House pictures on Friday, any tips?

[Icloud54]

Apart from being minimalistic, fresh flowers on the table, beds neat, anything else?

Clean the inside of the windows really thoroughly.( I presume you’ve had the outside cleaned) You’ll be amazed how much more light comes in, and the whole room looks much brighter.

Make sure the photographs are realistic - that they don't make your room look twice the size, which will lead to disappointment for viewers.

Kerbside view is very important, so maybe a couple of flower baskets or tubs of flowers on doorstep. My neighbour was selling house, outside very drab and dull, she did this and bingo, house got a lot more viewings. Agree with others clear away as much personal stuff, photos etc, toys, de clutter bathroom. Take photos yourself and then you will see what potential buyers will see.

Remove your draining board rack and hide it. Makes the photos look so much clearer 👍🏻. Switch on lamps.

Any junk or clutter you don’t want displayed shove in the car! Take cars off driveway.

Hide all clues of what type of family live there.. No odd piggy ornaments!
Or pet bowls in sight...
Kitchen benches clear and no washing up bowl /cloths!

Are you able to be at home while the photographer is there? Just look at the photos as he/she takes them. Sometimes they're inexplicably bad, or they omit something obvious that's likely to appeal to buyers. Choose a good one to be the lead photo on the selling site. And rewrite the bumf if necessary -- I did for ours, which was the usual semi-literate EA babble.

Move anything personal - photos, ornaments, as well as pet food bowls and pet beds. No washing, washing-up or clothes around on show.

Make sure the toilet seat lid closed. The number of photos of a bathroom I have seen with the toilet seat up....

Yes!! I've lost track of the number of properties that have been clearly taken with a ridiculous wide angle that stretch doors and cupboards and sinks (and all the things that you know for sure can't be that wide) to ridiculous proportions just to make the rooms look larger. I just assume that the rooms must be tiny in order to have to do that. Even though they probably aren't.

I.e. like these.....

This is silly. No one is not going to book a viewing of an otherwise suitable house because a toilet seat is up in a photo. Or, for that matter, because your collection of Lladró pigs is on display.

And no random photos of just a vase of flowers on a worktop! Such a waste of time.

Take a photo now from the most likely point the photographer will use - usually the door.
See what catches your eye when you look at the photo - and see if you need too change it!

Agree with this. If your eye is drawn to some trailing electric cables, or a patch on the wall which is a bit shadowy and could be misinterpreted as damp, so will that of anyone looking at the photos.

Beyond that I just want to see good room sizes and no clutter which indicates a lack of storage. I also like to see personal touches so really disagree about hiding those: if I see a house with no artwork, decor, ornaments etc it makes me think that the occupiers don’t really care about their surroundings; and if they don’t care about their surroundings, do they care about other stuff, like keeping on top of maintenance?

No personal hygiene stuff at all - hide toothbrushes etc. ! Only fancy towels that are colour co ordinated.

Totally agree with PP about loo seats.

Make sure there’s nothing visible under beds etc, or anything that hints at lack of storage.

Unclutter.

Go into each room and look to see the one thing that looks odd out of place that immediately catches your eye. And do something about it.

I disagree with having lamps/ lights on. Whenever I see pictures with them on during the day it makes me think the property must be really dark.

I don't think you need to go overboard on removing personal items either. Some photos/ ornaments etc are fine. So long as it doesn't shout cluttered/ lack of storage.

Precisely what I came to say-I cringe when I see this!

Get rid of anything that makes it look 'too small' like boxes on top of a wardrobe, storage boxes under a bed, tables pushed up against a wall etc.

Get photos of every room.

Walk round and take a quick set of pictures on your phone. This will help you see if anything "jumps out" that distracts the viewer or looks underwhelming. For instance bins, untidy wires, clutter on top of cupboards, a splash of colour needed in a neutral room. Somehow you can see it on a picture better than real life.

Get a friend to play "prospective buyer" and make sure they are brutally honest.
Pressure wash any brickwork that looks discoloured, including garden walls.
Weed brick paving if you have it and the pavement where it joins your garden wall.
Put bins out of sight.

I had photos taken yesterday... I thought I'd done a good job of decluttering but the photographer knew what she was doing and moved a whole load of other stuff out of the shots too. They should be able to advise as you go round each room. Everything from the (very small) draining rack, sponge caddy, coats in downstairs loo to the toiletry box in the bathroom, some neatly stacked stuff in the kids room, the laundry basket etc etc etc it was like a full on workout for an hour moving things around the place! And yes, clean your windows inside and out

Lights on, curtains open just covering the edges of the windows, as much light as possible. No trailing extension cables. Tidy/hide clutter in the bathroom. And generally. Make sure the best features star in the pictures.

A toilet seat up is not going to put normal people of a house. If these are the sort of things your looking at then your not serious about buying the house .