Ugly Real Estate Listing Photos: How to Avoid Them

Internet real estate listings are full of photos of homes for sale, allowing buyers to spend hours looking at pictures. With such a large selection, you'd think that real estate agents would think twice before allowing poorly photographed homes to appear in their listings. But still, there are plenty of ugly listing photos out there.

A home described as a "charming opportunity" doesn't look so charming, lawns need to be mowed, and cameras need to be focused. A website in Seattle keeps track of such detrimental listings, and the photos should be enough to turn a potential buyer away. Even multimillion-dollar homes aren't immune.

But good photos can help a home sell fast, San Francisco photographer Herman Bustamante told HousingWatch. He photographs real estate and has seen $1 million homes sell within a week with professionally taken photos in the listing.

Too many real estate agents will take listing photos themselves to try to save some money, but it will cost them in the long run, Bustamante says.