How Your Listing Photos Will Be Your Home's First Buyer Viewing

The old saying goes: a picture is worth a thousand words. And in the case of selling your home, it's more like a million words!

The importance of the quality of the listing photos when selling your house cannot be emphasized enough!

After all, this is the very first place where potential buyers will see your home and decide if they want to take the time out to actually come to a viewing.

You should pretty much prepare your home the same way a model prepares for a photo shoot.

Here are 4 important pointers to keep in mind when going about your listing photos of your home:

#1 - Never list your home online without photos

It should be a major 'duh' not to list your home without photos, but all it takes are a few mouse scrolls on your favorite real estate listing portal to find listings without photos!

We've all run into them and wondered how that's even possible (whether it be from a fellow real estate agent, home seller, or home buyer point-of-view)!

There is nothing more frustrating than receiving an email saying that there is a new "house for sale" listing coming onto the market, but you cannot view the pictures (because there aren't any).

You bet your bottom dollar that interested home buyers (and hopefully most agents worth their salt) will crucify you for posting an incomplete listing.

Will they go back to view it again? They might, but the odds are pretty high that your house is as good as forgotten.

Selling a home is all about visuals and with today's visually inclined market pictures are more important than ever.

#2 - Poor photo quality is out of the question

Sure, we can't all say that we're talented (real estate) photographers, but photos with poor quality taken in bad light really leave a sour taste in the mouths of property hunters.

It is a good idea to spend a few bucks and have a professional photographer take the pictures of the house for you!

These are the people who know about highlighting photos by means of lighting and angles. They will be able to take dozens of photos and you (and/or the agent) can choose the ones that portray your property the best.

#3 - Don't skimp on the number of photos

This is very important.

Let's keep in mind that the person sitting on the other side of the screen has no idea what your house looks like on the inside or outside.

Thus, it is crucial that you give them as many visuals as they need to form a positive picture.

Rather list as many photos as you can than too few.

Try getting photos of all the areas around the house: besides the living areas, bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, you might want to include some of the patio, the garage, the yard, and maybe even the street view from where your house is situated (without interfering in the neighbors' privacy, of course).

This way, you will give your buyers a clear image of what they can expect at the showing.

#4 - CDOR = clean, declutter, organize and remove

You should spend a few hours prepping your house ahead of the professional shoot:

• Every single detail should be tended to from cleaning the house to fluffing the pillows on the bed.
• Put Rex's bowl away and get the kids to pack their toys away, even if it is just for that day.
• People notice everything when they look at listings and with the zoom-in zoom-out functions, they are making impressions before they've even seen the house up close.

Your house is the product and your buyer is the customer, so sell it.

We live in a world where people shop with their eyes first, which increases the pressure on homeowners even more: the web can be your best friend or your worst enemy.

Spend some time researching other ways to make your photos look appealing before posting them online.