I remember a mate of mine saying to me about 20 years ago ‘Buyers have no imagination’. I was showing him a commercial property that wasn’t moving and he said I needed to clear it out, remove the walls and repaint it. It had sat on the market with very low interest for 6 months and I was starting to stress out! Hence I sought his counsel.

He walked straight in, looked at me perplexed and said ‘Haes this place is a pigsty!’ then gave the line about buyers’ imagination. He was right, and a few weeks later after the touch ups, it was leased.

It is amazing how when we go searching for property we can’t see past the presentation. That has led to professional photographers, stylists, furniture hire companies and buyers agents all now firmly finding their home in the residential property space.

I was reminded of this a couple of weeks ago when a friend contacted me about one of his rental properties that wasn’t renting as quickly as he would like. He wanted some options, other than reducing the price, to fix the problem. When I assessed the photos, I saw that it was vacant and the rooms were blank.

We made the decision to add virtual furniture to the photos online. This imagery is the new player in the property presentation space and is perfect for the rental market. It worked a treat. The property was rented within 5 days and was another reminder that presentation is the first job in property sales.