If you want to list your home and attract the right roommate, try using good photos. However, if you don’t want to hire a professional photographer, here are 4 tips to get great images of your space from a professional real estate photographer.

1. Remove clutter, trash, things out of place. To illustrate, here’s a list of common things we see in photos:

• Kitchen: Remove any pots from the stove, drying dishes, clutter against the walls, sponges, and other cleaning tools, anything over the microwave, etc. Bathroom: Remove all personal items like toothbrushes, makeup, brushes, hair styling items, etc. Also, close the toilet! Bedroom: If you have a desk, remove all clutter. Even if it means removing every item off the desk and into a box temporarily. Make the bed, remove any personal items off the floor. Don’t leave any items on the bed that don’t belong there. Living Room: Remove clutter from coffee and side tables. Straighten out any curtains so they don’t look sloppy.
• Bathroom: Remove all personal items like toothbrushes, makeup, brushes, hair styling items, etc. Also, close the toilet!
• Bedroom: If you have a desk, remove all clutter. Even if it means removing every item off the desk and into a box temporarily. Make the bed, remove any personal items off the floor. Don’t leave any items on the bed that don’t belong there.
• Living Room: Remove clutter from coffee and side tables. Straighten out any curtains so they don’t look sloppy.

2. Make sure there is enough light. Open the curtains, turn on the lights. If you have to choose between the light indoors or being able to see outside of the window, choose to show the indoors best.

3. Horizontal photos are for clearly showing what a room looks like.

While vertical images help express a mood or style. For most images on your listing, aim for horizontal, as it shows more of a room. The only times we make exceptions are when we shoot small and narrow bathrooms with beautiful flooring, where it would be a shame not to get everything into the image at once.

4. Shoot straight ahead as much as possible and avoid tilting the camera

If you’re tall, don’t shoot down from your own height. Try to move down towards what a 5′ tall person would see when they walk in. Avoid slanting the camera too much to the right or left; try to stay as straight as possible.

Things to Ask in the Roommate Interview