The listing photos are the only viewing most people give your house. They are looking at a screen for a couple of seconds and deciding whether to book. A green roof and a black drive read as a house that has been left, whatever the kitchen looks like.
What buyers read as neglect
Moss on the roof gets read as a roof problem, even when the tiles are sound. Green streaks down the wall get read as damp. A drive full of weeds gets read as nothing has been done here for years. None of those conclusions are usually correct, and all of them come off the price.
Clean in this order
- Roof first, because everything that comes off it lands below.
- Render and walls next, for the same reason.
- Gutters, which will have caught what came down.
- Drive and patio last, so run-off from everything above does not land on the surface you have just finished.
Doing it the other way round means cleaning the drive twice. It is the single most common mistake.
How long before the photos
Two to three weeks. It gives room for weather, it lets a treated roof weather off rather than photographing mid-change, and it means the surfaces are dry and settled on the day. Booking the week of the shoot leaves you no margin at all.
What not to bother with
Sealing a drive to sell. It costs more than it returns at this point and nobody viewing can tell. Clean, tidy edges and clear gutters photograph as well as anything you could spend three times as much on.
A word on timing your listing
If you are listing in spring, the outside will have had the worst of the winter on it and everybody else's house will too. That is exactly when a clean exterior stands out in a search results page full of grey ones.
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