryl, welcome.
Darryl Glade 0:43
Thanks for having me, Justin looking forward to it.
Justin Stoddart 0:45
Yeah, based on what you've built, you're, you're a big thinker, which I'm excited to have someone like you, who not only has been a top agent, right? for 10 years, you're a top agent in New Orleans, found your passion within kind of this niche of real estate. And now you're pouring into the industry in a different way. So very cool, excited to have you here to extend really my mission of my passion, which is to help agents think bigger. I know that when that happens, they themselves grow. And their business follows suit, which opens up options and impact that they've always wanted. So thank you again, for being here. Let's dive into this there'll, you know, one thought that I've had actually taught a class this week, as I was mentioning to you previously, called becoming a powerful marketer through storytelling. And I believe this that the great marketers, and great agents out there, don't just say, hey, let me show you a house. Right? They say, let me tell you about what your story what your life would look like living in this house, there's a much deeper emotional connection. And people really start to see their story transform and having that home be a part of it. How do you feel like photography plays a part in helping people see the story, their story being in that home,
Darryl Glade 1:57
it's got to be the easiest way to do it. You know, there's a great stat that says 90% of buyers say that the most important part of any real estate listing is the photos. And so it's not the flowery language. And if you're trying to tell a story and trying to get a certain message across, the easiest way to do it is by photos. And it's really the cheapest way to do it as well. I mean, it's not a very big investment. And the listing agent and homeowner can work with a photographer to really set the stage to tell that story to get your point across. So exactly like you were talking about in your presentation, the photos are a key part to accomplishing that goal.
Justin Stoddart 2:39
You know, so many people, again, I think maybe an indicator of where we're going as a society, right, Facebook was the big deal for a long, long time, they were wise enough for a small investment of a billion dollars, they bought Instagram, but what's Instagram, Instagram is image heavy, and text light right there. So Case in point of what you're saying here is that you can have great copy, and you need to have great copy. But if you don't have good photography, no one's ever going to get to your copy.
Darryl Glade 3:07
Now you're exactly right. And, you know, to expand that further, the Instagram generation and in Facebook still, all anybody cares about is content, all these agents are trying to create content to get their own personal brand across and to get that listing information across its photos. So if you commit to getting great photos, and all your listings, you've got all that content built in right there ready for you, ready for you to extend your brand and to get that listing messaging across. And it's just so easy. All you gotta do is get your listing photographed. And then right there, you got 20 or 30 pieces of content ready for you to post to extend your brand online.
Justin Stoddart 3:48
Well, how important it is, you're right, because you're not just listing at home, you're listing your business, if you will, right. You're demonstrating what kind of marketer you are. And I believe that when people evaluate a real estate agent, it used to be just on like, who have your friends us and who do you trust. And I believe that now people have more of a discerning eye. Yes, they want to know that. But they're also vetting you to see if you're also a professional marketer, not just a good real estate agent. But are you a professional marketer? Are you showing up in the video? Or do your images look like they were taken on your phone? Or do they actually look like it's amazing, Darryl, that how many agents and I say, well, you go through our MLS, and you can identify a much higher percentage than you would expect, are still doing photos on their own, oftentimes on a mobile device, right?
Darryl Glade 4:28
I always say our biggest competitor is not necessarily another professional photography company. It's the agent with their own cell phones. And yeah, technology is expanding every single day, and the cameras on the phones are just that much better. They're outstanding. But the fact is, you need to know the angles you need, which features you need to know the camera height. And then not only that a huge part of getting really good professional photography for real estate is the post-processing. It's the editing afterwords. And that's where still to other professional photographers really get the job done.
Justin Stoddart 5:05
Well, you say, I know you guys do, again, pretty, pretty deep vetting process when it comes to the photographers that are part of your kind of ecosystem, right? What are some key things that you look for when you're choosing photographers in an agent should be saying, you know, that's some criteria that I need to look at now, obviously, going through studio com, they're going to get this, but talk to us about kind of what criteria you look for.
Darryl Glade 5:28
Yeah. So, you know, it's important that we vet all the photographers that get access to our marketplace, and, you know, still is a lot different than the other professional photography companies out there we are the marketplace, we are not the photography company. So that means agents are going to go and find their local photographers. And then those photographers are the ones that are creating and giving the service to the agent. So if we want to make sure that that marketplace is only full of vetted important, really good photographers are all the agent will never come back again. Right? So when the photographers submit their application, they have to submit photos, so we have to see their existing work, they also have to create a profile. So if for example, the profile says, you know why hire me I because I love photography, something like that, well, they're not professionals, they need to have a professional profile, they need to submit their camera equipment. So if they don't have professional grade equipment, they're not in. And then not only that, they have to take a test, if they can't pass this professional, it's a test for real estate photography, not just general, professional photography, if they can't pass the test, they're not live. So these are some of the things that we want to make sure that of the 6000 applications that we got the last six months all around the country, we are a nationwide marketplace, that only those that are the best can get to the real estate agent. So that we're really taking our time making sure that the top photographers...
