Photographing your property
Photography has always been one of the most important elements necessary for a successful sale, but in recent years this fact has become much more widely appreciated across the real estate industry.
Over the last 25 years, I have learned a few of the golden rules of property photography and thought I’d share them here.
Remember the objective: The photographs are not there to sell the property, they are there to persuade prospective buyers to make the effort to view.
Don’t give away too much: Try and offer an attractive snapshot, but don’t show too much. You don’t need to photograph every room or space, and depending on the type of property, probably 10-15 photographs is more than enough.
Don’t oversell: The photographs need to be strong enough to make the property attractive to likely buyers, but they should never be better than the actual property itself, and always leave something for the buyer to discover on a physical viewing.
Use professionals: Spending a few hundred pounds on professional photography represents fantastic value for money, especially when related to the value of the property, and the fact that it can add thousands to the sale price.
Dress the spaces: No room should be photographed until it has been ‘dressed’. That may mean as little as repositioning some chairs, moving some books, and lighting the fire, but it could mean furnishing a few rooms in an empty property from scratch.
Be careful with drones: Drones have revolutionised the capability of still and video photography in recent years. Prior to their emergence, I recall chartering helicopters and planes to get the right shot of a property, but now the drone makes all this easily accessible. However, just because the drone can go 200 feet up into the sky, it doesn’t mean that is actually necessary! All you will end up with is pictures of rooftops. Often, just 20 or 30 foot of elevation is what is needed to put the property into perspective with its surroundings.