The Importance of Photographing Your Home when Selling

Once you decide on an agent, they will want to take photographs of your home and property. Do not allow them to take photographs of your home until it is completely ready, because the photographs will appear online and in other marketing materials and you will want pictures that reflect your home at its absolute best to show potential buyers.

The vast majority of buyers look on the Internet for homes. Real estate agencies list their homes online, and there are sites, like www.Realtor.com that list the millions of homes on sale with agents who are members of the National Association of Realtors. Photographs are used extensively in these listings to show and describe homes.

The key feature on the real estate sites are photographs. At Realtor.com, once you input your search requirements, a list of homes appears. Under the address appears a photograph, and to the right is a blurb about the home. Click on the address or photograph for more information on a particular home. On the vast majority of listings, four large photographs appear and dominate the screen, with only the address, price, and briefest description above. You need to scroll down to see the specific features. In the center of the photographs is a circle with the number of additional photographs of the home to be viewed. Most of the nicest homes feature 25 photographs.

The quality and ease of use of digital cameras makes taking photographs easy—but your home better look good, or those photographs will turn off buyers. If you do the work in this book, you will be able to show off your home to its best advantage and you will get interested buyers.

Because it is so easy to do so, I recommend that either you or your agent take at least 100 shots inside and outside your home and property. Take pictures on a sunny day, as buyers love light-filled rooms.

Make sure you capture all the best views from inside or outside your home, including focal points, great architectural details, and nature.

Take the same pictures you took as before photographs, too. This will enable you to compare before and after shots, making you more objective, allowing you to see if there are still any problems. It's also interesting to see what you have accomplished!