Tag Archives: photography

Most estate agents have great cameras these days, and will tell you they can get just as good shots as a pro photographer. After all, cameras have come on in huge leaps and bounds, and yesterday’s pro camera costing thousands is today’s amateur camera, costing less than a couple of hundred.

Meanwhile, Sam (me) tells you that you must have professional images to sell your house effectively and that an amateur’s efforts just won’t cut it.

So who’s right?

Me of course!

Here are seven reasons why you need a pro on the job:

1. A pro will see what an amateur won’t. When he has a tripod set up, he can evaluate the shot in a considered way, and move out of the way anything that might sabotage it: a cat bowl, a rubbish bin, even a colourful hairbrush. Anything that may distract a viewer from looking at the main features of a room.

2. A pro can deal with light levels. How often do you look at a photograph of a house interior on Rightmove, where the windows are just white boxes? This is what a pro calls ‘blown out’ and it is because an amateur doesn’t have the expertise to cope with dark corners and light streaming through the window, at the same time.

3. A pro sees shots everywhere. Unlike an amateur, who will generally just get one wide-angled shot of every room, a pro will see a creative shot in the turn of a banister, or across a garden feature towards the sunshine. He is trained to look for the shots where they occur, not snap what’s there.

4. A pro will add ambience. He knows when to turn lamps on, and when to rely on the sun coming through the window instead. He is adept at capturing atmosphere like a roaring fire or flickering candle.

5. A pro takes his time. He has allocated a certain amount of time for the shoot, often several hours, and will walk round the property and plan the shoot carefully in his head. He takes account of where the light falls, and its path over the course of the shoot.

6. A pro has professional integrity. He needs to get the very best shots possible of your home – that’s his job. Whereas for an agent, the photography is just part of a very complex, demanding job, a pro photographer can instead dedicate himself to the job of getting those perfect images, no matter what it takes.

7. A pro will deliver an exceptional finished result. It can easily take almost as long to edit a shoot as it does to take the photographs in the first place. In fact my sister, the fab wedding photographer Kathy Ashdown, takes 40 hours to edit a wedding that took her perhaps 12 hours to shoot. White balance, levels, saturation, sharpness, and lots more all have to be accounted for and enhanced so that the finished image is practically a work of art.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

A gentleman called me recently, having struggled to sell his house for several months. I took a look at his property advert online and saw a house that was full of mismatched furniture and cluttered rooms. “Have you considered using a home stager?” I asked him.

He hadn’t heard of the concept. In fairness, whilst it’s something that the Americans do to sell their properties, it’s not an idea we have embraced in this country yet, though sellers who are struggling often find that it can make a huge difference to the interest they get from buyers.

So let’s look at your living room, and how best to present it for sale, and wow your buyers:

1. Your suite – I often visit homes that are on the market with old, sagging sofas that haven’t been in fashion since the 1980s! When the homeowner tells me they plan to replace their suite when they move, I urge them to do it now instead, to help the house become more saleable. Old sofa equals dated house, or that’s what a buyer will think. A new modern sofa will really add a stylish look to your living room and prove a worthwhile investment for you.

2. Your carpeting – how is your carpet looking? Is it heavily patterned, darkly-coloured, or both? Would a professional clean refresh it, or does it really need replacing? A dirty, worn and dated carpet will give the impression that the house hasn’t been looked after, so if you want to portray a well-presented home, it may be worth investing a few hundred pounds in a new, neutral carpet.

3. Your walls – you don’t need to paint everything magnolia, but you do need to present a buyer with a décor that they will like, as much as you can do. Whilst you haven’t got mind-reading powers (I assume!) few people will be put off by neutral, modern colour schemes. If you have a feature wall in say, vibrant purple, you are risking alienating anyone that doesn’t like purple, so play it safe and go for neutral shades.

4. Your lighting – this can really make or break the impact of your living room. Downlighters and table lamps can create a cosy atmosphere; uplighting can add a splash of drama. If you have overhead lighting, it’s usually best to leave that off and create a real feeling of homeliness with your additional lighting choices.

5. Your cushions – if you can’t justify a new sofa, perhaps new cushions will help to refresh the look of your living room. A recent client of mine bought a really inexpensive cream Ikea sofa, then added some lovely colourful cushions in rich fabrics, to add a real feeling of luxury without a big spend.

6. Your accessories – have a look around your living room at your ornaments and other accessories. Are any of them new and stylish? Or do you have little collections of old-fashioned ornaments you’ve gathered over many years? If they have sentimental value, why not parcel them all up now ready for your forthcoming move? That way you can clear the space for some pieces that are in keeping with current home style and perhaps that match your new colourful cushions.

7. Your art and pictures – if your walls and surfaces are covered in personal family portraits, it’s time to take them down, and box them up for your move. Generally speaking, it’s best if art is neutral and not distracting, like the kind of bland style you see in hotels. Lots of mirrors and large pictures in a style and colour to match your living room, will lift your presentation and add a feeling of coordination and harmony.

8. Your tv – these days, many living rooms are dominated by a large black box, aka your tv! Unless you have one of those high-tech mirrors that magically transforms into a tv at the touch of a button, you need to consider how you are going to diminish its impact however you can. Try rearranging the furniture around the fireplace or other feature, rather than grouping it around your tv. You may not be able to live with the furniture in that position, but it’s worth placing it especially for your photography and viewings.

9. Your ambience – how does your living room feel? Does it have a nice sense of calm and tranquility that makes it feel like somewhere you want to be after a busy day at work? Consider the way it smells, and sounds, as well as the way it looks. Lightly scented candles and some background music can really enhance the feeling of your living room and provide a restful space so that your viewers can relax.

10. Your finishing touches – before you have your photographs taken, or book a viewing, take a last look at your living room with a critical eye. Take away anything that doesn’t improve the look of the room, like wastepaper bins or piles of magazines, and add a vase of flowers and a beautiful coffee table book, and voila! Your room is ready.

Home staging really doesn’t have to cost much, but it can pay dividends! If you have a great staging tip of your own, please let me know in the comments below.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

There are many elements that go into making great property photography: the weather, the skill and experience of the photographer, and the features of the house itself – they all go into making or breaking the shoot. But did you know there are lots of things you can do to increase the chances of achieving the best images of your house? You need to ensure the images of your house not only do it justice, but also more importantly, indicate the kind of lifestyle that a buyer can aspire to. Here are some of my suggestions to do just that:

1. Clean and clear – we all know that tv can add inches to a person’s waistline, well property photography can take off inches! Rooms can look cluttered and meanly-proportioned, with dark corners and distracting colours. Clear surfaces and floor spaces, take up rugs where necessary, and clean everything until it sparkles. Light and reflected shine are the best ways to show off the size of your rooms. (Note: your photographer may want to use a very wide-angled lens, but I would caution against this; at best it can give the rooms very odd angles and at worst, mislead a viewer.)

2. Go shopping! Any self-respecting property lover adores seeing inside the homes of the rich and famous, but one of the reasons these houses look so fabulous is that they are staged for the shoot. Steal their style! Shop for staging accessories and give your home the star treatment:

Kitchen:

Croissants
Champagne
Fruit – stick to one type per bowl. Strawberries, limes and green apples look great.
Rustic board of artisan breads and cheeses
Flowers – in keeping with your home style; eg hand-picked posy for a farmhouse, Calla lilies for a contemporary home.

Living rooms:

Church candles in fireplaces
Flowering plants
Lifestyle magazines and coffee table books

Bathrooms:

Fluffy white towels
Luxury spa-style toiletries

Outside:

Flowering plant for patio table centre
Pretty tealight holders or church candle lantern

3. The better you brief the photographer, the better the images will be! Go round the house making a note of any particularly attractive angles or features, then call him as close as possible to the day he is due, so your requests are fresh in his mind. Suggest he makes notes, or follow up on your conversation by emailing him a summary. Talk to him about the house, and suggest any particular features of interest in the house and garden, that best portray the character and style of the home. Ask him to ensure that in addition to his standard shots, he also takes some ‘lifestyle’ images, eg bowl of fruit, coffee on an outside table, roses in the hallway. Suggest he also tries some ‘vignette’ shots; these are shots framed by a doorway, or in a mirror.

4. Make sure the photographer knows what time of day the sun will be on the front of the house. Think also about evening shots, and when the sun will be on the garden. This may necessitate two separate visits so make sure the photographer has allowed for this.

5. Follow him round! Plump cushions, move chairs, take away any distracting objects, remove bins and washing. Make sure you can see what he’s photographing so you can anticipate any potential for the room not looking its absolute best. Put lamps on, or turn lights off, to keep the ambient light at the right level. A good photographer will really appreciate your help and will guide you throughout.

6. Keep your images seasonal– it’s very telling to see a house advertised in September with daffodils in the garden, or in January with Wisteria in full bloom. Keep your property photography as close as possible to the current season. This often means asking your agent to revisit to refresh your images with new ‘foliage’ shots. At HomeTruths this is something we routinely arrange every three to four months. After all, you may not want your viewer to know how long your house has been for sale – and why give them an excuse to make a low offer?

Some improvements to the images can be made in editing, like putting in a blue sky or taking out a skip! But remember that if you aren’t absolutely delighted with your photography, you can ask for it to be re-taken. Insist on perfection and the viewers will turn up in droves!

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

Whichever of the four main property portals your house had been listed on – Rightmove, Primelocation, Zoopla or OntheMarket – you need to make sure it is working for you. Check that it is:

Punchy – does it stand out above the other properties?
Good front shot – is it stale? Is it seasonal? Can it be improved?
6-8 photographs – too few is not enough to whet a buyer’s appetite, but too many and they will think they don’t need to view. Are your internal images good enough?
Brochure download – can your brochure be downloaded and printed as a pdf?
Floorplan download – check your floorplan loads large enough to read, and print it out to ensure it’s clear enough

Think of your online advert as an extension of your brochure; it needs to really sell your house, and encourage a buyer to book a viewing. After all, that’s what it’s there to do!

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

So what do women want? It’s a question Mel Gibson attempted to answer back in the day in his 2000 hit, as he inadvertently delved into the female psyche. Whilst sadly he didn’t manage to cover female property desires, we can tell you that women want plenty. The whole women are from Venus and Man are from Mars comes into play here; a woman’s want list is pretty different than men’s.

Research has shown that women are more centered on their emotions while property hunting, whereas men have a mental checklist that they’re aiming to tick off. And whereas plenty of couples are house hunting, there are a lot of single women wanting to jump on to the property market too. It is illogical to not consider the female buyer when you put your property on the market. You want to appeal to everyone, and females are a large segment. If you’ve got a pretty swanky bachelor pad on your hands and are looking to move on, it is going to prove pretty difficult for a woman to picture her life amongst the masculine styling.

With this in mind, this month we’re going to be focusing on The Female Buyer, looking at marketing for women buyers, and the differences you can make to your home. Over the next few weeks we’ll be looking at various different marketing tactics, so stay tuned!

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

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When a potential buyer sees a photograph of your house, they will have an emotional reaction to it, to some degree. The reaction may be positive or negative; it may be indifference, which will probably cause them to dismiss your house as a possible next home for them.

Clearly, the main image is crucial as your best chance to generate a positive emotional reaction, and one way of doing this is to make sure that your front door can be seen in the main shot. Let me show you what I mean.

Take this lovely property for a start; it has some great period features – that decorative brickwork for example – and it clearly has an elegant and perfectly fitting front door, if you crane your neck to see it, that is. What a pity that buyers can’t see it in any of the photos online.

And this old school house, with its pretty windows and attractive roofline, would look so much more inviting if you could see the front door. If nothing else, I’m curious as to what it would look like.

This Lakeland stone property has been photographed at an angle that shows the front door, giving balance to the image and the best chance of creating a positive emotional response in a buyer. I would be intrigued by the fact that the door itself appears contemporary in style, tempting me to seek out the rest of the images, to see what it’s like inside.

What a pretty conversion; imagine if the photographer had taken the shot straight on to the garage; the cute porch wouldn’t be visible. This way, a buyer can see the character of the outside that could give a clue about what lies inside.

So if your house is on the market, check out your online advert to see if your front door is visible; if not, consider asking your agent to change your front shot so that it is and give your buyers the chance to make that emotional connection with your house right from the start.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

A gentleman called me recently, and asked me this very question: “How many photos of my house online is too many?”

“How many do you have?” I asked him.

“77” came the reply.

Yes, if you’re wondering, 77 photos is too many. Around 57 too many, in fact!

There’s a great marketer’s saying that goes, “Sell the sizzle, not the sausage”, and that’s very relevant here. What it means is, don’t try to show the buyer everything, all at once. If you have 77 photographs of your home online, coupled with 1000 words of description, why would a buyer need to view your home? They can decide whether or not your home is of interest to them, from the comfort of their armchair, based on your photography alone.

Keep a little back; tease your buyer and pique their interest. Here’s a few tips on how to hook their attention, and encourage them to view your home:

Don’t post too many photographs: 12 – 20 images is plenty, you really don’t need any more.
Try to make a third of your photographs lifestyle images; in other words, stylish pictures of interesting features of your home, close-up. Perhaps a garden table dressed with a bottle of wine and some glasses, a candlelit dining table, or flowers on a hallway table. These kind of images snag a buyer’s attention and give them the clues they need that your home may be what they are looking for.
Keep your copy brief and snappy: use bullet points for your main features, and short, interesting sentences for a brief description.
Don’t let your agent use a long description online, as your buyer may well have to scroll down several times before they even reach your brochure link. Keep the copy to no more than a screen’s depth.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

Today’s blog is courtesy of our south-west consultant, Claire Thatcher.

When times are good, market activity is high, and there are plenty of buyers for plenty of houses – so why should they choose your house?

When times aren’t so good, market activity is sluggish, with fewer people prepared, or able, to buy a house, and certainly being more picky about it – so why should they choose your house?

Here are 4 ways to ensure that your house stands out above your competition, in good times or bad:

A better agent will make sure your viewings are engaging, that follow up is thorough and that your sales process and negotiations are handled professionally and quickly

A better brochure means that your agent has something to follow up an enquiry with, a brochure that bestows the benefits (rather than the features) of living in your home

Better home presentation means that when viewed it leaves a lasting, positive impression that reinforces your property brochure

Better photography ensures you will stand out from the crowd and show your house to its best possible potential, showing them what their life could be like living there.

It may seem difficult to believe, but most sellers and agents do not follow these basic principles.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

I’ve sold my house. Not the one I live in, but a little cottage I bought, renovated, and then because of the banking crash in 2007, I had to rent out for a few years. When the tenant moved out last year, I took my chance, and prepared it for sale. Just as I advise my clients to do, I freshened up the paintwork, washed all the soft furnishings, and bought lots of lovely accessories to stage it. Then I had professional photographs taken and I wrote a great description, specifically designed to tempt viewings. Finally, I employed a designer to put together a beautiful brochure for me, together with a logo for the cottage, to add some brand appeal.

It all looked fantastic.

So which agent would be worthy of marketing such an easy-to-sell house? I looked at the local independents: too parochial. The big nationals: too impersonal. Really, I wanted to sell it myself, but the private seller sites, like Tepilo, just aren’t big enough yet. I know that buyers only look at the four big portals: Rightmove, Primelocation, FindaProperty and Zoopla – that’s where I needed to be, but they don’t accept private sellers.

The answer, was to use a ‘virtual agent’. If you don’t know what one of these is, you might be interested in reading my previous blog post on the subject, but briefly, it’s a no-frills agency that offers just enough of a service to comply with the property portals, but doesn’t offer viewings, or charge a commission. In addition, they don’t ‘value’ your home; you tell them what you want your asking price to be.

I tried several virtual agents before I found one good enough to sell my cottage; most of them don’t allow you to upload your own brochure, which was none-negotiable for me, as I know how important it is. Finally I found an up and coming online agent who was just right: right attitude, right approach, right skills, right price. (I’m not going to share with you on here who it is, but I can create for you a plan to help you sell with them, exactly as I did.)

Viewings to organise now; as I don’t live near to the cottage, I found a local lady who could do the viewings for me for a small fee, and who I trained in how to prepare the cottage, and how to show it to viewers. She called me after every viewing to give me feedback straight away, which was really helpful. No waiting for days for the agent to call with it.

This weekend, encouraged by my viewing lady, a buyer called me direct, and made an offer to me. I was able to explain my situation, and negotiate directly with him, and we settled on a price that suited us both, which was the 95% I was hoping for. Even better, there are no further agent fees to pay!

So what did it cost in total? Here’s my spend to date:

Staging costs £ 1000

Photography £ 300

Brochure design £ 240

Viewings £ 200

Upfront fee to virtual agent £ 199

Energy Performance Certificate £ 60

For sale board £ 40

Completion fee to virtual agent £ 199

Total expenses £2238

I’ve saved a total of £2500 on agency fees, which basically has paid for me to prepare the cottage the way I wanted to, which in turn, has resulted in a much better offer than I would have received.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

Do you know what a Rightmove Property Performance Report is?

Well done those if you do! But if you think it sounds like an investor report, you may want to read on. Particularly if you’re trying to sell your house, and you’ve never been shown this very useful report.

The Rightmove Property Performance Report is available to all those estate agents who use Rightmove.co.uk to advertise their properties. What this report can show is:

How well your property is ‘performing’ in terms of the number of times it appears in a buyer’s search on Rightmove
How your property compares with the performance of similar properties on Rightmove
These statistics over the last week, fortnight or thirty days.

Statistically, there is a direct correlation between the number of times your property listing is clicked on, and the viewings generated on it. So it’s really important that you get as many clicks as possible.

First things first, ask your estate agent for your Rightmove Property Performance Report.

This is data your estate agent has access to, inside the Rightmove console. If they are not using Rightmove, they will be able to access similar statistics within Zoopla, On the Market or Prime Location. Property listings with images and floorplans, that are updated regularly, have the best performance metrics on Rightmove and the other portals. This Report also shows the number of times your property listing was clicked on over the last 7, 14 or 30 days, together with a comparable against the previous period. Additionally, this statistic can be compared against similar property listings on Rightmove, so you can see whether your property advert is competing well or not. A ‘similar’ listing is typically what a searcher would see alongside your property when they search on Rightmove, and therefore could be considered as your ‘competition’.

If your home listing is not performing or competing well, it could be a strong indicator of the reason you’re not getting viewings on your house. Here’s my checklist to try, before you rush to reduce the price on a house that’s not getting interest:

Check your photographs – do they really show your home at its best, and are they up to date? If your outside images reflect a different season than the current one, ask your estate agent to re-photograph your house and garden. Then check your next performance report to see if your numbers have increased.
Revisit your property description. Firstly, draw up a profile of the kind of person you think is most likely to buy your home. Age, status, motivation for moving, and so on. Then write down a list of adjectives about your house that you think would most appeal to these target buyers. Look at your property description – does it need rewriting to incorporate these key words? Your agent can help you with this. I’ve changed property listings in the past to better appeal to a family, or to someone looking for a change in lifestyle. Words matter, so make sure your written description best sells the primary features of your home, to the person most likely to be attracted to those features.
Make sure your listing is complete – eg does it have a floorplan that can be viewed easily, even on a mobile? The best floorplans are colour-coded, able to zoom in on, and include a compass showing the direction of the sun on the house.

If these three steps still don’t improve your listing performance, try these tips:

Change the main listing property description to just one snappy headline. A question is always eye-catching: eg “wouldn’t you love to watch the sun go down sitting on this balcony?”
Change the main listing image for one which doesn’t show the property at all, but instead just the front door, or name plate.
Include some information in the front-page introduction, eg ‘The only home in the Lake District with a well in the downstairs toilet’ (probably best you make your statement truthful)

Before your agent makes any changes to your advert, ask them to produce a report as a benchmark, then compare it in say a week, with the new click-through rate to see if there’s been any improvement in it.

So, if you haven’t seen a Rightmove Property Performance Report before, call your agent right away and ask for yours. If they seem a bit clueless on the subject, you might want to think about finding a new agent. After all, this is the digital age, and informed sellers will always have the edge.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

Happy selling!

Sam