Selling your house, photography faux pas

When selling your house there are several things you can do to speed up the process. Everybody is familiair with the decluttering and depersonalize tips; making sure family photographs are stored away and clutter is removed from surfaces to give the house the appearance of a model house or hotel instead of someones home.

Also, obviously the photographs you take of your house and rooms to put in ads or presentations have to look appealing and inviting.
Hopefully I am not telling you anything new. Yet imagine my repetitive surprise when going online, to find numerous house ads looking like an absolute disaster.

Let me show you a few examples.

This house is located north of the Netherlands’ capital Amsterdam. It is situated on a little dead end street and has views over fields to the back of the house, and no direct neighbours in the front. Amsterdam is within a modest car rides reach and it is immaculate condition with recently painted walls and a large and architecturaly designed garden bordering a small creek. The design of the house is reminiscent of the much favoured style sed in the30’s of the 20th century. An easy sell you’d think. Yet, photographs really say so much. Look at these.

Is that the realtor's car?

Seriously… move that car when you take a picture! How hard can it be? I immediately see a realtor that is more interested in money than in his clients’ best interest. Also, why would you leave the curtains shut when you have such a nice bay window as a unique feature? Mind you, they have views here! It’s not like the curtains mask a view of a maximum security prison or nuclear plant.

Or what about this one?

Is it a closet? No, it's a bedroom

Nothing wrong with small bedrooms, especially if the rest of the house is good. But couldn’t whoever took this picture take just one step further to actually take a picture of the room and not the side post of a bed that obvisouly shows what the room is too small for?

Or this, another gem of a selling picture.

Please honey, can we buy the house with the urine coloured stain on the toilets radiator?