Once you’ve decided to sell your home, you’ll want to make sure that your property looks its very best when on show to prospective buyers. Sellers can spend weeks preparing their house for sale by de-cluttering, painting and decorating and tidying up gardens. Once you’ve made all that effort and your property is ready to sell, eye-catching photography is vital when it comes to enticing buyers and making sure that your home stands out from the competition.
Photographer Simon Lane is an expert in architectural photography. He gives us his top tips for getting the best images that will sell your home.
First impressions count
Photographs of your home are the first opportunity that you have to attract buyers. Almost all prospective buyers start by researching homes online and properties can easily be discarded because the photographs make the house look too small or too dark. Getting first impressions right will ensure that you’ll open up a much bigger market of potential buyers. You can take the photographs yourself, or ask your estate or letting agent to take them for you. Some agents even use professional photographs to get the very best images to help sell your home.
It’s all about lighting
Choose a bright, clear day to take the exterior shots of your house. Early in the morning is ideal as the quality of light is so good and there won’t be many people around. For garden shots, midday light is perfect and if you can sell in Spring-time the light will look even better. Try to avoid later in the day when your garden is likely to have more shadowed areas. Inside, turn on all the lights to make your home look as bright and inviting as possible.
Camera tricks
Use a camera with a wide-angle lens as this will always make the rooms appear much larger. Make sure that you use a tripod to avoid your photographs being ruined by shaky hands. With a good quality camera you can adjust colour, contrast and balance, so experiment with lots of different images to get the very best ones.
Snap happy
It can be tempting to take photographs of every single room and feature of your property, but in reality you need to focus on the most sellable aspects of your home. Prospective buyers will want to see images of the living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms and outdoor space or garden and the first image should be the front of the home. Make sure that each room is de-cluttered, tidy and looking its best when you take the shots.
Eye-catching images that capture your home’s best features will make a tremendous difference when helping your property to stand out online or in an estate agent’s window. Remember what would draw you in as a prospective buyer, and choose a selection of photographs that really bring your home alive.