Preparing a home for photography is one of the highest-ROI steps a home seller can take. In this episode of How to Sell Your Atlanta Home with Sage and Grace, Judy Jernigan sits down with Casey McClintic, founder of Urban Marketing Edge, to talk about the power of clean, thoughtful, strategic visual marketing.
Whether your listing day is tomorrow or six months out, this conversation gives you practical steps to help your home photograph beautifully, connect emotionally with homebuyers, and stand out online.
High-quality photos and video increase engagement, attract more clicks, and lead to stronger offers. Homebuyers scroll in 3 to 10 seconds, so your visuals either stop the scroll or send them on to another property.
Curb appeal sets the emotional tone
Kitchen: clear counters, clean surfaces, hide small appliances
Living room: open pathways, simplify the décor
Primary suite: crisp linens, minimal items, warm lighting
These areas photograph first and are the most viewed sections of online listings.
Casey breaks down how to use natural light to your advantage and shares the four-item rule: before the photographer arrives, remove or adjust four distracting objects from each room for a cleaner, more intentional look.
Over-staging
Too many personal items
Skipping prep assuming the camera will “fix it”
Rushing the process
Even the best camera can’t overcome a cluttered space, and unprofessional photos can reduce the number of offers, increase days on market, and even affect future property value.
Video helps buyers understand flow, scale, and how rooms connect. Thoughtful storytelling allows buyers to imagine living in the space, which can lead to quicker, stronger offers.
Casey shares easy, last-minute prep tips you can implement immediately, including lighting adjustments, surface clearing, and simple updates that help your photos look polished.
There’s also a memorable story involving a “mural” that reminds home sellers how easily the little things can catch a buyer’s eye.
The showing starts online. In a fast-moving Atlanta market where homebuyers browse listings in seconds, your photos and video determine whether they schedule a showing or keep scrolling. This episode offers a practical checklist for making sure your home stands out for the right reasons.
Here are several resources from Sage & Grace that pair well with this episode:
Urban Marketing Edge
Website: https://urbanmarketingedge.com
Instagram: @caseymclintic
Sell your Atlanta home faster, for top dollar, and with clarity and strategy guiding every step.
To talk through your timeline, prep, or goals:
Schedule a consultation
https://calendly.com/judyjernigan
Website
https://sageandgracere.com
Home Valuation Tool
https://sageandgracere.com/seller-valuation
Social Media
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/judyjerniganrealestate
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Transcript
[Speaker 2] You may be photo ready, but your home is not. You're ready to move, but your home needs some help before doing photos and videos. How much time should you spend? What's the ROI? Is it worth it to get your home photo ready? Today's episode of How to Sell Your Atlanta Home with Sage and Grace, smart homeowner strategies, successful real estate sales. We have special guest Casey McClintock, owner of Urban Marketing Edge. He's elevating real estate and marketing excellence. We'll be diving into the critical role that professional photos and videos play in maximizing your home's exposure and value. Selling a home isn't just about putting up a for sale sign. It's about strategy, marketing and negotiation. But how do you know if you're making the right moves? I'm Judy Jernigan, recognized among the top 5% by the Atlanta Realtors and your host of How to Sell Your Atlanta Home with Sage and Grace, smart homeowner strategies, successful real estate sales. With a background in broadcasting, negotiation and education, I bring a unique perspective to home sales, helping homeowners sell faster for top dollar and with less hassle, while understanding not just the financial side, but also the logistical and emotional considerations of a move. This show helps you plan ahead, navigate the market and work more effectively with a realtor like me. You'll get expert insights from my guests, plus real, actionable strategies to sell with confidence. Now here's the show moving you forward with Sage Advice and Grace. Casey McClintock is the owner and founder of Urban Marketing Edge. We're so excited to have him join us today. Casey, why are professional photos and videos so important when selling a home? [Speaker 1] First impressions matter. So just like anything else, when you are looking for a home, if it snags your attention in the first, you know, three to maybe 10 seconds, then you're interested and you're drawing that person in. But just like everything else in our digital world, if we don't have grabbed someone in that three seconds, they're scrolling past and looking at the next one. [Speaker 2] For sure. 100% of people are home buyers, are shopping online. And they're, so they're looking at those photos. Online is the main thing they're looking at. They're not reading a lot of the fine print. I can write the best description about the lifestyle you're going to have living in this home. But if the pictures don't put the best foot forward for a property, it's that it's not going to do any good. [Speaker 1] It's all about opportunities. It's, if you do your, do the work in the right places, it opens up more opportunities to show that you are doing the work in more places and it gives more opportunities. And it's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. You're drawing someone in. [Speaker 2] So you have years of experience taking real estate photos and videos. So what are the right places? Where should people be spending their time? [Speaker 1] People should be spending their time in the kitchen and the living room and the master bedroom. We've kind of figured out where people like to spend the majority of their time. Of course, curb repeal matters. So that first photo is going to be the game changer. And that needs to draw someone in, especially if they're coming to see the home, you know, that work isn't lost. You're not just doing that work for the photos, you're doing it for the showings as well. But this really boils down to return on investment. And if you are putting the time into making your home presentable and a good buyer is interested in that and you're showing that the home is well maintained and, you know, it just makes the whole experience so much better. You've seen the same thing with marketing. If you do the marketing correctly, then your clients are way more comfortable with you and it's a smoother transaction all throughout. [Speaker 2] Yes. So curb repeal is definitely something the ROI is there. It's going to help you, as you said, with real life showings where people come by, but it's also going to help with those photos. So definitely worth time, money, energy spending outside. And then you said kitchens and the primary bedroom, living room, living room. [Speaker 1] So when I say spending time on those areas, I mean, we want to look at lighting. Lighting is very important to show that the home is fun and welcoming. We want to declutter. A lot of people kind of make the mistake of having all of my things out in the living room or all of my things out in the in the kitchen. And if your real estate agent says, no, that's fine. We'll just shoot around it. That's not fine. You have to do those things and your real estate photographer and kind of an industry standard, just so you know, we do move things around a little bit. I generally stick to a four item rule unless it is in the living room. It's like a seven item rule. But if it's more than that, it's kind of a lost cause because we're in a hurry. We're trying to get it done and shot. And of course, we want the home to be presented, but we're also not professional cleaners. So there's a fine line between that and the homeowner. If they do the preparation before the photographer gets there, turning on lights, making sure all the light bulbs are on, making sure that everything is picked up and tidy, then it just makes for an amazing experience all throughout. [Speaker 2] Yes, those are good tips for homeowners to do ahead of time. Lights, open the curtains, open the blinds. So mistakes, you mentioned mistakes of just having too many things out. Like some people are thinking, oh, I'm staging. I'm going to set the table with a zillion pieces of dishes and tablecloths and layer upon layer. And that may not be the best idea for photos. What other mistakes do you see people make? [Speaker 1] I see some people, they kind of make the mistake of this is more like the bathroom's area, too. We have to photograph. I understand that we're living in the home still most of the time. We have to photograph the bathrooms and things. And that was one of the areas where I don't like to move things around too much. So, yes, we're going to invade your privacy a little bit. And you have to think cognizantly of people that are looking at your home are also going to invade your privacy a little bit in terms of They want to see how big the closet is. Yeah, they want to see how big the closet is. [Speaker 2] So they're going to open the closet door. And yeah, in the bathroom, be it getting ready for your photographer or getting ready for showings, you need to put all the stuff away. Put everything in bins, boxes underneath the sink. We don't need anything really on the countertops to speak of. So do you think that high quality photos impact the perceived value of a home? [Speaker 1] Absolutely. There is a price point, I think, where and in the Atlanta market, we are past that price point now where cell phone photos just will not do. At once upon a time, you know, five, six years ago, when we were looking at the $100,000 to $200,000 home price range, then yeah, maybe cell phone pictures were okay. But in this market, we are not in that world anymore. There's no $200,000 homes available. We're looking at $500,000, $700,000. And it really comes down to the real estate agent and the photographer, you working in synchronous to market this property. And if you have an all star play, or all star team working with you, then the home is going to get sold so much faster. And that includes a good stager, if it is the price point is appropriate, a good photographer for the media kit, a really great, fantastic real estate agent to make sure it gets out and syndicated to everywhere. It all it is a team effort, everyone needs to play their part in the seller themselves, they have to participate a little bit, especially if it is a well lived in home that we have to make adjustments to suit the modern day buyer. [Speaker 2] Right. I saw a listing recently, originally listed at 1.3 million with unprofessional photos. And I was, it makes me angry. How could that home seller think that that was a good idea to not have well framed, well lit professional photos showing off their really big, really pretty property. And it hasn't sold yet. And they keep lowering the price and lowering the price. I'm like, eek, you just need better photos. [Speaker 1] It really comes down to an investment. So you think a good photographer, they're going to have that upfront cost. But also think about resale down the road in three to five, maybe seven years, you want to sell your home. If they look at the comparables of years past, they're not going to see the photos that you took, they're only going to see the price point that it brought, and how many days on the market it was. And you're going to think, this home was rough at one point. And we don't want that to show in the history. [Speaker 2] And it may not even be true. It was just bad pictures. We've talked a lot about photos. What about videos? Are videos important for selling homes these days? [Speaker 1] It is, especially if the real estate agent knows how to use video correctly in their marketing. So when you think of it this way, the photos show the home in its entirety, and it speaks 1000 words for each photo. It gives people like the opportunity to kind of imagine themselves inside the home with a video, a well shot video. And I would say that there's two versions of this, there is the sensational social media video, where it's very snappy and upbeat. And that's kind of gets in front of the audience and in front of the masses. And then there's the slower, more lifestyle-esque and showing the flow of the home. So it kind of gives people the opportunity to go, this is where everything is. So just like the 3D tours, they give you a really good sense of where everything is. But you have to remember a video is a little bit more easily accessible by majority of people versus those 3D tours require a little bit more... [Speaker 2] A 3D tour, you're talking a brand name is Matterport, that sort of thing. They'll do like a dollhouse view where you can zoom in then. And those are, they take more work, you have to proactively be clicking and looking around. And they're great fun. And it could be, could make sense to be part of a marketing strategy. But yes, to your point, people can just lean back, watch the video, get a feel for the flow, what is where, because the still photos don't really show you how the rooms are connected like a video can. [Speaker 1] Right. And also gives the real estate agent an opportunity to kind of sell the home a little bit in terms of talking about key features. [Speaker 2] Let's talk about storytelling. [Speaker 1] Storytelling is very important because a home to some people is just an investment. To most, there's their life and there's where they're going to create their stories. And you have to tell the story of the home for people to emotionally connect with that home. I also want to talk about amenities and the lifestyle outside of the home. In your photo package, in your videos, it shouldn't just stop at the property line. It should continue to the community amenities. We should talk about the overview, a drone photo of the overall scope of the community, where it's close to, things like that. [Speaker 2] Right. Where it's proximity to other things, not just that the neighborhood has to offer, but even the town and the city surrounding it, that's nearby. Very important part of the selling the lifestyle that will come with living in that home. [Speaker 1] Very much. [Speaker 2] Any other stories or anecdotes as you've had many, many years helping people get their homes ready for photos and videos? [Speaker 1] Oh, I have so many stories. So some of them good, some of them bad. So when you are a seller and you're thinking, I'm going to sell my home, it is very important that you put yourself in the viewer of a brand new person walking in, someone that doesn't know you. They don't really want to know you. They want to look at the home. And that's what you're trying to present. There was one time when I was in Southwest Florida doing photography and it was a 55 and older community. And when I walked in the home, it was beautiful. It was immaculate. This woman had taken care of this home very well. And the reason that she was selling it was her husband had passed away recently and she was a little upset about it, but she was just ready to move on and move closer to her kids and her grandkids. You know, it's very common in that area. The photo shoot went extremely well. And so we got to the master bedroom and the master bedroom, it had from floor to ceiling, a mural of her and her late husband in their twenties exploring the jungles of Africa or some sort. And they were not well clothed and there was no way to shoot this master bedroom without getting this mural because it was behind the bed. And I called the real estate agent and I was like, sir, have you seen the master bedroom? And he was like, no, what's going on? I sent him a photo and he was like, I'm scheduling a painter. And she was very distraught that we, they wanted, we landed on putting coating, like some, some Wayne's coating and like, I don't know if it's called Wayne's coating, but it was. [Speaker 2] Like a bead board to cover it, but it's still there behind the bead board, the unclothed people in the jungle. [Speaker 1] Yep. So whoever bought this property, and when you're going to remodel and you're done with this accent wall, I'm so sorry. You're in for a treat. [Speaker 2] Oh, wow. I love that. We can't make this stuff up. So we talked about, let's do some real quick final tips, a home seller tomorrow, their photographer is coming there. What all should they be doing tonight to get ready for pictures and videos? We're going to open up all the blinds. We're all the lights are light and bright and airy. They're going to pre pack all their collections, get the countertops cleaned off. What am I forgetting? [Speaker 1] Make the bed, make sure your children's rooms are picked up. That's teenage boys. I used to be one. Listen, pick up your clothes. Also weapons and or like knife collections. If you have a lot of specific collectors, if you're a collector of a certain item, we love your collection and we would love to see it, but there is a time and place. [Speaker 2] You may not want valuables in your photos and videos, even really expensive piece of wall art, which may look stunning and look really nice and enhance the home. If it's something really valuable, you may not want that in the photos and videos. You may go ahead and want to take that down and put up something else. All right. Thank you. Where can people find you? [Speaker 1] So you can search my name, caseymcclinic.com or Urban Marketing Edge, and you will find my website very easily. Perfect. [Speaker 2] Thank you. Thanks for joining us on how to sell your Atlanta home with Sage and Grace. I'm Judy Jernigan, and I love helping homeowners sell smarter with less stress and better results. Who do you know with real estate questions? Please connect us so we can make confident, well-informed decisions and get the best possible outcomes together. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and leave a five-star review. It helps more homeowners get the smart strategies they need for a successful sale. Head to sageandgracere.com to learn more about working with me and the Sage and Grace real estate team, explore all our show episodes, and when you're ready, book a chat directly with me, Judy Jernigan, moving you forward with Sage advice and Grace.