House Photos: Tips for Taking Pictures of Your Home for Sale

When you decide that you want to sell your house, you're going to need a good set of quality photos to showcase the various rooms. Since many houses are discovered and sold over the Internet nowadays, you'll want to post your house pictures on the Web for others to find on their housing search. Your real estate agent can help you with that part; this article will help you take the best house photos to showcase your home.

Show Natural Light

Dark house pictures are always annoying, and buyers want to see natural light. You can always turn on a lamp or two to create artificial illumination, but natural sunlight makes for better pictures and will show buyers just what they are missing. Before taking pictures of your home for sale, open the blinds, remove the curtains, and let the sunlight in! Just make sure that you're always taking pictures with the light behind you to avoid glare.

Minimize Furniture

A cluttered house is almost as obnoxious as a dark house, so even if your home for sale often looks like a museum, move the furniture for pictures. The living room, for example, should contain only a couch, a love seat, a coffee table and an entertainment center to be entirely effective. Move everything else into another room while you shoot, if not for later showings. Furthermore, a room with a color theme will always photograph better than one without.

Show Off Your Yard

As well as taking pictures of the interior of your home for sale, consider taking a few shots of the front and back yards. Prospective buyers will want to see what you've done with the landscaping, and those with children will feel better knowing there's a place for the kids to play. House pictures should be as well-rounded as possible. Furthermore, make sure you snap photos of unique hardscaping and landscaping, such as a deck or pool.

Clear the Clutter

No one wants to see last night's pizza boxes in pictures of your home for sale, nor do they want to know that you have six-inch-thick mold growing on your bathroom sink. Before you start to take house pictures, hire a maid or learn how to clean up yourself to avoid the embarrassment (and lack of buyers) that is certain to ensue if you don't. I recently saw an MLS listing on HAR.com where the entire living room was covered with fast-food wrappers. Shameful.

Avoid Corners

People don't want to see the corners of your bedrooms, living room or kitchen; instead, the want to see the entire room, or as much of it as you can fit in one shot. Standing in door ways to get the majority of the room in your house pictures is the way to go. If that doesn't work, open a window and snap the shot from outside.

Get Close-Ups

In addition to taking the room-at-a-glance shots (see above), your home for sale should also showcase close-ups of the important stuff. The kitchen sink and appliances, for example, and the shower in the master bath are appropriate. I'm not saying that buyers want to see the individual rings on your stovetop burners, but be realistic and liberal with the camera.