How can I take the best photos to help sell my house?
1. Stage each room
2. Make sure there’s lots of natural light
3. Focus on the best angles
4. Use a good-quality camera.

When it comes to selling a house, one of the most important steps is taking good photographs. These photographs will be the advertisement of your house and be what gets people in touch to arrange viewings and hopefully put an offer forward.

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Usually, you’re able to have professional photos taken by a photographer who will be able to get the best possible photographs of your house. However, with the coronavirus outbreak resulting in the stay at home measures that we’re currently living under, this isn’t an option. If you still want to go ahead with a house sale in the current climate, you are still able to. It will be more work, but you are still able to get the process started providing you’re happy to take on some of the work yourself that would usually be done by an estate agent.

We recognise that currently, life as we know it is changing every day. For now, none of us knows when the stay at home measures are going to be lifted, which is why we’ve put together a guide from our professional surveyors and photographers to give you some guidance on getting the best possible photographs of your house. Good pictures should help you receive more interest in your house and will get you on your way to a sale.

1. Staging

Look at each room of your house and try to declutter it. Spend some time tidying and cleaning up, as you want to present every room in the best way possible. Decluttering helps your potential buyers see the potential that their furniture could have in your house if they bought it – it also makes rooms look larger, which is always a plus! If you can, it’s also good to dress the house up a little. Make the beds with fresh bedding, organise tables, put away any dishes hanging around on the side in the kitchen but leave the fruit bowl out and full. Minimal changes make a big difference in photos and can be the make or break if someone is considering viewing the house but is put off by any clutter or mess in the pictures.

2. Lighting

To get the best photos, you want as much natural light as possible in each room when you take your photographs. Opening curtains and doors will allow more light into each room. It’s also recommended to take photos in the morning of a bright day; sometimes this can be difficult if it’s continuously overcast, but if you’re able to wait for a sunny day it will make a big difference. Avoid taking photos in the evening with your lights on in the house- this will cause a very yellow glow in your photos that don’t have the same effect as natural light and can be off-putting to your potential viewers.

3. Angles

Wherever possible, you should take pictures from eye-level or shoulder height, to give the illusion that your prospective viewer is walking through the property and seeing each room in their own eyes. Taking photos too low will mean you mostly get the floor in, and you want to get the best view of each room and any features that it has, for example, built-in wardrobes, or fireplaces. You should try to take photos from the corner of a room, or from the doorway, to cover as much of the room as possible. These angles also help make rooms look bigger, which will always be a positive.

4. Quality of your camera

If you can get hold of a proper camera, use this to take your photographs opposed to your phone camera. If you don’t own one, you may be able to borrow one, as lots of people now own high-quality cameras. If this isn’t an option, you can still use a phone camera. Just make sure that you take them landscape and not portrait, and that you do everything you can to reduce any blur on the photographs.

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These tips may seem obvious but are often overlooked when photos are being taken. We asked one of our photographers what the most common changes that they would make to a property before taking photographs, to make a fool-proof list for our customers. This makes sure that nothing slips your mind, and that your photos look the best they can!

In the bathroom –

• Put the toilet lid down
• Move toiletries and put them out of shot if possible
• Fold any towels

In the kitchen –

• Clear the worksurfaces
• Close the cupboards
• Clear the sink of any washing up (clean or dirty)

In bedrooms –

• Make the beds, and use neutral bedsheets where possible
• Close all wardrobe doors/drawers
• Clear the floors of any clothes or clutter

In the lounge –

• Fluff cushions on any sofas
• Move throws/blankets out of shot
• Remove any personal items, such as books or DVD’s if not on a bookshelf

In the garden –

• If you have grass, try to mow the lawn
• Trim any hedges
• If you have children’s toys, remove from the shot wherever possible.

These changes don’t take long to action and can make a massive difference to the quality of the photographs that you can take of your property. In the current climate, if you want to sell your house, you’re relying heavily on internet advertisement as arranging viewings is not going to be possible.

At the moment, none of us are sure how long these stay at home measures are going to be in place, which means that there is the potential of homeowners not being able to host viewings for some time. That’s why it’s incredibly important to be able to take the best possible photographs of your house and to be able to showcase it in those photographs, to give you the best chance of still being able to achieve your sale.

We Buy Any House have compiled these tips to help you achieve your sale on your own, but if you find that you’re struggling to sell, we’re still here to support you. Get in touch with us today and see what we can do for you to sell your house.

We buy any home in as little as 7 days, or timescales to suit you. Head to our website for more information.

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