Hire a professional or take your own photos?

Many FSBO sellers make the common mistake of attempting to take photos of their property with a digital camera they have on hand. Unfortunately, a majority of photos turnout bad due to the inexperience, which adds to more questions than answers regarding the property. Posting these photos online is your first impression to the respective buyer. Reflect and depict your property to show its utmost value or you may lose a large percentage of potential buyers.

For approximately $300 - $500, you can hire a professional to shoot roughly 6 high quality photos who’s well experienced in producing the best lighted and angled photos for your particular home. After all, you’ll be saving money by not paying the brokerage commission – why not put a little of that money into the best presentation possible.

Common Mistakes Sellers make with Photos:

1. They take photos at night making the property look way too dark and uninviting.
2. They take narrow and weird angle shots to reflect and depict their property. These types of photos leave the potential buyer thinking that there’s something wrong with the property.
3. They take close-ups of items they might find to be special and unique such as a bathroom vanity or stove. * Shots should be a cohesive picture of the property. Leave specialty items within your description to create a further “buzz”. *
4. They take photos, which depicts their property as messy and unclean. * Clean the place and remove all debris from every shot. Sorry to tell you but nobody wants to see your pants on the bed in the bedroom or your cute and adorable dog in the living room. *
5. They don’t take enough photos. Providing only 1 or 2 photos will make a potential buyer sub-consciously feel that something might be wrong or being hidden. We advise to have a least 6 high quality photos of your property.
6. They mistakenly take photos of themselves in reflective surfaces.
7. They take photos focusing directly too much on light sources in the room, thus washing out the photo making the room feel darker.

Note: There are many other common mistakes but in order to avoid these, we’ve listed below a great company that can provide everything from professional photos and floor plans throughout the Metro NYC area.

http://www.vht.com/

VHT: A professional company that will take photos of your property and e-mail you a link for both web-sized photos and larger ones to be used for direct mailing. Other hi-resolution applications are available, if needed.

BTW: Utilize VHT as a resource to provide you a detailed floor plan also. The more information you provide to a potential buyer the better the property showing will be. Why? Most of their questions will be answered before they get to see the space. Psychologically, they’ll be more focused on the space than any unanswered questions that your online presentation depicted.

Note: Now more than ever, experienced buyer’s research potential properties online. Why not provide them with all the pertinent information upfront, hassle free!