Want to sell your home? Get a professional photographer

Good pictures can be key to selling a home, according to the Wall Street Journal.

"When we saw the photos, we fell in love with our place all over again," Clarissa Padilla told the Wall Street Journal, who was able to get a contract on her condo in Sherman Oaks, Calif., at the price she and her wanted and in less than two weeks. "The colors were so bright, and it made it look fresh and very spacious. It's only 950 square feet. (The pictures) made it look huge."

Home listings with photos taken by professional photographers get approximately 61 percent more views than listings without, across all price ranges, according to research from Redfin, a real-estate brokerage firm.

"When people are searching for homes, they search by price range, location (and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms). But once they have the list, the visual piece becomes a larger and more important part of the decision," a spokeswoman for Redfin, Jani Strand, told the Wall Street Journal.

About 98 percent of homebuyers who looked for a home online said photos were among the most useful features on websites, according to the National Association of Realtors.

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