The Art of Home Photography

It is that time of year again; the housing market is gearing up and almost in full swing. There are many factors that contribute to successful home selling, but one element remains critical to attracting buyers: superb home photos!

It may seem like a simple aspect of the process, but there is an art to home photography and excellent pictures of your home will set the tone for the worth and desirability of your listing.

In a survey by the National Association of Realtors, homebuyers rated photos as the feature they use most when searching for a home on the web. Online listings with bad pictures, or worse, no pictures at all, can cause buyers to overlook your home from the get-go.

The Wall Street Journal investigated the case for photos in real estate and found that adding at least one photo to a residential real-estate listing can up the final sale price by 3.9%. Moreover, studies have shown that professionally taken photos result in higher sales prices than amateur quality digital photos.

It may take more time and care to produce professional, realistic, and clean photos, but in the end the effort will pay off. It was also found that homes which were professionally photographed tended to sell faster. For instance, homes in the $400,000 range that were professionally photographed sold 21 days faster than those photographed with point and shoot cameras.

If you choose us to  list your home, we will help you in advance to prepare your home for photography by making suggestions for decluttering, staging and making small home improvements which will pay dividends by guaranteeing super pictures.

Here are six tips to keep in mind as you go through this process –

1. The photographer may shoot from the corner of a room with a wide-angle lens to make the room look spacious. Your Realtor might suggest changes to the furniture arrangement with this in mind. For example, if your living room furniture is currently all pushed up against the walls, you might try creating a more intimate grouping of furnishings in the middle of the room. This arrangement which will look better in photos and make the space feel cozy.

2. Remove oversized pieces of furniture or extra pieces of furniture – like multiple end tables, cd cabinets, overstuffed bookcase etc – to make rooms feel more spacious. This will also telegraph to buyers that your home is a relaxing environment and that when they buy your house, their lives will be organized and un-harried!

3. Consider a fresh coat of paint: neutralize walls in beiges or grey to cover up any potentially off-putting colors such as oranges and purples. Work with your Realtor to choose the latest on-trend neutrals.

4. Tidy up the outside. Planting some flowers and paying careful attention to the condition and look of the front door as well as the path which buyers will take as they approach the front door from their car.

5. Be sure to remove small objects such as collectibles and knick knacks from shelves, countertops, mantles and display spaces. No matter how lovely, valuable or interesting they are, small objects are visually confusing and distracting in the photos, whereas one large simple object – such a solid colored vase –  shows well without distracting the viewer. So pack those Hummel figurines away!

6. Select favorite design or architectural details of your home to highlight in the photographs with a “close up” shot,  such as intricate trim work, the quality of the fireplace mantle, stonework, beautiful hardwood flooring, a particularly upscale appliance etc..

7. Lighting, lighting, lighting! Natural light serves as the best option, but when not available, you can utilize artificial light to highlight space and textures. All window treatments should be wide open for the pictures and home showings. Heavy curtains and valances should removed if possible, even if you love the fabric and spent countless hours selecting it.

Some content sourced from the National Association of Realtors and The Wall Street Journal