Photo con - wasting my money.

wla

How do they make gardens look huge in schedules that are actually the size of postage stamps? Do they photoshop them or is it just a certain angle a skilled photographer uses to do this?

If i see a nice house with a large garden i'm keen, we have 3 dogs so need a reasonable amount of garden space. Last night we went to view a property with what looked like a large garden, it was tiny. 80 miles worth of petrol wasted.

None of the schedules i have seen give measurements of garden space, in future i'm going to ask before viewing, photo's are very misleading.

Kyrae

I know what you mean! When we sold my partner's house, and admittedly it did have a very small garden, it looked huge in the photo taken by the estate agent! They made the rooms look a lot larger than they were too. They seem to hold the camera down low and take the photo from a corner, guess the angle makes everything look larger.

Jowo_2

Ask for dimensions before booking a viewing...?

sunshinetours

wla wrote: »

How do they make gardens look huge in schedules that are actually the size of postage stamps? Do they photoshop them or is it just a certain angle a skilled photographer uses to do this?

If i see a nice house with a large garden i'm keen, we have 3 dogs so need a reasonable amount of garden space. Last night we went to view a property with what looked like a large garden, it was tiny. 80 miles worth of petrol wasted.

None of the schedules i have seen give measurements of garden space, in future i'm going to ask before viewing, photo's are very misleading.

Never assume anything in advertising. If I was travelling 80 miles I would be pretty sure I had contacted the agent to ensure the house would meet certain basic requirements I had. Presumably you must have spoken to the agent to book teh appointment? Expensive lesson but at least you know now to check.

Good luck with your search.

EDIT
One thing I did notice when we last viewed was that Haart and Spicer (part of same group) all used wide angle cameras and made the rooms look wider than they were. Always check dimensions if its important to you

Cannon_Fodder

Use the 'satellite' view of online maps.

Compare the gardens to the house size, gives you a decent idea.

Great for spotting the general plan of the area, understanding what's hiding behind nearby trees, etc...

DVardysShadow

Cannon_Fodder wrote: »

Use the 'satellite' view of online maps.

Compare the gardens to the house size, gives you a decent idea.

google maps have a scale in the corner

Welsh_Totster

I have a gripe about garden sizes too and think it would be a good idea to have at least an approx size on the details. the other size gripe I have is more often than not EAs dont put the dimensions of bathrooms on details either.

Google earth is your friend and I dismissed a lot of properties when we were viewing because of google earth, as it gives you a great view all around the property as to whats nearby (main roads, railway lines, parks and other stuff) and you can use the ruler measuring tool to check how big a plot the property youre interested in is. Its helped me out enormously!

Gwhiz

It's called a WIDE ANGLE LENS

slbhill

Many EAs seem to think that if it looks big in the photos then you will be happy with it irrespective of the actual size.

They very rarely include dimensions for garages either which can be very frustrating. Our garage is larger than average and we had to insist they put the size on the schedule - it's not important to everyone but for some people it's crucial.

Good luck asking for garden size before you go - it's a good idea but I'm betting most of them will just say "oh it's quite big", they won't have measured it. I would go with what others have said & use aerial photo websites - bing.com and multimap.co.uk both have oblique / birds eye views which let you check the view from different angles. That particularly helps to identify which house is which.

Raggs_2

I guess sellers will be happier if they are getting a lot of viewings too, even if offers aren't made. Estate agents trying to keep them happy.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

When I lived in Europe, people found it hilariously ridiculous that we didn't describe our properties in square metres. 1 bed, 2 bed etc is totally meaningless really given the variation that can encompass.