STAGING TIPS
Your Real Estate Professional understands the importance of high quality photography in the sale of your home and is engaging TourFactoryHouston.com, one of the foremost groups of real estate photography professionals in the Houston area, to ensure your property is presented in its best possible light.
You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. Prospective buyers will make their decision within seconds about whether to invest the time to make an appointment to view your home in person. If your photos are out of focus, crooked, too dark or too light, low resolution, poorly composed, etc., it causes an emotion in your potential buyer that makes them want to skip over your listing and go to the next property listing in the search results.
One of the most important and highest value activities you can do in the home selling process is making your house look its absolute best for its photo shoot. Time spent here can dramatically increase the number of viewings, reduce the time it takes to sell your home and help ensure that you get the highest price possible.
In order to get the most out of the photo shoot of your home you will want to have completely prepared your home prior to your appointment. Think “model home”, not “well lived in”. You are moving anyway, so it’s time to pack all the loose items and personal stuff into tubs and throw it into the closets and the garage. The photographer will NOT be photographing the closets or the inside of the garage. Not only is there not enough time to go through the home and stage as the photographer goes through the house room by room, but if the photographer is spending a lot of time figuring out how to dodge around stuff and moving stuff around during the photo shoot, there is less time available to creatively evaluate best angles, composition and lighting.
Here are points to consider as you prepare for your photo shoot. You will want to give yourself enough time beforehand so that you’re not rushing around just before the shoot.
We look forward to meeting you and we look forward to working with you and your agent to get your home sold. We are on your team. We want you to be successful. It’s an honor to be involved in such an important event as the sale of your home so that you can get into your new home. We appreciate being able to work with you.
You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. Prospective buyers will make their decision within seconds about whether to invest the time to make an appointment to view your home in person. If your photos are out of focus, crooked, too dark or too light, low resolution, poorly composed, etc., it causes an emotion in your potential buyer that makes them want to skip over your listing and go to the next property listing in the search results.
One of the most important and highest value activities you can do in the home selling process is making your house look its absolute best for its photo shoot. Time spent here can dramatically increase the number of viewings, reduce the time it takes to sell your home and help ensure that you get the highest price possible.
In order to get the most out of the photo shoot of your home you will want to have completely prepared your home prior to your appointment. Think “model home”, not “well lived in”. You are moving anyway, so it’s time to pack all the loose items and personal stuff into tubs and throw it into the closets and the garage. The photographer will NOT be photographing the closets or the inside of the garage. Not only is there not enough time to go through the home and stage as the photographer goes through the house room by room, but if the photographer is spending a lot of time figuring out how to dodge around stuff and moving stuff around during the photo shoot, there is less time available to creatively evaluate best angles, composition and lighting.
Here are points to consider as you prepare for your photo shoot. You will want to give yourself enough time beforehand so that you’re not rushing around just before the shoot.
- Mow the grass, rake the leaves, remove dead plants, put away kids toys, “unique” lawn ornaments, put away water hoses, lawn tools and trash cans.
- Add flowers wherever appropriate. Cameras love color. Add color to your gardens and flower pots.
- Trim the trees or have them trimmed so that the photos can show the home.
- Remove all vehicles from the driveway and front of the house. Many times photos will look out of your homes front windows toward the front of the house. Move your cars down the street away from the front of the house and even consider asking your neighbors to move their cars away from the front of your home as well.
- If your agent has recommended having twilight photos done, be sure to check all outdoor lights. Change out dim or broken lights.
- Remove “cute” yard decorations, mismatched plant pots, water sprinklers, loose bricks, broken toys
- Put away “clutter” inside the home. Put away toys, clothing, dishes, towels, etc.
- Make the beds and straighten pillows, tuck in sheets, straighten bedspreads
- The counter tops in the bathrooms and kitchen should be as clean and as empty as possible. Put away dish soap, tooth brushes, bath toys, shampoo bottles, and wash cloths.
- Make sure the kitchen sink is empty and all dishes are put away.
- Put away indoor trash cans.
- Put away personal photos.
- Replace all burned out light bulbs. A burned out light bulb stands out like a sore thumb.
- Sweep and vacuum the floors
- Dust and wipe down table tops and counter tops, shower glass and mirrors.
- Completely clean off the refrigerator. Remove magnets, sticky notes, photos, everything.
- Clean windows and mirrors otherwise streaks may appear in the developed photos.
- Confine your pets to a safe, air conditioned place out of the way of the photographer. We love our pets too, but we don’t want any accidental cameos or photobombs in your professional photography.
- Before the photo shoot, turn off all ceiling fans, turn on all lights in every room, (check all bulbs well before the shoot) and open all blinds in rooms to be photographed. If there are nice views then try to open the blinds with a slight tilt to the outside to remove the glare, and if the view out the window is not all that great then make the tilt of the blind greater to “hide” negative views.
- If possible please take a long walk, go out to get an ice cream cone during the shoot or at least try to be aware of where the photographer is and avoid being in the general area of the on-going shoot. Many great shots have been lost because they can’t be taken because a person is moving around in the next room. We like people, but it can really interrupt the creative process when having to shoot the photos with a lot of people around.
We look forward to meeting you and we look forward to working with you and your agent to get your home sold. We are on your team. We want you to be successful. It’s an honor to be involved in such an important event as the sale of your home so that you can get into your new home. We appreciate being able to work with you.