When it comes to selling your house online your photos are the most important thing to attract potential buyers. People scroll through hundreds of photos on pages like Zillow and Property 24 when they are looking for their ideal home.
You must have a show stopping photo that will make the potential buyer stops scrolling and click your profile.
When you need to photograph your house whilst you and your family are still living in it and it really does not look like a staged house to you, do not get discouraged. Here are some hacks to get your house looking like a show house in no time.
Clean up!
Hide the unnecessary
Think about lighting
Show the best parts
Create a mood
Show your setting
Clean up!
Before you even start photographing an area, make sure the space is clean. Sweep and wash the floors. If you have carpets make sure they are well vacuumed, and if they are in really bad shape, it might be worth it to give it a good wash before the photo session.
If there are marks on your walls it is definitely worth it to give your walls a good wash too. It is easy to spot a wall that has been creatively decorated by your three year old on a photograph. A small detail like this might easily upset a potential buyer.
Clean surfaces especially in the kitchen and bathroom. Talking about bathrooms, use a dry cloth and a window cleaner to ensure all mirrors and windows are shiny bright.
A stain is your biggest enemy, even if it is on furniture and not the house itself. Make sure that your photos does not show large stains on your couches, those make the whole room look unkept and might misguide your buyer about the state of the property itself.
Do not forget to clean up in the garage and garden areas if you would like to include them in your photos too.
Do not kid yourself, preparing for your photo session is hard work!
Hide the unnecessary
Yes, you are living in the house so it is full of stuff, but it might be worth moving things like toys, clothes and unnecessary articles from the room during your photography session and then return it afterwards. It gives a clean and airy feeling to the space.
Clutter takes emphasis away from the building or space itself.
If your kitchen tops are covered with appliances like toasters, blenders, kettles etc., remove them and clean the kitchen space for the time of the photoshoot. An open and neat looking kitchen always is more appealing.
Close your toilet lid when photographing your bathroom! Hide what is inside the toilet. You might think this strange, but you will not believe how many bathrooms are photographed with open toilets. The bathroom looks messy with an open toilet lid and the toilet itself displays badly.
Close doors leading from one room to another when the room next door might not add to the quality of the photo of the room you are currently photographing.
Remove things lying around in your yard when photographing the exterior. Make sure the garden is well kept. Roll up the hose pipe after watering the garden and entry way for the photos and put it away.
Think about lighting
Light is the most important thing about a photograph! Remember that. Open your curtains and blinds to allow as much light as possible into your space. Switch on all the lights and lamps in the room. If there are any accent lights on the walls or inside display cupboards make sure to switch those on too.
If you are taking a late evening photo of your house from the outside, make sure all the lights inside are switched on.
Show the best parts
Show off with the best attributes of your home. If it is a fire place, light it up for the photos. If it is a pool, get on your stomach and take a great photo from the water angle. If it is a large garden try to get a photo from the second story to show off the size.
Show people what your house has and others does not.
Create a mood
Show your buyers what it will be like for them to live in your home. If you live in a cosy house in the forest take some photos of the trees or the view and add a photo of a steaming coffee mug on the porch table overlooking your beautiful view.
Set a beautiful table in your dining room and light a candle. Set up your gorgeous white umbrella next to the pool and put down some towels to show how inviting your pool area really is.
By adding small touches to your space you could really enhance how it display on the photo.
Show your setting
Show people how great the location or setting of your home is by taking beautiful exterior photos showing more than the house alone. Maybe add your driveway to the photo, or take an arial photo of your property.
Remember, even if you are not taking the photographs yourself, by preparing your property for the photographer you really add value to the end result of your photographs.
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