Estate Agent’s photographs.

My house looked great in the estate agent's photos much to the amusement of the family who all commented that it hadn't looked that tidy in years. The photos are a "come and look" call. They are there to tempt people.

Grannynannywanny

I saw house photos recently on an estate agent website. A bedroom chest of drawers looked like it had been ransacked. Every drawer was partially open and items of clothing hanging out of it.

I was astonished that the photos were taken and posted to advertise the house. I thought for a moment they had photographed my grandson’s bedroom before his final warning to tidy up!

Oh Grannynannywanny, I have a granddaughter just like that! ??

tanith is correct in saying photographers take pictures. They don’t pick pants up from the bathroom floor or move towels drying over the stairwell.
I agree some may be rentals and tenants probably don’t want to lose their homes, but some folk just live untidy lives.
It’s easy to say ignore everything, but some (my BinL) just can’t imagine how a room would look with their things in. Others think the mess shows a basic lack of care for everything and wonder what lies beneath!

One of my dc is selling up and their house looks pristine in the photos. I enquired as to where they’d put their ‘stuff’ - apparently, it was all out in the garden in boxes! Thankfully, it didn’t rain that day.

Otoh, the house they hope to buy is apparently exactly as it appears in photos - in need of some TLC.

I am convinced that estate agents have special cameras, though. I recently looked at photos of a house that had beds that would not have fitted anyone taller than four foot, but had a lavatory that could have fitted six for dinner round it. Baffling!

On a bad day, with time on my hands, I looked at all the houses that I had live since 1955 grace of the photos on rightmove. If I bought a house with photos on line I would want them to be taken down, some are up for over a year.

Living in France people give the size of the rooms so you have an idea of the size how much a square meter you are buying, to see if it is value for money. Prices vary, of course, depending on upkeep and facilities but it does help when you are buying in a new area.

My daughter did sign a promise to buy a ski flat by video last autumn (covid lockdown) but the agent forget to show the state of the balcony, however DD was still happy considering the price.

forgot

Always look at the floor plan and room sizes on the details, many Photographers use a fish eye lens, it always makes the rooms look larger.
Some people move in smaller furniture to make the rooms look bigger, so always check that the bed is the size you think it is, some are only 4 ft wide.

And the layout, Oopsadaisy

Some layouts are very odd, especially in bungalows which have been extended.

A friend nearby sold her very nice but ordinary bungalow 30 years ago. She moved to a farmhouse practically next door. The bungalow was extended and sold again a few years ago, the buyers extended again making a kitchen the size of a village hall and a sitting room where walkie-talkies would be needed to communicate from sofa to sofa. They glassed both west facing gable ends and put it on the market before they roasted to death. It went on at 1.7 million, unheard of on this side of Anglesey, but has apparently attracted a bidding war and sold for 1.9 million.
Wow.

Sorry I was going on to say that one bedroom has just a mattress on the floor and another contains a piano, the layout looks most odd but hey if someone has the money!

We looked at a house with a chap having a bath!!

Georgesgran

We looked at a house with a chap having a bath!!

omg!! what on earth did you do?

We viewed a house that had a man asleep in the bed! Poor chap was on night duty and needed his sleep.

I am looking at it from the opposite side, having just sold a bungalow. The photos the estate agent took were hopeless - I did some myself and sent them to them and insisted that mine were used.

But I did work as a photographer for 10 years or so!

They now use lens that stretch rooms out in order to make them look bigger and to show more of it.

I think the photos are like the warning on tinned food beside the photograph of the product 'serving suggestion only'

The nitty gritty of a house is what size the rooms are in metres and/or feet and inches. A photograph can make a kitchen look huge. Look to the measurements that say 10ft 2in by 8ft 11. Envisage it - possibly the same size as a bedroom in your current home, or a toom in the house of a daughter or son.

Photos give a flavour of the house as it is now. But the only thing that really matters is the measurements.

They now use lens that stretch rooms out in order to make them look bigger and to show more of it.

Indeed they do. Our hallway was not huge but the photo made the dimensions look quite impressive.

A house next to us has just been sold, the photos made it look much bigger than it is and the back garden looks enormous which it isn't, the description said it was newly renovated we know for a fact it hasn't been , oh but yes she did have a new bathroom window put in recently maybe that was the renovation but, it did sell quite quickly.

I always look at the location followed by the floor plan.
Photographs are generally misleading as agents use a fish eye lens..

As a frequent visitor to Rightmove, my pet hate is toilet lids left up. Surely the photographer could fix that even if is not really her/his job? Or perhaps not in these Covid times.

If the photos show that the lights are on, I would assume that rooms don't get much natural light.

Me too, grannysyb

aren't the lights on to avoid using the flash on the camera
i don't use the flash indoors because it looks too bright and artificial
it bounces off shiny surfaces
with the lights on indoors the photo is often softer and gives an overall colour

JaneJudge - I think we beat a hasty retreat! We didn’t buy that house, but drove past it often and spoke about the man in the bath!

It seems to me that the photographer must squeeze themselves into a corner - and use strong lights - to take the pictures.

If a room/garden/garage is missing from the photos, alarm bells ring - it's bound to be a mess.

It's vital to note the room sizes, and the orientation of the house, before bothering to view it.

I really dislike the seemingly monochrome pics - where everything is painted white or grey!

We offered on our present house from overseas and didn't physically view the house until just before exchange. We made a lot of plans from the photos and were thinking we could probably put a turning circle on the large frontage.

When we actually saw the house 'the large frontage' was only large enough for 2 cars parked side by side. So photos can be very deceptive.