Do’s and don’ts when providing photographs and text for your property
Photographs
Your property needs to stand out from the rest. No-one is better placed to take great photographs than you because you can make sure that the house and garden are clean and tidy and that the sun is shining in the right direction to show your property in the best light. Do pick up toys and make beds and remove unsightly objects or take the photo from a different angle. Switch the television off as it is distracting and make sure that any lights do not produce a glare.
If you have already taken lots of great photos try and look at them objectively – potential buyers are not usually interested in seeing your children in the swimming pool or playing with all their toys in front of the house! Try to use photos from all seasons, but the main photo either representing the current season or the property at its best with blue skies behind and flowers in full bloom.
If you are still carrying out works to your property whilst it is on the market keep your photos updated. Try to identify any special features on a photograph, for example the date in the stone above the door or fireplace, the views, a cider press, etc.
If some of the photos of your property are quite ordinary or do not come out as you would like, don’t use them. Unless you have a wide-angled lens, bathrooms and shower rooms are notoriously difficult to photograph and there is no point in uploading a bedroom photo when all you can see is the bed and bed linen (even if it is especially pretty)!
On most websites only the first photograph is shown on the search facility so make sure it is the best one of the outside of the house. If a prospective purchaser is interested they can then click on the page to view the full details and all of the photos. Put the photos in a logical order – main photo showing the front elevation of the property, then other elevations, interiors, gardens, land and outbuildings and label them where possible.
Do not make your photos too high resolution or your prospective purchasers will take too long to download them and may lose interest – approx. 100Kb is fine. Similarly if you are re-sizing a photo manually make sure it fits on the average computer screen by keeping it around 800 pixels wide.
Text
Your property description must be honest – this will avoid wasting both your time and that of your potential purchasers. It will also avoid the possibility of being sued at a later date by a prospective purchaser for misrepresentation. For other information that is worth including see Paperwork Required and download our Fixtures and Fittings List. Look at your property and its attributes from a purchaser’s point of view and try to paint the picture of a home rather than a house. Including Floor Plans is a great help. Do mention if there are two sets of stairs and bedrooms are set apart as this may not be ideal for a family with young children.
If you don’t know something about your property, its condition or your surrounding area you can offer it as an opinion but not make a statement of fact. Use words like “in my opinion”, “approximately” (especially for room sizes or amount of land) and “about” and give a range eg; believed to have been built between 1900 and 1925.
For more help, or to translate your description into French, please contact me.
