How not to sell your home
Don’t make selling your home harder than it has to be with awful listing pictures.
Selling your home can be tough work, and it can become even harder if you or your real estate agent take horrible listing photos.
Andy Donaldson realized this in 2013 while shopping for a home, and was so appalled he started a Tumblr page dedicated to the atrocities. According to Buzzfeed, he gathered images from all over the world – South Africa to Kazakhstan, and the site subsequently went viral. Some of his favorite photos included a bedroom littered with antique baby dolls, a swimming pull of floating mattresses, and a living room featuring an older man completing a crossword puzzle in the corner.
Millions of viewers later, Donaldson decided to compile the hilarious photomontage into a book he published in April 2015: “Terrible Estate Agent Photos: A Book of the Most Baffling Property Photographs Ever Taken.’’
We’re not sure if Donaldson’s book or blog were sources of inspiration for these Twitter users’ images of awful listing photos, but some of these are pretty bad:
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Donaldson did not immediately respond to email, but we spoke with Jessica Howe, principal and photographer at local real estate photography service Property Precision and Jennie Pane-Joyce, Howe’s marketing director, about the best way to market your home. Before working at Property Precision, Pane-Joyce said she worked in the marketing department of a local brokerage for three years.
“There I saw some truly horrifying photos that made me question the sanity of the agents I worked with,’’ she said. “A shadowy photo of the toilet? A diagonal shot of the floor? A close up of a window looking straight into an alley?’’
All instances were horrible, and all hindered what could have been a successful sale or a quick rental, she said. While hiring a professional is the preferred option (it usually costs a couple hundred bucks), Pane-Joyce and Howe provided Boston.com with some of the dos and don’ts for amateur photographers:
Do:
1. Put your toilet seat down.
2. Delete all blurry images.
3. Hold the camera straight (Keep the horizon aligned with the shot).
4. Use a wide-angle lens.
5. Step back as far as you can to show as much of the room as possible.
6. Beware of mirror photos.
Don’t:
1. Allow humans or pets in the photos. The same goes for cars when taking exterior pictures.
2. Shoot directly at the walls – try to get the far corner of the room in the center of the shot.
3. Leave clutter or trash in any frame.
4. Use a fisheye lens. (*cringe*)
“Before shooting, do a final walk through to remove any embarrassing or distracting items,’’ Pane-Joyce said. “You want people to be talking about the fabulous layout of the home, not the sex swing in the bedroom. So many buyers (and renters!) start their property search online, so top-notch photos are key. Photos aren’t just art, they’re a means of communication. You want to tell the story of the space – in the most pleasing light possible, of course.’’
How to make your apartment look like an adult’s, according to Newton-based interior designer Taylor Vaughan:
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