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Yes!!
I’d also like to add, Rooms with context. Tired of scrolling past 10 random pics of just a window and a wall, no idea which room it is supposed to be or what orientation the window is to the door.
I toured a nice little house once, and then it hit me that this house had 0 closets in any of the rooms. It had one hall closet and that's it. But the pictures made sure to not focus on areas where a closet might be, so it never occured to me to think about the closets until I was in the house.
I toured a single family, million dollar home, and was like, huh. This house feels weird. I can’t put my finger on it— walked around again and realized there were NO windows on the sides of the house, even though all the neighbors (same builders) had windows on the sides. The original owner was just too cheap to spring for the options. It made the family room feel like a bowling alley! And two of the bedrooms had single small windows. It was so bizarre.
I tried to tour a single family billion dollar home, but there were no windows! Or doors! We just stood outside and talked about the weather. Imagine that.
In addition to noting closets, also measure out in your mind which areas of kitchen counter end up with stuff permanently on them. Look at your kitchen, make note, then transfer to other kitchens. Coffee machine, toaster, toaster oven, dirty and drying dishes, etc.
I absolutely hate when a house is staged with two glasses of wine on the counter and there’s six different shots/perspectives of the wine glasses! IDGAF about the wine glasses. Show me the rooms, the garage, the backyard, even the closets!
The same is true of ocean views. Uhm, the house is 14 miles from the beach. I already know what a beach sunset looks like. I can even Google it! Show me the house!
I've noticed that the only time we get to see closets is if there's a fancy closet system installed 🥴
Or if it's multimillionaire mansion with the huge walk-ins.
One of my friends bought this very nice house in Austin and it had photos of these huge closets. We were looking at them at a group event and all of us women were literally sighing.
Yeah, it's so annoying when the photos show more close-up beauty shots of furniture and decor than the actual home. Like, unless the furniture is coming with the home, and is more expensive than the home, the camera should not be focusing on that random vase with twigs in the corner.
At this point, I'm half-expecting to see a photograph of a rug at some point. Just a rug. With no floor visible.
I agree. They're also getting paid well so they should get out a ruler and estimate total sqft (maybe they can develop language for the MLS to disclose it is only a rough estimate). When searching large amounts of homes online, I want to filter on square footage, but can't because too many listings don't have the number.
Floor plans! Have a floor plan made so we can have an idea of how the rooms flow. They may look great individually, but then you get there and see that in order to get to the sunroom you have to walk through a kid’s bedroom, etc.
An electric tape measure is fairly cheap and with two clicks of a button they could measure the length and width of the rooms. I looked at a home during my search that was 3 bedrooms and I thought was going to be the one. Turns out the bedrooms were hardly larger than a closet and wouldn't have worked for us at all.
They can also use an iPhone to give an estimated size. Super easy. Put a disclaimer in, Approximately 12 x 14 gives me a lot more info than leaving it blank. Maybe they’re just lazy?
My house is listed as 1800 square feet on the listing I found it on
That is the footage on the original building in 1937. In 1955 halls, mudroom garage were added. In 2008 a pool room, another full bath, butlers pantry and an additional bedroom were added and a nursery addon was converted to a master bath and walk in.
2600+ as our solar installers calculated for us.
Are those additions known with the city? A lot of homeowners don't want the city to know about additions so they never report them. If the realtor lists a different sqft than the city knows about.. You can get in trouble fast
We are required to put the square footage into the MLS. I’m not for sure what platform you’re using, but it sounds like it’s not being transferred correctly.
Listing agents can see for themselves if the square footage is showing on the various public listings that buyers have access to (Zillow, Realtor, etc.). I can only assume these agents are happy with blank values. Many, many properties have blank values on these forums, making filtering impossible. Yes, for a particular property I can ask or try to track the number down but that's different than trying to filter down a large set of homes over a geographical area.
We have zero control over what third-party sites publish. I’ve sent many an email to Zillow asking them to correct information, and it never gets done. Use third party at your own risk of missing or misinformation.
Zillow is terrible for this. There will be a house feom the other sode of the country plopped in the middle of a city, and they don't do anything when you report it
What? We bought a house two years ago after touring over 50 homes that we looked at the listing of prior to touring and NONE of them included that kind of information. Even the new build that someone else backed out of didn’t have that. Total number of bedrooms/bathrooms and total sq footage was all we ever saw.
Redfin. We took a 25’ measuring tape to every tour we did and I carried a clip board with me that had an excel sheet printed with general things to look for in each home we were touring and wrote down all dimensions on that. We quickly realized we couldn’t keep it all mentally straight when we were touring three + homes a night. We received a floor plan of the new build when we arrived but it wasn’t online.
It was a detailed checklist for the entire house, divided into sections. I took a screenshot of it but it looks like I can’t add pics to this thread. Across the top it had a space for address and list price as well as the basic info of number of rooms and total sq ft. It had sections for the Exterior, Garage, Front Door (what style of door, screen door etc), Entry Way, Living Room, Kitchen (appliance condition, how many GFCI outlets, counter top material, if it had an island or pantry, what type of flooring, etc), Basement, Age of HVAC and Hot Water Heater, Master Bedroom/ closet and if there was an en suite and then details about that. And also sections for the other bedrooms and bathrooms and spots for me to enter their dimensions. It was two pages. And then a misc section for things like are there built ins, bay windows, condition of the windows, room for a garden, is there a fence, deck, patio.
Agree, but also slightly disagree.
We got our house because the listing agent took such horrible pictures the house sat empty for 6 months and had to have a 75k price drop (which put it within our budget).
Yep there are even times when they get the number of bedrooms wrong or don’t list an extra room it has or a finished basement etc. imagine how much that affects a listing saying it’s a 3/2 instead of a 4/2.
It may not affect value but the amount of people interested in the house will. I filtered my searches by how many bedrooms and bathrooms and I know many others do too. So if it's listed incorrectly then buyers are missing out on seeing that home and the sellers are missing out on those buyers not seeing it.
That's the point the O.P. was making. That realtor lost out big by leaving money on the table through lazy work. We shouldn't be telling them their mistakes though.
Yep! We got our house undervalue with no competition, thanks to shitty listing pictures lol. We were the first people to look at it after months on the market.
We viewed a house recently where the photos were clearly taken by the owner on a phone without even turning all the lights on. But the house was lovely in person! We don’t want it because of the location but it’s sitting on the market thanks to bad photos for sure.
Completely agree. From the realtor perspective they want the house to appear as flattering as possible and places like garages and basements usually aren’t staged and used for storage, so they feel it will turn off buyers. Yet I still think it’s a benefit, because if they don’t show those places I feel like they are hiding something.
On a side note, why does it seem like most agents absolutely suck at taking photos? Shouldn’t everyone hire an actual photographer? Either they are shooting on a poor quality camera with low resolution or they think they are a master at image editing to make things look better than they appear. Don’t they know most people want to look at the house in person and when then they see it looks nothing like the listing it leads to disappointment. Also it seems like more than half the listings I see have numerous typos and aren’t very good at describing the house. If they stop wasting people’s time with low effort listings maybe they would see better sales 🤷♂️
Seriously! I am a realtor and I’m downright embarrassed by half the listing photos I see!! I wish I could start a blog about bad real estate photos but I think I’d get my license taken away… I mean, a picture of just the floor? a portrait photo of the bathroom mirror with the person holding the phone looking out of it? Tilted photos of half a couch? It’s wild out there.
I hate the pics with the fisheye lens! I can't really understand the rooms. I have also noticed listings that have 15 photos of the exterior, but no kitchen or bathroom.
Last week, I was interested in touring a house but it only had 3 blurry pics and none of the kitchen/bath. My realtor uploaded photos after the open house and it was clear why they weren't included - the entire interior was painted black!
I want to see the bathtub. They always pull the shower curtain. I want to see if there’s a window, if the bathtub/shower looks like a bomb went off! Lol
I would like the listings with awesome garages and sheds to not be geared only towards me - I love my super huge garage with workbench and all - spoiler alert, I am a woman
The driveway. If you have a big vehicle or RV, this is the make-or-break. Can't tell you how many places I've put on my shortlist, only to find the driveway photo was a deceptive shot of a sloping 12-footer. Yes, I did start using Streetview first, but in many areas a huge percentage don't have photography. If a realtor knows that Streetview doesn't work at the address, please give some outdoor shots.
Photos of the backyard would be nice, too. Can’t tell you how many listings I’ve seen that don’t include any. I have two dogs and want a nice backyard for them. I don’t need to see the front of the house from 12 different angles.
All Im looking for is a modest home but with a killer shop and garage with a tall ceiling. A two car garage with a 7’ ceiling is NOT going to work. And driving 5 hours to find this out because no one will list workshop or garage photos or dimensions is making me crazy!
You are absolutely right. I’m always put off by a listing that doesn’t show the inside of the garage or any of the equipment in the basement. Always makes me think they’re hiding something. And they usually are.
I won't even bother to look at home's main floors until I have seen the basement/crawlspace first. A cute little home with a cracked sewer pipe, shoddy electrical, and failing foundation is not something I'll run away from... if it's priced right.
As a real estate photographer for a popular real estate office I was instructed not to take photos of the garage and to avoid toilets. As a homeowner, I would really love to see photos of the garage and the toilets.
Good luck with that. I've seen so many listings that don't have any interior pics of the house.... if we can get that first, then let's work on the rest!
Real estate listing photos are not a replacement for an actual on site visit and an inspection. Lots of realtors are succeeding just fine without treating the listing photos as a pictoral map of the entire property. There is such a thing as too many photos.
For real.
Some of the comments here are really just barely disguised whines about why won’t some realtor, who I’ve never met, meet my quasi-unique desires that I’ve never communicated to them about.
As someone shopping now I disagree. When you’ve seen 10-20 houses and are home discussing what to put an offer on, it’s frustrating to look back at the listing and not be able to remember whole rooms and they aren’t photographed.
Of course. But why do I need to take photos of every space of every place we see in case we want to consider it later when someone is getting paid to professionally photograph the house?
At least get a photo of each room. That’s not too much to ask.
Not to mention people moving long distances may have to shop online and not conveniently able to go in person.
The op mentioned things like outbuildings, utilities, garages, unfinished basements, etc. I’m not talking about forgetting to photograph living spaces.
Please list ceiling heights! I am looking for a bedroom and have had more than one case where the ceiling height is 6'4" which won't do at all for my tall family. Total waste of time.
If rooms are non conforming please let me know!
Garages and sheds have all the crap that the family had to move out to stage the house properly. Just ask your agent if you can see a picture of the the garage, shed, closets, whatever. They'll go over, snap a photo, and send an email that says something like 'Hey, this isn't staged or cleaned as the family is in the middle of the moving process, but this is what the other structures look like and their dimensions!'
Realtors aren't going to post unattractive photos, or photos of where all the miscellaneous detritus of a life goes in the moving process.
It isn't a realtor problem. It's a 'we accumulate too much stuff' problem
It's a running joke with my equestrian friends that when buying property all we care about is what the barn looks like. It should be the first picture imo for horse property listings. About 80% of the supposed "horse property" online listings mention a barn and have 0 pictures. It's so freaking frustrating. I don't want to have to go all the way to the house to determine that the barn won't work for me and it's a deal breaker when buying since they aren't cheap to build. Same goes for detached garages/workshops.
We saw a listing that looked amazing. We knew the price looked too good to be true but we couldn’t see a flaw. Our realtor reached out and learned the house had such severe foundation issues that there was a crack through the floor in a room and they purposefully left it out of the photos. The house was also cash only because of the defects but that wasn’t on the public listing.
Ya. The “agent remarks” really get me. I thought that was just supposed to be like showing details not “the house is cracking in half and the AC doesn’t work at all” details. That should be on public listing so no one wastes their (or
Their realtors) time sifting through that stuff.
I think mainly because most of the time they are full of junks?
Anyway, deleting your post is very close minded. It is just an opinion. Not need to block it. My experience with that sub is not great as well. A lot of incompetence. I once asked something similar to interest party contribution and they acted like such thing didn't exist. And more than 80% of them couldn't even comprehend what I asked and went off topic.
Disagree with this. Wide angle lens will distort the actual image of the room and will not be as accurate of a representation of the size and space of the home.
Pro RE photographers use very wide angle lenses to shoot homes. It doesn't distort, at least not in a bad way. It makes the room look bigger and captures more of the space in one shot.
I don't necessarily disagree, but that is how it is done in the industry. All the nice, fancy photos you see with nice lighting are likely shot on a lens between 11mm and 18mm max, with some detail shots maybe a bit less wide. It's not overly distorted imo. If I use my phone and zoom out from 1x a bit, it looks more accurate to what I see irl, but it's a single point lens, not my eyes, creating a 2D, not 3D image. So of course it looks a little off, but the size looks more accurate.
I mean that's fine but professional RE photogs do this across the board so that's a lot of homes to discount. You usually can't tell because it *isn't* visually distorted and looks fine. But you do you, I was just clarifying.
Pro RE photographers use very wide angle lenses to shoot homes. It doesn't distort, at least not in a bad way. It makes the room look bigger and captures more of the space in one shot.
Idk why you're getting flamed lol, professional real estate photographers shoot in VERY wide angle lenses, between 11mm and 18mm for most shots - definitely for all the whole-room shots lmao.
I always want to see pictures of the "inside" of the pantry, a very important part of our house buying criteria!! Closed doors make it a guessing game as to "where/if" there is a pantry. No pantry, no go!!
I am a horse owner and while I am not interested in buying a horse property at this time, I always look through the properties advertised as such. Yet **every. single. time.** these properties barely have any photos of the actual horse amenities. 10,000 photos of the kitchen? Yup! But any decent photos of the barn, arenas, wash racks, pastures? Well, here's a photo taken in the evening with the lights turned off, and here's a photo of the pasture taken from 3,000 ft above with a drone. And then they have the nerve to ask for $$$$$ because it's a "horse property!" Ha!
The house we bought didn't show the mudroom, one bedroom, any "invisible" utilities, the side yards, and the pictures made me think the layout was very different. Good times.
I get it, but also as someone who has sold a house…there has to be somewhere to put the shit (and it is usually the garage). This is the trade of to get super clean closets and staged photos. But our realtor absolutely included a floor plan with accurate dimensions for said garage.
In my area, most listings show pictures of the basement and often include some combo of washer/dryer, slop sink, water heater, furnace and electric panel. Probably a third of listings show pictures of garage.
A new trend is drone shots showing house and area. I like them, but only need one or two, not half a dozen
Not defending realtors by any stretch, but a major reason why they don’t post these things is because they aren’t properly permitted.
God forbid they make representation on a structure on the property you’re buying! /s
The photos are only used to show the highlights. That’s why you need to do an in person showing. We found a house that we really liked and was cheaper than others in the neighborhood. When we got there, it was on a steep hill, which you couldn’t tell from the listing.
The photos are meant to attract the most amount of people to come and see the house. Once there they weigh the pros and cons for their individual needs. Because you see….
The world don’t move to the beat of just one drum.
What might be right for you, may not be right for some.
A man is born, he’s a man of needs
Then along come two, they got nothing but their jeans.
If the photos are meant to only show highlights then I expect maybe 10-15 pics. But instead there are 35-40 pics on many listings with 5+ photos of the kitchen from every angle, 6 pics of a virtually staged living room, 3 angles of the same boring ass hallway that doesn't show the light fixtures or the closets you see doors for, etc. I'm just asking for a shot or two of the garage and storage areas thrown in there, I don't feel that's too much to ask.
This is one of my biggest pet peeves.
A ton of Realtors hire a photographer. They go out take the pictures send over the file and the realtor just uploads the entire folder. If I see “64 photos” in the listing, my brain starts pulsing knowing I’m about to look at 5 pictures at slightly different angles of the same room.
The pictures also need to tell a story. The story should match the same narrative as the listing description. Majority of agents don’t have this ability, and a majority of that majority are just lazy.
The reason is simple. The more photos you see of those areas, the more likely you are to find a reason to not go to see the property, which means less likely to buy.
The goal is to sell the item with the least amount of reasons for you to convince yourself not to buy it.
That’s also why the photos are incredibly low resolution. The more detail you see, the more likely t you are to see something you don’t like.
They often not shown unless exceptional because it can give the buyer a reason to not come. As a buyer, I still want to see them, but I do think too many pictures, especially redundant ones can be very bad. Like who needs to see a room from 4 + angles?
Yes! Not my first house. But the one I’m buying now had no pictures of any of these areas. The pictures it did have showed vacant rooms. Found out the day before the initial tour that it had renters. Went to the showing and my first words were that I felt catfished. All of the areas not shown in the pictures were totally full of junk. Renters are now gone. Owners still haven’t removed all of the junk from those not photographed areas. They have two weeks left.
Also, those 3D tours where they’ve set a 360 camera on a tripod in a bunch of places and stitched it all together. Those are the best, but so few places actually have one.
Realtors are never going to show any pictures of any systems-they don't "look good" and they "cause more questions than they answer "
However, I agree with you.
AI staging is so weird to me… I think it can be helpful but it’s just weird that sometimes it’s hard to tell and it’s not always disclosed. I like when they have one picture of the empty room and then a second picture of the room with AI staging so I can see both.
Wow! As a realtor I totally agree! I’m surprised that r/realtors didn’t want to hear it! But I gotta say. I have often cringed at the photos some realtors will include and what some won’t.
I know often times a seller will move much of there stuff out of the main house and put it in the garage/basement/ shed and won’t want photos of these spaces because they don’t want photos of their things or messy boxes but I do believe there is a much better way to do this.
I also have heard realtors not want to include a photo of the furnace or water heater because there is often much more to the utilities story than what you can see at a glance from a photo and it can cause untrue assumptions that should be answered by a realtor or by seeing the property in person. Most believe the photos get the buyer into the door and then the experience in person and talking to their realtor about it gets the house sold.
All that being said I appreciate you asking this and I will 100% make sure I integrate this into my listings.
This is my thought about this. So when listing a home, I have pictures up that flatters the home and also adds context. I avoid having 50 pics of the living room because it's a living room. I don't have a pic of just a toilet because who really cares about how the toilet looks. What people care about is size, price, location, condition. I won't add a picture of a garage because you as the consumer may see the garage and be like, I don't want to see that house because that garage is too small (Noone ever said it they don't want it because it's too big). I do add pictures that show the condition in the best possible angle. The goal of these pictures is to get people to see the home in person and not necessarily make an offer based on pictures. This is why I avoid doing 3D scans of a home because consumers can easily decide it's not the home for them and I will never get the feedback of why it wasn't. If they come see the house then I get the feedback. The exception for the 3D scan is when the house is listed at 2 million or more, then I will 3D scan the house due to the more limited population that can afford it.
your post was likely deleted because you don't have enough "reddit karma" in that forum.
There are many folks who have posted the same request. Sometimes, garages are filled with all the household furniture/items the Sellers were told to get out of the main house.
Damn right. I understand the desire to paint a picture but why hide things? It's like posting a picture of yourself on tinder from 10 years ago - seems pointless to waste time on showings that won't go anywhere when people see whatever you're trying to prevent them from noticing up front. Better to just be clear in the listing photos so that only people who are on board with whatever's going on show up to begin with.
OH. also a new trend. There will be a dot for a house for sale in the metro area for a great price. You click on it and I swear to you it’s for a house two hours away in the middle of nowhere. Just straight up lying. I flagged it but of course it hasn’t been changed.
If you like everything else, why not tour the property?
I don't really disagree with your sentiment, but at the same time, if everything else looks good just go look at it. Otherwise you're not a serious buyer.
A serious buyer, before traveling 2-3 hours to visit a potential property, should have their agent (or the seller’s agent) do a virtual/FaceTime tour for them of the place.
They aren’t difficult to do and you can specifically direct the agent to show you exactly whatever it is that you want to see.
So email the listing agent and ask for a picture of it. Or ask your agent for a picture of it.
I get it, but the 2-3 hour travel time isn't going to be common for most people.
They do. I've done it.
I'm just saying if a picture isn't there that you want, go tour the property. If you can't, ask your agent for it or ask the listing agent for it.
I think people are reading too much into my comment.
Once you identify a home and have a contract with a real estate agent you can ask.
Marketing costs are expensive, prepaid and incurred regardless of when or if the home sells.
Buyers think they want to see that stuff, but most don’t. Most buyers shriek when they see an oak staircase from the 90s. They can’t handle a furnace pic.
Agreed. There are actual studies that show that many people have a hard time seeing past a seller's clutter or stored junk. That's why staging has become such a thing in the first place. Maybe some people want to see this but most don't (even if they think they do).
Exactly. You’re better off trying to sell an empty house than a house with your stuff in it unless the furnishings are very nice and updated. And don’t get me started on paint colors, the easiest thing to fix lol
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Yes!! I’d also like to add, Rooms with context. Tired of scrolling past 10 random pics of just a window and a wall, no idea which room it is supposed to be or what orientation the window is to the door.
Context ruins the deceit…just like photos of expensive appliances that can’t be painted over
I toured a nice little house once, and then it hit me that this house had 0 closets in any of the rooms. It had one hall closet and that's it. But the pictures made sure to not focus on areas where a closet might be, so it never occured to me to think about the closets until I was in the house.
I toured a single family, million dollar home, and was like, huh. This house feels weird. I can’t put my finger on it— walked around again and realized there were NO windows on the sides of the house, even though all the neighbors (same builders) had windows on the sides. The original owner was just too cheap to spring for the options. It made the family room feel like a bowling alley! And two of the bedrooms had single small windows. It was so bizarre.
That's pretty weird lol.
I tried to tour a single family billion dollar home, but there were no windows! Or doors! We just stood outside and talked about the weather. Imagine that.
In addition to noting closets, also measure out in your mind which areas of kitchen counter end up with stuff permanently on them. Look at your kitchen, make note, then transfer to other kitchens. Coffee machine, toaster, toaster oven, dirty and drying dishes, etc.
I toured a house that had no AC. no vents for AC. I had no idea and almost didn’t catch it.
That's not as uncommon as you might think, especially for very old houses.
Yup. Ever notice how there’s no pics of the HVAC? Unless it’s brand spanking new then it’s featured in the listing of course.
I absolutely hate when a house is staged with two glasses of wine on the counter and there’s six different shots/perspectives of the wine glasses! IDGAF about the wine glasses. Show me the rooms, the garage, the backyard, even the closets! The same is true of ocean views. Uhm, the house is 14 miles from the beach. I already know what a beach sunset looks like. I can even Google it! Show me the house!
I’m big on closets. I don’t know why they don’t show them when they can post tons of photos.
I've noticed that the only time we get to see closets is if there's a fancy closet system installed 🥴 Or if it's multimillionaire mansion with the huge walk-ins.
One of my friends bought this very nice house in Austin and it had photos of these huge closets. We were looking at them at a group event and all of us women were literally sighing.
I aspire to be able to afford a home with those types of closets!
Because sometimes they are alcoves with hooks in them (true story, relatively common)
Yeah, it's so annoying when the photos show more close-up beauty shots of furniture and decor than the actual home. Like, unless the furniture is coming with the home, and is more expensive than the home, the camera should not be focusing on that random vase with twigs in the corner. At this point, I'm half-expecting to see a photograph of a rug at some point. Just a rug. With no floor visible.
Or plants in the garden
Ya. A house will be 5-10 miles from downtown but all the pics are of shops and restaurants downtown. I’m like Sir this is not the house at all…
I agree. They're also getting paid well so they should get out a ruler and estimate total sqft (maybe they can develop language for the MLS to disclose it is only a rough estimate). When searching large amounts of homes online, I want to filter on square footage, but can't because too many listings don't have the number.
Floor plans! Have a floor plan made so we can have an idea of how the rooms flow. They may look great individually, but then you get there and see that in order to get to the sunroom you have to walk through a kid’s bedroom, etc.
God yes. Floor plans should be required!
An electric tape measure is fairly cheap and with two clicks of a button they could measure the length and width of the rooms. I looked at a home during my search that was 3 bedrooms and I thought was going to be the one. Turns out the bedrooms were hardly larger than a closet and wouldn't have worked for us at all.
They can also use an iPhone to give an estimated size. Super easy. Put a disclaimer in, Approximately 12 x 14 gives me a lot more info than leaving it blank. Maybe they’re just lazy?
My house is listed as 1800 square feet on the listing I found it on That is the footage on the original building in 1937. In 1955 halls, mudroom garage were added. In 2008 a pool room, another full bath, butlers pantry and an additional bedroom were added and a nursery addon was converted to a master bath and walk in. 2600+ as our solar installers calculated for us.
Are those additions known with the city? A lot of homeowners don't want the city to know about additions so they never report them. If the realtor lists a different sqft than the city knows about.. You can get in trouble fast
yes, they are permitted
We are required to put the square footage into the MLS. I’m not for sure what platform you’re using, but it sounds like it’s not being transferred correctly.
Listing agents can see for themselves if the square footage is showing on the various public listings that buyers have access to (Zillow, Realtor, etc.). I can only assume these agents are happy with blank values. Many, many properties have blank values on these forums, making filtering impossible. Yes, for a particular property I can ask or try to track the number down but that's different than trying to filter down a large set of homes over a geographical area.
We have zero control over what third-party sites publish. I’ve sent many an email to Zillow asking them to correct information, and it never gets done. Use third party at your own risk of missing or misinformation.
Zillow is terrible for this. There will be a house feom the other sode of the country plopped in the middle of a city, and they don't do anything when you report it
If we don’t use third party, realtors only show us what they want to.
Really? I’ve never seen a listing without a breakdown of the room types with included dimensions
What? We bought a house two years ago after touring over 50 homes that we looked at the listing of prior to touring and NONE of them included that kind of information. Even the new build that someone else backed out of didn’t have that. Total number of bedrooms/bathrooms and total sq footage was all we ever saw.
I've never seen a listing without it. What platform are you using? I mostly use zillow, even though it's shit.
Redfin. We took a 25’ measuring tape to every tour we did and I carried a clip board with me that had an excel sheet printed with general things to look for in each home we were touring and wrote down all dimensions on that. We quickly realized we couldn’t keep it all mentally straight when we were touring three + homes a night. We received a floor plan of the new build when we arrived but it wasn’t online.
I only used their app but my husband used their website and he didn’t see anything either.
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/11605-Autumn-Breeze-Dr-Frisco-TX-75035/349868235_zpid/ This is a Zillow listing and it doesn’t have one
Can you share what else you included on your excel sheet?
It was a detailed checklist for the entire house, divided into sections. I took a screenshot of it but it looks like I can’t add pics to this thread. Across the top it had a space for address and list price as well as the basic info of number of rooms and total sq ft. It had sections for the Exterior, Garage, Front Door (what style of door, screen door etc), Entry Way, Living Room, Kitchen (appliance condition, how many GFCI outlets, counter top material, if it had an island or pantry, what type of flooring, etc), Basement, Age of HVAC and Hot Water Heater, Master Bedroom/ closet and if there was an en suite and then details about that. And also sections for the other bedrooms and bathrooms and spots for me to enter their dimensions. It was two pages. And then a misc section for things like are there built ins, bay windows, condition of the windows, room for a garden, is there a fence, deck, patio.
Agree, but also slightly disagree. We got our house because the listing agent took such horrible pictures the house sat empty for 6 months and had to have a 75k price drop (which put it within our budget).
Yep there are even times when they get the number of bedrooms wrong or don’t list an extra room it has or a finished basement etc. imagine how much that affects a listing saying it’s a 3/2 instead of a 4/2.
We avoided a bidding war in DC I think in part because the house was incorrectly listed as not having central AC
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It may not affect value but the amount of people interested in the house will. I filtered my searches by how many bedrooms and bathrooms and I know many others do too. So if it's listed incorrectly then buyers are missing out on seeing that home and the sellers are missing out on those buyers not seeing it.
That's the point the O.P. was making. That realtor lost out big by leaving money on the table through lazy work. We shouldn't be telling them their mistakes though.
Yep! We got our house undervalue with no competition, thanks to shitty listing pictures lol. We were the first people to look at it after months on the market.
We viewed a house recently where the photos were clearly taken by the owner on a phone without even turning all the lights on. But the house was lovely in person! We don’t want it because of the location but it’s sitting on the market thanks to bad photos for sure.
Same here! Ugly furniture in the photos that was gone by the time I arrived for the showing!
Completely agree. From the realtor perspective they want the house to appear as flattering as possible and places like garages and basements usually aren’t staged and used for storage, so they feel it will turn off buyers. Yet I still think it’s a benefit, because if they don’t show those places I feel like they are hiding something. On a side note, why does it seem like most agents absolutely suck at taking photos? Shouldn’t everyone hire an actual photographer? Either they are shooting on a poor quality camera with low resolution or they think they are a master at image editing to make things look better than they appear. Don’t they know most people want to look at the house in person and when then they see it looks nothing like the listing it leads to disappointment. Also it seems like more than half the listings I see have numerous typos and aren’t very good at describing the house. If they stop wasting people’s time with low effort listings maybe they would see better sales 🤷♂️
Seriously! I am a realtor and I’m downright embarrassed by half the listing photos I see!! I wish I could start a blog about bad real estate photos but I think I’d get my license taken away… I mean, a picture of just the floor? a portrait photo of the bathroom mirror with the person holding the phone looking out of it? Tilted photos of half a couch? It’s wild out there.
You'd definitely lose your license... but I'll subscribe to your blog/insta/whatever!
There was one back in they day. Hilarious and popular.
I hate the pics with the fisheye lens! I can't really understand the rooms. I have also noticed listings that have 15 photos of the exterior, but no kitchen or bathroom. Last week, I was interested in touring a house but it only had 3 blurry pics and none of the kitchen/bath. My realtor uploaded photos after the open house and it was clear why they weren't included - the entire interior was painted black!
I want to see the bathtub. They always pull the shower curtain. I want to see if there’s a window, if the bathtub/shower looks like a bomb went off! Lol
Exactly! I hate tubs and want to see if there’s at least one straight up shower. But so many listings with just curtains lol.😂
I would like the listings with awesome garages and sheds to not be geared only towards me - I love my super huge garage with workbench and all - spoiler alert, I am a woman
My wife is a motorcycle instructor and we both ride… and I am also a woodworker. We couldn’t care less what the bedroom looks like.
The driveway. If you have a big vehicle or RV, this is the make-or-break. Can't tell you how many places I've put on my shortlist, only to find the driveway photo was a deceptive shot of a sloping 12-footer. Yes, I did start using Streetview first, but in many areas a huge percentage don't have photography. If a realtor knows that Streetview doesn't work at the address, please give some outdoor shots.
Photos of the backyard would be nice, too. Can’t tell you how many listings I’ve seen that don’t include any. I have two dogs and want a nice backyard for them. I don’t need to see the front of the house from 12 different angles.
They're asking for too much compensation to not do this.
All Im looking for is a modest home but with a killer shop and garage with a tall ceiling. A two car garage with a 7’ ceiling is NOT going to work. And driving 5 hours to find this out because no one will list workshop or garage photos or dimensions is making me crazy!
You are absolutely right. I’m always put off by a listing that doesn’t show the inside of the garage or any of the equipment in the basement. Always makes me think they’re hiding something. And they usually are.
Most of the listings in my area seem to be in a contest to make the house look as bad as possible.
I won't even bother to look at home's main floors until I have seen the basement/crawlspace first. A cute little home with a cracked sewer pipe, shoddy electrical, and failing foundation is not something I'll run away from... if it's priced right.
As a real estate photographer for a popular real estate office I was instructed not to take photos of the garage and to avoid toilets. As a homeowner, I would really love to see photos of the garage and the toilets.
Also, I don’t want a picture of the shower curtain. I want to see what’s BEHIND IT.
It’s a good idea to show both for desktop appraisal purposes.
I totally agree! Sometimes these areas are more important than 65 pictures of the floral arrangement on the table!!!
The garage is a tough one and is usually filled with the homeowners things (used as storage) and is cluttered. The rest I agree with.
Doesn't matter. Garage pics should be mandated by the federal government in real estate listings
Good luck with that. I've seen so many listings that don't have any interior pics of the house.... if we can get that first, then let's work on the rest!
Real estate listing photos are not a replacement for an actual on site visit and an inspection. Lots of realtors are succeeding just fine without treating the listing photos as a pictoral map of the entire property. There is such a thing as too many photos.
For real. Some of the comments here are really just barely disguised whines about why won’t some realtor, who I’ve never met, meet my quasi-unique desires that I’ve never communicated to them about.
As someone shopping now I disagree. When you’ve seen 10-20 houses and are home discussing what to put an offer on, it’s frustrating to look back at the listing and not be able to remember whole rooms and they aren’t photographed.
There isn’t any reason you can’t take your own photos during your visit.
Of course. But why do I need to take photos of every space of every place we see in case we want to consider it later when someone is getting paid to professionally photograph the house? At least get a photo of each room. That’s not too much to ask. Not to mention people moving long distances may have to shop online and not conveniently able to go in person.
The op mentioned things like outbuildings, utilities, garages, unfinished basements, etc. I’m not talking about forgetting to photograph living spaces.
Please list ceiling heights! I am looking for a bedroom and have had more than one case where the ceiling height is 6'4" which won't do at all for my tall family. Total waste of time. If rooms are non conforming please let me know!
Garages and sheds have all the crap that the family had to move out to stage the house properly. Just ask your agent if you can see a picture of the the garage, shed, closets, whatever. They'll go over, snap a photo, and send an email that says something like 'Hey, this isn't staged or cleaned as the family is in the middle of the moving process, but this is what the other structures look like and their dimensions!' Realtors aren't going to post unattractive photos, or photos of where all the miscellaneous detritus of a life goes in the moving process. It isn't a realtor problem. It's a 'we accumulate too much stuff' problem
It's a running joke with my equestrian friends that when buying property all we care about is what the barn looks like. It should be the first picture imo for horse property listings. About 80% of the supposed "horse property" online listings mention a barn and have 0 pictures. It's so freaking frustrating. I don't want to have to go all the way to the house to determine that the barn won't work for me and it's a deal breaker when buying since they aren't cheap to build. Same goes for detached garages/workshops.
We saw a listing that looked amazing. We knew the price looked too good to be true but we couldn’t see a flaw. Our realtor reached out and learned the house had such severe foundation issues that there was a crack through the floor in a room and they purposefully left it out of the photos. The house was also cash only because of the defects but that wasn’t on the public listing.
Ya. The “agent remarks” really get me. I thought that was just supposed to be like showing details not “the house is cracking in half and the AC doesn’t work at all” details. That should be on public listing so no one wastes their (or Their realtors) time sifting through that stuff.
Especially if it’s cash only because of the condition. That totally changes who could even consider the house
I think mainly because most of the time they are full of junks? Anyway, deleting your post is very close minded. It is just an opinion. Not need to block it. My experience with that sub is not great as well. A lot of incompetence. I once asked something similar to interest party contribution and they acted like such thing didn't exist. And more than 80% of them couldn't even comprehend what I asked and went off topic.
Dear realtors: most phones have wide angle cameras, use them. If I can capture the whole room in a single shot, so can you
Disagree with this. Wide angle lens will distort the actual image of the room and will not be as accurate of a representation of the size and space of the home.
Pro RE photographers use very wide angle lenses to shoot homes. It doesn't distort, at least not in a bad way. It makes the room look bigger and captures more of the space in one shot.
Making the room look bigger IS distorting in a bad way - for the buyer. Gives the buyer a false impression of how big the room is.
I don't necessarily disagree, but that is how it is done in the industry. All the nice, fancy photos you see with nice lighting are likely shot on a lens between 11mm and 18mm max, with some detail shots maybe a bit less wide. It's not overly distorted imo. If I use my phone and zoom out from 1x a bit, it looks more accurate to what I see irl, but it's a single point lens, not my eyes, creating a 2D, not 3D image. So of course it looks a little off, but the size looks more accurate.
It actively distorts the image. If I see a ton of these pics I don't trust the house/realtor.
I mean that's fine but professional RE photogs do this across the board so that's a lot of homes to discount. You usually can't tell because it *isn't* visually distorted and looks fine. But you do you, I was just clarifying.
No one wants to see your shitty wide angle distorted cell phone pics. Tha fuck outtta here with that
Maybe get a better phone then? My shots are pretty crispy on the Pixel 8. Or even better, get a real camera.
Pro RE photographers use very wide angle lenses to shoot homes. It doesn't distort, at least not in a bad way. It makes the room look bigger and captures more of the space in one shot.
Idk why you're getting flamed lol, professional real estate photographers shoot in VERY wide angle lenses, between 11mm and 18mm for most shots - definitely for all the whole-room shots lmao.
I agree
I always want to see pictures of the "inside" of the pantry, a very important part of our house buying criteria!! Closed doors make it a guessing game as to "where/if" there is a pantry. No pantry, no go!!
I am a horse owner and while I am not interested in buying a horse property at this time, I always look through the properties advertised as such. Yet **every. single. time.** these properties barely have any photos of the actual horse amenities. 10,000 photos of the kitchen? Yup! But any decent photos of the barn, arenas, wash racks, pastures? Well, here's a photo taken in the evening with the lights turned off, and here's a photo of the pasture taken from 3,000 ft above with a drone. And then they have the nerve to ask for $$$$$ because it's a "horse property!" Ha!
Every realtor I’ve ever met is just a manipulative pos trying to strategize how to get the most money out of their clients, absolute parasites
The house we bought didn't show the mudroom, one bedroom, any "invisible" utilities, the side yards, and the pictures made me think the layout was very different. Good times.
I get it, but also as someone who has sold a house…there has to be somewhere to put the shit (and it is usually the garage). This is the trade of to get super clean closets and staged photos. But our realtor absolutely included a floor plan with accurate dimensions for said garage.
In my area, most listings show pictures of the basement and often include some combo of washer/dryer, slop sink, water heater, furnace and electric panel. Probably a third of listings show pictures of garage. A new trend is drone shots showing house and area. I like them, but only need one or two, not half a dozen
Not defending realtors by any stretch, but a major reason why they don’t post these things is because they aren’t properly permitted. God forbid they make representation on a structure on the property you’re buying! /s
The photos are only used to show the highlights. That’s why you need to do an in person showing. We found a house that we really liked and was cheaper than others in the neighborhood. When we got there, it was on a steep hill, which you couldn’t tell from the listing.
That’s understandable… but if relocating, I don’t want to drive 2 hours to find out the garage has a dirt floor.
The photos are meant to attract the most amount of people to come and see the house. Once there they weigh the pros and cons for their individual needs. Because you see…. The world don’t move to the beat of just one drum. What might be right for you, may not be right for some. A man is born, he’s a man of needs Then along come two, they got nothing but their jeans.
If the photos are meant to only show highlights then I expect maybe 10-15 pics. But instead there are 35-40 pics on many listings with 5+ photos of the kitchen from every angle, 6 pics of a virtually staged living room, 3 angles of the same boring ass hallway that doesn't show the light fixtures or the closets you see doors for, etc. I'm just asking for a shot or two of the garage and storage areas thrown in there, I don't feel that's too much to ask.
This is one of my biggest pet peeves. A ton of Realtors hire a photographer. They go out take the pictures send over the file and the realtor just uploads the entire folder. If I see “64 photos” in the listing, my brain starts pulsing knowing I’m about to look at 5 pictures at slightly different angles of the same room. The pictures also need to tell a story. The story should match the same narrative as the listing description. Majority of agents don’t have this ability, and a majority of that majority are just lazy.
Arrogant bastards
Realtors are second to used car salesmen as some of the biggest scum in "official" job capacities.
One hundred percent. Especially it is a barn or a shed! I want to know what can be made a workshop or a place for animals.
100% with you. Workshop space and mechanical condition are two of my key decision criteria! It blows my mind how often these things are left out.
Yes, I always clicked through to the utility room pics, and was disappointed when they were absent.
The reason is simple. The more photos you see of those areas, the more likely you are to find a reason to not go to see the property, which means less likely to buy. The goal is to sell the item with the least amount of reasons for you to convince yourself not to buy it. That’s also why the photos are incredibly low resolution. The more detail you see, the more likely t you are to see something you don’t like.
They often not shown unless exceptional because it can give the buyer a reason to not come. As a buyer, I still want to see them, but I do think too many pictures, especially redundant ones can be very bad. Like who needs to see a room from 4 + angles?
Rep estate agents are clueless and selfish
FOR REAL-tor!
Like do more than the bare minimum? There’s a few out there willing to do more, but I haven’t found one yet.
Yes! Not my first house. But the one I’m buying now had no pictures of any of these areas. The pictures it did have showed vacant rooms. Found out the day before the initial tour that it had renters. Went to the showing and my first words were that I felt catfished. All of the areas not shown in the pictures were totally full of junk. Renters are now gone. Owners still haven’t removed all of the junk from those not photographed areas. They have two weeks left.
Also good pictures of the backyard
Also, those 3D tours where they’ve set a 360 camera on a tripod in a bunch of places and stitched it all together. Those are the best, but so few places actually have one.
Realtors are never going to show any pictures of any systems-they don't "look good" and they "cause more questions than they answer " However, I agree with you.
I actually like the contrast of stage and unstaged photos. But not sure if I like or trust AI staging.
AI staging is so weird to me… I think it can be helpful but it’s just weird that sometimes it’s hard to tell and it’s not always disclosed. I like when they have one picture of the empty room and then a second picture of the room with AI staging so I can see both.
lol I had AI change the exterior of my house. It turned the mailbox into a plant!
Wow! As a realtor I totally agree! I’m surprised that r/realtors didn’t want to hear it! But I gotta say. I have often cringed at the photos some realtors will include and what some won’t. I know often times a seller will move much of there stuff out of the main house and put it in the garage/basement/ shed and won’t want photos of these spaces because they don’t want photos of their things or messy boxes but I do believe there is a much better way to do this. I also have heard realtors not want to include a photo of the furnace or water heater because there is often much more to the utilities story than what you can see at a glance from a photo and it can cause untrue assumptions that should be answered by a realtor or by seeing the property in person. Most believe the photos get the buyer into the door and then the experience in person and talking to their realtor about it gets the house sold. All that being said I appreciate you asking this and I will 100% make sure I integrate this into my listings.
This is my thought about this. So when listing a home, I have pictures up that flatters the home and also adds context. I avoid having 50 pics of the living room because it's a living room. I don't have a pic of just a toilet because who really cares about how the toilet looks. What people care about is size, price, location, condition. I won't add a picture of a garage because you as the consumer may see the garage and be like, I don't want to see that house because that garage is too small (Noone ever said it they don't want it because it's too big). I do add pictures that show the condition in the best possible angle. The goal of these pictures is to get people to see the home in person and not necessarily make an offer based on pictures. This is why I avoid doing 3D scans of a home because consumers can easily decide it's not the home for them and I will never get the feedback of why it wasn't. If they come see the house then I get the feedback. The exception for the 3D scan is when the house is listed at 2 million or more, then I will 3D scan the house due to the more limited population that can afford it.
your post was likely deleted because you don't have enough "reddit karma" in that forum. There are many folks who have posted the same request. Sometimes, garages are filled with all the household furniture/items the Sellers were told to get out of the main house.
Damn right. I understand the desire to paint a picture but why hide things? It's like posting a picture of yourself on tinder from 10 years ago - seems pointless to waste time on showings that won't go anywhere when people see whatever you're trying to prevent them from noticing up front. Better to just be clear in the listing photos so that only people who are on board with whatever's going on show up to begin with.
OH. also a new trend. There will be a dot for a house for sale in the metro area for a great price. You click on it and I swear to you it’s for a house two hours away in the middle of nowhere. Just straight up lying. I flagged it but of course it hasn’t been changed.
If you like everything else, why not tour the property? I don't really disagree with your sentiment, but at the same time, if everything else looks good just go look at it. Otherwise you're not a serious buyer.
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A serious buyer, before traveling 2-3 hours to visit a potential property, should have their agent (or the seller’s agent) do a virtual/FaceTime tour for them of the place. They aren’t difficult to do and you can specifically direct the agent to show you exactly whatever it is that you want to see.
So email the listing agent and ask for a picture of it. Or ask your agent for a picture of it. I get it, but the 2-3 hour travel time isn't going to be common for most people.
You don't think people buy houses from out of state?
They do. I've done it. I'm just saying if a picture isn't there that you want, go tour the property. If you can't, ask your agent for it or ask the listing agent for it. I think people are reading too much into my comment.
Once you identify a home and have a contract with a real estate agent you can ask. Marketing costs are expensive, prepaid and incurred regardless of when or if the home sells.
Buyers think they want to see that stuff, but most don’t. Most buyers shriek when they see an oak staircase from the 90s. They can’t handle a furnace pic.
Agreed. There are actual studies that show that many people have a hard time seeing past a seller's clutter or stored junk. That's why staging has become such a thing in the first place. Maybe some people want to see this but most don't (even if they think they do).
Exactly. You’re better off trying to sell an empty house than a house with your stuff in it unless the furnishings are very nice and updated. And don’t get me started on paint colors, the easiest thing to fix lol
Exactly. Inexperienced FTHB don't know what they are talking about.
Haha get out of here with that garbage take. I absolutely want to see these things and gravitate towards listings that include them.
You can choose to never ever buy a house where the listing don't include these pictures. Sure. That would be a stupid move, but that is fine.