The Importance of Good Photos and Video When Selling

Today, people are shopping online for everything, even homes. As a buyer you are probably scouring numerous pictures of homes and their interiors, and as a seller you want to have many great photos of your home attached to your listing. But what about video tours?

In today’s market, homes are selling – fast. In fact, many homes are selling the same day they are listed. Demand is high, so the truth is, as long as you have plenty of good photos, and the home is in good condition, you are probably going to sell your home quickly. However, if your real estate agent offers to create a video tour to market your home, go for it. Naturally, the more exposure the home gets the better.

A video tour is a virtual walk-through that takes you inside the home and gives you a 360-degree view. For buyers, a well-made video tour is the next best thing to being there. They allow the buyer to feel like they are viewing the home, without having to make the appointment. This works well for out of town or out of state buyers.

Today’s high-definition (HD) video recording is now a standard feature of camcorders, digital cameras, and a growing selection of smartphones, making it easy to convey the appeal of properties through video.

Here are the basics:

• Some video tours are interactive, meaning you click the mouse and it takes you to the ceiling, the floor, the walls, leaving no inch of the room unviewed.
• Others are flat-screen views put together to give you a moving image that you watch but do not control.

So what can you do to help this video (and even regular photos taken by your real estate agent) be the best representation of your home?

1. Remove excess furniture from rooms. You want rooms to appear uncluttered and spacious. You want the video to pan around and have the viewer feel they could be walking through each room, not bumping into furniture.
2. Stage it. Start by taking down personal photos and knickknacks and remove clutter, like piles of mail on the table. Make it look like anyone could be living there.
3. Install dimmer switches on lights. This helps provide an ambience that is just right - no matter what time of day the photos or video are shot. Lighting is important.
4. Add special touches. Things like fresh flowers in vases, a beautiful basket of fresh fruit in the kitchen, or new fluffy towels in the master bath all add to your house's appeal.

Buyers love walk-through videos and use them to make a decision on whether to see the home in person, or even to refresh their memory after they have seen a few homes and need to make a decision.  It is not a must-have since good pictures also serve well to show off a property, but they are becoming more popular with today’s online home shopper.

Check out the marketing services Verani Realty offers to sell your home fast!