The average online visitor spends around 90 seconds viewing the details on a home's listing. That's a lot less time than it takes to tour the property. While photos of the common areas and rooms can communicate a lot about homes, there’s one particular area that is often overlooked. When you consider that the entrance has such an intense impact on a home buyer's first impression, it's surprising that residential listings don't highlight this space in photos.
Have you ever been to a place and thought, "Yeah, this is nice!"? I know I have! The entryway is the first thing buyers see when they walk through the door, so why not include it in the photos? Leave it out and you just might miss out on highlighting some of the best aspects of your home. Here are four reasons why you should snap that dynamic entry photo.
The entrance is one of the most important parts of a home. It's where we spend much of our time transitioning from home to work, to school, then back to home and family. Our houses are a major part of our lives, so designing an entrance that is welcoming and comfortable can have a huge impact. Including this space in photos can make your home more appealing to potential buyers, who are often looking for spaces with a visually pleasant atmosphere.
Highlighting this atmosphere by including an entrance photo can help buyers imagine living in the home. After all, the entrance connects to all the other areas, and you want your photos to create a connection with home buyers. Allow them to imagine walking through the front door after a day at work, sitting down for a moment to relax, then moving through this space to the rest of the house. If the kitchen is the heart of a home, then the entrance is the anchor.
When you're selling your house, think of the entryway as a key selling point. Why? Because it's a place that will be central to so many memories of the new family. Formals, weddings, reunions, first days at school - a lot of important family photos will be taken in the entrance. This means that you want to ensure buyers become attached to this area as soon as possible.
Including a photo of the entranceway in the listing is the perfect way to establish that attachment. Think about a potential buyer scrolling through your listing. After putting the phone down, they imagine entertaining guests on the patio, family nights spent in the living room, and their teenage daughter posing for her formal photos by the front door. The connection that potential buyers have to the entrance can make a big difference in whether or not someone decides to buy your home.
For people who are in the business of selling homes, the entryway is definitely important—it's your first chance to show off the place and make it look as attractive as possible. But what about for those of us who aren't in the real estate business? For people who are just trying to live life and use their homes, does an entryway really matter?
It turns out that it does! Think about how many times you walk into your home—you come in from the cold and into your house, sometimes still with rain drops on your shoes; you might be carrying something heavy or pushing a stroller; there are shoes to take off; there may be muddy paws to wipe on the mat. It's the part of your home where you take off all your outside layers and get ready for whatever's going to happen next. So it makes sense that this area is more than just a door that leads from the outside world into your living space. It also provides storage for temporary items that can accumulate over time, like umbrellas, gloves, and scarves. If your entryway has storage solutions to help with the everyday then make sure you show that off from the very first photo!
By making a great first impression with your entryway, you're setting yourself up for success by creating the feeling of luxury or elegance in the home, regardless of whether it's actually a luxurious property or not.
Step back and think about your entryway as if it were a luxury hotel lobby. What would you expect to see there? Well-polished wood surface with an ornate mirror above it? A contemporary column with glass for a door? A bookshelf with artfully arranged books? Is your entryway clean and well-decorated? Does it have soft lighting that sets a mood? Is it easy to navigate—a place where you can easily put down your belongings and make a graceful exit? We think about all these things when planning the entrance to a home, but then forget to show it off when it counts! Make sure you bring that elegance to your listing photos—after all, you’ve worked hard to create that feeling.
Hopefully, now that you know the importance of an attractive entryway, you can go forth and make sure yours is featured in a dynamic photo for your listing. You just might find that people are more likely to come see your home for themselves!
This might seem like a small, perhaps insignificant detail, but it makes all the difference in the world. If you're like most buyers, you'll likely remember the first impression your home made for years to come. In this day and age, that first impression usually comes through the photographs found in the listing. So, if you're considering selling your property soon, include the entrance in the photoshoot. This could very well be the finishing touch on turning a good real estate listing into something stellar.
