But they only show a bed? I want to see the window.

Didn't suggest the take the bed out of the room. Would like to see that there is a window in the room.

Showing how much room there is around a bed helps visualize the space.
So it isn't a picture of the bed, it's a picture of the room with a bed in it. If all you see is a bed, then that probably means that it's a small room and that's all you can fit it in. That's a good thing to know and very helpful.

Then you should contact the realtor representing the house and ask for a showing.

Greg that's good to know.

Suzi , im looking for a home in another state, that's what these websites are for, right.

The homes are 3,000-4,000 sq ft and more.

Would like to see, as I said. More of the house not the furniture.

Just want sellers to know what we buyers want to see on the listing.

When I put my home on the mkt, soon, my furniture will be pushed around to show the windows and walls of glass and other features in my home.

Happy 4th

I agree, sometimes the photos do not give you a good feel for the house layout or overall room size/features because the furniture was made the centerpiece! What I dislike most, though, is when it looks like they didn't even both to clean up. I often wonder if those homes were giant messes and they DID clean, or if the stuff is from tenants currently in the home.

I like when you can see from one room to another so you can get a feel for the flow of the house. I also like to be able to see outside the windows to know the view.

I believe part of the problem is in the quality of the camera/person taking the pic. Because, when I compared the pictures I took with my phone, to the picture the professional photographer took, his pictures were much better. The wider lens was able to pick up a lot more of the room, and great angles. So people could see the room from various points.

Or how about a nice picture of a toilet with the lid up? That's just gross! Or a kitchen counter with the PB&J as well as other misc stuff still on the counter from making the kids lunch? Messy counters, period! Matresses/boxspring on the floor~guess the house is up for sale because the owner can't even afford a bed frame. Unmade beds! Some people have no pride.

I hear what you are saying, and agree. But even worse, for example, are photos of a metal wall decoration, nothing else. I was certain the hanging art was going with the sellers, so essentially the photo was showing me the wall. Then there are photos of the dog--not a room with a dog in it, just the dog. Nothing in the write-up about the dog remaining. Some photos can be good for a laugh, but if you are seriously searching for your next home, it is frustrating how many useless photos are used.

IMO, if a client cannot afford to pay for professional photos, the agent should have the basic skill set and equipment to be able to at take decent shots of the place. I cannot fathom why they think that would not be in their own best interest.

I have to comment on patty_cakes42 remark about people that have their mattresses and boxsprings on the floor because the owner can't even afford a bed frame.

Really? That's kind of high and mighty to say... There are some people in this world who would rather go without the bed frame, don't need them, and probably have a hell of a lot more money in their bank accounts than "patty_cakes42". Get over yourself.

Tiffanyk, your post was rude.

Maybe it's a generational thing, but a bed frame is inexpensive, and 99% of beds have one. If you don't want one, fine, but there's no need to be insulting in your response.

I think a mattress on the floor can look fine - almost zen -- and when I see it in what appears to be a children's room then it's easier to overlook. But when I see pics that have a mattress on the floor that have a pile of bedding on it, piles of clothes around, and dressers/desk with drawers open and junk piled atop it sends a bad message.

As a buyer, those kind of pics make me wonder about rodents/pests, cleanliness, odors...all things that can be ameliorated, sure, but when there doesn't seem to be a corresponding lower price then why would I want to look further?

This is exactly why i dont take pictures of bedrooms if they arent oversized. The picture looks like nothing more than a bed.

I seriously doubt the "sellers" to which the OP refers, read this forum. There are a few GW members that do, but they are few. When purchasing a home I use a filter to find what I want. For instance "view," "pool," etc. OP should filter "windows." JK :-)

I've never thought about it before, but as linda117117 says, a photo of a less than generous-sized bedroom would show little more than the bed.

I think when it comes to photographs, less is more. And a few good photographs are 3000 times better than 1200 bad ones.

Woaaah, didn't mean to get anyones panty's in a twist, but when I say 'bed frame' I meant the metal frame which is usually purchased if the buyer doesn't have, not a BED. A frame is usually included when a bed itself is purchased, and it's used to keep the mattress/box spring off the floor. If it isn't included it can be purchased for about $35, or slightly more if it's on casters(wheels). And yes, there are styles where a frame isn't used and is very clean and contemporary, but I doubt you would see untucked sheets with a pile of clothes lying on the top.

As for 'getting over myself' there isn't much to 'get over' since my feet are planted pretty firmly on the ground and usually barefooted. I don't go into stores and buy the most expensive thing, and usually look for the best bargain(but consult my financial advisor to make sure I can afford it). My friends consider me very down to earth with not an ounce of 'uppity' in my character.

If anything needs 'getting over', it's a bad attitude and jumping to conclusions re:someone you have never met.

Christopher, thank you for the attempted rescue.

Melle_sacto, thank you for your very precise description of what was disbelief when looking at resales for the first time. I pride myself on being a 'neatnik', so can't understand such a disheveled mess if you've made the expensive purchase of a house.

I second Linda... I rarely take photos of secondary bedrooms unless there is some nice feature like built in shelving, a bench seat, or a seating area...

To the OP; if it is obviously a picture of a bedroom, then it will have at least one window.

Ncreal, I understand that to be a bedroom it needs a window. Saying again I would rather see the window. I'm not looking to buy a bed. Surely the pic can be taken to show the window. Is it a single window or a double window?

I'm trying to reach as many home sellers as I can to tell them what I and others would rather see. The seller is paying for the listing on the internet so why not show the house not their furniture.

Just saying SELLERS help choose the pics.

Choose the pics that will help sell your home.

Here is a little photography challenge for you. Get your smartphone, and during daylight, take a photo of your window. It will flash back at you, or the glare will ruin the photo. Our house has too many windows! It was built to show off the views, but it's impossible to take a photo of the windows with a smartphone unless it's dark outside.

I hear you!

I have been receiving real estate listings. Some photos are atrocious where a toilet is the focus of a bathroom and an unmade bed is all it shows for a bedroom. Living room photos are more appropriate as an ad of a home entertainment appliances store. I am still trying to figure it out why photo of an insect has anything to do with a home listing. It makes you wonder may be the market is recovering, so bad agents coming out of the woodwork. Not to mention how clueless the sellers are who allow these photos showing on the websites to ruin their home selling.

I also noticed one agent's listings had gorgeous photos, his listings were all sold in a few DOM. He would be a candidate of our listing agent if someday we want to sell our home.

Suzi, you continuously missed the point josephene has been trying to make. In addition, smart phone could make fantastic pictures. I am an experienced DSLR camera user, sometimes I use Canon L series lens. Yet I attended an iphone photo workshop recently, it has opened an impressive, new world to me as what a smart phone camera could achieve. Here is an interesting link: What a smart phone camera could do

Josephine, to *really* be a bedroom it needs to have a closet, otherwise it might be listed as an office. However, I do understand wanting/needing to see window placement in a picture.

Is not seeing the bedroom window going to stop someone form scheduling a showing, if the house has met most of one's criteria? Seeing the bed in a room at least gives one the impression of the room's size.

I'd like a floor plan along with photos. Anyone can make one on a computer or using graph paper and a pencil. Would anyone else find this helpful or just me? I don't think I've ever seen one in a listing for an existing home (not one being built.) Just wondering as I have floor plans of the whole house that were done when we did an addition years ago (not listing yet but my youngest goes to college in a couple of years.)

Relating back to the OP, a good floor plan would show how many windows and the relative size of windows for each room.

If you don't have architectural floor plans, please don't post homemade plans.

Heck, it is hard enough to get a lot of sellers to clean their home before marketing it. Asking them to spend several hundred dollars to get a person in there to measure the floor plan would be difficult.

The reason I will not do it, besides the fact that I have NEVER been asked for one from a buyer, is that I do not want the liability of measuring a room incorrectly. It is a lot more difficult to measure every room of a home than it is to measure a homes exterior in order to find the sq. ftg.

I realize that there are practical difficulties and risks to presenting a floor plan, but I agree so much with chicagoans that I would love to have one! Sometimes I come across a development where there's a picture of a home just built that is being sold by the developer, with only a picture of the outside (and yes, I know some of these are drawings of something not actually built yet.) Why can't at least those places have a floor plan? The developer should have one, no?

I think a plan can often be deduced just from looking carefully at the photos. Maybe not in larger homes with many rooms, but in 3-4 bedroom under 1800 sq ft

Even a basic diagram with single lines for walls can be helpful. But having no floor plan is better than having one that is sloppy or wildly out of scale or proportion. If you provide a floor plan, it should be reasonably accurate and be drawn with a steady hand or straight edge if not computer...but still say Not To Scale (even if it is). But instead of this, having enough photos so that one can get a sense of the layout. Those virtual tours can be nice, they do distort but they don't tend to have the effect of making the house seem larger than it is like extreme wide angle photos. Gotta love the wide angle photos that make a kitchen look 100 feet long and 12 feet wide!

Floor plans are always a plus. I see them in many SFH listings. The 'bird's eye views' and 'map views' are also important. I want to see the neighborhood as well as the individual house and its yard.

Our county assessor"s office has started adding (very) rough sketches of the general layout in its database of info available online (but only for more recently constructed homes. Here is an example:

You might check your assessor's website to see what is available, if you want to see a general idea of a layout if a particular property before committing to look.

I'll tell you what, some houses are just really, really difficult to photograph. And unless the house in in the luxury market ($350K + here) then it's not worth spending for a professional photographer (they run $450 + here). Even with a wide-angle lens (not fish-eye - too funhouse for me), some bathrooms you just can't get anything except the toilet or a picture of myself in the mirror. A house full of windows with gorgeous dark hardwood floors can only be photographed on a cloudy day or you have to close all the blinds, and even then not the best results. And the secondary bedrooms - yes, here is the ceiling, here is the closet, here is the carpet...awful!

But, to help the OP, if you are looking in a specific area, find a buyer's agent to help you. If you commit to them, they will commit to you. Really write down what you're looking for a get in a back and forth discussion. I just sat down with some buyers and heard "2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, den or someplace for a home office, garage". So we started looking at listings and they said, "but that one doesn't have a yard" - okay, you never said anything about a yard and your dogs. So there's back and forth for a while (this is totally typical! - after you start looking seriously your list will get longer)

And a good one will be able to Skype or Facetime and "walk around" the house with you. Just did that with a different buyer that was out of state. Or they can take video for a "virtual" tour (not one of those fake ones that 's just a montage of the listing photos.)