The First Showing When Selling Your Home
Most Sellers think that the first showing of their home is when a potential buyer enters the home for the first time. In today’s modern real estate market that is not the case, it is actually the second showing. With the amount of real estate listings information available via the web and mobile devices, 95% of the time the first showing happens on a computer. Either a buyer finds a property on the web and asks their agent to show it to them, or the agent sends a list of available properties to a buyer that meets their needs.
For this reason it is imperative to have professional and accurate photos taken of your property to display on the MLS. Your home photos are the first impression to buyers and essential to selling your home. With poor quality photos a home is often misrepresented and overlooked. Also important is to have enough photos to showcase your home. With few number of photos attached to a listing it is not given the potential of being showcased over the web. Did you know that adding more photos will help you gain more exposure on real estate websites like Realtor.com and Trulia? Without enough photos some sites will not even showcase the listing. Less photos limits the opportunity of selling you home and making a strong enough impression to get a second showing. Even if you are only selling your small one bedroom, make sure that there are a maximum amount of photos listed on the MLS that represent your property accurately and visually capturing. The more the better!
Prepare
TIPS 1: When you are interviewing a potential real estate agent to sell your home ask them for photo samples of previous listing. Ask who will be taking the photos. Most realtors are not photography experts, but in every city there are companies offering professional real estate photos service. Hire them if needed. Investing in good photos will give you a better opportunity to get your home sold faster with a larger return.
TIP 2: Prepare your home for the photos. Make sure that the landscaping is groomed and prepped. Clean the interior of the home and hide unnecessary clutter. Try to tuck away personal items or overwhelming decorations so that the home feels more neutral to any buyer walking in. This helps buyers visualize themselves living in the home, since there is nothing too strong in any direction that might not be to their taste. Touch up some paint if needed and stick to light neutral colors. A simple gallon of paint for $30.00 can make your walls look fresh and brand new. Make sure that the home is bright and full of light. Buyers want to see a well kept home that feels ready to move in.
TIP 3: Talk to your realtor about staging your home for success. Remove personal items from your home, large family photos and animal toys. Make the buyer feel like it is their home already.
TIP 4: Make the first picture listed on the MLS a WOW shot. The first photo needs to grab the buyer’s attention enough to make them want to look at the rest of your photos.
SO MAKE SURE YOUR FIRST SHOWING IS A SUCCESS!!!
