So you’ve had your lovely home on the market for a couple of months now, you were told that ‘this was the best time of year to sell’, you priced it competitively, it’s in a good location and it’s presented beautifully – but for some reason you aren’t getting as many viewings as you and your agent had hoped. Why aren’t people wanting to look at your house? If you could just get them through the door then you know someone would fall in love with it and want to buy it, how can you make that happen?
The key thing to consider is your photographs. Think about it, when you are looking for your new home you trawl the property sites, stopping at anything that catches your eye and browsing through the photos of what looks like your dream home …and there’s your answer, YOUR photos must have impact and therefore catch YOUR potential buyers eye.
Now go and have a good look at the photographs of your home and answer the following questions:
Was it a bright, dry day when the photographs were taken?
Was the sun on the front of your house?
Do the walls in the photographs look as if they are sloping?
Can you see the view through your windows?
Do the rooms look the same colour in the photographs as they do in real life?
Are the lights glaring?
Are the full size of the rooms captured?
If your house has any features have they been captured?
Were you advised how to present your house and garden for the day of the shoot?
Did your agent instruct a professional photographer?
If your agent didn’t instruct a professional photographer then the answer to these questions is probably ‘no’.
Your photographs need to entice the potential buyer through the door, so if they don’t then I’d strongly suggest that you ask your agent to address the problem and instruct a professional photographer to retake the photographs, or alternatively change agents to one who will.
It takes a professional with a creative eye to capture the size of a room and all the furniture and features in it. In addition to that it takes specialist software knowledge to make sure that your walls don’t look like your house is falling over, that colours are true, that any views can be seen through the windows and perhaps to pop a blue sky with fluffy clouds in to your outside photograph instead of that white sky or dull sky with black rain clouds that was there on the day of the shoot.
Don’t be fooled by agents who turn up with a fancy camera – more often than not they ‘have the gear but no idea’ and their camera certainly does not make them a professional photographer.
If you want examples of what houses should look like when they go on the market then click below to have a look at my portfolio and feel free to show it to your agents as examples of what you are expecting their photographer to deliver.
If you would like any advice on choosing an estate agent or questions to ask them regarding professional photography then drop me an email by clicking here.
Click here to go to my portfolio page and good luck with the sale of your home.
Nicole