You’re selling it yourself. The photos still matter.
Skipping the agent saves you thousands. Buyers still judge your home by the first picture they see. This page shows you what your listing needs, and how to get your home onto Zillow, Redfin and the MLS.
Buyers scroll. Then they stop, or they keep going.
Almost everyone starts looking on a phone. They see one small photo and a price. That is the whole decision.
Your home sits next to agent listings
On Zillow, your house shows up in the same list as homes an agent is selling. Nearly all of those have professional photos. Yours has to hold up beside them.
A dark photo gets skipped
If the first picture is dim, crooked, or shot into a window, people swipe past. They do not come back for a second look later.
This is the step people rush
Sellers price the home carefully. They write a good description. Then they shoot the photos on a phone in ten minutes, and hardly anyone sees the listing.
A 3D tour is the open house you cannot run.
Agents hold open houses on Sunday afternoons. You have a job. Running one means giving up your weekend and letting strangers walk around your home while you watch.
A 3D tour does that job for you, all day, every day. Someone can walk your whole house at eleven at night from another state. They open the front door, go up the stairs, look in the closets. Nobody has to be home.
Research paid for by Matterport and carried out by Texas Tech University researchers looked at more than 143,000 listings. Homes with a 3D tour sold up to 31% faster, and for up to 9% more, than homes with photos alone.
About 22% of listings have one. Most of the homes you are up against do not.
- Walk the whole house from a phone
- Open at midnight, from anywhere
- Dollhouse view of the whole floor plan
- Fewer wasted visits from people who were never going to buy
- A link you can paste into any listing or text message
Where to put your home, in plain steps.
Nobody explains this part to you when you sell on your own. Here it is, start to finish.
Zillow and Redfin are free
You can post your own home on both at no cost. Make an account, enter the address, upload your photos, set your price. Your home then shows up when people search those sites.
This does not put you on the MLS. That is a separate thing, and it matters more.
The MLS needs a licensed broker
The MLS is the database agents use. Most other real estate sites pull their listings from it, including Realtor.com. A home on the MLS gets in front of far more buyers than one that is not.
You cannot post to it yourself. Only a licensed broker can. That is what flat-fee services are for.
Flat-fee MLS services
These are brokers who put your home on the MLS for one set price instead of taking a percentage. You keep control. You still handle your own showings and offers.
Before you pay one, check four things: how long the listing stays up, how many photos they let you post, whether you can edit it yourself, and what they charge to make a change later.
Decide about the buyer’s agent
Plenty of buyers still work with an agent, and that agent expects to get paid. Since 2024 that payment cannot be advertised on the MLS. It gets sorted out in the offer instead.
Rules differ by state and by MLS. Worth asking your flat-fee broker how it works where you are.
Novo is a photography studio. We do not list homes, set prices, or act as your agent. The steps above are here because people ask, and because a good listing needs good photos in it either way.
See what it costs. No phone call needed.
Drag the two sliders to your home. The price is exact, and you can book the date on the same screen.
Twenty minutes of tidying beats any amount of editing.
The single biggest thing you can do for your photos is free. Clear the counters. Open the blinds. Put the bins away. Move the cars off the driveway.
We keep a room-by-room list you can work through the night before. It remembers where you got to, so you can stop and pick it up again.
- Every room, in the order we shoot them
- Takes about twenty minutes to read
- Saves your progress as you tick
- Free, and you do not have to book anything to use it
Asked by people selling on their own.
Do I really need professional photos if I am selling it myself?
Your listing sits next to homes an agent is selling, and nearly all of those have professional photos. Buyers decide from that first picture on a phone. Good photos are the cheapest part of selling a home, and they are the part everyone sees.
Can I get my home on the MLS without an agent?
Yes, through a flat-fee MLS service. Those are licensed brokers who list your home for one set price instead of a commission. You still run your own showings and handle your own offers.
How much does it cost?
Most homes we shoot land between $200 and $800, depending on the price of the home and how big it is. The calculator on this page gives you the exact number for your address in under a minute, and you can book from the same screen.
How fast do I get the photos back?
Photos and the floor plan are usually back within 24 hours. Book a morning shoot and they are normally in your inbox by 11:30am the next day. A 3D tour and any video take longer, and we tell you the date when you book.
Do you help me price my home or write the listing?
No. We are a photography studio, not agents. We shoot the home, measure the floor plan, and hand you files you can upload anywhere. Pricing and paperwork stay with you.
What if I have never done this before?
Most people booking a shoot with us have not. Tell us that when you book. We will walk the house with you, say which rooms are worth shooting, and send the prep list ahead of time.
Your home only gets one first look.
You are already saving the commission. Spend a small part of it on the photos every buyer sees first.