Don and Rita, the owners of this stunning holiday home (above) with private beach front in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, are very experienced home swappers who recently shared tips on how members could best use photos to ‘sell’ the idea of coming to stay in their homes. If your home has a view like this, selling your home exchange offer should be a cinch!
Of course, not everyone can offer such stunning views and the majority of homes available to exchange will be smaller (and probably not offer a private beach!). However, what every member should do to create a good first Impression is to ensure that their home is tidy before taking photos.
| Home swap tip: Don and Rita browsed through a couple of home and garden magazines to get some ideas on how best to display and photograph their home. |
Tidying doesn’t mean depersonalising your home; there’s no need to hide away family photos, books and interesting items you have on display (the things that make a house a home, not a show home) but rather to clear unsightly clutter, e.g.
- Make sure beds are freshly made up and covers smoothed
- No clothes, toys, newspapers, junk is left lying around
- Definitely no kitchen sinks and work surfaces stacked with last night’s dirty dishes
Another important point that Don makes is that, with the photos uploaded of their own homes, members are giving an impression of how they may look after a home entrusted to them and the state they might leave it in at the end of the home exchange. Now the vast vast majority of members leave a home exactly as they found it on arrival (often better!) but those all-important first impressions you give of your own home do count.
We have covered how to take good photos of your home in previous blog posts such as: Five tips: to make your home swap photos stand out
- View Don and Rita’s stunning home swap offer in Russell, Bay of Islands, New Zealand
