Year after year, we’re seeing increasing numbers of house hunters browsing properties on Rightmove and Zoopla between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve.
In fact, Rightmove reported that:
- Visits were 54% higher last Boxing Day than the previous year.
- Rightmove received a staggering 51 million visits between Boxing Day and the first day of the working year.
The bottom line? Your agency needs to prepare for the Boxing Day boom!
But what do you do when your client’s homes are brimming with Christmas decorations, and you need to take property photos?
Needless to say, Christmas trees, tinsel, and whatever other festive ornaments are up make it difficult for buyers to envision themselves living there. Plus, come the new year, the photos will need updating. Not only is taking photos twice a needless expense, but it also eats into your agent’s valuable time.
So, what do you do?
Continue reading as we provide you with a quick, easy, and affordable solution:
The problem
Of course, when it comes to taking neutral property photos, asking clients to declutter their homes as much as possible (including Christmasy nick-nacks) is your first port of call.
According to Samantha Odo, Real Estate Sales Representative & Montreal Division Manager at Precondo:
‘During the holiday season, homes are often decorated with personal and festive items. While these may bring joy to the homeowners, they can sometimes distract potential buyers when viewing property photos.’
…But if the seller already has a giant Christmas tree up, there’s a good chance they’ll be less than willing to take it down.
So, what do you do?
Answer: Unfortunately, you have to take the photos anyway, leaving you in somewhat of a predicament.
How do you remove unwanted Christmas trees, inflatable Santas, festive garlands (the list continues…) from your otherwise professional-looking property photos?
Complicated photo editing software like Photoshop and Indesign might spring to mind. However, as there’s less than a month until Boxing Day, you probably don’t have time to familiarise yourself with such complex programs.
On the other end of the spectrum, there’s Microsoft Paint 3D. It’s free and very basic. DIY jobs using such software rarely produce decent-quality results. Its Magic Select tool usually requires you to painstakingly trace the object you wish to remove. So, unless you have an incredibly steady hand and lots of patience, this is a tedious process.
The solution
To stand a chance of listing all your properties before the big day, you need photo-enhancing software that’s simpler than Photoshop and quicker than Paint.
Enter, PropertyBox.
PropertyBox users benefit from quick and easy object removal that makes their property photos look more professional.
Here’s how it works for small objects (perfect for removing smaller Christmas decorations like wreaths, advent calendars, mini trees, etc.):
- If you haven’t already, subscribe to PropertyBox
- From your PropertyBox workspace, click ‘Create New Property’ and enter your client’s address
- Upload your property photos. Then, click ‘Remove Objects.’
- Using our intuitive editor, highlight the object you wish to erase.
- Finally, click ‘Finish’ and watch it disappear.
From start to finish, the process takes a matter of minutes!
But what if you need to get rid of something larger – like those colossal inflatables we mentioned earlier?
In that case, tell PropertyBox which object(s) you wish to remove, and we’ll do it for you within 24 hours!
Easy, right?
Are you ready to erase tacky Christmas decorations from your property photos?
To help you enhance your property photos in time for Christmas, we’re offering a limited-time deal:
- 1 month’s free PropertyBox access when you use this promo code at checkout: FREEMONTHDEC
- FREE large object removal from your property photos¹
Interested? Have questions? Contact us today at team@propertybox.io or request a call back in 55 seconds or less!
¹ Please note: Large object removal is free for up to 5 uses per month for new and existing customers between Monday, 4th – Sunday, 31st December.
