Comparisons - The Bathroom

If there is one room in a house that can either look like something out of a nightmare, or like a porcelain paradise, it is definitely the bathroom.  I have seen some bathrooms in my 140+ home shoots that would make you run screaming....And it's my job to make them look great and inviting.  What is it about bathrooms that make people not want to touch anything in there?  Not the books (especially), not the towels, nothing. 

A clean bathroom may have only three or four of these, a dirty one has eighty trillion of them.


Being a bit of a selective germophobe (symptoms manifest only when I'm in the bathroom of someone I do not know personally), I find bathrooms difficult to deal with for two reasons.  The first is that I don't want to touch anything or move anything or breathe anything while I'm in there.  The second reason is that bathrooms are notoriously reflective places that make taking a good picture really difficult if you plan on using a flash of any kind. 

So as mentioned in my last post, let's have a look at your standard issue bathroom shot, pulled randomly from one of the many listings currently active in the Prince George area.

I picked a good one this time, and if this picture makes you want to move in to the home immediately, then  you would be the perfect client and I can refer you to many real estate professionals who can show you lots of pictures just like this one.  Please call me to arrange a meeting.



If this was your bathroom, and you had hired someone for thousands of dollars to market and sell your home, how would you feel?  Would you feel that the person you hired is doing their absolute best to make your home look it's best and stand out from others in it's price range?  Probably not. The most common mistake that real estate agents make is that they use a point and shoot camera on auto mode (or their cell phone) which ends up basing the exposure on the bright window, resulting in a grossly underexposed interior. World, meet gloomy bathroom.

Here is a shot from a similarly priced home that was placed on PG Listings.ca.  To make this shot I used one remote flash to light up the bath tub, and one bounced off of the wall behind me to light up the room.  All of the reflective surfaces in a bathroom (sink, toilet, mirror, tiling) make placement of flashes critically important, something that I am working on every day. This image, to me, transmits a feeling of cleanliness and brightness that has a much more positive impact than the previous image. Please feel free to comment and share your personal thoughts on this comparison.

To summarize this short post.  Bathrooms, like kitchens, are of great importance to potential homebuyers because no matter how hard you try, you will be spending a significant amount of time in one.  Also, I personally feel that the 'eew' sensation that we sometimes get in other people's bathrooms can quite literally be transmitted through a picture, making it extra important to ensure that bathrooms are seen as clean, attractive places when it comes to marketing. 

Thanks for tuning in, next up we will have a look at the master bedroom!


Daniel Abraham
PG Listings
www.pglistings.ca