Sellers may be worried about having the home photographed. First-time sellers may be feeling more than a little overwhelmed by the process. But even experienced sellers can use a few pointers. Ease their stress and yours, save time and make sure everything goes well by using this helpful checklist
When preparing your home for real estate photos, you can try to make it look showroom-ready so that buyers can imagine themselves living there. Here are some tips to consider:
Depersonalize
Remove personal items like photos, family items, and keepsakes. You can also put away family photographs.
Clear surfaces
Remove clutter from countertops, including soap, toothbrushes, and other items. This can help avoid privacy issues in high-resolution photos.
Remove furniture
Remove excess or large furniture to open up floor space and make the home look more presentable. You can also remove some furniture to make rooms look bigger.
Hide items
Store wastebaskets in laundry baskets, and hide electrical cords and cables. You can also put away pet dishes, toys, and beds.
Prepare the bathroom
Remove everything from countertops, including soap, toothbrushes, and deodorants. Place toilet seats down, and hang only clean, unused towels.
Prepare the outside
Hide large garbage cans and lawn equipment in the garage, and keep the lawn free of toys and pet items.
Remove floor coverings
Remove mats, area rugs, and runners to allow for better light reflection and show more detail in the photos.
Adjust window coverings
If a wall has multiple window coverings, adjust them all the same.
Clean
Clean mirrors and windows, vacuum carpets, and polish floors.
I want to dive a little deeper into the one area that seems to hang up clients every time. That is clutter.
Now clutter doesn’t have just one meaning. To some it’s just a few items out of place while to others, it could put them on the edge of approaching “hoarder” status. Either way lets talk about some of those specific items that could actually be impacting the “Sell-ability” of your listing in a negative way.
Why is hiding the clutter important for your listing?
Well let’s think about a house from a buyers prospective. Most likely the buyer has been perusing houzz or pinterest and has this grand vision of their future home. They may know it’s not realistic, or maybe it is. But you want to present your listing as close to that vision as possible. It’s done with two goals in mind.
1) Make sure they see a clean, beautiful home that will improve their quality of life.
2) Make sure they can see themselves in the home.
These goals may seem pretty obvious but they often get overlooked by sellers. It’s my job to educate sellers on what they can do for the best results. You want the property to be as “show ready” as possible to feature the selling points of the home. Getting rid of clutter is going to be one of the easiest ways to do this because clutter in a home only serves as a distraction to buyers.
What is Clutter?
Before we get too far into what needs to be done with clutter, let’s first identify it. I describe clutter as anything that is “extra” in a space. Beyond your typical sofa, chairs, tables, rugs, etc, items that a buyer may not necessarily add to the space can become clutter. Clutter is often sentimental items, it can be knick-knacks on the counters, even items that are nice may be adding “visual clutter” to a space.
So what do we do with it?
1st off, we can walk thru the home together and talk about what items should be put away and why. Grandma’s photo is lovely, but it could distract buyers from seeing themselves in the home. It’s not personal and you can bring the items back out as soon as photos and showings are done but until then, the house really needs to showcase itself without these items.
Do a walk-through with the Sellers
We can look at each area, one-by-one, and try to address everything that can be distracting. Here are some of the top clutter areas I see when photographing a listing.
-Countertops: Clean off the counters. Put appliances, knife blocks, paper towel holders, soaps, and just about everything else, under a cabinet. Buyers like to see lots of counter space, whether it’s in a bathroom or kitchen, and clean counters are the only way to show that.
-Sitting Areas: Personal touches are great but, like I said, photos of grandma don’t always resonate with buyers. Remove family photos to stay anonymous. Keep your chairs “sittable” by only having 1-2 pillows as decor and keep your tables tidy.
-Outdoor Areas: Mow that grass, rake the leaves, and emphasize the importance of hiding the garden hose. All of these things add visual clutter that can make the house feel sloppy.
These are just a few things to do to reduce clutter in a listing, but there is always more to do. For more ideas my “Sellers Photo Checklist”“Sellers Photo Checklist” can help sellers to be prepared to show the home.
How are you helping the buyers see themselves in the space?
