How to prepare a home for listing photos: the checklist.

Why prep matters more than editing

A good editor can straighten lines, brighten a dark room and replace a gray sky. What an editor shouldn't do is remove the dish rack, the shampoo bottles on the tub ledge or the tangle of chargers on the nightstand. Removing ordinary clutter in post is slow, expensive and easy to get wrong, and some edits cross the line into misrepresenting the home. The honest, fast and cheap fix is to clear it before the camera arrives.

Buyers scroll quickly. Every photo has about a second to say "this room is bigger and brighter than you expected." Clutter competes for that second. The goal of prep isn't to make the home look like nobody lives there; it's to make each room easy to read at a glance.

Two or three days before

• Replace dead bulbs and try to match color temperature in each room. A warm bulb next to a cool one shows up as a color cast that's hard to fix.
• Touch up obvious scuffs on walls and trim, especially in the entry and main living area.
• Decide where the extra stuff goes. A garage corner, a car trunk, or one closet the photographer will skip. Tell your agent which closet is off-limits.
• Schedule lawn care a day or two before, not the morning of, so clippings and mower lines settle.
• Clean windows that face the main views. Streaks show when the sun hits them.

Kitchen

The kitchen is usually one of the first few photos, so it deserves the most attention.

• Clear the counters almost completely. Keep one or two intentional items: a bowl of fruit, a nice cutting board, a plant.
• Put away the dish rack, sponges, soap bottles, paper towels, trash cans and pet bowls.
• Take everything off the front of the refrigerator: magnets, papers, photos, calendars.
• Empty the sink and wipe the faucet so it doesn't show water spots.
• Hide small appliances you don't use every day. A toaster, a kettle and a stand mixer all at once read as clutter.
• Close every cabinet and drawer fully.

Living and dining areas

• Fluff and square up couch cushions, fold throws neatly, and use no more than two or three pillows per sofa.
• Remove remotes, game controllers, magazines and chargers. Hide cords where you can.
• Set the dining table simply or clear it completely. A single centerpiece beats a full place setting.
• Open blinds to the same height in each room, or fully. Mismatched blinds make a room look unfinished.
• Turn off ceiling fans. Moving blades blur in photos.
• Move oversized furniture that blocks walkways if you can. Rooms photograph larger when the floor is visible.

Bedrooms

• Make every bed with smooth, light-colored bedding if you have it. Wrinkles show.
• Clear nightstands down to a lamp and maybe one book.
• Put away clothes, laundry baskets, shoes and anything on the floor.
• Close closet doors unless the closet is a selling point and it's organized.
• In kids' rooms, keep the personality but pack away most toys. A few books and a stuffed animal are fine.

Bathrooms

Bathrooms are small, so every item shows.

• Remove everything from the tub and shower ledges: bottles, razors, loofahs.
• Clear the counter: toothbrushes, makeup, hair tools, soap pumps.
• Put the toilet seat and lid down. Every time.
• Hang one set of clean, matching towels, or none.
• Remove bath mats and the toilet rug. They make floors look smaller and rarely photograph well.
• Hide the trash can and the plunger.

Exterior

• Move cars out of the driveway and away from the front of the house.
• Put trash and recycling bins out of sight, ideally in the garage.
• Close the garage door.
• Put away hoses, tools, toys and yard signs other than your listing sign.
• Sweep the walkway and porch, and add a simple welcome mat if the old one is worn.
• Clean up the back deck or patio: cover the grill or tidy it, arrange outdoor furniture, and remove pool toys.

For the exteriors themselves, the sun matters as much as the prep. Ask your photographer which way the front of the house faces and book the exterior for when the sun is on it, or plan a twilight shoot if it never is.

The morning of the shoot

1. Turn on every light, lamp and under-cabinet light, including in closets that will be photographed.
2. Open blinds and curtains.
3. Turn off TVs and computer screens.
4. Do a final pass with a laundry basket for anything that crept back onto counters.
5. Put pets with a friend or in a crate in a room the photographer will skip, and hide their beds and bowls.
6. Leave. Most photographers work faster with the home empty, and sellers walking through the frame is the most common reason a shot gets redone.

Personal items and privacy

Listing photos are public and stay online long after the sale. Take down family photos, kids' names on the wall, mail, prescription bottles, calendars, and anything with an address, account number or security code on it. Put away valuables and anything you wouldn't want strangers seeing before showings. Religious and political items are personal choices, but most sellers pack them away for photos so buyers focus on the home itself.

One more thing: check reflections. Mirrors and glass shower doors can show the photographer, but they can also show a bedroom you didn't prep.

Talking to sellers about prep

Prep conversations can feel personal, because you're asking people to hide parts of their life. Frame it as presentation, not judgment: "Photos flatten everything, so the camera reads everyday items as clutter." Send the checklist a few days ahead in writing so sellers have time, offer to do a walk-through the day before, and point out the three or four things that will make the biggest difference rather than every small item. Most sellers are glad to help once they understand the photos are working for them, and many appreciate a printed list they can tick off room by room.

What not to worry about

Don't repaint the house or buy new furniture for photos. Don't try to stage every room like a magazine. If a room is empty, that's fine, and virtual staging is an option for key rooms as long as it's labeled. A clean, bright, clear home photographed well will outperform an over-staged one photographed badly.