Misleading property photos

elsien

I was having a nose online at a property for sale in my road, and the photos have made the rooms look a lot bigger than they actually are. I was just curious as to whether people think this is a good idea to get people through the door or counterproductive if they're then disappointed?
I know the measurements are on the site, but I reckon people will still judge on the pictures in the first instance.

Hoploz

I think it's a bad idea. If a buyer is disappointed as soon as they walk in it puts them in a bad mood and they will miss any good ambiance about the place. Of course, they should refer to the room sizes on floor plans but this doesn't always mean a lot to people so the photos are useful.

A friend of mine had these very generous photos when trying to sell. She ended up having over 30 viewings in quick succession before she sold, (great house, popular area, fast moving market last year) presumably because it looked so different in the flesh! Better if people know what they are getting more accurately I think.

PasturesNew

Measurements are available before you view them. They have to use those lenses to get the whole room in.

Sedge123

After viewing quite a few houses we've got wise to this and now try to keep an open mind until we've visited. They can get very misleading though.

Thrugelmir

The only was of assessing a house properly is to view it. More often or not a degree of compromise is required.

marleyboy

By going off photos alone, you may as well be asking why a Big Mac, looks nothing like the one you see on the billboards.

missbiggles1

The whole point of an EA's photos is to make the property look good and the rooms as large as possible.

davidmcn

Interior photos usually require wide-angle lenses just to fit the room in, which inevitably change the perspective to make the rooms seem bigger. Furniture etc will give you an idea of scale.

Freecall

1. When I bought my new car the pictures made it look sleek and sexy, it was shown parked outside a posh hotel with a smiling receptionist.

In reality it sits out in the rain and when I stay at the Travelodge I can never find anywhere to park.

2. When I booked my holiday the pictures showed fit young things siping cocktails round the pool in glorious sunshine.

In reality there were a couple of fat blokes swilling lager while waiting for the rain to pass.



All promotional pictures try to portray a better image than the reality. Accept EA pictures for what they are, then go and have a look for yourself.

Bossypants

Thrugelmir said it best above I think, it's all about compromise: You want the photos to look sumptuous and inviting, but you also don't want to totally oversell the property. When I was looking early this year, I rang up about a property which had the most beautiful photos which made it look absolutely massive, when in reality it was a bog standard 1 bed Victorian conversion job, and in fact slightly smaller than the average for the area. Anyway, as soon as I saw it, I was practically salivating, but when I rang up, the EA made no bones about telling me that it was a 'very narrow property', which 'photographs nicely'. Evidently he was tired of the dozens upon dozens of viewings they'd had without offers because the property didn't come close to measuring up in real life!

moneyistooshorttomention

I tend to think those "expander photos" as I call them are a bad idea. I never even knew the justification?/reason? for it was deemed to be to show the whole room.

I learnt, eventually, to judge whether the photos were "for real" by seeing whether the kitchen units looked unrealistically wide.

I didn't use them myself when I sold my last property. I didn't see the point of the rooms looking bigger than they really were and people look at the room measurements last (if at all) I would say and will, first and foremost, get the idea of size by looking at the photos.

To me photos like that are a form of lying and I didn't want to give that sort of impression of myself right at the outset to would-be buyers - as I felt they would distrust me as a vendor right at the outset if they found I was lying right at the start and wonder what else I might be lying about. To me - I took the view that if I made it as plain as I could in every way that I was going to be an ethical vendor - then no "little toad" type buyer would be able to go "They started it - so I can be unethical too" and start trying to mess me around in any way buyers can (eg gazundering). I would say that that was pretty much how things were too - ie my buyer didn't try and pull any unethical stunts.