Tips and Tricks for Home Preparation for Sales Photos :

Front of house/facade

- ensure all cars and trailers are removed from the driveway and park them out of sight instead
- keep the lawns mowed and the pathway cleaned
- remove all unnecessary items
- keep your windows neat

Kitchen and Dining Area
- declutter the area and empty the kitchen benches to make your place look larger
- remove everyday items such as dish racks, tea towels, rubbish bins, pet bowls, and the like
- put distracting things off the fridge like magnets, bills, kids’ artwork, etc
- add a large fruit bowl or a bunch of fresh flowers in the area

Lounge and Living Areas
- clear away all DVDs, TV Guides, magazines, and remote control
- keep the coffee table clear from any unnecessary items, but a few good books will add up to the aesthetics
-  remove throw rugs and couch covers for a neat and comfortable atmosphere

Bedrooms
- ensure that the beds are neatly made with new bedsheets, blankets, and pillow cases
- make it look organised
- remove irrelevant items in the rooms such as personal things in the bed side table, or posters from the wall

Bathrooms/Ensuite
- ditch those personal things in the shower area
-  tidy up your vanity and make sure everything’s in order
- Remove clothes hampers, bath mats, rubbish bins, and other insignificant items
-  display fresh matching towels
- ensure that the shower screen and the mirror is clean
- put down the toilet seat

BBQ area and Backyard
- keep it clean and free from any trash and wilted leaves
- kids’ toys, gardening tools, dog kennels, and pet toys aren’t necessary for the photos
- take the garbage and recycle bins away
- make sure that the BBQ area is clean and leaf-free
- remove the BBQ cover and open up the umbrellas

General Items
- ensure that all blinds all throughout your house are open and at the same height
- check if all lighting globes are working
- replace white globes with yellow ones
- make sure that all hanging furniture, photos, and wall arts are aligned accordingly

Transcript of Ready, Set, Shoot: A Conversation about Your Home Preparation

Episode: | EP84
Show Title: | Ready, Set, Shoot: A Conversation about Your Home Preparation
Cast: | Aaron Horne, Patrick Berry & John McGregor
Show Length: | 26 minutes 57 seconds

Patrick: Well, that it was always supposed to be an event for Tasmanians.  [Aaron agrees] In a kind of weird way, it was kind of cool that it was…

Aaron: We finally had a chance to lock it down and be like,  "oh, this is our event"

[intro music]

Going once... going twice... SOLD! You're listening to The Property Pod!

Aaron: Alright, guys! Welcome back to The Property Pod, your weekly engagement here into real estate in the Hobart Marketplace.I'm your host,  Aaron Horne, and I'm joined by our 4one4 Property Co. Sales Agents, Directors, all of the above: Patrick Berry and John McGregor.

John: Gentlemen!

Patrick: Oh, that's like a wrestling intro…

Aaron: Yeah, I've done one of those before and I got quite excited this morning. I'm a few too many coffees deep at the moment, but yeah, we're getting there. It's a cold cold morning

Aaron: Actually, [John: it is frosting] [__] of recording, let it be noticed, the Winter Solstice

John: Oh right!

Aaron: All those people were nude down at the long beach in Sandy Bay [John reacts] jumping in that water

Patrick: So, that's why you're late to work this morning as?

Aaron: Well, yeah, funnily enough, I've been working on a blog post or we've been working on blog post about how much we love Dark MOFO here and at the end, it's like: "oh no, it always capped off with the people jumping in the water," none of us have ever done it--not once. No way, jose.

John: I don't know if I really wanted to be. I mean, I've done nudie runs and swims the beach, I don't know if I need that to my tick box, if that makes sense. I don't know.

Patrick: I reckon John in these 70s, is down there with the red cap [laughter] they're still doing it 

Aaron: It's amazing, I love Dark MOFO. Dark MOFO is one of my favorite festivals. It's amazing that so many people, especially Tasmanians, are out in force in the coldest part of winter. It's literally always over the the longest day of the winter solstice is when we have our shortest day, sorry, I've said the wrong way around.

Patrick: Longest night, longest night.  

Aaron: There, yeah, thank you very much for the for the save. But just to see so many people out and about in Hobart this year, obviously, a little bit different with Victoria kind of being locked out of the state, because I think we read a stat that said or 65 percent of the tickets sold are normally interstate people, so only like 45 percent of people that go to the events generally, are out of status. This year, kind of, you know, there was a block on lots of people coming, so it's really been Tassie people, Tasmanians out in force driving this event this year.

Patrick: Yeah, I think I also heard like the curators of the event were saying as well that it was always supposed to be an event for Tasmanians, in a kind of weird way, it was kind of cool that it was…

Aaron: We finally had a chance to lock it down and be like, "oh, this is our event for our day," but look, it's amazing it's a world-class event that is held in our backyard in the time of year when nobody normally goes outside.

John: Oh, without a question.

Aaron: You bunk it down; you hibernate. We do have really really cold temperatures here, there's frost on the car, this morning, people are out in the nut jumping in the water all for the sake of art  

Patrick: I think what was really cool is it just brings the city to life. The life like the amount of people that are out over the weekend was just huge. There were people everywhere like lines to get into nearly every event that was on. It was just fantastic to see.

John: Well and like, like you said, people with lines everywhere, but yeah, from... like from, through the city part where they're called Dark Town, wasn't it? Then all the way through into Salamanca as well, where there are other elements was unbelievable.

Aaron: It's just amazing also to see kind of the re-imagining of spaces that you've been to and kind of just looking at them with a different light, like I heard you discussing with someone how the street lights were turned off next to the odeon, and it just completely changed the vibe of the stream and look...

Patrick: Before, obviously, when that dark park down at Macquarie point, that space was always awesome because it's all abandoned warehouses and it's spread out and it's like this wastelands that you're sort of walking through and when they said they weren't doing that there anymore because they can't you kind of wondered how they could recreate such an amazing field. [Aaron: definitely] Freaking hell, they did a great job.

Aaron: We actually started heading over that way. We were leaving the Winter Feast

we'll go over to where dark park always is over by that point and then someone had just said, "oh no, you've got to go up to town" like, "oh, dude! Luckily we heard that, we would have been just in the middle of nowhere"

Patrick: But, it's really cool like to go through the area where Dark Town was this year, in the daylight and then to see it at night, it's just the way that they create the space and connect the locations together through city blocks is just crazy.

Aaron: Yeah, we're even jumping up into the old K&D warehouse, like how many times you've been to K&D to grab some nails

John: ...or something pie from the canteen

Aaron: Yeah, all of that stuff and then you're going in and I think, it was one of your favorites, Pat, you were saying, what was it? 3.2? Patrick: ...or something 3.2 zero? or something else called, I'm not sure…

Aaron: Yeah, but can you describe it for the listeners that wouldn't have got a chance to go? Like, what it was?

Patrick: So, if you remember Candy, it's a big giant hardware ware store, ware store... a hardware store warehouse. And they basically turned it into a big rectangle room with big giant curtains, so it's like a confined space and then they've installed these rows of lights and they sort of go up the wall and then join across the roof and then it's a couple of meters and then there's another one and so on and so on and so on down this big giant rectangle and then these lights work with the noise and it's kind of it was here, it was really eerie. Like reminded me, John, you know those horror films that you're watching? The bad guys in the corridor and the monsters coming towards them and each light just keeps [John: yeah yeah] They had a sequence like that. [John: oh, wow!] and so it went from like being bright and then it's [Patrick demonstrates the sound] and like the lights are just turning off in front of you, and you're like, "I'm about to get murdered" [laughter]

Patrick: one of those [__] zombies is about to come out and get me and then like, but then you, well you started a completely different area.

Aaron: Yeah, the way I felt was like we went in and it felt like one of those kind of sci-fi movies where the aliens are coming to abduct us and you know, they're scanning across, and i was like [Aaron demonstrates the sound] [John: oh yeah] because everyone was just kind of standing still, looking, and the light was kind of making them silhouettes and it was just like, "wow, this is really eerie"

Patrick: And then that one guy just rose up [laughter] and we never saw him again

Aaron: No, but like, it's nuts that that's a space that I think actually we've talked about how the uni own it they're going to redevelop the space into stuff. I think it's being used as basketball courts at the moment, a lot of jack jumpers and stuff

Patrick: Yeah, there you go, I didn't know that

Aaron: Yeah, I'm pretty sure they used as a training facility so, if it was all the lights were on, you would have seen basketball courts which again, it's re-imagining the space, but re-imagining it into a third kind of purpose within the year of closing and not being there anymore.

Patrick: Well, that's it. Dark MOFO has been going now since 2013, so it's been around a while and every year, they seem to find new spaces to host events.

John: Yeah, and you can't record it.

Patrick: It must be random locations that I'd never get to experience like in those early years of Dark MOFO. You're going under the... [Aaron: ...under the city] yeah, under the city in these old tunnels or you're going up to the watchtowers and like you're walking all over the place to go into these dark dingy hallways to see a random bit of art and walk back out, everyone does it [laughter]

John: Yeah and you'll wait a long time to experience it [Patrick agrees]  

Aaron: But it's the middle of the winter and everybody's out and about, so yeah, [Patrick: that's what's cool] to all the Tasmanians out there that did get out there, thank you for being a part of it and thank you for making it what it is because I really want to see it again. I love the Winter Feast; I love it. I'd probably say I'd put the Winter Feast over the taste of Tasmania

John: Oh, every day of the week.

Aaron: There's so much such a variety of food, so much different stuff.

Patrick: And like, because it's winter, they're all hearty meals. They're like big meat dishes and like, I don't know, something it feels like you get a dinner when you go to the Winter Feast; when you go to the Taste of Towers, you go in the afternoon or in the sun and like, it's more about the drinking, but Winter Feast and you get a nice big stout or a whiskey or something like a really heavy drink

Aaron: Yeah, hot toddy. There's so much different stuff down there 

Patrick: And then, you couple that up with some really good food and it's a better atmosphere, the fires are all going and the lights are all on, it's just…

Aaron: Yeah, my little one was just obsessing over little fire towers that were just shooting off these just like looking up and kind of reaching up and just being like [Aaron demonstrates] trying to blow them out, so... [laughter]

John: Well, he was obviously being very successful,  because obviously, it fires up the guy he's like, "oh, I did that!"

Aaron: Yeah, "I did a good job". Yeah, I didn't think of that yeah [__] keep praising 

John: Keep praising for his efforts

Aaron: Yeah, look, so no, we just wanted to talk about that before we jumped into any property stuff. We just wanted to say congratulations to the organizers and for all the Tasmanians out there that got amongst Dark MOFO 2021 cracking event. Let's hope it's [Patrick: ...continues on] continues on  from here. So, what I wanted to talk about today,  we've chewed up a bit of time with that, but we actually had a few people reach out last week, about the photography and preparing your place for sale, so there's a few people out there that really wanted to cover off again on just preparing their place for, so we were talking about it [John: from specifics here] yeah, we're talking about it from the perspective of you know, if you've got an empty place or you want to do some like staging or they're asking what's the best way to do it if I don't want to stage it, I just want to have…

Patrick: ...I live in the house and I can't stage it [Aaron and John agree] so that's what you're getting at.

Aaron: So, what I'm getting at is yeah, "what's the best way to photograph our place?" like as it is, so that you know how can we present it in the best light, so we kind of just put a list together. We thought we'd just go from room to room and kind of talk about like you know, this is a really good way of getting about it. I'm in lots of houses taking the photos, you guys are there kind of giving advice on how to take them, so yeah, we thought we'd just kind of give a little rundown and some tips and tricks to prepare your house to be photographed and look, these aren't things that cost you really anything to do. It's just more about being mindful that they exist. 

John: absolutely

Aaron: Yeah, it's kind of like, we've got a photographer coming in a few days time, if you want to do a few of these things, it will just help make things that little bit smoother. If you can't do them, that's fine. Maybe they can help do it when they get there, but if you want to kind of just present it in its best light for photos for the market, here's some tips!

Patrick: Alright, let's start it off with front of house. Well yeah, it's front yard, I'm assuming…

Aaron: Yeah, well, just seems like the obvious place to start, it's kind of generally, when you're advertising online, the first photo you see is the, what we call, the hero photo, the photo of the house from the front facade 

Patrick: And the front of house is probably also just not so much for photo day, but for the life of the listing. Some of the other rooms. You have to live in and you can't keep them show-ready every single day, but the front of house is probably something that you do want to and it's pretty hard. 

John: Bear in mind, people are driving by; trying to find that sideboard, to have a look and see. And I know my normal rule for when it comes to the gardens and presentation that way, is you really just want to make sure your house doesn't look neglected, the starters.

You know there's a very big difference between, I think, manicured, messy, and neglected. And the first step when it comes to thinking about that is we all get busy, but what's the first element is de-wetting, mowing the grass, so that everything looks like it's been, you know, it's easy to look after in that sense to start with

Aaron: Yeah, so mowing the lawn is a big one. Sometimes, it's the middle of winter and it's really hard to get out there and do it, but if you do get a chance, it's really good to mow the lawns a really simple one for photo day and it might be something that you do when someone like myself or Sebastian, our Media Guru, show up, is moving the car out of the drive…

John: Yeah, or the trailer

Aaron: ...or the trailer

Patrick: Unless it's Chris's Porsche, [laughter] then you can put it in the driveway to make the house look better

Aaron: Well, see that's a good idea yeah, but it's just one of those things where it depersonalizes the space. It opens it up and you can see it if you've got a big Pajero or a Prada or Tiguan, what you've got, Pat. If that's in the way of kind of getting the best angle of the house, it's one thing that can change that first impression that you get and you're looking for it online.

Patrick: One extra thing that I like as well and it will cost you a little bit of money this one, but it's the letterbox. If it looks shitty, you need to replace it and it's not that deer at Bunnings like you can get a really cheap neat and tidy one for, you know, anywhere from 50 to a couple hundred bucks

Aaron: And again, it's just one of those things where it's showing that there's, we don't neglect this, it's just kind of, "this is one of the things where we take pride in; this is our place"

Patrick: I love a letterbox with the street number on the letterbox. I think that just adds really nice at the front of the house and it just makes the house look better

John: Well, and it's all about that story that because always people are searching for what's really going on behind here that I can't figure out, and all those little things start to build a story in their mind. An example, when we had that one at Farnham Court, there were three units; there was the third one that was neglected. Unit one, great litter box. Unit two, great new neat little letterbox. Unit three, the lid was missing and was rusted and bent. You're like, "what happened here?" So, that's where that just... that little bit of detail can make a big difference. 

Aaron: And they're the kind of things that when you're looking for a house, you're looking at those little things to try and get that edge over the rest of the things like, "all right, yeah. I'm starting to get a vibe of how this place has been kept" that's really something I'm thinking about…

John: And the last thing, sorry with that, too, is well, all the paths... all the pathways, so make sure they're all nice and clear and like in line as they should be, so that's like Karcher, the concrete if you have to look, you know how to clean it up a little bit and get rid of that moss and all the slippery elements, and also in the gardens, with the weeds. Well then, that's what we're going to do is the bare minimum is, you know, cover all if it's all really messy and mixed, find some kind of mulching element--be it pine bark or other bits, and cover it all up…

Patrick: So, hide it

John: Yeah, exactly. Patrick: Nice, John! [laughter]

John: And then it looks nice and consistent [laughter]

Patrick: Hide those wheels

John: Yeah, exactly. Just cover it

Aaron: Look, it's a technique.

Patrick: Exactly. Room two

Aaron: Yeah, so like once you've entered through the hallway, you're kind of then thinking the major selling points of the house seem to always be the kitchen and the living area. They're kind of the two main areas that you'd focus on first and then you'd move into the bedroom. Bedroom, is it correct? 

Patrick: Makes sense. I would have thought so  

John: Well, we don't want to miss the hallways. Get it just make sure nothing's in the way that you can bang your foot on.

Aaron: Oh, look. A thousand percent good for when you're kind of doing the showings and stuff like that, but generally, not taking a lot of photos of hallways. Sometimes, they're the place that we can then pop some things into, but again, it's always good to have them clean and ready. Sorry, sorry to just throw... [laughter]

John: [__] keep going!

Aaron: Yeah, this is my domain. [laughter] Don't mess with myself [laughter]

Patrick: Aaron's going to turn your level down, John. No more input from John, decluttering's got to be the most important one, isn't it, Aaron?

Aaron: Decluttering in the kitchen massive, kitchen is a space that gives you another clue into how the home's treated and how people look after it. So, if you're getting in there and there's stuff all in the sink, there's stuff all over the counter, you've got kind of the breakfast that said, "I didn't have the time to sort this out before the photos were taking," it does get really tricky

Patrick: And just the fridge, the front of the fridge. Just take the magnets off, take the kids' artwork off, all those things that yes, they're important to you, but they're not to a purchaser and they can make a house feel cluttered and small, yet if we can get the fridge being empty, it feels clean and tidy; it feels a bit more open if they're not drawing to all of that extra stuff that doesn't need to be there. 

John: Definitely, and another one--

Aaron: --I've got a few tricks I can do with that one, though.

Patrick: Yeah, but we're we're looking at the sales side of things as well there, Aaron. You can just Photoshop them, go to town.

Aaron: Well, we're just talking photographs today, boys. We're not talking about these showings

John: The other thing--

Patrick: --if they do it once, it's done

Aaron: Yeah, and look, this is something you can talk to the agents about or you can talk to the photographer when they're coming in, just saying like, "what do you think about this, dude?" and lots of the times, it's one of those things where it's like, "Oh, look. If this is how it's lived in like, this is fine. We just need to tidy up a few little things and pop the drip dry tray just down under the sink just at the moment," we can get it later [John agrees]

Patrick: Dining room?

Aaron: Dining room, another one that's strange because lots of houses don't seem to have your traditional dining room, like it used to be back in the day, they're kind of overplaying spaces, so it's kind of working out whether you have it set up in the dining idea

John: So, what do you think, Aaron? Cut the plates, no plates?

Aaron: I would say, no plates. I would say unless you're in a mansion. You probably just want to set it up with kind of the idea of this is a space that does get used, but

we don't have a full, just all the forks and stuff there

Patrick: This is where a bunch of flowers or something could come in

Aaron: Yep, one of the things that kind of would make it pop is just that little extra touch of something to balance out the table. Again, like we were discussing last week, a glass table sometimes works in a space if it's small, so you can see through it and you can kind of get a sense of depth in the space, whereas, if you've got a big table and it looks bare, that's when you're going to need to pop something on there, maybe not cut knives and forks like you're preparing for dinner.

John: Yeah, but just something as it presents neatly.

Aaron: Yeah, so then that often then flows through into the lounge room and this is a space where I'm often encouraging people to take images down off the wall. Famous on the podcast is the lady with the [John: ...the lingerie] the lingerie above the bed. Your recommendation was, "let's take that down" [John: that's right!] I would say to de-personalize the space. Take down as many pictures as you can, sometimes, they're nice to sell the idea of this as a family home. Again, it's something that can be done in the computer if we need to, but yeah, just another nice little thing where it's kind of taking away. Look, another one is like all the little marvel toys or things, if you collect all the [Patrick: the pop figurines] the pop figurines and stuff like that. You've got them all in the boxes. Yeah, they're really cool if that's your thing. They don't often help sell houses. Just an idea; just a thing, I was in one the other day and I was just like, "man, this would photograph so much better if Deadpool wasn't like looking at everyone" remember remember you're one with Freddy Krueger?

Patrick: No, that was Martin's. A full-blast Freddy Krueger statue walked into the bedroom and there he is looking at you. [laughter]

Aaron: Imagine waking up to that Freddy Krueger just looking at you, [laughter] just being just like your dreams

Patrick: I could not go to sleep with that giant statue and we're talking like you're full of size, John. 

John: Yeah, life-sized.

Patrick: Movies like claw hands [laughter] just like…

Aaron: It was mighty impressive [Patrick agrees] sorry, we're digressing 

John: Well, I do remember seeing a listing once from an agent in Queensland where right in the dead center was one of those contraptions like was effectively, like can you say the sex swing, if we're getting [laughter]

Patrick: Oh, you were going to go down this path at some point. [laughter]

John: It's like legitimately, it was one of like a deep bondage sort of set up unbelievable right dead set in the land room. Aaron: So, how much did you offer for the place?

John: Well, I was, you know, it was a rough year, I thought about it. I did DM and say, "how much would it cost to send that down?"

Patrick: Yeah, good call. And now it's home.

Aaron: Speaking of actions that happen in the bedroom, maybe we move forward to the bedroom. So, setting up your bedroom it's another one of those things where things on the floor probably don't work if your clothes are in a pile like they are on at my place next to the bed. I get in so much trouble for leaving them there, it's probably recommended that we put them away; put them in a wash basket, we can move them, setting up the bed, having the bed made always helpful. [Patrick: yeah, exactly ] It sounds really silly, but the amount of places that it's not made when we're ready to take photos…

Patrick: It sounds like we're telling people something they should already know, but we're telling people that because they don't do it. Like it just seems ridiculous.

John: And the thing is, too, is it, yes it's understandable if you've got multiple; you're trying to organize your children that morning, but it does make a huge difference when it's just presented neatly. I know if this might be a little one, if you can to spend a little bit of money, but if you have mismatched covers and like pillows, etc., see if you can find a way of making the match.

Patrick: So, get rid of the old elf doll cover that you had from when you're a child, John.

John: absolutely. [laughter]

Aaron: Did you have elf?

Patrick: I did it, but I've got an elf doll still at home.

John: I think mine was white cars and buses, I think it was.

Patrick: white cars and buses…

Aaron: I had Transformers, I had sound waves, like you remember the one that had the tape deck?

Patrick: I was gonna say boom box, but yeah. 

Aaron: So, yeah I was pretty impressed with that as my [ __ ] I wish I still had them for Jack  [laughter]

Patrick: In the other world, I'm sure Sarah wishes you…

Aaron: Very true.

John: I suppose the other part, too, with the bedroom is bedside tables.

Aaron: very helpful

John: so then again, getting all those little extra bits that sometimes just accumulate there and hot and this is one that we might have missed for a bit for all the rooms, but extension cords that wrap around the room trying to connect different electronic devices because you wanted to charge them where they probably don't need to be, but make sure that all those many chords are hidden as possible.

Aaron: I like that one.

Patrick: One I've seen recently is the NBN cable, because ambience put the box in a stupid spot, so instead of hiring someone to go and run the cable through the wall, the amount of houses I've been into lately and it just runs this thick blue cable just runs all the way through the freaking house. It's just unbelievable. I'm like, "let's unplug them" yeah, just unplug them and pack them away and we can put them back out that night when we want to watch our Netflix. 

John: But just for the photos. That's what we're talking about. We had five minutes of your time 

Aaron: Yeah and all we're talking about is again, presenting the place in its best light, and it's just one of those things where there might be some things that we need to move around and we're just doing them from our professional standpoint to saying like we've done this a few times before, we think this would be the best way to do it up. I will tell you my number one which we haven't covered yet, but my number one request whenever I'm getting into the house is the lacy, what do you call it... [ __ ]

Patrick: Yeah, it creates privacy, but doesn't add any advantage to the photo 

Aaron: Yes, so the really tricky thing with…

Patrick: ...grandma's house. If you think of grandma's house, she's most likely got it on the windows,

John: Like white lacy curtains, 

Aaron: Like number one first thing I do when I walk into a house is look at the windows and be like, "how much light is coming into these windows to get the photos looking the best that they can?" we want as much natural light through the windows. Those things heal the natural light. [John agrees] So, anytime I walk in, I'm just like, "would you mind I just would like to take these down? It will make the photos go from a level five to a level ten?" Simply by doing that, we could have all the rest of the things that we've said. 

John: Just do that one thing

Aaron: Just do that one thing and it will help a thousand percent 

John: Yeah, absolutely

Patrick: Definitely

John: The other thought, too, I think just on the note of like bookcases and you know, where DVDs are slowly becoming a thing in the past, but often on different elements of storage in any room, because they can be anywhere that you'll have one shelf that just has like way too much stuff on it and again, it's that element of just removing that as much as possible, so it looks nice and neat as if you're almost a little bit too OCD, but it just ends up being a much more pleasant element to look at in the photo that doesn't... it sort of it disappears from your field of view as opposed to grabbing your…

Aaron: Yeah, exactly. So, what we're trying to do is maximize the space and make it look as good as it can without drawing your eye away to somewhere. So your Deadpool or your Freddy Krueger or any of those characters that are kind of you're looking at the photo and you're like, "oh, hold on in a sec" like that's all over in the corner,

John: That's a box of rat poison, I don't need to see that

Aaron: So that's our aim and that's what we're trying to do when we're there. We want to make it look like it could fit well into a magazine or in better homes and gardens and they come in and just say, all the other house flipping shows

John: I remember, too, is now we're doing the 3D walk-through tours. This is all still part of the same element, so there's people seeing a lot more than they otherwise once would have…

Aaron: Yeah, very true. So it's not yet your framed photograph where it's kind of like, "oh, this is just from this angle" you can see it from all the angles and kind of be like, so often what we're doing is moving things from place to place, room to room, to be like, okay, we're focusing on this section here, but the camera can see it all, so we've got to kind of hide the stuff there until we move it to the next spot. So, there's a fair bit that goes into it. [John agrees]

If you'd have told me before I had this job that you would have full-time employees sorting this stuff out, I would have said, "that is crazy", but that's the nature of the game now.

John: And again, you know it hurts back to what we talked about before, all these little elements take away from what the shot you're trying to sell, which is the space, and every little part just takes a... you've taken your attention away

Aaron: You've talked in the past about taking the butts away, [John: that's it, yeah]  so, we're trying to eliminate as many butts as we can and these are just some tips that we would say like, we'll come in and we'll help you with it, but if you're listening along and you were listening last week and you thought like I wonder how I actually can get my house ready, yeah, these are just some of the tips. We sound like we're harping on.

John: Well, when you...when you do bit by bit by bit by bit, it's just like a giant to-do list, isn't it really? It is what it is, you know. So, I mean, I know I don't present my house day to day as if it was ready for photo shooting, so I know there'd be a lot that I would have to do, so it's just half of the course

Patrick: What? [laughter]

John: Don't, well actually, if it was you and I promised to leave some dirty understanding [laughter]

Aaron: All right, guys. I just generally, it's one of those things of keeping the place tidy, "help us, help you" I think it is what we're trying to get out.

John: Yeah, and this, in this last one then, I suppose with general items, where you've talked about... talking about, make sure all the globes are working and they're all the same color as well.

Aaron: It sounds a really silly one, but if you've got one room that's got like a yellow light and one room that's got a white light, it definitely changes the feel and you kind of it just breaks up your attentions as you're traveling through each and every like, "oh, how come this one's just a little bit got a different hue to it?" It just helps... 

John: And there might be 100 watt then a 40 watt in the same room, too, so it's completely disjointed 

Aaron: Yeah, so just another little thing that can just make a big difference and when we're talking in a market that's so busy like these things can make a big difference, when you're kind of doing it. 

John: Yeah, absolutely. And the same thing goes for rental properties, too.

Patrick: I'd like you'd elaborate on this one, Aaron. In our notes, make sure that all hanging foot furniture is aligned accordingly. What's a hanging furniture apart from John's swing?

Aaron: Well, if you think about those hanging, I like the swing, they're very very good  [laughter]

Patrick: Which is that all really in line

John: Trust me.  [laughter]

Aaron: I would think you're hanging plants...  

Patrick: Oh, is that where you're going?

Aaron: Yeah, so the hanging plants, like you know, you've got the ones that hang in the bathroom or I can show you something

John: or a picture frame?

Aaron: Well, yeah, in the notes, we do have photos and wall art, but yeah, that's where I would go with that. But yes, John's thing, we could make sure it's not front and center unless that's a real selling point that you want to go for. [laughter]

John: It's important. You don't hit the wall after all [laughter]

Aaron: All right, look, thank you for joining us once again. We've all had a bit of fun at Dark MOFO and yeah, it's been a good week! Winter Solstice! So, we just got through the shortest day, longest night, thank you for the save there, Pat! We will see you all next week back at The Property Pod

Patrick: Boom 

John: Thanks for having us!

Aaron: Thank you very much! Bye!

[extro and disclaimer]

You have been listening to The Property Pod, recorded and edited by 4one4 Media House in conjunction with 4one4 Property Co. This podcast is general information only and the thoughts and views expressed is the opinion of our panel and listeners should always seek then

use their own investigation into any topic we discussed to ensure they fully understand their own situation. It does not constitute and should not be relied on as purchasing, selling, financial, or investment advice or recommendations, expressed or implied, and it should not be used as an invitation to take up any agent or investment services. No investment decision or activity should be undertaken on the basis of this information without first seeking qualified and professional advice.