Recent research done by a company named Redfin, overwhelmingly confirmed that the quality of listing photos greatly impacts several aspects of the home selling process.
Redfin is a very successful, progressive Washington based real estate company with a nationwide network of agents. With home sales of 10,000 per year and over $25 Billion worth of sales in just 10 years, they really know how to market real estate. A while back, they published a report on a research project they had done. They studied all home sales over a certain period of time and divided them into 2 groups – group A: listing photos were taken with a cellphone or point and shoot camera (amateur); group B: listing photos taken with a DSLR camera and accessories (professional). Looking a several factors like total number of visits (traffic), how fast the home sold (days on market) and sales price above asking price, they compared group A homes with group B homes. Listings with professionally created images Sold faster, sold for more money and had fewer days on market (all three criteria by large margins). The results were so conclusive that ALL Redfin listings are now photographed by professionals.
Disclaimer: I am not employed by or receive any financial compensation from Redfin.