How to Take Great Photos of Your Property

Photos are the single most important part of your advert. But why?

It is key to remember that the overwhelming majority of tenants looking for a property online are using their phone – not their computer. This has some important consequences…

Tiny Screens and Big Adverts

A phone screen is small. Your property advert won’t fit onto it all at once. Tenants need to scroll down to see everything. This means that property portals have to decide what to show first at the top of the advert. The thing they choose is the photos, above even the price and the location.

How Important are Photos?

As you can see from the above iPhone screenshots, property portals give over 50% of ‘above the fold’ space (i.e. what you can see without scrolling) to photos.

The first thing tenants will do when they click on your advert is scroll through all the photos. If they see something they don’t like, they won’t even bother to read the rest. This is how important your photos are! It is crucial to invest in good photography of your property.

Checklist: How to Get Great Photos of Your Property

Skip to end for infographic!

1. Finish Decoration & Maintenance work

Unfinished paint-jobs, scaffolding and ripped up floorboards are a big no-no. Pictures of a property with work being done will scare tenants off as they will worry the work won’t be done in time for their move-in date.

2. Thoroughly Tidy and Clean

It sounds obvious, but all too often landlords don’t bother to properly clean and tidy their property. You’ll have to do this before tenants move in anyway, so you might as well do it early and get great photos!

3. The More Light, the Better

Shoot during the day, when there’s as much sun as possible. Open all curtains and turn lights where appropriate. Bringing extra lamps and lights into a room for the photo can be a good way to brighten up a dark room.

4. Use a Good Quality Camera

Phone cameras a now very advanced, but if you can get your hands on a good camera, then do. The more pixels a camera has, the larger the photos it can take without becoming pixelated. Larger photos make rooms seem larger, so are worth getting if you can!

5. Take Landscape Images with Sensible Aspect Ratios

The aspect ratio is the shape of the image. If the image is to tall and thin,  or too wide and short, then it will look strange online. They may also have to crop the edges of your photo so it will fit onto their pages. For best results, try to take landscape photos that are between 3:2 and 4:3 ratios.

6. Save Photos as Large as Possible

To make sure your photos are as large as possible, it’s important the saved file to be as large as possible. Set your camera’s file size to as high as possible. If transferring the photos from a device to your computer, make sure you don’t resize the photo when it is sent.

7. Experiment with Angles

Try out several different shots of each room. If one angle gives the photo a blind spot, choose another angle that has a view of the whole room. Get creative, experiment with levels and use which ever photos turn out best.

The Lead Photo is the Most Important Photo

The lead photo is the photo that will display on the search page before a tenant even decides to  click on your property. It has to be the best picture you have in order to entice them to click through and read more.

Here is how it looks on mobile.

(Remember! Mobile is the most popular device for browsing rental property!)

As you can see, the lead image has a huge effect on the presentation of the property. As such, you should choose either a picture of the exterior, or a picture of the most attractive interior room of the property.

Again, we can see that the photo consists of nearly two thirds of the screen space of your advert.

Without a great lead-picture, tenants won’t bother to click through to your advert, resulting in fewer enquiries.

Make sure you upload the picture you want to be the lead picture first. Select it is as your ‘lead’ or ‘featured’ image wherever possible. This will help ensure it becomes the main picture for your advert.

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Professional Photography

If you don’t have the tools, time or skill to take good pictures of your property, a professional photographer is a great option.

Although they’re a small upfront cost, you should see these photographs as an investment. It has been shown that professional photography can enable a higher rental price of up to 10% compared to properties without pro photography.

With OpenRent’s professional photography for landlords, you can get photos of every room of the house, plus the exterior & garden, etc. for just £79. That includes photo-editing after the shoot to make sure each room looks the best it possibly can. The photos are yours to keep and have no watermarks or copyright considerations, so you can use them again and again at the end of each tenancy.

Summary:

• Photos are the most important part of an advert
• The lead photo is the most important photo
• Clean, tidy and decorate before taking photos
• Use a professional for best results – the investment pays off and you can use them again and again!

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