Real Estate Camera
A typical three-bedroom listing should have about 25 photos. Zillow's photography guide puts the ideal at 22 to 27 photos, based on Zillow research. Go lower for a one-bedroom flat, higher for a large house with land, and never pad the gallery with near-duplicates just to hit a number.
The rest of this page explains how the number varies with the property, what the MLS allows, how to order the gallery and what to leave out.
What Zillow's guidance actually says
Zillow's guide for sellers makes three points about photo count. The ideal range is twenty-two to 27 photos. Homes with fewer than nine photos were about 20 per cent less likely to sell within 60 days. And homes with more than 28 photos took longer to sell.
It's easy to misread the point about homes with more than 28 photos. Zillow itself suggests the reason is price, not the photos: homes with 28 or more photos were 12 per cent more expensive, and extra photos can't compensate for a high asking price. So the finding isn't "more than 28 photos hurts". It's closer to "once a certain point is reached, more photos no longer help".
Two caveats. The article is dated November 2019, and it's written for home sellers, rather than as a research paper. I'd treat 22 to 27 as a sensible default, not a rule. The finding I'd hold on to is at the lower end: buyers skip listings with only a handful of photos.
How many photos by property type
These are the ranges I work from. They assume every photo shows something the others don't.
| Property | Photos to include | Where they go |
|---|---|---|
| Studio or 1-bed flat | 12 to 18 | Exterior or building, each room once, kitchen twice, amenities |
| 2-bed flat or townhouse | 18 to 24 | Add a second angle of the living area, the balcony or patio, and parking |
| 3-bed house | 22 to 30 | 2 of each main room, 1 of each secondary room, 3 or 4 exterior shots |
| 4-bed or larger house | 28 to 40 | More rooms, not more angles of the same rooms |
| Large house with land or amenities | 35 to 50 | Grounds, outbuildings, pool, views, aerial shots if your board allows them |
The ranges above Zillow's recommended range aren't a contradiction. A five-bedroom house on four acres has more to show than a three-bedroom on a quarter-acre, and buyers want to see the barn. What doesn't earn a place is a fourth view of the same bedroom.
Shoot about twice as many photos as you'll post. It costs nothing on the day, and it gives you options when one angle turns out to include a reflection or a leaning wall.
How many photos does the MLS allow?
Every MLS sets its own limit, and these vary widely. Two examples I checked:
- CRMLS's Flexmls help page says you can upload 75 photos per listing, each up to 15 MB or 3000 by 2000 pixels. The same page says that photos which do not accurately show the property, such as staged images, must be captioned as such.
- Realcomp in Michigan allows up to 99 photos, including the primary photo. It requires a primary photo of the front of the property within 48 hours of the listing being added, and prohibits agency signs, watermarks and text on photos (Realcomp's own watermark is the exception).
Both limits are far higher than a typical listing needs, which is the usual pattern. The limit is rarely the constraint. Your own editing is. Look up your board's rules once and make a note of them, including any rules on the primary photo, text on images and captions for staged images.
The order matters as much as the count
The first photo is usually the one that appears in search results, so it determines whether anyone opens the listing. After that, arrange the photos as a walk-through of the house:
- Best front exterior.
- Entrance hall.
- Living room and family room.
- Kitchen, all angles together, then the dining room.
- Principal bedroom and main bathroom.
- Other bedrooms and other bathrooms.
- Office, bonus room and basement.
- Garden, patio, swimming pool, then extras.
Keep all the photos of each room together. If there is one thing buyers will pay extra for, such as a lake view or a new kitchen, it can move up to second place. The room-by-room shot list covers each room in detail.
The front photo deserves more care than anything else in the gallery. If yours was taken with the sun behind the house, it is worth fixing before it becomes the thumbnail.
What to leave out
Choosing which photos to use is where many listings go wrong. After a shoot, you might have 60 shots. Here's what to leave out first:
- Near-duplicates. Two shots of the same bedroom from almost the same position. Keep the sharper one.
- Cupboards, unless they are proper walk-in wardrobes. The same applies to small laundry spaces, utility rooms and the boiler.
- An ordinary downstairs cloakroom. If it is small and plain, it adds nothing.
- Close-ups of unremarkable features. A standard tap, a thermostat, a light switch.
- Anything with a technical problem: crooked walls, your reflection in a mirror or on a stainless-steel fridge, a blown-out window with a dark room, a blurred image.
- Rooms that look worse in a photo than in person. A narrow hallway or a cramped entrance hall can make the house look smaller. Leave them out and let the viewing do the talking.
- Street shots and views of the neighbourhood, unless there is something worth showing, such as a park across the road.
Do not leave out a room buyers will want to see. Every bedroom and every bathroom with a bath or shower should be included, even the plainest ones. A missing bathroom makes people wonder what is wrong with it.
When fewer photos are the right choice
Some listings should fall below the usual range, and that is fine.
- A home sold as-is that needs work. Show the exterior, the layout and the plot honestly. Twelve clear photos of a house that needs work tell buyers more than 30 that try to hide its condition.
- Vacant land. A few shots of the plot from the road and from within it, the view if there is one, and any structures or means of access. Realcomp, for instance, still requires at least one photo for a land listing.
- A tenanted rental property where you cannot get into every room. Post the photos you can take well and state in the listing description that further access is available at a viewing.
What to avoid is simply reducing the number without thought: six phone photos from the doorway of each room. That is exactly the kind of listing covered by Zillow's finding on listings with fewer than nine photos.
Keep the gallery consistent
Twenty-five photos that look as though they came from the same property beat 40 that don't. That means similar colour from room to room, straight vertical lines throughout, and no rooms that are noticeably darker than the rest.
If you're shooting on a phone, consistency is the hard part. Real Estate Camera's Enhance fixes lighting, white balance and verticals, taking 20 to 60 seconds per photo for 1 credit, so a 25-photo gallery uses 25 credits. The 60-credit pack at $24.99 covers two listings of that size, and credits don't expire. Your first credit is free if you'd like to try editing a photo before buying anything.
For empty rooms, virtual staging costs 2 credits per photo. Many portals expect staged photos to be labelled. The CRMLS help page, for example, says that they must have captions. The app marks staged files as "virtually staged" but doesn't print the label on the image, so add it to the caption. Find out more about MLS virtual staging rules. And if you're shooting on a phone, real estate photography on an iPhone covers the settings.
To shoot and edit the entire gallery in a single app, see the real estate photography app.
Edit a complete 25-photo gallery without leaving the property. Start free: 1 credit.
Questions
How many photos should a property listing have?
For a typical three-bedroom house, around 25 photos. Zillow's photography guide puts the ideal range at 22 to 27, based on its own research. Go lower for a small flat and higher for a large house with land, but only if each extra photo shows something new.
Is there a maximum number of listing photos?
Yes, and it depends on your MLS. CRMLS's Flexmls help page allows 75 photos per listing, and Realcomp in Michigan allows up to 99. Check your own board's rules, since limits and file-size rules differ.
Can a listing have too many photos?
Yes. Zillow's guide notes that homes with more than 28 photos took longer to sell, though it suggests this is probably because those homes were more expensive, not because of the photos. In practice, near-duplicates bury your best shots.
What should the first listing photo be?
Usually the front exterior, with the whole house in frame, taken when the sun is on the façade. Some MLS boards require this: Realcomp requires a photo of the front of the property to be uploaded as the main photo within 48 hours of a listing being added.
Which listing photos should I leave out?
Near-duplicates of the same room, closets, laundry nooks, utility rooms, ordinary cloakrooms, close-ups of things that aren't special, and anything with a leaning wall or your reflection in it.
