Mastering Real Estate Visuals: Elevating Listings with Professional Photography - Landon Day

00:00:14 - Mike Mills
But we're going to roll with it. We have all kinds of fun technical issues today, so we're going to something weird going on with the upload there. But hey, here we are.

00:00:24 - Landon Day
Hello.

00:00:25 - Mike Mills
Hello, everybody. To all you sharp looking salespeople out there. This is the Texas Real Estate and finance podcast, and I am your host, Mike Mills. I am a local mortgage banker here in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex, and I'm here each and every week bringing you insights into how to take your real estate game to the next level with top professionals in and around our industry. And today is no different. So these days, there are all kinds of market forces looking to upend how real estate has transacted in the country. There's been a real premium place on listings nowadays. If you have the know how and the savvy to put together a great listing presentation and stand out above the crowd, 2024 could be one of the best years ever. And one of the most important pieces of any listing is the photography and video marketing you do to promote the property, especially in this social media driven.

00:01:12 - Landon Day
World we live in.

00:01:13 - Mike Mills
And my guest today is an expert on the topic. In fact, he has built almost his entire career around it, and he's going to share all of his best tips on how to make any listing shine. So, you can walk into that listing presentation and show the sellers that you are the home selling jedi that they need on their side. But before we dive into our topic today, just like always, if you find this information helpful and beneficial to your business, please hit the subscribe button on your podcast platform. Like us on YouTube. Tell your mama and tell your friends. We're constantly trying to amplify our signal in this crowded market of voices. And support from our listeners goes a long way in doing so, at least as those pesky algorithms are telling me these days. So now let's get onto the show. So, joining me on the pod today is Landon Day. Landon is the owner janitor, his words, not mine, of daydream photography, located right here in my little town of Mansfield, Texas. And Landon has had his work featured in Forbes magazine, People magazine, and, you know, I don't know how to tell you this, but he's kind of a big deal. So, Landon, welcome to the show.

00:02:18 - Landon Day
Sir.

00:02:18 - Mike Mills
How are we doing?

00:02:19 - Landon Day
Very good, my. Very, very good. All right.

00:02:21 - Mike Mills
I don't know why we had some little audio glitches up there in the.

00:02:24 - Landon Day
Front, but the people cheering in the background.

00:02:25 - Mike Mills
Yeah, we got to give you proper fanfare. We can't have you show up here without any good cheering on your side? So speaking of janitor work, you were telling me you're getting ready for a big party today, so you don't just say it, you actually embody it.

00:02:38 - Landon Day
I am that guy. Yeah. So we're having a realtor event at the studio this afternoon, and of course it's got to be clean and smell pretty and all the things. So that's exactly what I was doing this morning before I came here.

00:02:48 - Mike Mills
Yes, well, that's part of being a business owner these days, is you get to wear all the hats, right? It's not something where you get to take pictures all day. You get to do all the dirty work. Actually, you have people that do the.

00:02:59 - Landon Day
Pictures for you these days. So one time, quick story. I was buying my new truck and I filled out the credit application and filled it all out, and 20 minutes later the guy comes back and says, hey, everything looks great except for this one line. Here goes. Your job title is a janitor. Can you elaborate on that a little bit? I didn't put owner on it at that time. I just put straight in janitor. He goes, I'm not sure that they're going to let us approve your new truck with a job title. The gender are like, look, I wear a lot of hats. I'm the owner. And all this stuff, they got to just turn around, like so frustrated to the left, like defeated feeling you didn't want to change.

00:03:32 - Mike Mills
You were like, hey, man, this is how it's going to be whether you like it or not. Yes, this is what we are. So either accept it or don't. But, yeah, it's funny that they get wrapped up in kind of stuff like that.

00:03:43 - Landon Day
You see all the numbers, you see everything. Why? Does the title mean anything to you at that point?

00:03:47 - Mike Mills
Yeah, titles are so irrelevant, especially these days, because everybody does so many different things. And when you own a business, you don't just get to be the guy who gets to do all the fun stuff. More often than not, you get to do all the crappy stuff. You know what I mean?

00:04:01 - Landon Day
It's actually that way. Yeah, all the time I got into photography to be a photographer, and now I'm a business owner. And look at numbers and spreadsheets, I'm like, that's not what I thought I was going to be doing.

00:04:10 - Mike Mills
No, that was not the goal necessarily. I mean, things are going good, but at the same time, it's a lot of hatch you wear.

00:04:17 - Landon Day
Absolutely.

00:04:18 - Mike Mills
All right, so first off, I want to know, obviously, you've been doing this for a while, especially here locally. I don't know too many agents that don't use you pretty much all the time. Like I said, you're kind of a big deal around these parts. So tell me a little bit about how you started daydream. What kind of got you on that path? What was it about going into business on your own and not doing something small because you've really kind of grown it to a next level? And why did you decide, especially in the beginning, to focus on real estate?

00:04:46 - Landon Day
Yeah. So I guess real estate was actually a complete accident. Like, that wasn't a plan, that wasn't a vision. That was just something that morphed into. I learned a long time ago that not to say no to random opportunities and kind of fill them out kind of as they come along. And my major and minor were both in art in school. Ceramic minor, of all things. Why they would let you be a ceramic minor still blows my mind.

00:05:10 - Mike Mills
You like pottery?

00:05:11 - Landon Day
Yes. Okay. What are the spinning pots on a wheel?

00:05:14 - Mike Mills
And that was your minor in college. Okay. You're straight up Patrick Swayze.

00:05:20 - Landon Day
I'm that guy. And then one of the last classes I took was photo. Got hooked. Of course, I'm graduating at that time. Like, oh, good. Now I've figured out what I want to do, but I don't know anything about it. Dove into it afterwards and got my CPP, certified professional photographer, craftsman's degree, master's degrees, all those other things in photo. And was a portrait photographer mainly high school seniors, even at that point. Okay.

00:05:43 - Mike Mills
Yeah, you still do a lot of those, too.

00:05:44 - Landon Day
Still do a lot of those. We still got a full studio here in downtown Mansfield.

00:05:47 - Mike Mills
I'll probably have one coming your way on my daughter's beat. Junior next year.

00:05:50 - Landon Day
Yeah. Still specializes seniors, but we do all of it still in house as well. Then one day, I had a friend who is a realtor say, hey, you've got a camera. I need this thing shot. Come do it. I knew nothing about any of it. Still, this day, I could call up a photographer friend and ask questions about lighting or posing or something in the portrait world. And I have 100 people I could call right. I don't have that in real estate, which is weird. People as I know. Like, I know some bigger companies that do it, and I know people out there are obviously getting it done, but my pool of people that I know that I can reach out to, and that is like two compared to hundreds in other genres.

00:06:30 - Mike Mills
That's crazy, too, because it's such a listing. Photos are massive. I mean, it's a massive part. And there's homes sold, thousands of homes sold every year in the area. So it's crazy to me.

00:06:40 - Landon Day
Absolutely. So that first time I went out and rented what I thought I needed, didn't even know what I needed, didn't know anything. And I thought they were awful. And then somehow this slow snowball started at that point and one led into five led into ten. And this year we'll shoot just less than 2500 houses. Wow. And never was real estate, even on my vision or radar at the time. And it's probably 75% of our business now.

00:07:05 - Mike Mills
All right, so obviously you work with a lot of agents, but I'm sure you come across new agents all the time and deal with people in the industry quite a bit. What's the percentage of agents that really understand the importance of having really good photography on their property? Because you hear it was like, oh yeah, of course. But there's a difference between knowing it and understanding it. So what do you feel like? Do you feel like they really do know that or do you feel like there's still a gap there?

00:07:33 - Landon Day
I would feel like. So we work with just under 1200 agents right now, is in our database that we've worked with and of those we have a core, right that are amazing that we work with all the time. And then we have a couple of one offs, et cetera. But the people who obviously know what we're doing, they don't even ask questions most of the time.

00:07:51 - Mike Mills
Just go take care of, let professionals handle it.

00:07:54 - Landon Day
You know what we need. Go take care of this for us. And then, or not. I wouldn't say like nickel and dime in it, but they're like, do I really need this? Should I do this? And I'm like, well, depends on a whole lot of things at that point. But yes, a short answer, the more we can do for you to get you in front of it. So I think you hit the nail on the head whenever we were starting earlier. Like going all the way back to listing presentations and actually getting the listing, I think is just as key as selling the house.

00:08:18 - Mike Mills
Yeah, absolutely.

00:08:19 - Landon Day
There's only so many listings and getting them is hard. And yes, they're sitting on the market a little longer now than they were in 2020, but they're still selling. If you get them price right and marketing right, et cetera, half of your job is selling yourself to the seller to even get the listing or even get it in the door to have a meeting with it. And if your portfolio sucks, then they're not even going to give you the time of day, but if you come in with a really professional looking portfolio with amazing photos and video and drone this and 3d this and 2d floor plans and measurements, like, it's super impressive, and somebody comes to me and offers me photos, and then another person comes to me and says, I'm going to offer photos and video and somebody else comes, well, I'm going to offer photos, video and drone as the buyer or as the seller. Whoever's going to market my property the best is who I'm going to go with. Ultimately, it's going to sell. I don't doubt that most of the time, but getting the listing is half the battle.

00:09:13 - Mike Mills
Well, but it's not just, I mean, that's a great point because when you look at the photography from a realtor's point of view, yeah, you want to get the house shown and you want to get. But I mean, in the market especially that we've been in for the last several years and even right now to some extent, and I think we're headed back to this market, by the way, is they move quickly. Properties don't sit too long, especially if they're priced right and they're sitting longer right now it's not.

00:09:34 - Landon Day
When I moved here in 2004, 2005, when it was six months, a year was normal.

00:09:39 - Mike Mills
Right.

00:09:40 - Landon Day
That's not the norm right now.

00:09:41 - Mike Mills
No, they're moving though.

00:09:42 - Landon Day
It's slower now. It's not.

00:09:43 - Mike Mills
Yeah, but even now, slower is like 60 days, maybe. Anybody that's sitting 60 days right now, like, oh my gosh, what's wrong with the house? Yeah, but it's not the concept of selling the house. It's the concept a, of getting the listing number one. Like you got to get the listing as an agent and so you have to put together the best portfolio you can so they can look at it and go, okay, yeah, you're definitely our gal or our guy. But then also two, it's getting the most amount of money for the property, right. Because the pricing it and getting it out and making sure that you encourage demand for the house based on how you price it. If you can get more people attracted to it right off the bat, then that's going to bring you a higher purchase price and get more money for your clients, which again, the goal is obviously to sell it, but it's to sell it for the highest price you can get because that's your responsibility to your listing.

00:10:29 - Landon Day
And the more eyes on it, the easier that is. We don't have MLS access.

00:10:33 - Mike Mills
Right.

00:10:34 - Landon Day
But we have access to a whole lot of tools and the zillow side of things. And I know that zillow is a love hate relationship, and from a buyer or a consumer side of things, they.

00:10:44 - Mike Mills
Change their thing, too.

00:10:45 - Landon Day
Yeah, but agents, they all basically hate zillow. But on our side of things, I can see how many times that listing has been clicked on, how long it stays there, and when it's done well and done right, there's thousands of people that are staying on the side, or 3d tour, for instance, for two or three minutes of time, versus ones that even go all the way back to stage poorly or not ready for us or whatever, and they're getting hit 50 times, 100 times, versus thousands of times. The more eyes on it there, the higher the price is going to be, the more traction, the quicker it's going to go. There's not a bad thing for any of it.

00:11:19 - Mike Mills
So you don't just do photography, right? You do the drone. What are all the services that you offer for a listing?

00:11:26 - Landon Day
Yeah. So I guess I started with the base of photo and has gone from there to even in that world of twilight photos, to. We could even go into a house that's completely trashed and empty it out digitally and really declutter it. And we've gone into places that were estate sales and completely empty house, and then could go through and then Photoshop, virtually, stage the whole thing and make it look very realistic, not like they used to be a couple of years ago, where somebody in India was putting a bunch of ultra modern furniture in a. Like, we actually do all that in house now where it can match and looks great.

00:12:01 - Mike Mills
Is AI a big player for you all now, too?

00:12:04 - Landon Day
To some extent. A lot more on the outside stuff and getting rid of random crap like a car in a garage, something like that. Right. And then we go into the drone. We do drone photos. We do drone video, all that. We've got five drone pilots on our team.

00:12:21 - Mike Mills
Wow, drone pilots. You got a fleet there?

00:12:24 - Landon Day
Well, and you have to have.

00:12:25 - Mike Mills
Do you do the little guy, the one that flies? I've seen those where they're flying to the house.

00:12:29 - Landon Day
We don't do anything inside the house. I've only flown in one house ever, and it was nerve wracking. So, no, this house is over. I'm not far from the park. Small area. Okay. And it's a Mansfield custom home build, and it's just amazing and gaudy at the same time. They wanted it that way. And it has, like, 30 foot ceilings in the living room with a floor to ceiling italian marble fireplace. So.

00:12:52 - Mike Mills
Wow.

00:12:52 - Landon Day
I'm going to fly the drone before any furniture gets in here. I'm going right up there. And it was the most nerve wracking thing, because I'm like, if I hit that fireplace, that's not something I could afford. No, I've done it that way.

00:13:02 - Mike Mills
You're chipping italian marble. You got problems.

00:13:04 - Landon Day
I've done forever. Like, I've retired right now. So we don't typically fly inside. Oh, but you got to have. Be careful hiring drone people, because you got to have a license.

00:13:15 - Mike Mills
Okay.

00:13:16 - Landon Day
It's a regulated.

00:13:17 - Mike Mills
Yeah. There's, like, an FAA involved with part 107.

00:13:20 - Landon Day
So just because you're Joe blow and have a drone doesn't mean you should be out necessarily doing. Don't get the hobbyist doing all that without getting in potentially a lot of trouble and big fines. Yeah.

00:13:32 - Mike Mills
So drone players are a big player. Drone footage is a big player. Now, do you all do the 3d mapping and stuff, too?

00:13:37 - Landon Day
We do 3d mapping. We turn your house. We describe it as, we'll turn your house into a video game. Wow. Especially going through 20 when middle of COVID and everything, people weren't necessarily going and seeing all the houses, especially people that were coming in from out of state. So they come in, and they zero in on, hey, we want to move to Mansfield, and we really like the Kings Mill neighborhood. Right? And then they could walk through a house, like a video game and buy it side unseen once they've zeroed in on where they want to be. And that was really a game changer, especially through that time of our crazy lives. But still working with the out of town buyers, once they zero in on, I really like Mansfield, and even zero in from there, I really want to live know Mira Lagos or whatever. They can zero in on that and find the house, get a really damn good feel off of it.

00:14:25 - Mike Mills
Are they getting anywhere with, like, VR type things where you put the head jack on, like, the Facebook or the Meta one, and then walk through so you can.

00:14:34 - Landon Day
But it's not that great. It's not that great, and it will literally. It makes me motion sick. I can't do it. Same way, like, flying the drone with the goggles on.

00:14:44 - Mike Mills
Are you a pilot?

00:14:45 - Landon Day
I am.

00:14:46 - Mike Mills
Okay.

00:14:47 - Landon Day
We do all that.

00:14:48 - Mike Mills
Do you just like flying the drone, or do you fly it just for the photography, or do you play with it a little bit out there and roam around town with that thing?

00:14:56 - Landon Day
You want a quick drone story? Sure. I love them. So, way back in, let's say 2010 or so, drones were not common. Nobody had them, right? And I got one, and it was originally. They're not anything what they are now. Like, we rigged a gopro to the bottom of it and all these external batteries, and it was a mess. I couldn't even see it from a screen. It was amazing. So we had a music and arts festival in downtown Mansfield. My studio is downtown, and I was showing off to some friends, like, hey, can you all come out and watch this? So I take off, and there's 30,000 people in downtown. The birds fly over. Like, watch this, go take off. After these birds completely lose control of.

00:15:40 - Mike Mills
This, and it's gone.

00:15:41 - Landon Day
Throw my drink down. I take off running to chase them where I think this drone is going. Sure enough, I finally get control of it, like, forever away, and I fly it back to me, and I get back behind the studio, and there's a police officer waiting on me, and he goes, sir, is that your drone? I've had it a week at this point, right? Yeah, it's mine. I'm literally holding. What do you mean? No?

00:16:00 - Mike Mills
I don't know what you're talking about.

00:16:01 - Landon Day
Yeah, yes, it's mine. He goes, I'm only asking because I want one. I was like, yes, this is my drone, and I won't show you how to fly because I don't know what I'm doing yet. Yeah, it's just amazing. Now I can go out, and I fly listings all the time. That'll have a kid at the house like, hey, you want to come fly the drone? And their eyes get all big, like, yeah, let's go fly the drone. I'll let them do it. They think it's the coolest thing ever, but comparatively what it is now, and now we travel with them. I just got back from teaching in Idaho a couple of weeks ago, and we're showing them how to do drone work up there, and we chased antelope around. It was one of the coolest things ever done.

00:16:34 - Mike Mills
That's awesome.

00:16:34 - Landon Day
Took it to Belize on a mission trip this summer. Took it to cabo on, like. It's been my fun part of photography, if that makes sense. Yeah, sometimes you get burned out doing the same thing over and over again, but the drone's kind of got a newness to it still, especially when you take it somewhere.

00:16:51 - Mike Mills
Well, it's just such a unique perspective that we just don't get as humans because we're on the ground, even up in a plane. We go up into planes, but you can't see detail you're so far up, unless you're like an actual pilot flying those little mini things, whatever. So you can't get five or 600ft above the ground and just get the.

00:17:08 - Landon Day
Scope, which is really all you want to be. You don't have to be crazy high or not even that high. I think 340ft is actually the legal height on drones, which is pretty high. Yeah. Really. Sometimes just above a roof line changes everything. See what's behind the house, you can see what's around the house. You can see, oh, it backs up to the lake or the golf course is right there and you can see all that perspective. Completely different. Just barely above a roof line. Yeah.

00:17:30 - Mike Mills
And we just don't have that. And so when you get to see that all, all the time, I'm sure it's fascinating because it's just not something that we do. So what do you think when it comes to photography in general? What do you think are some common mistakes that agents make or even. I don't want you to talk trash about any other photographers, but just photography in general, because you're not just a guy who decided to start taking pictures. I mean, you went to school for this. This is where you have your master's, your bachelor's, all this stuff in this. So you have the eye for it and you've studied it. So what do you think is often missed?

00:18:04 - Landon Day
I guess from a. If I could give a couple of pieces of advice, maybe from an agent side and then a little bit closer, switch over to just in general photography side of things. Like some of our team wise is our biggest pet peeves. And the feedback we get from agents when it's not done right from there in, from the beginning are light bulbs that are the wrong colors or they're all mixed match or they're warm here or cool here or not working at all or whatever. It's such a beat down to have a warm light here and then a cool light here and then like, well, my countertop is not really green. It's really more of a beige color. Like, well, you've got 18 different colors of light coming through. You're like, it is going to be what it is until we could fix something like that. And there's things we do to work around that. But working light bulbs is like one of the biggest things.

00:18:52 - Mike Mills
That's a small thing that you just don't. I mean, it's funny, I know this only because when you said it, because my wife is obsessed with that kind of stuff. Just in our house, if she puts a bulb, I was like, that's not the same color. I don't even know. Okay, fine, it's a light. I don't even think about that kind of stuff.

00:19:07 - Landon Day
Yeah. Okay, so here's something not a whole lot of people know about me is I am very, very colorblind. Really? Yes. Okay.

00:19:14 - Mike Mills
That's an od thing to be for a photographer.

00:19:16 - Landon Day
For a photographer, art major. It's a very unusual thing to be. But that cool and warm color, I can really see and hone in on the difference of that sometimes. So it's one thing if your lamp is a warm color because you want it at night to be different, but if all your ceiling lights are bright blue, basically, then it looks all messed up.

00:19:37 - Mike Mills
Mean. I think that's a great tip just for somebody walking in because again, like you talked about in the beginning, the goal is to get the listing right. You're trying to get the listing. So if you walk in the door and you can catch right away as an agent, oh, hey, when we start doing these pictures in here, we really need to make sure all the bulbs match. I mean, that's just like, again, I don't think that that's something. It's a very small thing. I would say a pretty cheap fix in most cases, $50 on light bulbs.

00:20:03 - Landon Day
Like in the large scheme of things, and you're selling a half million dollar house. Is this a lot?

00:20:06 - Mike Mills
It's a minor thing. Okay, so light bulbs. So what else you got?

00:20:10 - Landon Day
So some people hone in really hardcore on getting rid of family photos or that kind of thing.

00:20:18 - Mike Mills
And that's never pretty general idea. Like you don't want your pictures up or whatever.

00:20:21 - Landon Day
Yeah, but it's one thing if I'm going into great grandma's house and she's got 8005 x sevens across the piano, that's a different situation. But something that's nice and formal. I'm not going to be the guy like, yes, you've got to get rid of that. Or, I don't want your house to be completely unpersonalized when I go into the house. But less is typically more. Right. So in general, with photos or art or stuff under kitchen counters or furniture that's in the way, like throw it in the garage for a photo or two. One time I went to a house and they were not ready for me, which isn't uncommon, unfortunately. But they were not ready for me. I said, hey, don't worry. I go, I'm going to start in the garage and then I'm going to go to the closets and her face got like ghost white. She goes, you can't do that. I know better. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Her face went, like white, like, oh, no.

00:21:11 - Mike Mills
Then I'm going to look under the beds and then I'm going to.

00:21:13 - Landon Day
Yeah, I'm going to take all these pictures first. You'll be ready for it. No, but less is definitely more. We want to show off if you've got features in your house, like a house has been updated with a nice backsplash or countertops or bathroom fixtures. Like, if I have 18 bottles of deodorant on the counter, I can't see that kind of stuff. It seems like common sense to me, but it's not. And what I've also learned is my definition of clean and ready.

00:21:40 - Mike Mills
Yeah.

00:21:41 - Landon Day
Isn't everybody's definition of clean and ready? No. Sometimes I have to give them a little more grace than I used to. When I started, I was like, I can't believe you're not ready. You knew I was coming. We've been talking about this for days. But then I'm like, they've probably been working really hard for two weeks to get to this point.

00:21:56 - Mike Mills
Yes.

00:21:57 - Landon Day
I'm like, you're not where I thought you would be, but the fact that you are, like, I don't know where you start.

00:22:03 - Mike Mills
Where were you to start?

00:22:04 - Landon Day
That's where I have to kind of tell myself a lot.

00:22:06 - Mike Mills
Well, and I think, again, that goes to a good realtor going in on these lists. Maybe it's not your listing presentation, but it's just when you've gotten listing, helping them get ready.

00:22:15 - Landon Day
Yeah.

00:22:15 - Mike Mills
Just telling them these things ahead of time. Like, hey, look, the photographer is going to come in. You're going to need to have these things removed. You're going to probably want to take this off and then not only telling them, but then maybe coming back a week later and being like, hey, just make sure we got to have this stuff ready.

00:22:30 - Landon Day
And I have a friend who's a sager. Her name is Allison Parsons and she's always been real great because she goes, hey, I'll be the bad guy. Like, get the listing and I will go in and tell them, hey, you've got to get rid of this or you've got to move this or I'm going to bring this in. And then the realtor is not the bad guy. I'm not the bad guy. And they're hurrying through photos. She's already gone there and helped do the prep work. And not that it saves space, but you're not the person bossing me around telling me that my house is ugly anymore. It's the stage. You're doing well.

00:22:57 - Mike Mills
And that's a thing that's going to be a big point of emphasis, I think, going forward for realtors getting listings and in this market that I think we're heading into for the next two years, where you have to have kind of like a team, right? You got to have a group of people that are there. You're the agent, obviously, and you're trying to sell the home, but you got to have good people around you. The stager, the photographer, the inspector, and all of these people that, hey, we're coming in as a group to help you get the most that you can get for your property and make sure that it's shown in the best light. But I need you to be flexible. But here's my team of people. It's not just me as a solo individual.

00:23:32 - Landon Day
Well, the team is right. Let somebody who that's what they do be the expert and the person doing it. Just because you can doesn't mean you should, like I say that all the time. So just because you can go through and take photos with your 0.5 on your iPhone 15 pro doesn't mean that you should go in and do that. And just because you have cap cut on your phone and can make a reel doesn't mean that you should be the person doing that. Yes. Just because you installed a garbage disposal doesn't mean you're the inspector. Like let somebody know who that's what they do. Be the expert of that.

00:24:05 - Mike Mills
It's not bad to have a little, and I tell agents all the time, listen, have a little bit of knowledge on what you're doing. You know what I mean? Like know a little bit about what's happening thing. Have a little bit of understanding of what you're trying to accomplish each step of the process. You need to know exactly what you're doing, how you're doing it. But have the expert come in and actually do it, because having a little bit of knowledge is good because then it makes you the go to for all things. Like everybody wants to come to you with the knowledge, but at the end of the day, you need to let the experts do their job. You just need to have a little taste of the information.

00:24:41 - Landon Day
Sure, there are things that I do well and there's things that other people on my team do well and I make more money if I'm doing what I do well. And empowering, other people to do what they do well. And I'm sure realtors are exactly the same way. Do what you do well. Go out there, build relationships and get the listings and then move on to the next person and let somebody come in and handle their part. Yeah.

00:25:02 - Mike Mills
So do you think that nowadays, especially with video being such a big player, the 3d imaging, the drones, what's the role of still photography? Is it fading a little bit or is it still as important? And where do you see that fitting in?

00:25:18 - Landon Day
Yeah, I think it's still just as important as it ever has been. Most of your places are going to show photos first and then video is going to be behind it. Or if you're scrolling through something, a photo is going to catch your attention on social media or on zillow or whatever, because it's going to be the first thing you see. Even a thumbnail of a video could be a professional photo. Put as the video when you hit play, it's a nice photo of something like the photos aren't going anywhere and still keying in that marketing side of things. That doesn't mean to say that things like a 3d tour and a 2d floor plan or video or a reel isn't going to be an awesome part of that addition and part of your toolbox, but ultimately a good photo is going to get your attention. On that note, so, like working with Zillow, Zillow reached out to me, I don't know, seven, eight years ago and said, hey, we want you to be on the top of all of our Zillow pages. So if you take photos of a house and let's say it's a $500,000 house and the next door neighbor's house is also for sale, you are going to be on top of it because you're a professional photographer and we want your photos to look good on our website. So when somebody comes to our website, we want to look professional, not look like they went out there with their cell phone and took the photos.

00:26:38 - Mike Mills
Right.

00:26:38 - Landon Day
That makes perfect sense. So same way with everything. Like your first visual is going to be this impact photo, probably of the front of the house or the kitchen or a pool shot or something like that. And those are not going anywhere. Our new backend system is actually really neat because it automatically makes a bunch of ads and flyers and reels and things for TikTok or social media or whatever, like what people were spending a lot of time to do in canva, for instance, and you put your text and say open house on this time or whatever. Our backend system will actually do all that automated now for you with the photos that are already in the system. So it takes all that time and guesswork out of. It's all editable still. Sure. But there's probably 100 options right from the get go of. Yes, I like that one. Save and post directly from your phone into all your social platforms without having to take it outside of our platform, into canva, into Photoshop, into wherever you were actually creating that. Even the reels will do like fancy slideshows with moving photos. So it's got that action. It will even do video clips in there as well now. So you're able to go through and create all that. In the video world specifically, we offer two different realms of it, I guess, kind of a fancy sounding word, but we do reels which are made to be 30 to 60 seconds quick. We're going to go through the house, give you a great overview of it. But the point is to get your attention and then go look at the listing.

00:28:03 - Mike Mills
Yes.

00:28:04 - Landon Day
Or then go look just a grabber.

00:28:05 - Mike Mills
It's not trying to explain everything.

00:28:07 - Landon Day
Yeah. I don't expect you to understand the exact floor plan looking.

00:28:10 - Mike Mills
If anything, you probably want to leave some questions, right? Absolutely.

00:28:12 - Landon Day
Yeah. You want to leave them to the listing with that video. And then we do cinema videos, which is a longer form version of that. It's done horizontal, it's on slower pace and real pretty, but it's a different beast and it's made for different listings for different folk, I guess. But both of those guys are not made to be a standalone. Sell the house off of a real. Right. It's made to direct you then to your agent or to MLS to go and ask for more information or go see the photos or see the description.

00:28:44 - Mike Mills
It's a touch point.

00:28:45 - Landon Day
I want to get it in front of as many people as we can. And those reels are quick moving when they come on social. So hold your attention for 30 seconds longer than that. Nobody's going to watch it. No. And then it's gone. Yeah.

00:28:57 - Mike Mills
Well, anybody scrolling through social media, what I found, because I do a fair amount with the videos and whatnot is that most of the people watching it are realtors, other realtors, mortgage people, the general consumer is there when they are ready to start looking at houses. Now don't get me wrong, there's plenty of big sector population that just likes to see houses. That's just what they like to do.

00:29:24 - Landon Day
We watch HGTV. Yes.

00:29:26 - Mike Mills
I mean it's very much part of it. But generally speaking, if they're on there on the platform looking at properties and they're probably considering it or thinking about something along those lines. And so having those short form content in order to drive them to the site, to the listing site, is key, because if you don't have that out there, you got to put what they call the chum in the water to make sure that you can get people to pick up on that and go to your site.

00:29:49 - Landon Day
Sure. You've always got to be sitting there floating around and always looking relevant or whatever. And I can't put the same photo of the front of the house up there every time without anything mixing up. So that's kind of why one of these, with all of our marketing stuff now is you could put up 100 different thing. So even if it sells, then you can say just sold, or you can say, hey, my portfolio is this. So you could keep using the same listing photos if you've got one listing every six months or something while it's slow, but you've got to look like you're relevant. And if you don't show that you're doing anything, then nobody's going to remember your name when it comes time to do that.

00:30:21 - Mike Mills
Well, and I think it's such an important thing with agents in particular, is that when realtors think of social media, good or bad, there's a lot of coaches out there that like, oh, you got to be on social media. You got to make videos, you got to brand yourself.

00:30:37 - Landon Day
Okay, fine.

00:30:38 - Mike Mills
I mean, yes, all that is true. But to me, it's way more about understanding how it all works. Right. You have to understand what the function of the reel is, how to put it together, what the idea behind what you're trying to do is and not just why. Got to do it. I got to do it. Well, that's great. Do it. But you need to understand why you're doing it and what the purpose of it is because that's what makes you a professional. Because then if you can explain that to a client and say, hey, look, I'm going to make a reel for you, and we're going to do it in this manner because we're trying to drive people to the site so they can get a taste of what they're looking. And when they understand that and they can digest that better and then regurgitate it to their clients, it makes such a world of difference. Again, being the expert on what you're.

00:31:18 - Landon Day
Doing, you said do it. Right. And that's exactly key. Right. We have a daydream photography business page. Nobody in the world sees it. Like, it's amazing. You look at your stats, it's like four people reacted to this. I put up a post this morning asking where I could find dry ice, and there's a slew of comments, but I don't get any of that traction on my business page. But it's like knowing how to do it and where to put your information in front of somebody is key. And just because I put it there, it could waste so much time that nobody in the world is even going to see or recognize or react to if you don't do it right.

00:31:49 - Mike Mills
Well, and everything's changing constantly. And that's the thing, too, is back in old days, when the Internet first came around, it was everybody had to have a website. You have to have a website. If you don't have a website, nobody can find you. And they're not going to be able to see what you do and all that. And the website these days, it's not that they're not important. You do need a website because people have to go find out more information. It's kind of like your yellow page listing for us really old people. But if you're not presenting something on a platform, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, whatever, then you may as well not exist to some extent. You're just not there. And it's not because you're trying to be an influencer. It's not because I don't want to say you don't exist, but it's kind of like that. You know what I mean?

00:32:35 - Landon Day
If you're not, all of those tools are pointing ultimately back to your website, hopefully. So you're getting hits on your website, but just like realtors, and I'm a photographer. Like, if you put a post on Mansfield now, or Mansfield talk or whatever the name of it is, hey, who's a photographer that could do this? There's 800 people get tagged in it. Yes. You ask for who? Do you know who could sell my house in Midlothian? There's 1000 realtors that instantly get tagged on that. Like, okay, so that doesn't help me at all in a seed that big. So I have to sit there and figure out how to capitalize on that. Hey, thanks for the plug, for sure. But at the same time.

00:33:12 - Mike Mills
It'S not going to lead. Yeah, there's a billion people out there, but you have to be aware of what's happening, what the trends are. And I don't mean trends as like, you have to do this special song, special dance, it's just, you just need to know what's getting attention and why it's getting attention. So that way you can try to, to your best, the best of your knowledge, duplicate that so you can take advantage of what's occurring currently. Well, it's like for you, obviously, style and trends and all that kind of stuff is a big player in your world doing photography and doing the drone and the 3d mapping. What are you seeing right now as far as big trends in photography itself that, especially for listing properties or even really, if you want to talk a little bit about branding for realtors, where are you seeing kind of some of the trends that are getting more and.

00:34:01 - Landon Day
More attention these days. So on the branding side of it first right now, so we do a ton of headshots. People don't really realize how many headshots we do, but we did 15 yesterday. We do a ton of headshots. And that's great. If you need a static photo for your LinkedIn or your social or your business card or whatever, you definitely need one, right? Yeah. But then we offer branding sessions that are, hey, this is going to be more like, more casual, like who you are more casual. Maybe it's an hour long. Maybe we do some with your car or a car guy. Maybe we do some in a model home. Maybe we would do some. And you specialize in real estate in Southlake. Let's go to South Lake town square or something and take a bunch of photos there. But then you have ten or 15 photos when we're done. They kind of drip through the year as we go. We even tell people all the time, like, hey, instead of doing multiple sessions, what if you bring three changes of clothes and we bring a. If it's a girl, you bring a sundress and we pretend it's spring and one, you bring a sweater and a scarf and we pretend it's falling one. We all at one time the magic of photography and then drip these in as you feel like you want to. We don't have to come in and do this all the time, but having stuff to where you can stay in front of people just as much as you can stay in front of people is going to be the key there, right. And professionally at the same time, do it. This isn't selfies in your mirror like high school or. You have to look a little bit different than that.

00:35:25 - Mike Mills
Yeah, well, you're trying to present yourself out to the masses and you want to present yourself in that way. Or are you seeing any specific trends when it comes to branding, that is gearing towards, for example, used to back in the old days, like the Olin Mills days. Long lost cousin of mine. Yeah, you sit in the studio and you have your tie and your wife behind you, and we're not really even that happy, but we're here taking our picture, and now it's more we want to see you in your t shirt and jeans walking down the street. You know what I mean? The times have changed. So what are you seeing? Kind of moving in that direction.

00:36:08 - Landon Day
So there's a line that is kind of an interesting line in my mind where there's a line of, I want to be professional and I want to be personable and approachable and how that is with everybody. Right. A game that I always play in my head, and this is probably not where you were going at all, but if somebody pulls up in their super fancy car, wearing their super fancy watch, wearing a suit, do I look at that guy and immediately think, oh, he's successful, he's really good at what he does? Or do I think, oh, he's showboating and wants me to think that? Or do I think that he's completely broke because he spent all his money on this stuff?

00:36:43 - Mike Mills
And it could be one of many things. These are the things that are always.

00:36:46 - Landon Day
Just because I portray myself sometimes as, oh, I'm a watch guy, and I like to wear a nice watch, but I'm also a guy who's going to be in a t shirt and boots. Okay, so how do we get your personality through in those photos, I think is super important. And I guess it depends on what market you're going for and what you're out there after. But just getting your personality and trying to tell who you are to the people, that doesn't mean that just because you're in a suit and we do them in a studio doesn't mean that.

00:37:14 - Mike Mills
You are the suit guy.

00:37:16 - Landon Day
Don't appear professional or aren't approachable because you're that guy. Right. I think the headshot you pulled for me is in a suit jacket. Like, I never, ever wear one. Like, this is dressy for me.

00:37:27 - Mike Mills
Well, you didn't give me a picture, by the way.

00:37:30 - Landon Day
This is a crazy time of year.

00:37:32 - Mike Mills
For, I know the photographer, so I.

00:37:35 - Landon Day
Took time off right before Christmas. Yeah.

00:37:37 - Mike Mills
So pull the curtain back a little bit. Anytime I do these, I always send out a little thing and have you fill out your bio or whatever. I mean, you just put in there whatever you want. But one of the things I was like, I need a picture because I got to do some promo stuff on my side of things. People send stuff all the time. And I'm like, of course the photographer is the one guy that doesn't give me the picture. So I got to go through your website.

00:37:57 - Landon Day
My family is the one that didn't get Christmas photos taken this year.

00:38:00 - Mike Mills
That's how it works, man.

00:38:01 - Landon Day
Always. That's how it works.

00:38:04 - Mike Mills
So what about on the listing side of things on properties? Are you seeing more? I know there was a period of time, and it may have been recent or not, where it seemed like people were kind of going overboard on the touching up of the photographs just too much. It's like you show up to the house like, this isn't anything, what the picture looked like. You know what I mean? Are you seeing that kind of, that kind of fade away a little bit or what are you experiencing there?

00:38:29 - Landon Day
No, it's still going strong.

00:38:36 - Mike Mills
Are you think that that's good?

00:38:37 - Landon Day
I don't think it's bad. Let's take that away. My job, I always kind of laugh, is to get somebody in the door.

00:38:42 - Mike Mills
Sure, that's a good point.

00:38:44 - Landon Day
And then once they're there, they're going to make up their own mind. But if they see a photo online and it doesn't interest them at all, they're never going to come to the house in the first place. It may waste somebody's time. Yeah, we may totally waste somebody's time.

00:38:55 - Mike Mills
But that's the idea.

00:38:56 - Landon Day
Right, but I got you there.

00:38:58 - Mike Mills
Does the mcdonald's cheeseburger look like it does on the commercial? Oh, no, it doesn't. Okay, that's a good point.

00:39:04 - Landon Day
But I will say, especially in the spring and summer, we do a lot of grass swaps. Let's say it's a new construction house and it's got fresh sod and there's lines everywhere we could go through and make your front yard look like a golf course.

00:39:14 - Mike Mills
Right.

00:39:15 - Landon Day
And that is, in my opinion, applicable in the spring and summer when there is green grass. I don't think it's as applicable right now when all the grass is dead. So if I go and cover up all your leaves with green grass, somebody's going to show up? Like, that's not right at all. There's something unbelievable side of it, and we still do it when people ask us to do it. But it's not one of those things that gets done all the time this time of year, but it's something that we do. It's like taking leaves out of a pool. Okay, those leaves are in the pool. But there is also a time of the year where there are not be leaves in the pool. So it's not necessarily unbelievable to take the leaves.

00:39:49 - Mike Mills
Well, when you're selling a house, you're selling an idea, right? You're selling a lifestyle, you're selling. Here's who you could be if you had this property. And so I don't think it's that far fetched to sell. Here's what the yard could look, what your backyard could look like.

00:40:03 - Landon Day
The other day, Catherine shot a property in, maybe it was in Halton city, if I remember right. And it was ugly. Like it just was. And they had us do virtual staging on it. So I'm in here working like, well, how could I make this?

00:40:16 - Mike Mills
Put lipstick on the pig?

00:40:17 - Landon Day
How could I do this? And it's got, you know, the wood paneling looks like cork, and there's an old rock fireplace over here. Inside. It looked so good. When I was done with it felt pretty bad. And I was like, somebody's going to walk in this house. But then, at the same time, well, if that's somebody's style with that kind of a furniture, and it's a vibe that, okay, we could pull this off. If you can't visualize it, that's the hardest thing. Sometimes when we do virtual staging isn't necessarily to fill a house and make it pretty. It's to show somebody who can't visualize how this open concept works. And you've got your kitchen, your dining room, your living room, it's all connected, but somebody walks in, like, I don't know where to put my dining room table in this house. And you just have to show them sometimes.

00:40:56 - Mike Mills
Yeah, well, look, unless it's something that people actually do, how to set something up and make it look in the best light possible isn't something that you're just kind of innately born with. I mean, some people are. I mean, very much so, but most people aren't. They need a little guidance.

00:41:11 - Landon Day
So I'll say one of my absolute pet peeves in the editing photography world, and realtors are the ones asking for it, are when it's a photo taken at noon, 02:00 in the afternoon, full sun, and there are shadows everywhere from the house. And then they put in, like, this super sunset in the background, and I'm.

00:41:30 - Mike Mills
Like, you got shadows everywhere.

00:41:33 - Landon Day
I know you're trying to catch somebody's attention, but none of this is working for me. It's obviously middle of the afternoon, but yet the sunset is back here and I can see it in your photo. That's probably the biggest pet peeve in this world to me. Is that so?

00:41:47 - Mike Mills
Generally speaking, you think you all take most of your pictures either earlier in the day or later in the day. Is that how you kind of do it?

00:41:53 - Landon Day
No, we take them pretty much all the time. My team's got hours kind of staggered strategically, so where there's availability. I would say most of our time is in the morning. Between nine and one is pretty ideal. And then we will come back to do twilight photos in the evening if that's indeed what they want. If it's a cloudy day, overcast day, sure we can cheat and make it look twilight and it's great, but I'm not working around all this sunshine hard light situation going on. We could put a sunset in and it looks amazing, but you can't do that. And we don't offer that as a feature or as a sell because I can't predict on Tuesday next week if it's going to be sunny or not or like it's just not something we can plan around. But we come back, obviously, and do twilight in the summer when the kids aren't in school. I do sunrise photos. Same idea. Okay. If somebody's the house is vacant or they don't care, then I'll go there at 530 in the morning and do sunrise photos. I'd rather do that than at night. So I could be home with the kids in the evening.

00:42:53 - Mike Mills
Right.

00:42:54 - Landon Day
Okay.

00:42:55 - Mike Mills
Switching a little bit back to agent branding. What are you thinking? Okay, so we're moving into 2024 and we kind of chatted a little bit about this before we started, but things are changing. Or things are probably going to change.

00:43:09 - Landon Day
Okay.

00:43:09 - Mike Mills
What it's going to look like, how it's going to play out, who knows, right? There's a lot of scenarios that can happen, but it's going to be very important to set yourself apart as a realtor because the pool of agents is shrinking, because the market has shrunk the competition, because there's fewer homes that are listed. I mean, there's fewer homes available across the board no matter what. And I don't see a place where that's going to change anytime soon. Honestly, everybody that's been talking years about this big market crash that's coming, it's not because we don't have enough properties or we don't have enough homes for sale in order for that to really take place. So that just means the competition for listing is going to be higher the competition for buyers is going to be higher. All of these things are going to mean that you really kind of have to up your game to another level. Going into 2024, what would you tell an agent that when it comes to them presenting themselves and branding themselves to their customers, what are the things that they need to focus on?

00:44:01 - Landon Day
So something I was thinking of earlier. I am speaking as, like, from a photographer side of things. I hate when somebody, I go to some other photographers website or I see somebody sharing something and they say things like, I specialize in maternity, newborn kids, family, corporate headshots, weddings, events. You specialize bar mitzvahs, everything. I'm like, it's not a bad thing to say. You're a generalist at that point, but you're not a specialist. No, but I do think there's something to be said for being a specialist in things. So I think that if somebody was to narrow in on, hey, I want to work on this town or south metroplex, or I want to work in Allen or wherever, hone in on a market and super concentrate on an area that's a growing area or a changing area or morphing and not try to cast a net that's as big as DFW.

00:44:54 - Mike Mills
Right.

00:44:55 - Landon Day
I think that if you were to concentrate your dollars and time into smaller pools, I think you're going to have a bigger return item moving forward. Right. In my two cent. I think that if you do that well and present yourself as I'm the expert, here's things that we could do. Here's how we could show off a town, and then from a photo side of things, like even have us go out and we want to hit up strawberry fields, right. And okay, Landon, go take pictures of the entrance. Go take pictures of a couple of houses. Do a drone foot of the neighborhood. So I could go around strawberry Fields and say, here's what I'm going to do to market and show that I'm the expert in strawberry fields. Or, hey, I love the revitalization of downtown Mansfield, and I want to show off Mehans and I want to show off this project over here, and I want to show off how the trails connect to the parks and be able to tell yourself or tell your buyers or tell your sellers, I guess, that I know this area in and out. I know what this plan is for this empty lot over here. I've talked to city council. I've gone to meetings, and hone in your time on that versus throwing up Facebook ads, cover 100 miles radius. I don't want to share or sell a house in Hillsborough. I don't want to drive down there every day. I want to be here working with people that I like that I know I could hone in on those relationships and really be the expert in an area.

00:46:19 - Mike Mills
Yeah, well, I mean, that's something that when you talk about social media marketing or even when I was looking at started doing this podcast, I do a lot of research on how should I aim at it and everything that I came across. Be as niche as you can, because the more niche you are, the more likelihood for success you're going to have, especially in the beginning. Right? Start off. If you're very niche, you have a greater chance for opportunity because there's always going to be people looking for that thing. It may not be millions of people, but it's going to be a good amount of people when they're going to search for that. And then you can always expand from there if you want to. But if you start niche and you keep it really tight to that area, then you can really focus all your efforts and get the most bang for your buck.

00:47:01 - Landon Day
Sure. Just because you sell a house here doesn't mean that person is not moving to Frisco. Right. And you're not going to build a relationship there. So definitely, like, all of my business is going by word of mouth, right? Like it's, oh, Landon, did this call, you know, whatever. So as it's grown, that's how it goes. So you sell a house here, they move over there, and two years later they say you didn't move again. You've already got that relationship. And assuming you keep it and you did a good job like you're supposed to, then relationships are worth your weight and gold. So it's all about starting. Like you said in a specific thing. I thought a good podcast. I did watches and whiskey day one, and then bourbon and Bible. You talk about Bible verses, drink.

00:47:41 - Mike Mills
Are you allowed to do those two things together? I mean, Southern Baptists have a hard time with that.

00:47:45 - Landon Day
I'm all for it. Okay.

00:47:48 - Mike Mills
Can easily put the two together.

00:47:49 - Landon Day
Yeah. Alliterations. That's how catchy sound.

00:47:52 - Mike Mills
Absolutely. So when we talk about social media stuff now, granted, we'll say, hey, look, get the professional photography, get the professional footage, use the tools that they have available to them to post this stuff. But when you're just trying as a realtor, when you're trying to market yourself more frequently, maybe you don't have a current listing. Maybe you're going into a house and you're using someone else's listing to try to drum up business for yourself. Can you give some tips or tricks when it comes to filming with just your phone? If I'm walking into a new build and I'm asking the builder, hey, I want to showcase this house as part of a reel or something. What are some techniques that you would suggest that they do?

00:48:35 - Landon Day
Sure. So I actually kind of stabbed that a second ago, but we actually teach a class on reels. Perfect. And that specifically how to do it yourself because not every listing is going to be yours. You're not going to pay me to go film a house out here in m three ranch just so you can sit there and market it. Right? So we teach people how to use cap cut. I threw a jab at it earlier, but it's a really awesome.

00:48:55 - Mike Mills
Yeah, I use it all the time.

00:48:56 - Landon Day
Especially from your phone. And ease of use is amazing. So we will teach people how to do that sort of thing. And again, it's like honing in on, if I'm doing that honing in on features, I know a big open room of tall ceilings is going to be one thing, but then take that shot and then come in on, hey, here's what the backsplash looks like. Here's what the finish out looks like. Here's the way the handles on the hardware look like. It's going to be that stuff that's interesting to people. Here's your broad shot of the bathroom.

00:49:23 - Mike Mills
And then here's some details.

00:49:24 - Landon Day
Here's some details of how this is actually finished out. And here's how well the builder did on this stuff. Because I've become a house snob now because I'm in so many of them. Right. Like you walk into one, you can very quickly know, oh, they threw this one up in 90 days, or this one's really well done and you could tell the difference. And you can point that stuff out as the expert there and say, like, oh, look at how well this is done here. Look at how this seam is in the granite. Look at how the ceiling fan is not shaking. There's all kinds of things that you can hone in on. But again, the big thing is those need to be 30 to 60 seconds. Yes. And if you've ever watch a music video, people don't even watch MTV anymore. I guess you're watching it on YouTube or whatever. But all those clips between those songs are half second clips. It's cutting from scene to scene to scene super fast to hold your attention for a song. So if I do one shot and it's me walking into the front door, and it takes 30 seconds. I'm already out. Right. So you got to visualize, hey, how can I make this in one? Two second clips is all I want to see at a time. So those would be the tips I want to do. Obviously, rules are vertical things like a gimbal. DJI makes some really good ones that work great with the phone. They make a ton, a ton of difference on being stable. If you're going to do audio, use a good mic. They make great wireless mics that plug into your phones. Even if you're going to be the one talking over it or produce it all, shoot all the footage while you're there, and then come back and talk over what you've got it finished on the backside of things. It doesn't have to be done at the same time, but if you're going to do it, do it well. Don't go out there and halfway do it, because that's going to make me think you're going to halfway do anything at that point.

00:51:02 - Mike Mills
If you're going to do it, do it. That's a Mr. Beast. You know who Mr. Beast is, I'm assuming, right? You know, if anybody doesn't know, he's the biggest youtuber of all time by a significant margin. But one of the things that he talks about, and I want to balance this out, okay? Because I always tell agents when it comes to getting on social media, like, you need to do something. Don't focus on everything being perfect. If you've done literally nothing, then do something first, and then we'll work to getting good at it. But with that being said, one of his big, if you watch any interviews from him and what he talks about on putting together videos is like, he's quality over quantity 100% of the time, because it just makes such a big difference when those things pop. Now, again, do it first. You got to get out there first. But then part of the reason I tell agents that they just need to post, I mean, I'm trying to tell my wife, I'm like, look, just make a video and put it out there. Don't care about what it says. Who says, just make it now? After you do it a couple of weeks, you'll start to feel like, okay, I get this. I understand. Now you can start focusing on, okay, how do we make this a quality thing? You got to get in the habit first, and then once you get in the habit of it, then you got to go there.

00:52:07 - Landon Day
But that it is such a big.

00:52:08 - Mike Mills
Player on making those things really pop.

00:52:11 - Landon Day
Absolutely. And hitting on that first. It's not a huge monetized investment either. I mean, a really good gimbal is $100, $200 at the most. Mic is $40. This isn't a huge deal to be done well and a little bit of practice isn't practice on your own house. Go through and learn how to use it and then go do it. It's not a big investment to get started on, but quality over quantity, we harp on that all the time. And I tell my team that all the time. Some misnomerizations of realtors. MLS holds 40 photos here. It's different in different parts of the country, and because of that people want to have 40 photos. And that doesn't necessarily always mean that that's a good thing. If I show 40 photos of a meth trailer in the woods, does it help anything?

00:53:04 - Mike Mills
Right?

00:53:06 - Landon Day
10,000 square foot out there on some acreage? Well, sure, let's show this off. And you're going to have a ton of photos. But just because there's a ton of photos doesn't always make it better, right? Same way if somebody offers you in the portrait world or weding world, hey, I'm going to shoot your ten hour wedding and I'm going to give you 5000 photos. I don't care for 5000 photos. I suck. I want to see 200 amazing photos way before I want to see 5000 terrible photos or I want to see 30 great photos of my family as opposed to 200 trash photos. Just because somebody's going to give you more doesn't make it any of it better.

00:53:41 - Mike Mills
No, it doesn't make it. When you have a volume of it, then you got to sift through all the bs in order to get through the good stuff.

00:53:48 - Landon Day
100%. Then I get, oh, I want this one. On my Christmas card, I did all this and I wanted one good photo.

00:53:54 - Mike Mills
I remember my funny photography story. My wife and I, when our daughter was born, my aunt gave us a gift card to, was it glamour shots? Maybe it was glamour shots, but it wasn't like the old school where you're holding the boa thing.

00:54:13 - Landon Day
But.

00:54:16 - Mike Mills
It was for our first picture with the babies or whatever, right? And we went in and we did a whole session. I mean, we had different outfits. My wife, we were into it. And I want to say the gift card was like $200, okay. At the time. And we went through this whole session, did all this stuff. My daughter, actually, she was less than three months old, she had an accident, or as babies do, and she was breastfed, so it's explosive. I'm sure if you have kids, this is what happens. So I had to go to a store and buy another outfit because she just destroyed the room. It was a whole thing. So anyway, we go through the whole thing, the whole afternoon. We sit down, and we're new parents. We're excited. We're like, oh, this is going to be great. And they're showing us all the pictures, like, oh, my gosh, I love this one. I love this one, this one. And we get to the end of it, and they're like, okay, we're going to put these on the CD, go.

00:55:08 - Landon Day
Through the whole deal, and it was.

00:55:10 - Mike Mills
$3,500, and I was just like, we're young, new couple. We had this gift card.

00:55:18 - Landon Day
It's just like, oh, my God, cover it all. Yes.

00:55:20 - Mike Mills
But I mean, now, don't get me wrong, the pictures and we still have, because I think we ended up spending, like, $1,500 that day or whatever. But they were amazing. They were great. But the expense for us at that time was so shocking, but we still paid for it because the quality was so good for what they were taking at that point. And the photographer was great. I mean, it was a great experience up until the point we got the bill, but it was a fantastic experience, and we kept those pictures. But that's always resonated with me, because I was like, I did not want to walk in there and spend $1,500 on photography. I didn't want to do it. I had no intention of doing that. But I walked out of there doing that because it was so good, and I appreciated the quality so much. That's just what happened, you know what I mean? And I think that when it comes to making sure that these properties are so well presented to the public, I don't know that you can necessarily put a price tag on it to some extent, especially when you're out there marketing yourself as an agent to try to get to pick up these listings, and you're trying to get top dollar for your properties out there for your clients.

00:56:30 - Landon Day
I'm not naive to think that realtors don't have a lot of expenses. You'll hear people say, oh, they made 3% on this, and there's all this money.

00:56:40 - Mike Mills
Half that's out the window, at least.

00:56:42 - Landon Day
Yeah. So that's definitely a gameplay, but a couple of $100 for most things that we do make all the difference in the world and take all that stress off of them from their side for really a nominal amount at that point.

00:56:58 - Mike Mills
One other thing I wanted to ask you. We're getting close to our time here, so went by quickly. But I did mean to ask you this earlier. So when properties are being shown online, zillowsthehomes.com, redfins of the world, or even just your own listing sites, that first photo, right. Sometimes it's the front of the house, sometimes it's the living room. Do you feel like there is a general rule of thumb of, oh, you should always have the best feature of the house or it should be the front of the homer, what are your thoughts on what should be that? Because there's always.

00:57:31 - Landon Day
Right.

00:57:31 - Mike Mills
I mean, sure, there's the one.

00:57:32 - Landon Day
Right? Yeah. So same way like on our Seth makes a property website for every property that we do and you get to choose which photo goes up there. It's called your header photo. And I always say it's either going to be your front photo, it's going to be your pool if you've got an awesome backyard, or it's going to be your kitchen. One of those three.

00:57:48 - Mike Mills
One of those three.

00:57:49 - Landon Day
Okay. Those three are going to be the three photos that sell the house. And in my opinion, the rest of it is not filler that are important, but photos are going to be the three.

00:57:58 - Mike Mills
But those are the most important. And is that where you guys really focus a lot of your time when you're going into the properties to try to get the best angle and best shot from those walking in as the photographer, are you like, okay, we're going to really focus on the front. We're really going to focus on the kitchen and maybe the backyard if it's got one. That's nice.

00:58:14 - Landon Day
Yeah, I would say the outside stuff is pretty normal. There's not a whole lot of thought necessarily that goes into a whole lot of them. So it's quick and easy. But those floor plans that have the open kitchens or big islands, those take a whole lot more thought and time and consideration as we're going through and framing out those shots. But those three photos are three secondary bedrooms are what they are. Maybe a master bathroom, something like that. But you're not going to make those your header photos. But some six figure kitchen, that's going to get my attention. Some crazy pool is going to get my attention. Yeah.

00:58:49 - Mike Mills
The stuff that really pops inside the house is what's going to make.

00:58:51 - Landon Day
And as much as I dog on and hate twilight when it calls for it, a good twilight is amazing. If it's a house that has zero lighting and all the blinds are closed and it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at all if we do twilight on it, if it's a house that needs it, by all means. But just because you get a listing doesn't mean you have to do Twilight on that house.

00:59:12 - Mike Mills
Well, I really appreciate you coming in. We're almost at an hour here and I want to be respectful. I know you got a big party today, so I want to let you get out of here. But thank you so much for spending some time with us. Is there anything before we go that you would like to impart to the agents out there to say whether it be listings or whether it be branding themselves? What's your parting advice for what they need to do to get ready so they can have a good 2024?

00:59:35 - Landon Day
Yeah, so we said it earlier. I just want to hit on it again. We're a team. Your success is my success. I don't get to work if you don't get the job. So everything I do, I want to help you do it and however that is supporting you or how we can work together. I feed my kids the same way you feed your kids. I sell on a house. Ultimately, if you need something from us, from our side of things, let us know. We're going to work together to make it happen.

01:00:01 - Mike Mills
Yeah, well, Landon's one of the best at what he does, and I really appreciate had, you know, even more things we could have gone into. I just want to be tight on this and maybe we'll have him back in sometime.

01:00:12 - Landon Day
There's parts here down the.

01:00:14 - Mike Mills
Yeah, yeah, coming down the. So, um, I really, really appreciate your time. I appreciate everybody that stuck around and listened to the have. I'll have another market update that will come out on Monday. Rates are getting better, so that's good for the market right now. But I do have a little bit of temper enthusiasm on that because rates may be getting better, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the whole situation is getting better. What happens more often than not is when rates improve. Everything else is not improving. So we'll talk about that a little bit on Tuesday next week when I do my market update, and next week.

01:00:46 - Landon Day
I will have my wonderful daughter back.

01:00:48 - Mike Mills
In the studio with me where we'll be going into part two of our journey through youth finance and getting her set up for when she leaves the nest, which she cannot wait to do. So we'll be talking about budgeting and opening checking and savings account, what her experience was like with that, and then her favorite topic of trying to find a job so she's not real fired up about either. But anyway, so tune in for that next week. Otherwise, thank you very much to everybody. Hope you all have a great weekend, and we will see you next time.

01:01:16 - Landon Day
Bye, guys.