How to Create a Killer Marketing Portfolio for your Luxury Listing: Project Highlight: The Wailuku Estate

There are many agents who called themselves “Luxury Property Agents”, what does that actually mean in terms of your Marketing Portfolio? Are you taking care of your client and going all out in creating a killer portfolio that looks absolutely stunning? Are you hiring the Best Photographer in town to do the photoshoot? What you provide your client in the marketing materials you create represents you and your brand. Just be honest, you can’t call yourself the luxury and high-end agent if you are trying to please your million dollars buyers and sellers by giving them crappy photos. Your portfolio creates values, trust, and tells the story of how you are ‘taking care’ of your sellers.

We were very honored to be the photographer for this luxury Wailuku Estate. The property has 5.39 acre estate on the slopes of the Kahakuloa hills. This luxury hideaway estate has 7,200 sqft, three beds, 4 full baths, 4 half beds, kitchen, bar, multiple living room and entertainment space. We were hired to take the photos of the property, drone photos, video, 3D Matterport as well as Virtual Stage this unfurnished property and we would like to share the process of this photoshoot and how we have created amazing content for the agent to market this property.

We started in the morning with drone, and all the exterior shots as the location can get pretty cloudy later the day. We took the advantage of the sunniest moment to make sure the drone shots, especially video shots are sunny and the least amount of clouds. Then we started with doing photos for each room, starting from one side of the house to the other, then the 2nd floor and basement. Because of how big this property is and all the rooms are vacant and some look alike, we marked each room location while doing the shoot, so we don’t forget which room the photos belong to in post. It took about 3 hours to finish all the interior photos.

While doing the photoshoot, we provided our clients our sets of virtual furniture library so they can discuss and visualize the furniture in the space while being on the property. I hand sketched a floor plan on my iPad and marked down all the furniture sets they selected.

Our goal is always to provide our client the best service, most practical solution in an effective and beautiful manner.

We are done with choosing virtual furniture by the time the interior photography is done.

Next, we started the Matterport, since it is a very large property, with elevators, staircase, we took extra care to ensure the staircase areas are scanned properly without missing information. In that way, post-production will be easier. We also know that the more attention to details we pay on-site and go the extra mile to fix things, do the job properly, the less error it will have for Matterport. We don’t skip steps, or do a hasty job that would require a reshoot - we absolutely do not want to waste our client’s time so we usually pay extra attention to details and never miss anything on site.

We finish the interior photoshoot with a video walkthrough. Since the property is primarily empty, the client would like to have a teaser video instead of a room-to-room walkthrough. Also, since the client is not from Maui, we provided local suggestion in how to sell the Maui experience, what other lifestyle clips to put in, and what we should avoid to focus on.

Last but not least, we took sunset photos for the property. It was not the most beautiful sunset that day as it was rainy and dark clouds. So most of the twilight effects have to be done in post-production. However, it is still helpful to get the photo of the exterior of the building with lights on. We always try to keep the photo as authentic as the original property, so it is a realistic depiction with aesthetic touch and angles. That will do the justice of the property without exaggeration or misrepresentation. Natural and Beautiful is the message we want to give off.

Photos are delivered in batches to the client, since there are over 100 of photos, that way client can get a sneak peek and start planning their marketing materials without compromising the timeline. All photos are delivered within one week, with virtual staging completed, video, drone and 3D model.