I'm Selling My House Myself. This Is the First Step I Took

A few weeks ago, I listed my home for sale on the market. Before I did anything else, like putting my house onto the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) or getting started on the process of getting approved by a mortgage lender to buy my next property, there was one key task I had to check off my to-do list first. Here's what it was.

This was a crucial first step in selling my home

The very first step that I took was to hire a professional photographer. I paid the photographer to take pictures of my home, my yard, and my neighborhood. Because my house has a lake view, I also paid for a drone shot so buyers could see an aerial picture of where the house was relative to the lake.

The photographer took about 125 pictures that I was able to choose from when I put the house on the MLS.

Why it's worth paying for professional pictures

My photographer charged me $250 for the pictures they took, which was a definite hit to my bank account. But it was absolutely worth spending the money in order to get pictures that make my house look its best.

Photographing a house can be hard because pictures can distort the rooms and make them look bigger or smaller than they actually are. And without the right lighting and a good grasp of the best angles, it's difficult to really show off the key features of a property in pictures. Professional real estate photographers know the secrets of showing off a room so that potential buyers can get a true idea of what it will look like.

Paying extra for the pictures of the neighborhood was also important because my neighborhood has many amenities like a community pool and gates to restrict entry. I wanted potential home buyers to be able to see these different amenities and know they were buying into a good community.

Quality pays off in the long run

Making my house look its best online is an easy call in this day and age when everyone uses the internet to hunt for houses. When I'm looking for properties to buy myself, I can tell the difference in photo quality between places that have been photographed professionally and those listings where people may have cut corners and taken pictures themselves or hired a cheaper photographer without as much talent.

I want to be able to entice the largest pool of potential buyers to come look at my property so I can find the right person to offer a fair price for it. And I know if I didn't have great photos, it would be a lot harder to do that, and I might miss out on a potential sale.

The MLS (which is the most widely used database of properties for sale) allowed me to put up 26 pictures without paying an extra charge, and my pictures were so good that I ended up paying extra so I could really show off my space. And this technique has been effective, as my house listing looks great and I had tons of potential buyers requesting showings soon after the listing went live.