If it’s your first time selling your home, there is a lot to think about. Putting in a bit of time to research and study up on the do’s and don’ts of staged homes can save you a lot of trial and error throughout the process. Not only does this save you surprises, but it also saves time and energy later down the line. Read on to learn all you need to know for a picture-perfect listing.
Do Follow Trends
You don’t have to do extensive research on real estate photography to identify trends. We recommend that you search for “Homes for sale in Calgary” and look at the photos. Go through listings on your own and save any that appeal to you. Don’t worry about budget or anything here, you’re just looking at the photos to get an idea of what you’d like your listing to look like. Once you’ve done that, you can sit down with your realtor to figure out what you need to do to achieve the look. Hiring a professional home stager or an interior designer can also help with this step, especially if you don’t know how to stage a home. They’ll already have an idea of what the market looks like, so you won’t have to worry about what will and won’t work for your home.
Don’t Rely on Yourself for Photos
If this is your first time selling a house, taking the cheapest route might sound like a good idea at the time, but it can cause a lot of headaches down the road — especially if you’ve never done it. This especially goes for taking your own photos. Hiring a professional is going to save you time, and possibly money, from the beginning. You’ll have good quality photos the first time around, and you’ll know you can trust the person taking them instead of figuring things out as you go on your own. More than 90% of home buyers search for homes online, and 85% of buyers say it’s the photos that are the most important factor in deciding which homes to view, according to the National Association of Realtors. It’s important to take your listing photos seriously.
Do Emphasize Natural Lighting
If you go with a professional, they’re likely to give you lighting tips before the time comes to take photos of your home. However, you should know the advantages of natural lighting beforehand, and you should understand the overall effect it can have on your home listing. You should also know which direction your house faces before any photos are taken so you can schedule a good time to have the photos taken. If parts of your home have harsh lighting during certain times of the day, it’s best to avoid photographing at those times so the pictures come out nicely. However, if you have natural lighting, do everything in your power to play it up. Leave curtains open if you can. Let all the light flood in whenever these photos are being taken so the buyer knows how bright your home is at any given moment.
Don’t Forget the Little Things
Don’t forget to put down the toilet seat before your photos are taken. Make sure any extra mail is picked up and the cat is out of the way. Get your pets out of the house completely if you can, and definitely get rid of clutter before the time arrives to have the photos taken. You might think it’s cute and quirky to have these things in your photos but having everything as clean and put together as possible is really the best way to go about doing things.
Do Depersonalize
This does hand in hand with decluttering. Make sure any personal touches, like family photos or particularly personal art pieces, are out of your home listing photos. Again, you might like these things, but that doesn’t mean everyone else is going to. It’s best to leave yourself out of the home listing altogether. This makes it easier for people to imagine themselves in the space rather than feeling like they’re walking into someone else’s home. This is important. You want potential homebuyers to be able to imagine themselves in your home. Not only is this going to make it easier to sell your home, but it’s also going to allow them a more personal experience whenever they’re viewing. Think about it. When you’re looking for a new space, do you want to be able to see everything the homeowner had before you? Or do you want to be able to stake your own claim on the space and make it yours?
Don’t Get Artistic
Taking home listing photos should be straightforward and the process for obtaining perfect real estate pictures does not have to be a drawn-out one. Usually, keeping things simple is a safe bet. Fill up the room enough during the staging process to make the space look lived in, but don’t feel the need to have everything look fancy and filled up. Often, doing this can feel like too much in the photos and your listing might turn out looking messy. Keep things simple and neutral enough to appease any homebuyer viewing your listing.
Ready to Be the Best Among Staged Homes?
Following these tips is guaranteed to help your listing become the best. Like we’ve already covered, you don’t have to be a professional to have a good listing, but it helps to have someone on your side. If you’re not confident with yourself through any part of the process, it can help to just drop everything and hire a professional you trust — especially if you’re a first-time buyer curious about the importance of staged homes.
Starting with a good realtor can make all the difference. Check out our pre-listing guide today, and contact us to get started.