Preping a Home For Real Estate Photos

Home photographs are essential for making a strong first impression. Making sure that a home is photograph ready is a extremely crucial part of the home selling process. The home should be presentable so that the prospective buyers’ first impression is not affected by any unessential items.

Keep in mind it is terribly difficult to hide things from a wide angle lens.  The field of view is so extreme that it will easily show items hidden under beds or on top of tall shelves.

Here is a list of essentials that should be done before the day of the scheduled photo shoot:

1. Any vehicles should be moved down the street or at least out of the driveway.
2. Make sure any pets are contained in an area of the house that will not be photographed (garage or utility room)
3. Remove garbage cans so that they can not be seen from the front of the house.
4. Sweep and rake driveway and front/back lawns.
5. Remove all items from the side of the house (camper equipment, yard equipment, hoses, & other materials)
6. Remove any outdoor play items such as bikes, balls, and toys.
7. Move any unessential items inside the home to a place that will not be photographed (garage or utility room)
8. Remove all appliances from the kitchen counter tops.
9. Remove everything from bathroom counter tops.
10. If you have front loading washer/dryers make sure there are no clothes left inside.
11. Avoid hiding things under beds.  They will tend to be visible in the photograph.
12. Remove any signs that you own pets (crates, bowls, litter boxes, & etc.)
13. Remove piles of magazines/newspapers/bills off of all flat surfaces.
14. Remove all of the papers/photos from your fridge.
15. Turn on all of the lights in the house including lamps.

It is better if most personal family photographs are not visible.  Prospective buyers have a harder time picturing themselves in a place if they see pictures of people currently living there.  If you want to move things out of view the best places to put them are the garage or the utility room.  Usually you will not take pictures  of these areas.  Small closets are also a terrific place to hide items.  Avoid putting things in walk in closets because they are sometimes photographed if they are large enough.

If you accomplish most of these items ahead of time the shoot will go much quicker for everyone.  The most imporant thing to keep in mind that the camera sees much more than you can so try and avoid hiding things under or on top of surfaces.