Real estate photo and video statistics: what the research says

How buyers search

Buyers start online, and half find the home there

• The first step is a search for listings

  Asked what they did first, 43 percent of buyers said they looked online for properties for sale. Another 21 percent contacted a real estate agent first, and 7 percent contacted a bank or mortgage lender.

  Source: NAR, 2025 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends, Exhibit 3-1: First step taken during the home buying process

• 51 percent found the home they bought on the internet

  Of all buyers, 51 percent found the home they purchased on the internet, 29 percent through a real estate agent, and 4 percent from a yard sign or open house sign. Among buyers 26 to 34, the internet share was 63 percent.

  Source: NAR, 2025 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends, Exhibit 3-4: Where buyer found the home they purchased

• Phones and video sites are part of the search

  During the search, 69 percent of buyers used a mobile or tablet search device and 37 percent used an online video site. A real estate agent was the most used source of all, at 86 percent.

  Source: NAR, 2025 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends, Exhibit 3-2: Information sources used in home search

• Ten weeks, seven homes, two weeks before calling an agent

  The typical buyer searched for 10 weeks and viewed seven homes, and searched for 2 weeks before contacting an agent. These are medians.

  Source: NAR, 2025 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends, Exhibit 3-3: Length of search

What buyers use

The listing features buyers rate very useful

The share of buyers who used the internet in their search and rated each website feature very useful, from the same NAR survey, plus one question Zillow asked about floor plans.

• Photos: 83 percent

  Photos ranked first of every feature NAR asked about, ahead of detailed information about properties for sale at 79 percent. Buyers 35 to 44 rated photos highest, at 86 percent, and buyers 79 to 99 lowest, at 66 percent.

  Source: NAR, 2025 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends, Exhibit 3-6: Value of website features

• Floor plans: 57 percent

  Floor plans ranked third, ahead of real estate agent contact information at 47 percent, virtual tours at 41 percent, and neighborhood information at 35 percent.

  Source: NAR, 2025 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends, Exhibit 3-6: Value of website features

• Virtual tours and videos: 41 and 29 percent

  Virtual tours were rated very useful by 41 percent of these buyers and videos by 29 percent, both well below photos and floor plans. Among buyers 35 to 44, the shares were 47 and 33 percent.

  Source: NAR, 2025 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends, Exhibit 3-6: Value of website features

• A floor plan they liked: 86 percent more likely to view

  In Zillow's 2024 survey, 86 percent of buyers said they were more likely to view a home if the listing included a floor plan they liked.

  Source: Zillow, 2025 Consumer Housing Trends Report for Agents, page 32 (surveyed in 2024)

What sellers want

What sellers look for in an agent's marketing

• High resolution photography: 78 percent

  In Zillow's 2024 survey of sellers, 78 percent said they were more likely to hire an agent who offers high resolution photography, and 71 percent said they were more likely to hire one who provides virtual tours or interactive floor plans.

  Source: Zillow, 2025 Consumer Housing Trends Report for Agents, page 32 (surveyed in 2024)

• How listings were actually marketed

  Among sellers who used an agent, 86 percent said the home was marketed on an MLS website, 22 percent on social networking sites such as Facebook and Instagram, 16 percent with virtual tours, and 12 percent with video.

  Source: NAR, 2025 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends, Exhibit 7-8: Methods real estate agent used to market home

Social media

Social media and the agent a buyer hires

• 44 percent more likely, 46 percent no difference

  Among prospective buyers in Zillow's 2024 survey, 44 percent said they were more likely to hire an agent who is active on social media, 46 percent said it had no impact, and 10 percent said it made them less likely. The split runs by age: 51 percent of millennials said more likely, against 18 percent of Baby Boomer and Silent Generation buyers.

  Source: Zillow, 2025 Consumer Housing Trends Report for Agents, page 15 and 16 (surveyed in 2024)

• 7 percent found their agent on a social network

  Of buyers who used an agent, 7 percent first discovered the agent they hired on a social network.

  Source: Zillow, 2025 Consumer Housing Trends Report for Agents, page 15 (surveyed in 2024)

Sale outcomes, 2013

Professional photos and sale price: the 2013 Redfin study

The study most often quoted on this question is from 2013. We include it with its year and its limits.

• What Redfin compared

  Redfin looked at homes priced from $200,000 to $1 million that listed and sold in 2013 across 22 major markets, and compared listings photographed with a DSLR camera against listings shot with an amateur point-and-shoot camera.

  Source: Redfin, press release, December 3, 2013

• What it found

  Professionally photographed homes in that range sold for $3,400 to $11,200 more relative to their list prices. In the $400,000 range they sold 21 days faster, and among homes priced $400,000 to $499,999, 64 percent with DSLR photos sold within six months, against 46 percent with amateur photos.

  Homes with the sharpest 10 percent of listing photos sold at or above list price 44 percent of the time, against 13 percent for photos of average sharpness.

  Source: Redfin, press release, December 3, 2013

• Its limits

  It compares outcomes; it is not a controlled experiment, and listings with better photos can differ in other ways too. Cameras, listing sites, and the market have all changed since 2013, and we did not find a newer study of this kind from a primary source.

What it does not show

What this research does not show

• Drone photos on their own

  None of these surveys asks about aerial photos as a separate feature, and we did not find primary research that measures drone photos by themselves. So this page quotes no drone number.

• Long Island specifically

  The NAR and Zillow figures are national. They describe buyers and sellers across the country, not Long Island alone.

• Cause and effect

  Survey answers say what buyers and sellers value and what they did. They do not prove that any one photo, floor plan, or video sold a house.

Our reading

What we take from it for a listing

Our interpretation, not a finding of the studies above.

• Photos come first

  More buyers rely on photos than on any other listing feature, so they get the most care: every room, blended exposures so the windows hold detail, and straight vertical lines.

• Include a floor plan

  Floor plans rank third with buyers in NAR's data, and most buyers in Zillow's survey said a plan they liked would get them to a showing. A 2D plan answers the layout question that photos cannot.

• Treat video as reach, not a replacement

  Video ranks below photos and floor plans as a website feature, but more than a third of buyers used an online video site during the search, and only a small share of listings were marketed with video at all. So we cut a horizontal master for the listing page and vertical versions for Reels and Shorts, where those buyers already are.