One of the best ways to generate interest in your home, when you list it with real estate agent Lauren Lawson, is to have a professional photographer take the pictures to include in the listing. These professionals have the ability to present your home in the best light possible.
However, there are a few things that you might want to do before the photographer arrives to ensure that your home is market-ready. You want your home to appeal to the widest audience, and this might take a few steps to ensure that it does.
This guide can help you get your home ready for its appointment with a professional photographer.
What Should You Expect During a Photo Shoot of Your Home?
You're going to spend a lot of time getting your home ready to photograph, so it's going to come as a surprise how quickly the photographer works and leaves. Depending on the size of your home, it should only take between half an hour and an hour for the photographer to get their work done.
The photographer may ask for a quick tour of the home and instruct you to open or close blinds, curtains, and doors. The photographers know how to get the best photos of your home, so it's a good idea to follow their instructions.
You can expect them to take photos of:
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Three or four photos at the front of the home and outdoor space
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Four photos of the backyard (If you have a designated outdoor living space, such as an outdoor kitchen, the photograph might take additional photos)
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One photo of the garage
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Two pictures of the entrance to the home. This includes the front door and the mud room from the garage if you have one.
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Four to five photos in the living room
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Two to three pictures of the dining room
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Three to four photos of the kitchen (If you have any amazing upgrades, the photographer might photograph them separately)
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Three photos of the master bedroom and two of the ensuite bathroom
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One photo of each of the additional bedrooms
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One photo of each of the additional bathrooms
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One photo of the study or home office
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If you have special rooms or areas, such as a theater room or a wine cellar, the photographer will photograph these areas as well.
Your real estate agent, who has already toured your home, will list the necessary photo requirements for the photographer. The photographer will make sure that he has good pictures of each area before leaving your home.
Deep Clean Your Home
In the modern world, a potential buyer can open photos of your home on their phone and zoom in on the tiny little dust bunny hiding beside your dresser. They can also zoom in on faucets, mirrors, and window sills. You need all of it to be spotlessly clean to show the home is well cared for.
Even if you already use a
weekly cleaning service, it's a good idea to schedule a deep clean the day before the photos are taken. A deep cleaning will ensure that your home is clean from the baseboards to the ceiling fans.
However, you can expect the deep cleaning to take the better part of a day to complete. This seems counterintuitive since your home is already clean, but they'll scrub places you never think about.
This step is important to make sure that your home appears in the best light possible. Unfortunately, many potential buyers also use home photos to eliminate prospective properties, and you don't want to give them a reason to cross yours off their list.
Make Arrangements for Your Pets
You love your pets, and they are a part of your family. However, you don't want them to appear in the photos in your home accidentally. You also don't want your cat to knock a vase off the counter minutes before a photo needs to be taken or your dog to track in mud.
Most professional photographers can work around your pets. However, the chance of a catastrophe is always looming when there are pets in your home during the photo shoot.
Talk to your neighbors and friends to see if there's someone who is willing to take care of your babies during the shoot. If all else fails, talk to your pet's veterinarian about boarding them for the day.
If all fails, you'll need to minimize your pet's access to the rest of the house by placing them in a bathroom or small bedroom. When it's time to take photos of that area, you'll need to make sure it looks amazing and relocate your pet to another area.
Park Your Vehicles Somewhere Else
When the photographer is taking photos of your front yard or interior of your garage, you don't want your SUV or sedan sitting there, taking attention away from the beauty of your home. You want potential buyers to imagine their own vehicles parked in the yard.
This is usually an easy fix. You can ask one of your neighbors to allow you to park in their driveway during the photo shoot, or you can park your car a couple of houses over on the street.
However, if you can't find an easy solution, the photographer can work with you. They can take photos of the driveway and front of the house with the cars in the garage, and then wait while you move them out before taking photos of the interior of the garage.
Remove Personal Items
While you might enjoy having photos of your family on your dresser or other places throughout your home, you need to remove these personal items and place them in storage. Potential buyers don't want to see your family in the home, because they want to picture their own personal items there.
You want your home to look like a catalog shoot for Pottery Barn or a magazine cover. It should look beautiful but lacking personal items of a family living in the space.
If you're unsure of what to remove and what to leave, your real estate agent can offer guidance. It's also a good idea to remove these personal items for your family's safety and security. These photos allow anyone to look inside your home, and you don't want to provide them with too much information.
Stage Your Home
Your real estate agent might make recommendations for
staging your home or encourage you to hire a professional home staging company.
Staging helps to make the most of your space and highlight specific areas.
You might need to place your favorite overstuffed recliner in storage for a few weeks and replace it with a fussier chair. It's possible that you might need to rent furniture that creates the illusion of more space in a smaller bedroom or study.
Sometimes, you might need to rent a storage unit to store items. Your stager might want to remove items from an overflowing closet or stuffed kitchen cabinets. By removing these items, it makes the areas look larger and more spacious.
The stager might want to repair your entire home or certain rooms. These touches are designed to appeal to a wider range of potential buyers. It helps these prospective buyers picture themselves living in your home and also suggests an upscale lifestyle.
Deal With Clutter From Your Children
You love your children, but they are a force of nature. You can usually follow the trail of toys and stuffed animals to wherever they are in your home. Even teenagers and tweens come with a lot of clutter from posters on the walls to a steadfast refusal to make their beds.
During the photo shoot, their rooms need to look neat and tidy along with lacking any personal touches that might be off putting to a potential buyer. Your children, especially the older ones, aren't going to be thrilled at the idea.
In most cases, the photographer won't be taking photos of the closest inside the smaller bedrooms. This makes the closets a great space to store toys, posters, and anything else you don't want seen by potential buyers. It also allows you to easily return the room back to its normal chaos when the photograph finishes up.
Find the Right Real Estate Agent to Partner With You for the Sale of Your Home
Before the photographers arrive, you need to find the best real estate agent to list your luxury home.
Lauren Lawson and her team dedicate themselves to helping you find the buyer that wants your home and getting you the best return on your property.
Each step of the way, Lauren ensures that selling your home is easy and creates minimal stress in your life. You can trust Lauren to provide you with first-class customer service throughout the home-selling process.
Schedule an appointment today.
*Header photoof Lauren Lawson Real Estate
