How to Best Prepare Your Sellers for a Photoshoot

When selling a home, you have one chance to make a first impression with a prospective buyer. Since nearly all home shoppers begin their search online, that first impression most likely will be formed immediately by your listing photographs.

Most agents know the value of using professional real estate photographers for listing photos. Research from Redfin found that professionally photographed homes priced in the $400,000 range sold an average of three weeks faster and more than $10,000 higher than their list price than homes using amateur photos.

When Redfin compared photo sharpness or detail, such as a crisp reflection or bright flowers, which was accomplished through professional photography, the sharpest 10 percent of photos were for homes that sold at or above list price 44 percent of the time. That's why it is vital to use professional photography to show your listing in its best light.

The value of professional photography for a listing is also why it's essential to make sure agents advise their sellers on how to prepare their homes for a photoshoot so sellers can put their best foot forward.

Do you prep every seller for their listing photoshoot? Not every agent does. According to a recent study we did at HomeJab, sellers are often not prepared. More than half of more than 300 professional real estate photographers surveyed said that most of the time – half to more than half – homeowners are unprepared.

The challenge may well be that since photography comes very early in the listing process, sellers do not realize that they need to prepare their home for a shoot properly.

While professional photographers are trying to make the right impression when shooting a listing, they need homeowners to help.

How can agents best prepare their sellers for the listing photoshoot? Here are eight things your clients need to do to make the best first impression:

1. Declutter: Store, sell, donate, or dispose. No one loves their stuff as much as their owners. But the rule to showcasing the best features of a home is less is more. Decluttering is the key to making every room shine. When you declutter, rooms will look larger too, as the more stuff a room has, the smaller it will look.

2. Clean and tidy: It may sound obvious, but high-quality photographs won't hide a dirty and disorganized home. Also, make sure there are no vehicles in the driveway or blocking the street view of your home, if possible. When your client's home is spotless – and they put away items cluttering tables, countertops, and any items on the floor – it will pay off with better photos.

3. Think like a stager: The flow of a space – where one's eyes go to as the focal point – gives clues to whether a room can benefit from the furniture being rearranged. A handout from Realtor Magazine suggests creating a focal point on the furthest wall from the doorway by arranging furniture to make a triangle shape.

4. Go green: When strategically placed in every room, living plants can improve almost every interior photograph. Remind your clients that plants can add energy to their listing photos.

5. Removing wrinkles: Bedding, tablecloths, and throws all need to look their best, which means no wrinkles because cameras hate wrinkles and can exaggerate how unkept a home looks.

6. Be pet-free: Research shows that Millennial home shoppers say finding a place for Fido can significantly impact their choice of a new home. However, most agents advise their clients to make sure animals are not present during showings and repair any pet damage to a home before showing it. For photos, it's safer to appeal to all buyers by hiding any evidence of pets, so store those dog beds and cat condos!

7. Aim to be art neutral: While your client may treasure their velvet Elvis painting that was a gift after a first date, it's time to put sentimental value aside and be practical. You want to show buyers a blank canvas, not a Picasso. The more neutral the art, the less likely it becomes the focal point of how home shoppers recall a home. Your clients probably don't want their home to be remembered as "that place with the flying pigs on the wall."

8. Light it up: A simple tip is to ask your clients to ensure all the lights work before the shoot. Then, when a professional photographer shoots a well-lit room, they can make a home shine brighter.

These are some of the most important things a seller can do to prep a home before a photoshoot. For additional input, ask the professional photographer for any other ideas they may have.

To find a professional real estate photographer near you and order an affordable photo and video package for your next listing, go to HomeJab at homejab.com.

Joe Jesuele is the founder and CEO of HomeJab, America's most popular and reliable on-demand professional real estate photography and video marketplace for real estate pros, delivering over 4,000,000 images to help agents sell and rent more than $35 billion in listings.