My mom is my biggest fan. She seriously thinks that everything I do, well almost everything I do, is great. I know, I’m lucky, right? But, to this day, she has one standard that she insists that I adhere to in her presence.
I always thought it was rooted in vanity, but as I grow older and live with two young men who think nothing of leaving the house with bed head and day old shirts on, I understand. It is really about first impressions and how important they are. So, yes mom, as I headed out the door this morning, I made sure that I had my lipstick on.
And, while this may seem like a tangent, this idea of first impressions is huge in your online real estate listing. Researchers have recently studied the eye movements of buyers looking at online listings and found some statistics that you cannot ignore.
- Buyers spent 60% of their time looking at the photos.
- More than 95% of the buyers in the study viewed the first photo (exterior shot of each house) for 20 seconds. Twice as long as any other photo!
- After the first 20 seconds, buyer’s eyes wandered all over the screen.
- Bathrooms were the least looked at photos.
- Buyers seem to be getting more information from the photos than any other section of the online listing.
- After viewing 10 listings, there was buyer fatigue and they looked at listings for less time.
The big takeaways for you are:
- You have 20 seconds to make a huge first impression.
- Your first photo should be amazing!
- Your curb appeal photos are the most important (check out fab front doors here).
- You should use high quality, professional photos in your listing. (this alone would make your house stand out as it is easy to find tons of poor photos and few professional photos online)
- Your house needs to stand out
One last thing…make sure you put your lipstick on today!
If you still aren’t sure how to get your house looking great so that you can have a happy sale, I’d love to help!
