 With real estate steadily converting to an online market, the notion of a home's esthetic "curb appeal" has evolved into "pix appeal". These days a property's attractiveness in posted photos is extremely important. Photographs can be a powerful tool in selling your home and good photos can make your home look that much more attractive to potential buyers. "Without pictures I am much more likely to skip on to the next listing," says home buyer Diane Clark of Watchung, NJ. "In most cases, the photos are the first thing I see when prospecting a house. I tend to bypass homes with poor photos," she adds. Photographs are influential selling points, and bad ones can be detrimental to your home's buying potential. Here are 5 tips you can use to take great photos of your property: Let there be light! In order to get the best photo, take your pictures in the middle of the day when the sun is bright and shining. Snapping photos on a gloomy day will make your home appear just that: dreary and unappealing. I would say it's worth waiting for a bright sunny day to take your pictures. Doing this will make your exterior shots look clear, vibrant, and inviting. For interior shots, I suggest you turn on all the lights, open the shades, and use a flash. Doing this will effectively fill in shadows and add color correctness to your photos. Get it All Home buyers want to see more than just the front of your house; they want to see everything, including your living room, family room, kitchen, master bedroom, and backyard. Be sure to include some photos of your best selling points. Buyers want to see pictures of that spectacular view, your state of the art home theater, or your beautiful pool area. By highlighting some of the best features of your home you can make your home stand out and get noticed. Be Detail Oriented Be sure to clean up and remove any unnecessary clutter or objects from view. You wouldn't want your mother to see the big stack of dirty dishes in the sink, why would you want potential buyers to see it? Get rid of it! Spend some time scoping out the details of what is going to appear in the photo. You want your home to appear neat and tidy. Get rid of any distractions that may deter a buyer from seeing your selling points. Make the beds, hide wiring, remove the car from the driveway, and put away children's toys. Pay close attention to the details and make your home appear pristine. Quality Counts When taking good photos, cell phones don't cut it. If you have a wide-angle camera, use it. If not, a regular point-and-shoot digital camera will work just fine. For a clear photo, place your camera on a tripod or flat surface to keep the camera steady. Set your camera to the highest resolution and use a flash. Edit Using photo editing software can really improve your photos by cropping out any unnecessary objects or adjusting brightness and/or contrast. If you are familiar with photo editing programs like Adobe Photoshop or PhotoSuite, by all means use it. There is also free software you can download on the internet if you do not have these programs. Try Snipshot.com or Picnik.com. (written by K. Skowronski)
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