DMD Client Highlight: Hall Quality Homes

High Quality Homes is an award-winning new home construction firm providing Wasilla and Palmer real estate agencies with leading-edge, energy-efficient homes. Quite simply, they are some of the best to work with in these communities.

Owner and President Jess Hall comes with over 40 years of industry experience and an established reputation for quality building behind him. Not surprisingly, his firm takes pride in providing high-end new construction homes at an affordable price point. These guys construct each of their 40 modern floor plans from the ground up, following stringent material requirements and five-star energy standards.

We also like them because the design elements they incorporate into these homes make them easy to photograph. Partnering with their team as a real estate photographer has been nothing short of a dream.

Check out a few of DMD’s favorite images from a recent shoot for one Hall Quality Homes build in Palmer.

An open-concept floorplan, outfitted with on-trend options like…

A gorgeous herringbone patterned backsplash,

Mix of modern rustic and farmhouse chic light fixtures throughout,

And that modern-rustic minimalist mantle.

From treating clients like kings to showing them step-by-step how to solidify dreams into reality to weathering snowstorms and standing firm amidst a 7.2 earthquake because of the quality, the recommendations from those who’ve had the chance to work with (and live in) Hall Quality Homes speak for themselves.

3D Tours with the Matterport Camera

The National Association of Realtors reports that today, 51% of home buyers find the home they purchase online. That’s probably not so surprising. After all, more and more of our daily activities are moving online, and it’s just becoming natural to turn to the digital world first.

What you might not realize, though, is just how comfortable people are becoming with shopping online. Over the last three years, there have been sharp increases in home purchases sight-unseen.

What does that mean?

Redfin’s 2017 survey found that nearly one in four home buyers made offers without stepping foot in the home. In 2018, that percentage jumped to 45%!

One reason is that millennials are fast-becoming the largest real estate market segment, accounting for more than a third of all home purchases last year. Why would this matter? Because millennials are far more comfortable with technology than previous generations.

Nearly every home search begins online now, and with touchscreen laptops taking center stage, agents’ increased access to high-quality images, the continuous fine-tuning of search features, and the rollout of speedier online mortgage applications, more and more buyers are becoming comfortable with signing on the virtual dotted line.

The trick is to make potential buyers feel like they’ve already “seen” the property without ever going to it. How?

3D tours.

Immerse Potential Buyers in Your Property from the Comfort of… Wherever

Advances made in 3D-tour technology have made digital home search that much more immersive – something extremely important with such an emotional and expensive investment. Virtual tours can be especially vital in areas like Alaska, where we see a higher percentage of out-of-state buyers.

While the local real estate market across the state is experiencing an uptick – Anchorage, Eagle River, Wasilla, Palmer, and Fairbanks are all doing great – reaching that wider out-of-state audience only increases your potential of a sale. However, travel to Alaska can be expensive, and buyers want to be sure the trip out is worth it!

After extensive research and evaluation, we decided to go with a Matterport setup to create our 3-D tours here at DMD. The quality of the tours is amazing. We can have a tour online for our clients within a couple of hours. And the wide variety of angles and views offers potential buyers one of the best virtual tour experiences on the market.

Go ahead and take a virtual walk-through of a couple of our recent favorites below using almost any device you wish. Both touchscreen and mouse navigation work just fine.

Feels pretty darn close to the real thing, right?

Besides the home buyer’s personal experience, search engines are becoming more and more sophisticated with their spidering algorithms and how they crawl the web for the most interactive and up-to-date data. This means that a 3D home tour will rank higher than a gallery these days, getting your listing in front of more potential clients.

If you are a real estate agent who’s been considering a 3D component to your listings, we’re here to answer any burning questions, and happy to provide more detail. Just give us a shout.

Introducing Office Manager Brenda

We wouldn’t be able to provide top-notch customer service and real estate photography without the help of our staff who work behind the scenes. In this installment of our “Introducing” series, we’d like to introduce our office manager, Brenda!

Brenda has been rocking our world at DMD since 2013. She works from Florence, Oregon, and has lived in the area for just over 18 months. Her position is part of her New Life Path. We are so happy she found us, because she’s truly the glue that holds everything together.

Her amazing ability comes from her passion to help people. Outside of DMD, Brenda is a Holy Fire II Reiki Master. Reiki is a healing practice that uses energy and touch to restore balance and well-being within the body.

We always say that DMD is a family, but for Brenda that’s literal – her son Dave and grandson work here! She says her favorite part about working at DMD is getting to work with them, but, “I also love working with our team members and the clients we provide service. I love being able to visit my son and his family more often than I would have been able to do.”

Brenda is just one of the people that work to make DMD a business with wonderful customer service and high-quality photography. If you have any photography needs in Anchorage or Eagle River, please reach out. Brenda will work behind the scenes to make sure you get the best service in the area!