“I need to sell my house right away.”
You may already be aware that a home listing online with pictures is sure to attract lots more attention than a listing with no pictures. Homeowners with the thoughts of “I need to sell my house.”, however, waste no time in creating an online listing without any pictures at all. But if buyers are looking for new homes, why would they want to buy a home that they cannot see online?
No matter if you’re a homeowner or a real estate agent, it is always important that your first impression is a good one. Great pictures could be your only chance to make the most out of that first impression. Buyers will avoid listings without pictures because they wouldn’t want to bother seeing the house in person if what it looks like is still a mystery to them. The description they read might not even measure up to what they end up seeing in person.
Suggestions for taking photos of your home before you list it online.
Buy a capable camera.
One of the most common flaws you can easily identify when looking for homes online is the poor quality of the images that are taken. Photos of the home are either too small to examine or too blurry or grainy when blown up on a monitor. This, of course, is not good enough for capturing the home at its best, and you want nothing holding it back from looking like a true marvel of a home in your online listing.
You aren’t required to own the most expensive camera on the market, but you don’t want to be using an ordinary camera inside a phone either. For decent quality imagery, get a phone or camera that is no less than five megapixels. There are standalone cameras that you can get that are very affordable and are available at your local department or electronics store. You are free to spend as much as you would like to on a camera, but don’t spend a lot of money if this is going to be the only time you will use it.
You can also consider buying a tripod, which keeps a camera still as you take pictures. This ensures that your pictures will not get motion blur when held with shaky hands.
Refresh your rooms.
Before you take pictures of your home, be sure to make each room you are photographing clean and clutter free. That means no toys, food, papers, or anything out of the ordinary lying around. It is also important to vacuum and clean each of the room’s windows so that nothing takes away from the grandeur of the room you want to photograph.
If you think that the room looks too bland or boring after cleaning it, you can always consider buying some inexpensive artwork to add more flavor to the room. A mixture of colors in photographs will always catch the homebuyer’s attention.
Have adequate lighting.
While rooms in the evening can look relaxing, the bulk of photos taken of real estate happen during the day because, with more light, you can see more detail in each photo. Natural sunlight is the best kind of light to use to help you photograph each room in your home. Determine which time of day is best when your home will be sunniest, and schedule a day to take your photos when the sun is shining. If you take pictures of your home on a rainy or cloudy day, the pictures you take may turn out to be dull and depressing.
Stand right near the doorway.
While you take a picture of each room, it is always a great idea to take pictures of rooms from the doorway that is looking into the room. Homebuyers will have that perspective of what the entire room will look like in their eyes. If you only take a picture of the wall in a given room, who knows what the buyer might imagine the rest of the room to look like? You would like to get as much of a given room in one photo as possible.
Be sure to take a lot of photos, even hundreds if necessary. This way, you can select from a large group of photos for which ones are the best to include with your online listing. The luxury of digital cameras is that you can take as many photos as needed, and you don’t need to print them. Just be sure you have an empty SD card inserted into the camera, as the camera’s internal memory might be limited to a small amount of photos.
For more tips on how to sell and market your home, visit Ben Buys Indy Houses today. Have any other questions beyond photography in your home? We’re happy to assist you.
