One of the most important things you can do for selling your home is making it look pleasant in your photos. Whether you are just taking photos with your phone, or you are hiring a real estate photographer, how you prepare your home is a huge factor for how good the photos will look. If you’ve hired a photographer, you shouldn’t expect them to make many adjustments to your home, because unless you are paying extra for more of their time, most photographers can’t afford to spend valuable minutes moving objects and staging.
In order to help you make your home look it’s best, here’s a checklist that any seller or realtor should follow:
1. No Cars Outside
Perhaps the most common request I have to make when I arrive at a home for a shoot is to ask the seller, or sometimes the realtor, to move their car. A car in the driveway distracts from the home and that’s a huge no-no. We want potential buyers to be focused on the home and what they’ll be buying. Additionally, if the car is not in the driveway but is on the road in front of the house, this can be a problem too. It can be a distraction visible through windows when doing interior photos, as well as take away potential angles for the photographer when taking exterior photos.
2. Declutter Inside
If you want to make your home look it’s best, you’ll have to do some cleaning. Any amount will help, but the more you do the better it will look. Dishes on a countertop, pairs of shoes by the door, clothes or towels on the floor: these are all things that distract the viewer and make the image unpleasant to look at. The photos above are excellent examples of properly prepared homes. Everything that is visible is something worth looking at and gives you a feel for the room. Imagine a coat laying on that bedroom floor, or toys left on the living room floor, and you can see that they look better without them. When it comes to real estate photography, less is more.
3. Clean Up Outside
Some people remember to straighten up the inside, but neglect to do so outside as well. A frisbee or football outside on the ground is just as distracting as a stray coat on the inside. You don’t want the potential buyer to be focused on anything besides the home, property, and features you’re selling. Take out the small and distracting, and leave in the big and pleasant. Chairs, tables, and plants make the house feel like a home, but toys and tools make it look like something to be cleaned.
Post Written By: Jackson Erb, Real Estate Photographer
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