What should you do before your listing photos are taken?
Clear every countertop, make every bed, open every blind, turn on every light, turn the ceiling fans off, close the toilet lids, hide the trash cans and pet bowls, and move the cars off the driveway. Then walk each room and look at it from the doorway — that is the angle the camera uses. The bigger work of decluttering, cleaning, and small repairs should be finished at least 48 hours earlier, because 73% of buyers' agents told the National Association of REALTORS® that listing photos are highly important to their clients, and those images are permanent once your home goes live.
By David Sordelet
Most sellers think the big day is the day their home hits the market.
It isn't. The day that decides how your sale goes happens before that, and around here we call it Media Day — the single session where we capture the professional photography, the property video, the drone footage, the 3D tour, and the floorplan that will introduce your home to every buyer in New Castle County and beyond.
Here's why that day carries so much weight. Long before anyone walks through your front door, they meet your home on a screen. They scroll past dozens of listings and decide in seconds which ones are worth a Saturday. Those images can't tell them how quiet your street is at night, or how the afternoon light lands in your kitchen. The pictures have to carry the whole story on their own.
And you only get one launch.
The three things that matter most
After more than a thousand transactions across Delaware and Maryland, I can tell you that sellers consistently overthink the expensive work and underthink the cheap work. The cheap work is what shows up in photographs.
Take things away before you clean anything. This is the highest-return hour you will spend on your entire sale, and it costs nothing. Excess furniture, collections, family photographs, the stack of mail, the countertop appliances, the refrigerator magnets. NAR's research found decluttering is the single most common improvement sellers' agents recommend, at 91% — ahead of cleaning at 88% and curb appeal at 77%. A room with less in it photographs larger. That's not a trick, it's just what a camera does.
Fix the small things that make buyers wonder about the big things. A dripping faucet, failed caulk around the tub, a cracked switch plate, nail holes, a burned-out bulb. Any one of these is nothing. Five of them together start a story in a buyer's head about how the house has been cared for, and that story follows them into the inspection. If your bathrooms are showing their age, a few inexpensive updates before selling go further than most sellers expect. The same is true outside — your driveway does more work in a listing photo than almost anything else at the curb.
Get the light right. Natural light is the single biggest variable in interior photography. Clean the glass inside and out, clear the windowsills, straighten every blind to the same angle, and pull heavy curtains that are darkening a room. Then walk the house with every light on and ask whether each room feels bright. Replace any bulb that's out, and make sure the bulbs inside one fixture match each other — one yellow bulb next to one blue-white bulb looks fine to your eye and terrible in a photograph.
If you're repainting to freshen things up, neutral is the safe call. NAR's own consumer guidance points sellers toward beige, gray, and soft white, and choosing the right paint color is worth a little thought before you commit a weekend to it.
The 48 hours before the camera arrives
Everything above is preparation. This is the finish, and it's the part sellers most often leave to the morning of, which is too late.
Two days out, the deep cleaning is done, the landscaping is done, the repairs are done, and the clutter is gone. Nothing on that list should still be in progress.
The night before, clear the kitchen counters, clear the bathrooms, prepare the beds, finish the laundry, vacuum and mop, take out all the trash, pick up the exterior, and settle where the cars are going and where the pets will be.
The morning of, it's thirty minutes of small moves. Make every bed. Open every blind. Turn the lights on and the ceiling fans off — fans photograph as a blur. Clear the counters again. Close the toilet lids. Put out fresh towels. Hide the trash cans and the pet bowls. Move the cars. Coil the hose. Collect the mail. Check the mirrors and the stainless for fingerprints. Then stand in each doorway and look.
Here's a trick worth doing three days early: photograph every room from the doorway with your phone, and don't tidy anything first. Then sit down and look at the pictures instead of the rooms. Almost everyone has the same reaction — why are there six things on that counter, and when did that cord get so obvious? A camera shows you everything your eye has learned to ignore. NAR's consumer guide recommends exactly this exercise, and it's the fastest way to see your home the way a buyer will.
What we bring to Media Day
Not every listing in this market gets the same treatment, and it's worth asking any agent you interview what's actually included.
For our sellers, Media Day includes a staging consultation that we pay for — a professional walks your home and gives you the specific list for your rooms. If you decide to have the home fully staged, you enter an agreement directly with the stager, and we typically refund a portion of that cost at closing. We put those specifics in writing before you commit to anything.
It also includes a 3D tour and a floorplan, which a surprising number of listings around here still don't have. Buyers use a floorplan to work out whether a house actually functions for them before they'll get in the car — 43% of buyers' agents told NAR that virtual tours were highly important to their clients, and video came in at 48%.
We use a professional photographer for the stills, and we shoot the long-form walkthrough video ourselves on purpose. Natural video outperforms the highly produced version, because it shows buyers what they'll really walk into.
The full room-by-room checklist is on our site. It runs from the street to the basement — 24 sections covering the front door, the kitchen counters, the closets, the garage, pets, odors, and the 48-hour countdown — and you can tick items off as you go or download the two-page printable version for the refrigerator.
Open the Media Day Ready checklist →
One last thing worth saying plainly. Preparation matters most when the market is asking more of sellers than it used to. Inventory is expanding across New Castle County, and buyers are being more cautious — more willing to wait and see whether a price comes down. That makes your launch, and the images that carry it, more consequential than they were two years ago. If you're weighing when to go, selling now versus waiting until spring is worth thinking through alongside this, and it's smart to know what it actually costs to sell a house in Delaware before you set a number in your head.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to get a house ready for listing photos?
Most homes need one to three weeks. The clearing and cleaning is a weekend or two; the variable is repairs and any painting, which depend on how much you take on and how fast you can schedule a trade. Book the photography only once the work is genuinely finished — rescheduling a shoot costs far less than launching with photographs of a half-ready house.
Should I stage my home before photos, or is that a waste of money?
For most homes it's worth it, though staging usually means editing what you already own rather than renting furniture. In NAR's 2025 Profile of Home Staging, 83% of buyers' agents said staging made it easier for a buyer to picture the property as their future home, and 31% said buyers were more willing to walk through a home they'd seen staged online.
Do I need to repair everything before listing, or can I sell as-is?
Neither extreme. Fix the cheap, visible things — a dripping faucet, failed caulk, holes in the wall, burned-out bulbs — because a handful of small defects makes buyers wonder what large ones are hiding. Hold off on roof, HVAC, windows, and full remodels until you and your agent have looked at what this market actually rewards. Sellers routinely spend $30,000 solving a $10,000 problem.
What's the most common mistake sellers make before photos?
Leaving the cars in the driveway. It's the single most frequent thing that spoils an exterior photo, and the exterior shot is usually the thumbnail a buyer taps or scrolls past. Plan where every vehicle goes before the crew arrives.
Do professional listing photos really make a difference in Delaware?
They're the most important marketing asset you have. 73% of buyers' agents told NAR that listing photos were highly important to their clients, ahead of video at 48% and virtual tours at 43%. Buyers decide in seconds whether a home is worth a showing, and they make that call entirely from images.
Getting your home Media Day Ready isn't about making it into something it isn't. It's about removing the distractions so buyers notice what's actually there — the counter space, the natural light, the size of the rooms, the yard you've spent years on.
If you're thinking about selling and want to know where you stand before you start any of this, request your free Home Equity Report. It'll show you your home's current value, how much equity you've built, and what's happening with prices and inventory right in your neighborhood. Get your free report at search.teamsordelet.com/seller.
And when you're ready to talk through what your home specifically needs, call or text me directly at 302-613-4228.
About David Sordelet
Looking for a trusted real estate professional in Delaware or Maryland who can help you make smart choices? Look no further than David Sordelet, Designated Broker of Real Broker Delaware and Team Leader of Team Sordelet.
With over two decades of experience, 1,000+ successful transactions, and 200+ five-star client reviews, David is recognized as one of the region's leading real estate experts. Licensed as an Associate Broker in Delaware and an Agent in Maryland, he provides unmatched knowledge of Wilmington, Newark, Hockessin, Dover, Middletown, and the Maryland Eastern Shore.
David understands that in real estate, who you work with matters most. That's why he combines personalized service, clear communication, and expert negotiation with the most modern marketing strategies and cutting-edge technology to achieve exceptional results for his clients.
Whether you're a first-time homebuyer, a move-up family, an investor, or a seller looking to maximize value, David Sordelet is the proven real estate professional you can count on.
License: RB-0031238-DE / 5013138-MD
