Most of what makes listing photos look good happens before the photographer shows up. The camera can fix a lot, but it cannot hide a pile of mail on the counter or a car parked across the front of the house. Seattle adds its own wrinkles: grey skies for much of the year, condo buildings with strict access rules, hillside lots, and view homes where the time of day matters as much as the staging.
This checklist is for listing agents and for sellers doing the prep themselves. Work through it the day before the shoot.
Start a week out: logistics that decide the shoot
Pick the date around the list date, then work backward. Photos usually need to be in hand a day or two before the listing goes live, and video takes longer to edit than stills. Ask your photographer when each piece arrives so you are not waiting on a video the morning the listing launches. If you are comparing providers for real estate photography in Seattle, ask this before you book.
Condos need access arranged in advance. Many Seattle condo buildings, especially on Capitol Hill and around downtown, want notice before a crew brings gear through the lobby. Some require an amenity booking to photograph the roof deck, gym or lounge. Find out who manages access, get the booking in writing, and pass that contact to your photographer.
Plan for parking and loading. On dense blocks, a crew carrying lights, tripods and a drone case can lose real time hunting for a spot. If there is a garage space, a driveway or a loading zone they can use, say so ahead of time.
Ask about the drone early. Parts of Seattle sit inside controlled airspace around Sea-Tac and Boeing Field. Drone flights there need FAA authorization before the shoot, and a few addresses cannot be flown at all. If aerials matter for the listing, have your photographer check the address when you book, not the morning of.
The exterior: first photo, first impression
The front exterior is often the lead image on the listing, so give it the most attention.
- Move cars off the driveway and away from the curb in front of the house.
- Put trash and recycling bins out of sight, in the garage or around the side.
- Mow, edge and blow off walkways and the driveway. Wet leaves on a path read as neglect in a photo.
- Coil hoses, put away yard tools, and take down anything seasonal that will date the photos.
- Turn on every exterior light, including porch lights and landscape lighting.
- Clear the front porch down to a chair or two and a plant.
Steep lots need a plan. On Queen Anne, parts of West Seattle and many other hillside streets, the street itself does not give a good angle on the house. The photographer may shoot from across the street, from a neighbor’s sidewalk, or from the air. A drone can give a clean front elevation where the street cannot, which is another reason to settle the airspace question early. Trim any shrubs or low branches that block the front of the house from the likely angles.
Room by room inside
The rule for every room is the same: clear flat surfaces, turn on every light, open every blind. After that, each room has its own trouble spots.
Kitchen
- Clear the counters almost completely. Leave one or two items at most, like a bowl of fruit or a cutting board.
- Hide dish soap, sponges, towels, paper towel rolls and small appliances.
- Clear the front of the fridge of magnets, photos and calendars.
- Empty the sink and dish rack.
Living and family rooms
- Remove remotes, chargers, cords and stacks of magazines.
- Fluff and straighten couch cushions and pillows, and fold throws neatly or put them away.
- Pull furniture slightly away from walls if the room feels crowded. Fewer pieces photograph as more space.
Bedrooms
- Make every bed with smooth, light-colored bedding if you have it.
- Clear nightstands down to a lamp.
- Close closet doors, and empty anything stored under the bed where it shows.
Bathrooms
- Remove every personal item: toothbrushes, razors, bottles in the shower, bath mats, the scale.
- Put toilet lids down.
- Hang fresh, matching towels, or none at all.
- Wipe mirrors and glass. Streaks and water spots show up in bright photos.
Everywhere
- Replace burnt-out bulbs, and try to keep bulb colors consistent within a room. A mix of warm and cool bulbs gives photos an uneven color cast.
- Take down family photos, kids’ art and anything with names on it. Buyers should picture themselves there, and sellers usually prefer their family stays off the internet.
- Put pets and their bowls, beds and litter boxes out of the house or out of sight for the shoot.
Basements, garages and bonus rooms are easy to forget. If they are part of the story, like a finished basement or a workshop, tidy them and tell the photographer to include them. If they are stored, say so, and they can be skipped.
Grey days are normal here
Waiting for sunshine is not an option for much of the year here. A few habits help on overcast days.
- Open every window covering fully. Soft grey light fills a room evenly, but only if it can get in.
- Turn on every light, even in the daytime. Lamps and fixtures add warmth that a flat sky does not.
- Ask about HDR photos and sky replacement. HDR blends several exposures so windows are not blown out and dark corners are not muddy. Blue-sky replacement swaps a white sky for a clear one in exterior shots. These two tools are the reason a wet November listing can still look bright.
- Consider twilight. A twilight exterior, with the house lit from inside against a dusky sky, can look better than a midday shot under clouds. Some photographers offer virtual twilight made in editing, others shoot a real session at dusk. Ask which your photographer does.
Wooded lots on Mercer Island, in parts of North Seattle and across the Eastside can read dark even in summer. Trimming back branches near windows and using HDR exteriors helps more than waiting for a sunnier day.
View homes: timing the light
If the view is the selling point, the time of day matters more than any other decision.
- Schedule for when light falls on the view side. A west-facing view of Elliott Bay and the Olympics looks different at 10am than at 4pm. Tell your photographer which direction the view faces and let them suggest a time.
- Think about the city lights. On Queen Anne, in West Seattle along Alki and above Beach Drive, and along the Lake Washington shore, a real twilight session can show the skyline or the water lit up in a way no daytime shot can.
- Clean the windows, inside and out. On a view home the windows are in half the photos, and every smudge shows.
- Waterfront listings usually benefit from drones. Aerials show the shoreline, a private dock, and how the lot sits against the lake or the sound.
The morning of the shoot
- Walk through the house with the checklist one last time.
- Turn on every light and open every blind before the crew arrives.
- Make sure the photographer can get in: lockbox code, building fob, or someone on site.
- Plan for the sellers to be out, or at least out of the way. Crews move faster in an empty house, and people in mirrors are a common reshoot.
- If there is video, keep the house quiet. Turn off TVs, music and loud appliances.
A house that is ready when the crew arrives gets photographed faster, and the time saved goes into better angles instead of moving clutter.
