I regularly browse through the properties on the major real estate sites, not just to see what Century 21's competition has listed, but also just to check out what's on the market. And like many people, I have to admit to quite liking a covert look inside people's homes. The number of appalling furnishings people have spent money on never ceases to amaze me. Perhaps these people need to read my helpful feng shui advice from last week. But one thing that gets to me more than a fake zebra skin stuck to a wall is the lack of understanding of how photos silently sell your home, and how little care people seem to put into presenting their property. Okay, that's two things, but you have to admit they're pretty closely intertwined.
I know most people hate having their photo taken, and more often than not it's because they don't like the end result. And just as people can sometimes not look their best in photos, you have to think of your home the same way – if you don't present and photograph it well, how can you expect the end result to be a good one? On the flip side, those people who learn how to achieve the best result in front of a camera end up with photos they don't mind other people seeing, and if you apply that theory to your house, you're going to end up with a property that prospective buyers actually want to investigate further.
Not everyone can afford a professional photographer when they are selling their home, I understand that, but what I don't understand is how those photos of rooms littered with toys, or shots with dishes in the kitchen sink, or an image of washing hanging on the line, make it onto the net. The biggest priority for most people when they're house hunting is space, and if all your photos show nothing but clutter, the perception of space is going to be a fairly hard one to create. Creating space is one of the keys to a successful home open, and the same applies to photographing your home. If you want to get people into your property, make it look like somewhere you'd like to show up to yourself!
I'm no photographer, I can openly admit that, but its also not rocket science to realise that once you've cleared the clutter, when it comes down to actually taking the photos, don't do things like stand in front of the mirror in just your underpants while you're photographing the bathroom.
On that note, I'm off to practice my Blue Steel model poses so the next batch of happy snaps to surface from my family get togethers may be half decent.