Property marketing guide
How to prepare property photos for a listing
By Revia · Updated
Start with current, uncompressed photographs that show the property honestly. Photograph each room and its connections, keep permanent features and condition visible, and send the originals with confirmed property facts. Editing can improve presentation; it cannot replace missing evidence.
What should you do before taking the photographs?
Walk through the property as a prospective buyer or tenant would. Decide which rooms, access routes and features the listing needs to explain. Clear loose items with permission, open curtains where appropriate and check that lights work. Prepare the real room before asking an editor to tidy its photograph.
Get permission to photograph and use the property in marketing. Remove personal papers, screens displaying private information and recognisable people from the frame where possible. A photograph taken for an earlier tenancy may no longer show the property’s current condition.
- Confirm access and permission to use the photographs.
- Use current photos of the actual unit being advertised.
- Prepare rooms and remove private information before shooting.
- Keep a record of features or defects that must remain visible.
Which property photos should you take?
Include the exterior or entrance, each main room, the kitchen and bathrooms, and features important to this particular listing. Photograph from positions that explain how a room is arranged. Where a connection between spaces matters, include a view that shows it rather than leaving readers to infer the layout.
Keep the camera steady and approximately level. Review each image for blur, a tilted horizon or a bright window that hides the rest of the room. Avoid stretching a small room through an exaggerated wide-angle view. Take a second useful angle instead of relying on an edit to reveal a space the camera never captured.
A phone can provide usable source images. What matters is whether the original file has enough clear detail for the intended use. If critical detail is blurred or missing, ask whether a new photograph would be more useful than additional editing.
What should you send with the files?
Send the camera or phone originals rather than screenshots or images forwarded repeatedly through messaging apps. Keep a separate original set and use filenames or a short list to identify the unit and room. State the intended channel: a listing portal, a social post and a printed brochure can need different crops and resolutions.
Confirm the facts separately from the photographs. An image may show a fitted kitchen, but it does not establish floor area, title, service charges or whether appliances are included. Mark unknown details as unknown so they can be checked or left out of the copy.
- Original files, identified by property and room.
- Confirmed facts, current availability and the preferred contact details.
- Brand files and permission to use them, if required.
- A brief stating allowed tidy-ups, protected features and intended channels.
What should you check before publishing?
Compare each edited image with its original. Check walls, openings, fixtures, views and condition, then look for unnatural edges or inconsistent light. For virtual staging, check furniture scale and clear routes through doors. A more attractive image is not enough if it changes what the property offers.
Keep the original available, identify staged visuals clearly and publish only the version you approved. Revia’s website examples are samples, not evidence of a particular client’s sales or letting results. The same distinction should be clear wherever a concept or staged image is used.
Apply this to your property
Check the current prices and terms, then compare the services relevant to your brief:
For a correction or a question about this guide, contact Revia. We use original photographs and confirmed facts; samples do not represent client results.