Worth knowing
- 73 percent of buyers’ agents and 88 percent of sellers’ agents said photos were much more or more important to their clients.
- Virtual staging is permissible in NC if it is not misleading and the altered images are clearly disclosed (NC REALTORS®, citing a Commission attorney).
- Edits must not hide defects or change the home’s condition.
Most buyers see your house first as a set of photographs. the National Association of REALTORS® 2025 Profile of Home Staging shows how much weight they carry: 73 percent of buyers’ agents said photos were much more important or more important to their clients than other listing features, ahead of traditional physical staging (57 percent), videos (48 percent) and virtual tours (43 percent). Among sellers’ agents, 88 percent said photos were much more or more important to their clients.
Staging and photography are therefore one job. The rooms should be finished before the photographer arrives, not arranged while they wait.
The day before
- Replace every burned-out bulb and use the same color of light throughout each room.
- Clean windows inside and, where you can reach, outside.
- Move cars out of the driveway and away from the front of the house.
- Put away trash and recycling carts, hoses, toys and tools.
- Clear all bathroom and kitchen counters.
- Remove refrigerator magnets, papers and photos.
Room by room
- Living room — Furniture pulled slightly away from walls, cushions plumped, one throw, coffee table with a single object, lamps on.
- Kitchen — Counters nearly empty, stools pushed in, dish towels removed, range hood light on.
- Primary bedroom — Bed made with light bedding, matching lamps on, nightstands nearly bare.
- Bathrooms — Toilet lid down, fresh towels, shower curtain straight or open, no toiletries in view.
- Dining room — Chairs evenly spaced, simple centerpiece, chandelier on.
- Exterior — Lawn mowed a day or two before, beds edged and mulched, door clean, porch swept.
The living room deserves the most attention. Buyers’ agents in the survey rated it the most important room to stage, with 37 percent calling it very important, and it is usually the first interior photo. See Staging the Primary Bedroom: A Calm Room in Five Moves and Staging the Kitchen and Bathrooms: Clean, Dry and Honest for detail on the next two.
Tip: Walk each room holding your phone at chest height in landscape mode and take a quick photo from the doorway. Whatever catches your eye in that picture will catch the photographer’s lens too.
Expectations from television
The survey also explains why buyers can be harsh about photos. Forty-eight percent of respondents said buyers cited that homes should look like they were staged on TV shows, and 58 percent said buyers were disappointed by how homes looked compared with homes on TV. Seventy-seven percent of agents, though, said they were not influenced to stage homes the way they appear on TV. The practical lesson: aim for clean, bright and uncluttered, not a set.
Virtual staging in North Carolina
Virtual staging adds digital furniture to photos of empty or sparsely furnished rooms. The North Carolina Real Estate Commission has not issued formal guidance, but NC REALTORS®, citing one of the Commission’s attorneys, says the Commission’s position is that virtual staging is permissible as long as the advertising is not misleading and includes proper disclosure that images have been altered.
The same guidance draws a line between showing possibilities and misrepresenting the property:
- Adding virtual furniture to an empty room does not misrepresent the home itself.
- Virtually staging a home in disrepair to look as if it were in good condition is not permissible.
- Editing out defects or eyesores is not appropriate.
- Showing a different paint color requires a clear and conspicuous disclosure.
- Disclosures about virtual staging should appear in the public remarks section of the MLS listing.
Agents in the NAR survey were lukewarm about virtual staging as a substitute for the real thing. Thirty-eight percent of buyers’ agents and 34 percent of sellers’ agents said it was of less importance to their clients than other listing features. It works best as a supplement for vacant rooms, alongside honest photos of the rooms as they are.
Honest photos protect you
North Carolina’s disclosure statement and the broker’s duty to disclose material facts mean that a buyer will learn about real defects anyway. Photos that hide a problem only move the surprise to the inspection, when a buyer has the most leverage. Light, angle and tidiness are fair tools; hiding damage is not.
After the shoot
Photos also decide which homes buyers bother to visit. Among agents whose buyers had expectations, buyers expected to view a median of eight homes in person and 20 homes virtually, according to the same survey. A listing has to win a place on the short in-person list from its pictures alone.
Keep the house close to how it looked in the photos. Buyers who arrive expecting the living room they saw online and find something else start the showing disappointed. A short reset routine before each showing, described in our The North Carolina Home Staging Checklist: Six Weeks From Cluttered to Listed, keeps the house matching its listing.