Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The last two houses I sold had professional photographers. Both times I commented the pictures made the house look so nice I wasn’t sure why I was selling.
Please take ALL the pets with you for a ride before the potential buyers show up; and a reasonable spray shot (not a FOG) or two thru the halls of the house helps. If you have birds, cover the cage so they won't squawk.
The last two houses I sold had professional photographers. Both times I commented the pictures made the house look so nice I wasn’t sure why I was selling.
You are exactly right, this is really explaining how the photoshopped pictures are so deceiving. We'd been house/appts. seeing with our daughter who's in search for one. I am glad that she understood after the first house she'd seen that she should not be believing what she sees on pictures in advance. But that brings another issue: wasting your (buyer's) time, and from another angle: attack on buyer's intelligence. If you came to see real estate for sale you went through so much dedication and appointment making and reallocating your daily schedule to accommodate agent time and so on.
You realize quickly that photoshop was too extreme. Then you start fearing that's because those are to distract you from hidden problems for that unit for sale that maybe even your home inspector wouldn't be able to detect.
I understand everybody in there in that real estate industry doing their job the best they know how and seller and its agent are hoping that buyer will just close sooner than's expected.
If seller is honest and isn't hiding anything, if ready to tell as it is and even warn about something that buyer may not particularly be aware of for the region, or street or village/city ordinance, why not put that info on the table. Buyer will recognize seller honesty and will make heartwarming decision about buying unit that is already aware of needs to update/improve.
If such were sale/buying experience, then by law, arrange closing dates in prescreened office have your closing lawyers (both side) and live happily ever after.
But, no. Why be honest when honesty doesn't pay off (to them). To me, thanks God, honesty is n#1 trait. I am only guessing, that might be reason behind why someone is holding these times as demand is higher than supply. Picture it right for right price and buyer will show up.
These statements are also result of personal bitterness when bought our first house. Seller agent and our buyer agent were so quiet about many problems in this house. Inexperienced first time buyer is easy to be detected and fooled.
I sold my house of 28 years last year in prep to build a new one. It's a 1440 sq ft home. Average neighborhood, but I had done tons of upgrades - primarily thinking I would always live there. Bought fro $75 in 1990. Put around $32-38 total into it including major bathroom overhauls, Kitchen full overhaul with stainless, granite, etc. Plus new deck and fully sodded yard that was beyond gorgeously maintained.
But the most vital part of my sale was the guy who did the photos for the realty company. Perfect lighting - perfect exposure of the rooms strengths, even did a nominal wide angle lens on a couple of rooms to help folks see the breadth of the rooms easily. The end result was phenomenal. I listed at 144,100 - which was about 3000 over my real estate agent's recommendation and sold for 143,000. It sold to the second person who looked at it the first day it listed. I firmly believe the photographer MADE the sale of my house. And I got to walk away with about a 50G profit. House was already paid form.
My points are 2: 1. get a good photographer. That doesn't have to mean expensive. 2. Stage your house. I took bloat out of rooms and stored them in a storage unit through the process. And things literally gleamed for the walkthroughs. The yard was cleaned up, mowed, edged and freshly mulched and new potted plants were on the back deck. You have to spend a little to sell. And I can proudly say that couple got a kick ass house for the price. I put 28 years of love into it.
Point is - the photography can really sell the house - or get them in there.
Two photo pet peeves that agents need to pay attention to:
#1 Put the danged toilet seat(s) down; and
#2 Don't stand in front of the mirror(s) while taking the photo
Oh I could add so many more to this list....
It is amazing how many times that when I am shooting a home for MLS pictures and the amount of clutter I move from right in front of me and in the cameras eye to behind me. Then move the stuff that I just put behind me on the other side of the room so I can take a photo of that part of the home.
How about the wide-angle lens that makes the door and windows look eight feet wide? and makes me wonder if my glaucoma is acting up? or if the house was built by a mad carpenter who refused to make right angles?
But is there any other way to get most of a room in a photo, instead of just a slice taken from the doorway? I generally crouch in a corner and try to get the other three walls in the picture.
I always use a wide angle lens. Not so much that it distorts the pictures with a fisheye. I focus on the qualities and features that will benefit or valuable to buyers. My job is to present a property in a way where a buyer feels great about the purchase and is willing to purchase it. The problem I see with taking a photo of three walls in the picture is that in some smaller homes there is little to not value to that picture if you are not using a wide angle lens camera.
I’m convinced we only got this house for the price we did because of the atrocious photos. Dark, boring, didn’t show the amazing neighborhood. It was a FSBO and we obtained it for 15k under comp market value, after almost not even looking at it ourselves. In a hot market like this area it should have been s bidding war like the other houses we lost out on, but the bad photos cut down significant amounts of interest. Our gain, I’d say.
I assume that your figures of "under comp market value" was from the appraisal? It is amazing how often I find a FSBO sold home appraise for more than the contract price. I am probably seeing it at 98% of the time. So much so that I am going to write an article/ blog about it on my website now! Thanks!!!!
I've noticed realtors who schedule photo shoots in the fall, even though a house won't be listed until Spring (which in my area means late January/February).
Wondering what the rest of you think of this tactic. On the one hand, you get the beauty of the fall leaves, and you don't see the road through the trees. On the other hand, photos from an earlier season make a listing look old, to me.
I think the best thing I've seen that really helps sell a home are those interactive video tours that you can do. To me, it can really make a huge difference between some of the standard pictures.
I think the best thing I've seen that really helps sell a home are those interactive video tours that you can do. To me, it can really make a huge difference between some of the standard pictures.
Matterport is surprisingly affordable, when one considers that the cost of professional photography is included.
I have decided to do it on all house listings.
Land? Not so much.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
:
