If you are thinking of selling your property, then there are a few things you should do first, to ensure your property appeals to would-be buyers.

You can read this post to find out about a few things you can do, to attract a buyer more quickly.

However, in this post I want to concentrate on the marketing, and presentation of your property, because the first impressions are likely to be formed looking at images published on the web, and you need to make these count (don’t you always with first impressions?)

Over 96% of buyers will use websites such as Rightmove and Zoopla to create their property viewing shortlist – I mean seriously, who has the time or the energy these days to spend hours trawling agency offices to register with each one independently?  Well 96% of people don’t have the inclination to do so and prefer to do their searching online, an altogether less painful way to find out what properties are available that meet their criteria with ‘every agent’.

And first impressions are really important according to the UK’s number one website Rightmove.  In their post, they talk about standing out from the competition, and we couldn’t agree more.

There’s really nothing worse than having images whereby no effort has gone into presenting it, ready for the web.

A really good example of what ‘not to do’:

Its messy – the bed not even made up properly.  It could have been de-cluttered a little better too.

This image is far too dark and unappealing
and gives too much information (such as the property isn’t particularly well lit).

This is what you should be aiming for:

Nicely lit, great angle, and de-cluttered for the images (the client was told to imagine that Hello Magazine was paying a visit).

Again, nicely lit, a nice wide angle emphasizing the space in the lounge, with cushions neatly laid out.

Staging your property will take a few hours of effort tidying and cleaning, but the effort might just get you an offer of thousands more!

*Incidentally the property immediately above attracted an offer substantially over the asking price and within 5 days of being on the market.

And better still, Resource Techniques came across a web post from the states where research carried out by a U.S University suggested that properties that were advertised using professional images and a video had a higher perceived value with buyers.

You can view an example of a property video here.

So our advice is to stage your property for images and then insist your agent instruct a professional to help you stand out.

If you can also get a video, that’s just great too and we genuinely believe these simple steps can help you sell faster and for a better price (provided you don’t make the mistake of pricing far too high in the first instance).