When you are selling your home without an agent, posting photographs of your home will be of utmost importance. The majority of prospective buyers will be searching for homes for sales on the Internet and it is the photographs that will either catch their eye so that they read more about your home or it will make them skip over to the next house. Let’s look at the guidelines to follow when taking pictures inside the house in order to bring lots of traffic to your listing.

Photos of the Inside of Your Home

Photos of the Inside of Your Home

One place where you do not want to skimp on money is your camera. For sale by owner means that you will be pocketing a lot more money when the deal is done, so you can spend a bit on a camera! Digital cameras are the way to go, not very expensive and certainly worth the price in order to have high quality photos. If you opt for your cell phone or disposable camera, you simply will not have the quality of photos that you need.

Once you have the proper camera, it will be time to make sure that things are just right before you take any shots. One of the most important elements is to allow the sun to light up a room, do not count on lighting from lamps. It is best to open the curtains and even remove the blinds if you must in order to allow as much natural light as possible into the room. You will then want to position your back to the light, so that there is no glare in the photos. When it is time to take a photo that will show the windows, you can then have the blinds and curtains up and closed, and have several lamps behind you to illuminate that wall of the room.

You will also want to de-clutter each and every room of your house before you begin. While some sellers want to show off their book collections and others believe that it is best to have photos that show the house is “lived in and enjoyed” this is not what buyers want to see. When a potential buyer is looking at your photos, your goal is to make it as easy as possible for them to imagine what their furniture would look like in the house. You want them to envision which pieces will go where. You will want them to get excited at the possibilities. Therefore, de-cluttering cannot be overdone.

In regard to your living room, only keep the basics in the room. Remove everything except the sofa and perhaps a chair. If you have a mantel covered with family photos, take them down. If you have a hutch that is filled with collectibles, remove them. You want the potential buyer to think about how their collectibles would look in the room, not to look at yours as they may have completely different taste than you.

The kitchen and bathroom are the two rooms that must literally shine. All countertops and surfaces should be sparkling clean and all clutter put out of sight. Remove all items from the top of the refrigerator; put all hair and makeup supplies from the bathroom in the cabinet. The bathroom should only show what is built in: the tub, sink and toilet and that is it.

The bedrooms should be as clean and clutter free as possible. For children’s rooms, there should be zero items on the floor; those can be put into a closet. All that should be in the bedrooms are the beds, end tables, lamps and dresser. If you happen to have three dressers, remove one or two of them. Less furniture makes a room look bigger and cleaner. Always remember, when you are selling your home FSBO, less is more when it comes to the photos of the inside rooms.


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