Selling Your Home in 12 Easy Steps, Step #8 Photos

12 Easy Steps to Selling Your Home “Step #8 “Photos, the visual details to attract buyers” (originally posted on FlexitRealtyblog.com)

If you consider the old cliche, “pictures are worth a thousand words”. The saying should be, pictures are worth thousands of dollars, when it comes to selling real estate! “Pictures Equals Buyers”, the real issue is getting your home sold. Photos taken with the right angles, light, clarity and descriptions help sell houses.

How many times have you looked for a home on a website or picked up a brochure in front of a home to have one photo? Buyers may or may not take the time to go to the website. If the buyer does go to the website in the middle of the summer and finds a snow picture or in the middle of the winter and finds a summer photo, buyers immediately know the property has been for sale a long time. They also may skip seeing it because they believe something may be wrong with the property! In northern climates if you show a winter photo make sure the drives and walks are clear and clean. If the walks and drives are clear, replace the photos on your website and other sites.

No photos should be take until the home has been staged for photos. You want your property and home to visually show the best features and benefits possible. I have had buyers I knew would like a property as soon as I viewed the property. I contacted them for a showing appointment, we sold the home without staging or doing a thing. Selling without any preparation is not normal for the majority of sellers. No home preparation before taking photos to maximize buyer response is doing a disservice, in my opinion.

Here are photo selections that should be taken.

1. Outside, including front, back and any decks or sheds. Angles of your photos
   Showing inviting photos creates more buyers if the photo shows details.

   are critical. If you have special features, landscaping, woods, patios, gardens and porches these should be emphasized in photos to separate your home from others.

2. Inside, photos should be broken down room by room and created into a guided tour, as though you were walking from the front door through the home.
3. Foyer, Entrance: show a photo looking back at the inside entryway if it is something that accents the home. If not, place the entrance in an overall photo with a wide angle view.
4. Living Room, this room, most times, requires two photos, offering viewing angles to buyers. Make sure you capture the focal point of the room. Whatever feature accents the room, capture in you photo.
5. Kitchen, is a very important room, the counter space should be maximized for
   Photo Angles offer a large view and help give buyers a reason to see your home.

   photos. Every buyer wants counter space. Make sure no finger prints or distracting refrigerator magnets, artwork, calendars or photos are displayed on the refrigerator.

6. Dining Room, Eating Area: This is another area that should have several photos on showing the relationship to the kitchen as well as the area itself. This helps buyers get an orientation of the rooms location to each other.
7. Bath Rooms and Suites: Make sure shampoo bottles are removed, sink areas are clean and cleared. Just like The kitchen counter and sink space will be visual issues. Tubs and sinks must sparkle. Toilet seat down please! Towels and wash cloths folded and presented in a staged manor. If you have multiple bathrooms label them, include locations (first floor, lower level, master).
8. Bedrooms, again make all the beds, remove and animal beds, if present, take angles that include closet door. If a walk-in closet take a photo after the closet is staged for the photo. Multiple bedrooms need to have labels and locations.
9. Family Rooms, if you have a family room take angled photo showing the best features. If your rooms have vaulted ceiling or high ceiling make sure that feature is captured in your photos.
10. Storage and Garages, this is not optional, make sure buyers know they will have storage. This means these areas have to be ready to show and staged for photos.

This may sound like a lot of work but selling faster and for a maximum sell price means you have to have a home multiple buyers will bid to buy. This also means you will get a higher sell price faster. The reason, maximizing buyer exposure with the right photos, creating more buyer interest in your property.

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In case you missed any of the steps to selling your home already published active links are listed below.

1. Estimating your homes value.
2. Who is your homes competition?
3. Deciding to sell with a real estate agent or without.
4. Marketing Methods to expose your home to the maximum number of buyers
5. Property Descriptions, survey and narrative details
6. Preparing the outside of your home for sale.
7. Preparing the inside of your home for sale.
8. Photos, the visual details to attract buyers
9. Showing your home to potential buyers
10. Financing
11. Open Houses.
12. Negotiating Your Homes Sale