With there being millions of homes sold annually in the USA, there is often a lot of competition to find buyers. Sellers need to do all they can do to attract the right buyers and sell their home quickly.
One of the best ways to give yourself a good chance of selling quickly is to take good photos of your home. Many buying journeys start online, and you want to ensure your listing and photos can stand out.
There is a property photography checklist to prepare, but in an effort to help make this process as clear as possible, we have decided to include some simple tips to follow.
With that in mind, this blog post is going to go over five property photography tips for individuals looking to sell their homes.
Ensure the Home is Well-Lit
The secret to any good photo, real estate-related or otherwise, is to ensure your lighting is right. This is especially true when it comes to real estate.
If your listing is full of dark photos where the details of your home can barely be seen, people aren;t going to be very receptive.
They want to be able to see how your home looks clearly, and dark photos will do your space no justice.
Be sure to have windows open and/or lights on when taking photos. And it is better to take them during the day in most cases.
You may even want to invest in additional lighting depending on how the natural lighting and/or light fixtures look in your home. Be sure to look at your photos closely before uploading them along with your listing, too.
Clean and Stage the Home
Before taking any photos, it is crucial for you to clean the home. If your photos are full of clutter, messes, dirt, or debris, people won’t be very interested in viewing the home in many cases.
Ensure all corners of every place you will be photographing is cleaned up and looks spotless.
In addition to cleaning the home, be sure to stage it well. You want to generally keep the home looking as neutral as possible when staging it, and find ways to highlight what you think the best parts of the home are.
Stage the home to show off its potential, and allow people to envision themselves living in the space.
Capture Every Room and/or Space of Importance
While the quality of photos you get is important, so is the quantity. If your listing only has a photo of the front of the home, one of the kitchen, and one of the bathrooms, it will be hard to sell.
Be sure to include as many photos as it takes to show off all areas of importance. Give multiple angles of rooms like the kitchen, bedrooms, and living rooms, and include photos of spare bedrooms, your back yard, the garage, and anywhere else that you think people will like to see.
Also, don’t forget about the importance of curb appeal. As a result, you need to ensure you have pictures of the outside of the home, and make sure that area of your space is kept clean and looks presentable.
It is normal to have up to (or over) 30 photos of the home, so take your time and capture everything.
Choose the Best and Most Flattering Angles
Angles are important when shooting real estate photos, just like they are in other kinds of photography. The angle you use can change how a room looks, can make it look larger, or make it look cozier and smaller.
It is crucial that you experiment with different angles and/or lenses to get a better idea of which looks the best for the space.
Also, feel free to look at the angles that other listings have used. You may begin to see a trend, and it would be wise to follow it in most cases.
As long as the contents of the room and the details you wanted to include are shown, any angle can technically be used.
Consider Hiring a Professional
While it is completely possible to take your real estate listing photos yourself, you might feel like the job is above your head.
If that is the case, there are plenty of professional photographers that will be able to help. They may have better tools, knowledge, and equipment than you, and a better understanding of how to make certain photos look great.
Of course, always know the cost of their work up front, and make sure to go over their experience and see the previous work that they have done.
Photos are arguably the most important part of a listing, so if you need to hire someone to get them looking great, so be it.
In conclusion, by using these tips, you can drastically improve the property photos you take when selling your home.