Tips for those advertising on this site a country property such as smallholdings, equestrian and similar properties:

If you describe your property wrongly, whether by accident or design, you are doing no-one any favours. Either people will waste their time (and yours) when they view the property, getting very annoyed, or the surveyors may spot it, or it may become apparent when the solicitors do their work.

Good photographs can help show the quality of a property. Take a little time and effort to get them right. Or ask a competent photographer, whether an amateur friend or a paid-for professional to take them for you.

I am a keen photographer and took my own photos - which I also supplied to the estate agents as I spent more time than they would setting them up and finding the best views.

Now for some tips:

1) Ensure the photographs are properly focused - a fuzzy picture does not enhance the selling message.

2) Make sure there is no camera shake blurring the photograph. Outdoor shots are usually OK unless the weather is very dull. There is a risk of movement with indoor photographs taken without flash. Most digital cameras allow you to view the pictures at high magnification so that you can see if they are blurred or out of focus when you take them.

3) If possible, do not use flash indoors. Instead, use daylight on an overcast day (sunny days, although brighter, give too much contrast between the sunlit and shadow areas). You will need to ensure that the camera is well supported and steady for this - a sturdy tripod is ideal, but if you don't have one, try supporting it with a table or the back of a chair.

4) Don't take all the pictures at head height standing up. Indoor pictures are often better taken lower down - try some shots kneeling down (or supporting the camera on the seat of a chair).

5) Consider moving the furniture around or out of the way to make a better picture. This is not cheating - people are buying your house, not the furniture.

6) Tidy up. Having clothes strewn over the bed, papers and magazines on the floor doesn't convey the right message.

7) If possible, take outdoor photographs on a sunny day with blue sky (and white fluffy clouds). Try different times of the day and check for shadows.

On this website, the land is a key feature that people are looking for. So don't forget to describe it and take a selection of photographs so that people can see what is on offer.

Be accurate with the land area. We heard of one seller claiming to have over 40 acres whereas in reality it was more like 8. When questioned on it they claimed "It looked like 40 acres to us".

If you don't know, get it surveyed or use other definitive tools. If this is too expensive then maybe use high resolution OS maps and measure them for an estimate. Whilst we were looking for another property, we estimated the land area using Google Maps - they have a scale on them satellite images. Not perfect but you can see if it is 1 acre or 2 (or 10 rather than 20).

If you are not sure and don't want a professional evaluation, state explicitly that it is an estimate from maps.

This link might help in estimating measurements.