“You only have one chance to make a first impression” holds true in many situations – and selling your home is no exception. Often a prospective buyer’s first viewing of a home that is for sale, is of photographs of the home that are viewed online. Eighty percent of people across the country who bought a new home last year used the Internet while house-hunting.
When it comes to selling your home, you need as many feet through the door as possible, in order to get a good sale price – and therefore you need to ensure that the photographs of your house that are posted online entice prospective buyers to view your property.
Photographs that are dark, amateurish, blurry can give such a bad impression of a home that the prospective buyer will cross the home off the viewing list and not give it even a second chance.
The following tips will help you to photograph your home to best effect in an online listing.
Watch out for misleading photographs – your home in the photograph should not look completely different to real life. For example, don’t remove things like power lines from your photographs. There is a fine line between showing what is there and misleading the viewer. By all means use a wide angled lens to fit the whole room in, but try to avoid reflecting the room as much larger than its actual size.
Lighting – both inside and outside. You want to show off your home in the best light, literally as well as figuratively. If the skies on the day of your photo shoot are overcast there is not much you can do about the weather, but you can for instance touch up your photograph to lighten the image and insert blue skies. Inside the house ensure that curtains and blinds are open and that furniture is not obstructing the light in the rooms. Switch on all lights in the house before taking photographs.
Clutter - Remove any clutter in your home (family photos, memorabilia, books and DVDs, animal bedding, toys etc) – this will allow prospective buyers to more easily get a feel for the size of the rooms and will make the rooms feel larger, more airy and appear to have more light. Outside the home check for and remove cars, garden hoses, rubbish bins, bicycles and washing. Make sure that the garden is neat and tidy. Take down the real estate sign temporarily while you photograph the exterior of the house.
Good photographs will grab attention and help you to sell your home. It is therefore important to choose an agent that you know will take and pay for good pictures of your home. Using a professional photographer is one way of achieving good results – but following the tips provided in this article will go a long way to achieving pleasing results whether you are using a professional photographer or not.
