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Think you don’t need a professional architecture and interiors photographer to sell your home? Think again.

Based on a recent study conducted by VHT Studios, a Chicago-based visual media firm, listed houses that used professional photographers sold 32 percent faster than other homes that didn’t.

The report revealed that many homes that posted professionally taken images on property listings websites were purchased after an average of 89 days in the market. In comparison, houses that didn’t utilise professional photographers were left unsold for around 129 days.

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“Everything is so visual now,” Brian Balduf, co-founder and CEO of VHT Studios, told Illinois-based daily NorthWest Herald. “The bar has been raised. Now that everyone has photos, you have to have better photos.”

Badulf added that today, more than 20 percent of realtors (at least, in the US) specifically insist on getting a professional photographer before they agree to broker a home.

Indeed, the resale market has become very competitive anywhere in the world. According to Dominique Grubisa, a real estate advisor and CEO of Australian Investments and Migration Pty Ltd, more than 90 percent of the housing market in Australia today comprises the resale sector.

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In Singapore, competition in the resale sector has increasingly become more difficult over the years as the small city-state became one of the world’s most expensive residential markets, prompting the government to enforce curbing measures to bring down prices in the last few years.

While prices have indeed declined in Singapore, according to a new report by local news agency AsiaOne Business, more re-sellers are probably going to need the assistance of a professional real estate photographer to help them close the sale of their houses.

Hiring one is more and more becoming the standard practice. Prospective buyers who responded to the survey conduced by VHT Studio in late 2014 said that 45 percent of them would most likely buy a listed home that used the services of professional photographer.

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Think of the photos as a calling card for your home.

Orlando-based real estate photographer Harry Lim recently put this to a test. He took photos of a home that languished in the market for 224 days.

On Lim’s website, he said that the residential property in Orlando was sold only eight days after he posted the new images of the house. “I can’t say the photos alone sold the home; credit must be given to the realtor,” he wrote. “But I have no doubt the photos helped.”

Let’s take a look at the Before and After images of the residential property that was (partly) sold because of better photos that appear on the listings website: