When it comes to selling a house, nothing can help make a better first impression to buyers than photos that highlight your home’s unique features. But photos that are blurry or taken in poor lighting conditions can also deter a potential buyer from looking at your property in-person.
Unfortunately, most sellers don’t have the right camera equipment or technical know-how to produce professional-looking photos to accompany their online listing. And hiring a photographer can sometimes be an unwanted expense.
However, with today’s technology, taking quality pictures doesn’t require a DSLR camera and fancy editing software. By following these tips and tricks, you can easily snap flattering photos of your home using only a smartphone.
Cleaning and decluttering your home before taking photos might seem obvious, but it’s important to emphasize, nonetheless. Buyers don’t want to see images of a home that appears to be messy and disorganized. If anything, simply tidying up and removing objects that don’t necessarily tie a room together can go a long way in the selling process.
When snapping selfies or photographing family, friends and everyday occurrences, the typical smartphone user tends to take pictures with his or her phone in its normal, vertical position. However, when photographing your home, it’s important to get a wide angle in every shot. Therefore, simply rotating your smartphone 90 degrees can do wonders since a landscape orientation is more visually appealing to the human eye.
There’s nothing worse than thinking you just took the perfect photo with your smartphone, only to find that the flash or artificial light provided an unwanted glare on your subject. And the same holds true when photographing rooms in your house for an online listing. Instead of taking your interior photos at night or on a dark, gloomy day, consider opening your blinds and using natural sunlight to make your space feel more vibrant. Besides, most house hunters want a home with plenty of ample space and natural light. So, if you have it, showcase it in your photos.
When photographing individual rooms or your home’s exterior, make sure your shots are on an angle to mimic the view that someone would see if they entered a room for the first time or were walking past your home. This enables a potential buyer to see the interior and exterior depth of a home instead of viewing it as a two-dimensional object.
When attaching your home’s photos to its online listing, it’s important to make sure that they’re arranged in a specific order that tells a story, as opposed to pairing an image of your master bathroom next to a photo of the backyard. Try photographing your home’s main entrance and then moving to each adjacent room so the viewer can get a better understanding of the layout and floorplan. Then, follow this same order when posting your photos.