After what was admittedly a fairly mild winter the weather is continuing to improve. Although sunny days still seem far away at present, longer days, combined with lockdown days, are giving people a definite spring feeling. In short - we are all ready for a change right now. There is a typical urge at this time of year to consider a house move and for some people this is the first time in years (decades?) that they have gone through this process. If you last listed a property more than ten years ago, then you may be unprepared for how things proceed from here.
Your agent can fill you in on the major selling points, but I’m here to tell you about that specific activity that many seem unsure about: how do I prepare my home for interior photography? Well, let me tell you, I’m not Elon Musk and this isn’t rocket science, but there are a number of things you can do to make the process painless. The first thing I would say is that you do not need to do a Spring Clean with mops and buckets, dusters, bleach etc (unless you want to - no complaints here). Repeat - you do not need to do a top-to-bottom military exercise in order to get your house in ship-shape fashion. Instead follow a few simple rules and everything will be tickety-boo. Ready? Here goes:
The Golden Rule - hide what you don’t want others to see. When I say hide, this can be in your car, garage, a small room unsuitable for photos, or simply in bags/boxes which can be easily lifted on the day. Even better put stuff on the landings and entrance hall. Some items can be placed on the floor behind the bed if needed as the primary bedroom photo will be from the door (although for bigger bedrooms this may prevent me taking additional photos from different angles).
Remove cars from driveways and street frontages - we are marketing a house and, for me at least, I think it looks better without cars. If however your pesky neighbours like to grab the space in front of your terraced house, then by all means leave your car until I arrive and we’ll deal with it then. Also, if you have a property with ample space for 5, 6 or 10 cars (lucky you!) then by all means park them neatly away from the house. We don’t need to be blocking those country lanes and angering the farmers.
Unless you live like a monk then you will probably need to declutter kitchen and bathroom countertops. Just pop those old phone bills in a drawer and those shampoo bottles in the hot-press. Immediately things are looking better. Less is more!
A word about duvets… the pillows goes on top of the duvet, at least that’s they way all the magazines do it, so who are we to argue? A quick tug of the duvet to remove wrinkles and you just made a photographer very happy.
The three tips above should get you well on your way to a good result, giving your photographer more time to focus on other important things: like getting the best compositions, solving complex lighting issues and wondering when the sun is coming out from that cloud for the required 5 seconds to get an exterior image.
If however, you have boundless energy and are into checklists, then look no further as I have one I prepared earlier, inventively named “Home Preparation Checklist”. Catchy name huh? Use as many of the ideas as you need, but don’t worry if you only get a few done. View below or email Gary for a copy at gquigg@mac.com.
