Inside the Office
Why we photograph every house twice
Once at high tide, once at low. It costs us a second day and it has closed more sales than any other thing we do.
Harriet Vance
4 min read
We photograph every listing twice — once near high water and once near low. It costs us a second shoot day, a second travel day, and the patience of photographers who would rather be doing anything else. It has also closed more sales than any other single thing we do.
The reason is simple. A coastal house is two different properties over a six-hour cycle. At high water the estuary houses look like they are floating. At low water there is a hundred metres of shining mudflat and wading birds, which some buyers love and some buyers absolutely need to know about in advance.
Showing only one state is not dishonest exactly, but it produces a specific kind of failure — the buyer who travels four hours, arrives at the wrong tide, and feels misled. We have watched that happen to other agents. It ends the sale on the driveway.
Since we started doing this in 2019, enquiries that convert to a viewing are up about a third, and the proportion of viewings that end in a second viewing has gone from roughly one in five to one in three.
It is not a clever idea. It is just an obvious one that takes an extra day.
Harriet Vance
Founding Partner
Harriet opened the Harbour Point office in 2009 with one listing and a borrowed desk. She has since handled more waterfront transactions on this coast than anyone else working here, and still writes every set of particulars herself. Ask her about tide easements before you ask her about kitchens.
