Most prospective home buyers will view your home online before ever deciding to schedule a showing, so it’s extremely important for the photos to send a clear message about the desirability of your home.
The key to achieving this comes through both preparing the home correctly and excellent professional photography. Pre-listing preparation is something I specialize in and usually spend quite a bit of time doing once a home seller has decided to work with me. I tend to use the term “home staging” to describe it, but these days staging is often less about adding items than it is about removing and rearranging items to create flow and accentuate the top selling features of your property. (It is still often appropriate to add staging items as well, however.)
Fortunately, homes that show well online usually show very well in person also, so by aiming for the best online photos you accomplish both objectives. Here are some important concepts to keep in mind.
Guide Buyers Through Your Home
Remember that people are always looking for something to look at. If you don’t provide them with something to look at, they will find something on their own, so it’s better to be proactive and take control of the situation in a positive way by creating visual points of interest that guide them from room to room. These can be things such as large and small houseplants, flowers, and wall decor items that are subtle enough to create atmosphere without being distracting.
Clean Lines and Open Flow
The mind is easily overwhelmed by information, especially when someone is looking at twenty other homes online in addition to yours. The goal when staging for online photos is to see things from the future viewer’s perspective and remember that, just as with photos of people, the camera easily “adds ten pounds” to your home. In order for rooms to look uncluttered and for usable space to become more apparent, items almost always need to be removed and furniture rearranged. People may not always notice it on a conscious level, but it creates a far more desirable result.
Know What You’re Selling, and Don’t Hide It
An armchair or entertainment center that has been in a room for as long as you’ve owned your home may just be the item that makes a spacious area look cluttered, or that is large enough to distract viewers from the fact that the room has vaulted ceilings and excellent natural light. Working with hundreds of home buyers over the years has helped me understand exactly what they are looking for in many different price ranges, and it’s from that viewpoint that I assess exactly what needs to be done stage your home optimally.
Beware of Over-Staging
This table setting is so busy that it creates a distraction.
I often hire a minimalistic stager when I’m preparing a home for sale, and I’ve found her work to be extremely helpful. We always have to remember, however, that the goal of staging in itself is not to stage the home, but to sell the home. If you look at enough properties for sale you’ll see cases in which the staging has started to take precedence, for example, in dining areas where elaborate table settings create a sensation of clutter and detract from the desirable features of the room. (This is especially likely to become apparent in photos.) Always keep in mind the things that create value in the mind of a home buyer, and take steps to maximize only those features.
Professional Photography
The photographer added blue skies to this photo taken on a grey day.
There’s no substitute for a professional photographer when it comes to real estate photos for your Seattle area home, and it’s something I include as part of my standard listing services. Not all photographers are equally skilled, however, so just hiring one doesn’t guarantee top quality photos. I use one of the best home photographers in the Seattle area.
Preparing a home for sale is a collaborative effort between me and the sellers for whom I’ll be listing the home. I take an active role from the beginning, which is sometimes months prior to listing, and continue at every stage up to the time your home goes on the market.