A picture is worth a thousand words, and in real estate, a good picture could be worth thousands of dollars. That’s because good photographs of a home engage potential buyers, helping them to connect to it. Good photos encourage buyers to inspect a property while bad photographs turn people away.
Put simply, the aim of good quality real estate photography is to get buyers to visit the home. From there, the agent will do their bit to show off the home’s best assets. And as any agent will tell you, getting people through the door is the key to selling a property.
With that in mind, as a seller, one of the best ways to think about the photography of your home is that it is the first and most important open home of your property’s sales campaign. Take the time and make the effort to present your property as best you can and you really can add value to your home. If there is anything wrong with your home’s appearance at the photoshoot it could, unfortunately, cost you money, a timely sale – or both.
So what makes for good real estate photography? As well as the technical skills, experience, lighting, camera equipment and understanding of home photography a professional photographer will bring to the photoshoot, you can do five things yourself to enhance the photos of your home:
1) De-clutter. Clutter makes homes look smaller than they are. If you tidy up, store items you don’t use regularly and most importantly clear bench spaces you’ll be well ahead of the game.
2) Maximise your home’s street appeal. Most agents use a photo of the front of a property as the feature photo during the marketing campaign, so make sure your home looks its absolute best from the street.
3) Concentrate on the kitchen and bathroom. These rooms sell homes, so focus your energy on these spaces.
4) Play up your home’s best assets. If you’ve got a great outdoor living area make sure it really shines, or if your kitchen is the star of your home it should present perfectly.
5) Ask for advice. Ask your agent for an honest appraisal of what you need to do to get your home ready for sale; then act on their recommendations.
Your home is probably one of your biggest assets so as a seller you’d be wise to entrust the photography of it to an experienced real estate photographer – someone who works with your chosen agent to showcase it to attract as many potential buyers as possible. After all, real estate is a numbers game and professional photography can turn the odds of a satisfactory sale in your favour.