Before the title, before the price, before the description: it's the first photo that decides whether a candidate clicks or scrolls. And overall photo quality determines how many serious candidates go through your application process.
Yet most Quebec rental listings post photos taken on phone, poorly framed, poorly lit and disorganized. That creates opportunity: with 30 minutes of care, you beat 80% of competing listings.
The 10 most frequent photo mistakes
1. Vertical phone photos
Platforms display in landscape. A vertical photo is cropped or shown with black bars — instant amateur sign. Turn the phone horizontal, always.
2. Cluttered unit
Clothes on bed, dishes in sink, toys on floor, papers on desk. The candidate doesn't project — they see your life. Declutter completely before shooting. Staging rule #1.
3. Bad lighting
Yellow light, direct flash, backlit. A poorly lit unit looks smaller and less clean. Shoot in daylight, natural light, indoor lights also on. Avoid flash.
4. Tight framing
A kitchen shot from the sink shows only the sink. Step back, stand in the room corner, shoot toward the opposite diagonal. The technique that maximizes space sense.
5. Disorganized photo order
A bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom, another bedroom, a balcony, another kitchen… candidate gets lost. Logical order: exterior or entrance → living → kitchen → bedrooms → bathrooms → balcony/yard → neighbourhood.
6. Personal photos visible
Photos of children, family pictures, mirrors with you in them, mail with your name visible. Unprofessional and a privacy risk.
7. No exterior photo
Candidates want to see the building, the neighbourhood, the street. A listing without exterior photos creates suspicion (what's the landlord hiding?). Minimum: façade and one street photo.
8. Excessive filters and edits
Over-saturated Instagram, heavy HDR, artificial brightening. Candidates feel the manipulation and anticipate viewing disappointment. Natural light, minimal adjustment, that's it.
9. Photos of the previous unit state
When the unit just got vacated and old tenant photos are reused — different furniture, different wall colours. Reflect reality: if paint changed, reshoot.
10. Too many or too few photos
Under 6 photos: suspicious, candidate scrolls. Over 25 photos: overload, attention loss. Optimal zone: 10-15 photos covering all main rooms.
Minimum (free) gear
- A modern phone (recent iPhone and Android take very good landscape photos)
- Natural light: shoot between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on a cloudy day for soft light
- All indoor lights on as fill
- A tripod or stable corner (optional, but helps angle shots)
- A simple editing app (Snapseed, Lightroom Mobile) for brightness adjustments
Logical visit-via-photo order
- 1Hero photo (the best of the unit — often living or open kitchen)
- 2Building exterior
- 3Entrance / hallway
- 4Living room (1 or 2 angles)
- 5Kitchen (1 wide angle + counter/appliance detail)
- 6Master bedroom
- 7Other bedrooms
- 8Main bathroom
- 9Secondary bathroom if applicable
- 10Balcony, yard or outdoor space
- 11Neighbourhood photo (street, park, metro station)
- 12Storage / basement / garage if applicable
Pro (and accessible) techniques
- Stand in the room corner, shoot toward opposite diagonal
- Shooting height: chest level (not too high, not too low)
- Phone parallel to floor — avoid tilts distorting walls
- Wide-angle mode if available (don't abuse — distortion risk)
- Activate composition grid (rule of thirds) on the device
- Shoot empty of humans and pets