Photo editing service provider Phixer developed an agent-focused photography app that connects agents’ photo libraries with its team of professional editors.
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Phixer is a photography editing software that empowers agents to easily adjust and improve visual listing content
Platforms: iOS
Ideal for: All agents
Top selling points:
- Super simple user experience
- Editing for video and photography
- Photoshop enhancement features
- Optional turn-around times
- Custom TV and fireplace edits
Top concerns:
Phixer’s app was its initial primary means of engagement with users, however, significant improvements on its browser app should pull users in that direction. The company will need to ensure its users take full advantage of revamped, desktop UX. There’s also growing competition in this marketing category.
This article was last updated Nov. 4, 2022.
What you should know
Phixer is a superb photo editing and visual marketing add-on that can turn around improved content in 12, 18 or 24 hours. It has a companion mobile app, but its browser experience provides a better way to leverage the software’s capabilities, especially when it comes to viewing and approving photo edits. It can also improve video content and provide more advanced image editing through its Photoshop Editing features.
The need for professional photography will never leave the real estate industry because there are far too many unique, historic and compelling examples of residential architecture out there that demand the eye of a pro.
But there’s no doubt that the reliance on professional photographers is waning, or least shifting toward a technology-driven middle ground. The alternative to not hiring a pro was always obvious and, to savvy agents, unthinkable. Dark pictures. Poor angles. Clutter.
It’s not hard to imagine that as mobile phone cameras continue advancing and stand-alone editing services proliferate, paying pros to capture cookie-cutter suburban floor plans with HOA-approved curb appeal might quickly fall out of favor with agents who are comfortable wielding all that mobile horsepower.
And apps like Phixer will be ready for them.
The software engages the user with a clear, inviting user experience, separating its capabilities with definitive headings and simplified directives. You can choose between VR staging, video editing, Photoshop enhancements and of course, standard photo editing. Users need merely to upload their content and choose the specific edits desired.
The project name is entered, the number of photos included and the required turn-around time. There’s an interface for tracking progress and seeing all previous edits. Phixer puts no limit on storage, meaning it can serve as an ongoing storage resource.
There are some cool, and fun, edit options. Phixer can put fires into fireplaces and even multiple types of scenes on any televisions that end up in pictures. It’s not critical, of course, but certainly adds some nice detail.
Videos can be edited as branded or unbranded and have the color quality improved, titles added and even graphic animations. Users can upload an entire video or individual clips with notes on how they’d like the final to be assembled.
The video editing features are for those with a Phixer subscription, but you can pay as you go or choose from a few different account levels.
Photoshop edits are those you may have seen before, but it doesn’t make them less important to have done. This feature includes items such as twilight applications, lawn enhancements and item removal.
A camera and professional editing app, Phixer Mobile is currently only for Apple’s iOS, and agents can use it when they consider themselves capable enough to at least get the correct angles. If they happen to screw up something else, well, that’s why they use apps like this.
Photos taken with the app are uploaded directly to Phixer’s editing team. Before you send them off, you can select twilight edits, have objects removed, or ask to improve a dog-stained yard by tapping the appropriate icon beneath each image as you swipe.
A 24-hour turnaround time is included, but a 12-hour return will cost you 50 cents — one half a credit — and if you want them back in 8 hours, it’s a dollar, or one credit.
Also included are custom television edits, meaning editors will add imagery to any TVs in a listing photo. If the home has a fireplace, Phixer inserts a fire. Pretty cool.
The app’s developers openly admit they are pro-photographer, but they know that not every agent can afford one and that there are instances where one isn’t needed.
Phixer is also best used with the most up-to-date phone camera. Or you can use an attachable lens from Moment to help capture wider angles.
We should also note that it’s not just the photos that stand out. I found using the camera to be very intuitive, and creating a new project or listing is as easy as typing in the name.
The camera interface offers a list of tips before you start shooting, such as the importance of shooting at multiple angles, avoiding using the digital zoom and holding your phone upright.
Users can also upload photos from their phone library in case you snapped something outside of Phixer. Thus, your projects are not limited to using its camera interface.
There’s a My Team section to keep the order of the photographers you’ve worked with, as well as any other agents or marketing admins under an account.
Phixer’s recent upgrades and super frictionless experience put it at the top of tools in this category. It’s not there alone, but it does focus strictly on what agents need most: better photos. There are other apps to address more advanced listing content creation and enhancements, and those are great, too.
But, when you need your photos to look much, much better, it doesn’t get much easier than Phixer.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.
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