It can be challenging to sell a home during the winter, especially in cold areas of the country. The economy usually slows down a bit, and people don’t want to leave their homes due to the cold weather.

We want to help you be successful in selling your home, and even though we aren’t experts in real estate transactions, we can give you advice from a photography perspective to better market the property.

Photos Look Worse in The Winter

The fact the photos look worse in the winter will not come as a shocker to anyone; in fact, everything looks worse in the winter. The grass looks faded, the trees are missing leaves, and lots of the time, the sky is gray. So does this make an impact on the quality of the photos during the winter?

The answer is absolutely yes. There is only so much that can be photoshopped, and if you do it too much, the photos will look fake and can turn off potential buyers. So, should you even try selling the home in the winter, or should you wait? It depends.

Considerations to Have Before Deciding to Sell

Here are the questions you need to ask to make the right decision:

1.     Does the home need to sell quickly?

If the home needs to sell quickly, then the price needs to be lower, and hopefully, the house is a lower-end home that lots of people can afford. The real estate photography done during the winter will not produce the best possible exterior photos because they likely will suffer from the faded winter colors that won’t grab as much attention.

That said, photos that are done by a high-quality photographer during the winter will help in making the listing stand out from photos produced by average quality photographers.

And in the worst-case scenario, if you are having trouble selling the home, you could always hire a photographer to come back and retake just the exterior photos during the springtime when everything outside comes back to life.

2.     Is this a high-end home? 

It should be no surprise that high-end homes take a longer time to sell; there are not as many people that can afford them, so they typically sit on the market longer. The same principles apply to high-end homes as to standard homes, the photos won’t look as good, and there is a good chance that you will need to order a reshoot in the springtime to get the best pictures.

In my opinion, I would wait till the spring to list the home and save some money by not having a photographer come back and reshoot the house since higher-end homes typically sit on the market longer and are harder to sell. Plus, the sellers may get more offers during the spring.

3.     Does the seller want to make more money, and is willing to wait?

Some sellers are not in a hurry to sell their home; they want to get their money’s worth on the sale. They will ask the agent to list their home at a higher price, which will probably sit on the market for a longer time. In that case, you can list the house in the spring and save some money on getting the exterior photos retaken.

The Takeaway

Winter is the wrong time for the best exterior real estate photography. If you list the home in the winter and it has not sold by springtime, you will need to hire a real estate photographer to retake the exterior photos, which will cost more overall. If you would like to save money on photography, list the home in the spring.

However, If you have a hunch that the home will sell quickly in the winter, then get it listed in the winter. In the worst-case scenario, you will have to spend a little bit extra to get the photographer to come out and to do an exterior reshoot.

Thank You

We want to say thank you for taking the time to read this. Our desire is for our clients to succeed. We hope that this writing helped you in some way, and if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions feel free to reach out, we appreciate any feedback.

Lastly, we would be truly honored to have you share this article on social media.

We are a business that strives to make people successful by promoting them and their work through beautiful photos that tell a remarkable story about them.