Home with Big Open Spaces

I wanted to share some photos I took recently at a home with a big open floorplan.  This house was actually somewhat difficult to light up evenly because the space was quite large.  Even with the biggest flash I own, it was having to angle it across the enormous space between the kitchen, dining, and living rooms.  

I really like to get those clear window shots.  This home had a large backyard that sloped upwards.  So the window views really showed off the greenery back there.

This angle really shows just how LONG this room is!

Looks much cozier when I focus on just a portion of the kitchen.  

I love how they custom painted the niches on either side of the TV/fireplace.  The bold blue really pops compared to the vast walls of neutral beige/tan/brown.

Even shooting from the dining area, the room is still very spacious.

The dining area would actually make a great dance floor!

Here is a more intimate living room shot.  Love the blue again.

A view of the backyard from the living room.

The primary bedroom.  I noticed the trend away from calling the largest bedroom the master bedroom.  I'm totally fine with that.

I would have liked this bedroom window blinds pulled completely up.  But I didn't want to bother the home sellers.  And having the blinds open like that kinda reminds me of skinny plantation shutters.  

I like the "crispness" of this photo.  Not sure why it came out so clear, whereas the previous bathroom photo felt a little more blended.

I try to keep changing my photo skills.  I feel like I'm getting better as I go.  But I guess I will keep sharing and you can make a judgment for yourself!

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~Tina Jan~

Broker Associate
DRE#01505855

tinajan@gmail.com
909-446-2666
www.tinajan.com

Real Estate Masters Group
770 E. 6th St., Suite A,
Beaumont, CA 92223

Placester, The Real Estate Website Company That Has Irked Me Twice this Week

My website TinaJan.com uses a web design from the company Placester.  A few years ago, I wanted to revamp my look, my previous website went directly to my blog.  I liked that the Placester sites were specifically for real estate and they had a nice clean look with the basics I wanted.  I'm not sure if it's a realtor thing, but I like the idea of people being able to search homes from my website.  It's not Zillow or Redfin, but I think if people wander onto my site, I want them to be able to see what I have for sale, or what's available in the area that I work.  Anything else, like extra pages is a bonus.  My old website used to have a million links.  It was like a mindmap of anything and everything that I found useful as a realtor.  It had a list of links to things like the Tax Assessor, GIS Maps, every new home tract website, and more.  It had my dry blog posts of nothing but real estate news.  I loved it so much, but it was kind of a jumble of text and I wanted something new.

But as I used my phone more and more to access the internet, I noticed that my website wasn't very mobile friendly.  It looked like the desktop version, but super teeny tiny, on my phone browser.  When I had reached out to Placester customer service years ago and asked if they would be making a mobile version, they said something was in the works, but I didn't see anything decent materialize.  So I just kinda forgot about it.  

The other day I was fiddling around with my Instagram profile and clicked on my website link, and expected my non-mobile friendly website to pop up as always, but instead, NOTHING showed up.  It was a blank white page.  WHAT?  So then I went about checked all the different connections and URL forwarding stuff.  I went to Placester's website and saw that they had these new designed that were mobile friendly!  When I clicked on their previews, they ALSO WOULDN'T LOAD... what was going on?  I wrote Placester customer service about my experience and thought maybe their servers were down for the day?  I never got a response, but that's okay because today, my website is working, their previews are working, and all is the way it should be.  

After seeing their mobile previews, I was actually really excited.  So I decided to make the switch from the Classic site to the new mobile friendly site.  I worked on the new site alllllll day today.  And now that I'm trying to launch the new site, guess what?  Yup, Placester says error!  Do I need to upgrade my Legacy account?  I clicked the "Upgrade to Advanced" but there was nothing there that gave me any ability to throw more money at them.  So just ended my night by sending their customer service another email.

Well I'll let you know how it goes... here is a quick sneak peak at the new site!  Can't get a preview of the mobile though, which is the part that I'm most excited about.  I hope there are no more issues.  Placester certainly hasn't made it easy for the conversion to happen.  I had to completely redo every aspect of the website like I was building it from scratch again.  I thought it would do SOME of the conversion for me, like when blogs update, they usually don't just make you start from scratch with an entirely new site...  And their examples of the new websites look so fantastic, but when I made the "switch" it just looked like the same old website over and over again.

I just really wish they had a beautiful dynamic squarespace website with IDX capability, does that already exist?  If this conversion to launch the new Placester Codeless website gives me any more trouble, I just may try to figure out a different course of action.

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~Tina Jan~

Broker Associate
DRE#01505855

tinajan@gmail.com
909-446-2666
www.tinajan.com

Real Estate Masters Group
770 E. 6th St., Suite A,
Beaumont, CA 92223

Beautiful Pool Home in Redlands - Photoshoot and Drone

Photoshoot from a Home in Redlands.

Since the appointment for the photoshoot was in the late afternoon, I was a bit worried there wouldn't be enough light.  Thankfully that day was right after the time changed, so I had an extra hour of sun!  And just enough time after the droning, the regular shooting, to do a nice twilight shot of the front of the house.  

This is not a sky replacement.  This was an actual twilight photo of the home!  There were landscape lights on a timer, and when they finally turned on, I was able to snap a few shots and put them all together.

One thing I've had to work around in my photoshoots is TREES.  Trees are great in real life, I love them for so many reasons: shady, adds character, crunchy leaves, adds color, makes for a more interesting composition etc.  But when the tree blocks the view of the front door, or worse, blocks the view of the house, or even worse, a tree looks dead.... it detracts from a photo.  And timing is key, I bet if these photos were taken a few weeks later, the trees would have been full and lush!  But sadly in these pics, they look like bare bones.  

Another interesting issue is elevation.  This house sits higher than the street.  I'm limited by the height of my camera tripod.  Or if I use a drone to get a higher shot, the trees block some of the front facade.  I have heard of photographers getting on ladders or putting their cameras on poles.  I don't think i'm physically skilled enough to do the ladder or pole thing.  I guess drone is the best I can do in my situation!

This shoot was the first time I was able to confidently do "my version" of the flambient method.

I like how this shot came out.  I like the composition of the space in that room.  I like how the stairs going up to the landing is the background, the windows and couch are the middle ground.  And the closest chair is my foreground.

The windows at this house had an interesting shade/tint, so the exterior views were not what I expected.  But it was nice to see the pops of red in the chairs and floral arrangement.

I never would have thought to put the 2 red chairs in the middle of the table.  I would have put them at the ends of the table.  But I like how they turned out.  

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~Tina Jan~

Broker Associate
DRE#01505855

tinajan@gmail.com
909-446-2666
www.tinajan.com

Real Estate Masters Group
770 E. 6th St., Suite A,
Beaumont, CA 92223