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Preparing your home to be photographed for a real estate listing

Staging a home, whether you do it yourself or hire a professional staging company (highly recommended), can increase the sales potential of the property. The home looks nicer, feels cleaner, and photographs much more professionally.

Unless a home is extremely immaculate and well-appointed, it's likely that a certain amount of home staging should be done before the home is photographed for a real estate listing. The arrangement of furniture, pictures, or knick-knacks may look good in day-to-day life, but often doesn't photograph well. Common problems are too many kitchen gadgets on the counters (blenders, toasters), and too many personal items in the bathrooms (used bath towels, toothpaste, shampoo). Most of these suggestions are probably obvious. But you would be surprised at how many of these things people overlook.

Remove unnecessary furniture

• Create space – remove all unnecessary pieces of furniture.
• Place furniture and decoration only where they are appropriate. Put children’s chairs and toys in the children’s bedroom and the computer in the office.
• Remove all used looking furnishings (worn upholstered couches, stained carpets, scratched sideboards etc.).
• If at all possible, move all domestic animals to another place.

Perform Basic Cleaning

• Let professionals clean the whole space.
• Clean all floors, furniture surfaces, tiles, mirrors and windows.
• Remove cobwebs, especially in corners and around ceiling lamps.
• Remove all lime and water drop stains from faucets, sinks and bath tubs.

Create Consistency

• Make things uniform. A table should only be surrounded by chairs of the same model. In a glass cabinet only display dishes of the same series.
• Align all chairs at dining tables, kitchen counters or working places.
• Sort books according to their size and try to use only hardcover books. Remove books that may be offensive.
• Straighten all lampshades.

De-Personalize the Interior

• Hide all family-related photographs and other mementos.
• Remove any signs of religious or political preferences of the owners (unless you want to sell only to a specific target group).
• Remove souvenirs and trophies from walls and shelves.

Minimize Decoration

• Place only one piece of decoration on a table.
• Remove all newspapers and magazines, except home-décor magazines
• Remove trash cans and waste baskets.
• Clear all tables, trays and cabinets in the kitchen.
• Keep only one or two items per panel of glass cabinets.
• Remove all magnets, photographs and children’s drawings from refrigerators.
• Hide all cables and wires.

Straighten Fabrics

• Straighten blankets, bed sheets and bed covers.
• Plump up the cushions and smoothen them out.
• Straighten curtains.
• Remove all waves from carpets.
• Display only clean towels, nicely arranged on a hook or counter top

Check Lighting

• Switch on all lamps and replace broken light bulbs. Use the same wattage and color temperature for all bulbs within one lamp.
• Check the proper function of all outdoor lighting (garden lamps, door lights, patio lights, pool lamps).

Get the outdoor area ready

• Remove all vehicles from driveways.
• Hide the garbage cans.
• Put garden tools, garden hoses, sprinklers, and used barbecues into the garage.
• Mow the lawn.
• Rake garden beds and drive ways.
• Sweep pavement areas.
• Give the pool a professional cleaning.