How to take listing photos with your phone

Before you shoot

• Clean every window and turn on every light, lamps included. Open all blinds.
• Clear counters, fridge doors, bathroom vanities and the floor. Put away toiletries, pet bowls, trash cans and cords.
• Make beds, fold towels, close toilet lids. Park cars away from the front of the house.
• Shoot inside on a bright, overcast day or mid-morning, when sunlight isn’t blasting through the windows.
• Shoot the front of the house when the sun is on it. Morning for an east-facing front, late afternoon for a west-facing one.

Phone settings

• Hold the phone horizontally (landscape). Every listing site displays photos that way.
• Use the regular 1x lens. The 0.5x ultra-wide is tempting but bends walls and makes rooms look fake. Use it only for small bathrooms and laundry rooms.
• Turn on HDR and gridlines. Turn off the flash.
• Tap the screen on the brightest part of the room and drag the exposure slider until the windows aren’t blown out.

Angles that sell

• Stand in a doorway or a corner and shoot toward the opposite corner. You get two walls and the room looks its true size.
• Hold the phone at chest height, about 4 to 5 feet off the floor, and keep it level. Tilted phones make walls lean.
• Take a step back rather than zooming in. Never use digital zoom.
• Show how rooms connect: kitchen into living room, living room out to the deck.
• For the front of the house, stand across the street or at the corner of the lot so you see the front and one side.

Shot list, in the order buyers want to see it

1. Front of the house (this is your first photo and the one on every search result)
2. Living room, two angles
3. Kitchen, two or three angles, including any island
4. Dining area
5. Primary bedroom, then the primary bathroom
6. Other bedrooms and bathrooms
7. Bonus room, office, basement, laundry
8. Back of the house, deck or patio, and the yard
9. Garage, and anything special: workshop, pool, view, new roof or HVAC

Upload

Twenty to forty photos is the sweet spot. Delete blurry, dark and near-duplicate shots, and don’t edit colors so far that the home looks different in person. Upload them from the My listing tab of your dashboard.

Put them in order and pick your main photo

Your first photo is your main photo. It’s the one buyers see first on our homes search, your flyer, and the banner photos in the Marketing tab, so make it the front of the house.

1. On the My listing tab, drag your photos into the order from the shot list above. On a phone, press and hold a photo for a moment, then drag.
2. Or tap “Make main photo” on any photo to move it to the front.
3. The new order saves on its own. On a live MLS listing, we update the MLS order for you.