Before & After - Real Estate

Wow!!

While working on a new real estate photography brochure for Capture Me Photography, I came across these pictures I took mid 2018. This particular house was in a high end neighborhood in Fayetteville, AR. The house was a rental property so the tenants were using some of the rooms for storage space. The owner decided to list the house for sale instead of looking for more tenants. After a difficult time selling and the tenants moved out, the owner agreed to work with a professional stager who completely transformed the house.  The initial pictures (on left) show just how much decluttering, painting & then re-decorating can change the perceived value of a house.

My goal for real estate photography is to show your house in the best light. I do this by opening up all blinds, turning on all lights, and adding indirect light to the house. This allows me to create consistent, high quality pictures for my clients. Unfortunately, if a house is cluttered & not well decorated, even the best pictures will struggle to show off a house. Case in point, this house in Fayetteville.

Now, after 7 years of real estate photography, I have a list of recommendations for those looking to sell their house. I hope you can use this information as a spring board to help get your house ready to sell. I don’t have “renovate” on the list below. Renovating is definitely an option, but this list is for those who are not renovating before selling.

(1) Declutter - packup, donate, and/or throw away as much as you can. The goal is to show as much “space” in your house. Yes, closets are a great place to start! Although closets won't normally be pictured for your listing, a future buyer is going to open closets and cupboards, so organize and declutter. Any surfaces in your house, ie. countertops, desktops, tables, refrigerator, etc. should be clutter free and ultimately knick-knack free. Consider packing up pictures and knick-knacks by putting them in your garage or a storage unit until you move. The “less is more” concept works great here!

(2) Deep clean - toilets, sinks, tubs, floors, floorboards, carpets, etc all should be clean. Most people want to get top dollar for their houses so don’t neglect deep cleaning. A little elbow grease will go a long way!

(3) De-personalize - I know you have many memories in your house. I get it. But, if you are moving you will no longer be in the house. You can still take the memories with you but you need to detach from the house you are listing. I can’t tell you how often this is a struggle for sellers. You need to change your mindset and get your house ready to have new owners. This might seem obvious, but you would be surprised at how hard this is for some sellers to accept. Therefore, you need to have furniture in proper rooms and in logical locations to show off the space in the house. If your furniture is too large for your living room, consider storing the couch and just keeping the love seat. Same goes for a bedroom, if the dresser takes up too much room, consider storing it. Your realtor and your real estate photographer can help you with this. If they can’t, they may recommend allowing a professional house stager come in and give recommendations. Take them up on this! Remember, you want to get top dollar for your house.

I hope this helps!  If you are a local real estate agent, I would love to talk to you about your real estate photography needs. Please contact me at 479-250-6223.