The five tips you need to know to sell your property for more

GUEST OBSERVER

With house prices surging across Australia in the past year, the demand for properties in the market has become increasingly competitive.

Knowing the best ways to sell a house can make all the difference between a successful sale and struggling to sell for months on end. Many people assume renovations are necessary to increase the sale price of houses, but that isn’t the case. 

1. Home presentation is a huge factor when selling a home

It might sound quite obvious, but home presentation has a huge influence when it comes to selling a house. Sometimes good photography or editing is not enough. If buyers inspect the property and find things to fix, they will reduce the price where possible. Always maximise space to create a larger look and feel – less is more in this case. Make sure to remove any rugs, floor or door mats as this will enhance the perception of floor space size in photos. Premium presentation is key and your photographer and real estate agent will love you for it, as there won’t be any extra work to do.

2. Professional looking photography or re-touching is essential

If you don’t have any professional looking photography or haven’t done any retouching, you are already behind. Most homes (small to medium or large) usually only require 8-14 photos. Ensure the main selling feature areas are on display including the front exterior of home, the main or best bathroom, master bedroom, kitchen, lounge or living area, dining room, and outside balcony or view.

It isn’t necessary to show the buyers too much or everything the home has to offer, but even simply just an overview of the property to entice them to visit it. However, agents differ and may market properties differently. Some may prefer a full day shoot and shoot every single bit of the house in case they need to supply images to interstate or overseas clients or investors. Also keep in mind that rooms can look different based on the height of photos, so it is better to take a wide selection of images to choose from. This is especially important in areas such as bedrooms, kitchen, dining room and balcony view areas.

3. Have detailed floor plans

Floor plans continue to be a growing trend in real estate and have been very popular within Melbourne and Sydney for years. 1 in 5 buyers would ignore a property listing completely if it didn’t include a floor plan – showing how important it is to include it in all property marketing. It allows buyers to measure the space, visualise the flow of the rooms, how they fit in relation to other rooms and picture their furniture inside the home. Sellers can draw floor plans themselves. All that is required is grid paper, tape measure and some patience!

Another useful tip is combining photos and floor plans together through an online interactive floor plan. Symbols on the plan indicate the angle the photo was taken from, enabling buyers to easily navigate through a property by clicking on each photo and having a better understanding of the layout. Floor plans are also handy for potential investors and gives your listing a competitive advantage over other sellers who don’t have one.

4. Take aerial photos

 Aerial photos are a unique tool to showcase a property in one glance within the context of its neighbourhood and surrounding hot spots, such as local attractions and shopping centres. It gives buyers perspective. A property’s size can be determined in square metres, but cannot be interpreted until the property is seen in its entirety.

The quality of an aerial is directly related to its effectiveness. Be aware of aerials with clouds, flat or dull colours, horizons that aren’t level, too much reflection off ground surfaces and images that aren’t in focus. Hiring professionals to do aerial editing is a great and cost-efficient way to make images more eye-catching and stand out from the rest.

5. Use professional copywriting

A listing is taken to the next level with professional copy. Grammatically correct, well-written text will clearly articulate the benefits and features of the home and attract more buyers. Ideally, the copy should be no longer than a paragraph, with 150 words or so. In some cases, not everything can be shown about a property in photos. If a listing has a unique history or a fascinating architectural element that cannot be displayed well in a photo, professional copywriting will creatively explain the home’s special features to potential buyers and increase buyer interest in the property.

Brad Filliponi is co-founder and director of digital photo editing service, BoxBrownie.com and can be contacted here.