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What MLS Photo Size Should Real Estate Photographers Deliver?

Published: 24/11/2023

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Have you tried delivering different MLS photo sizes? Perhaps a previous client wanted 800 x 600 JPG pixels, yet a new listing trend shows agents prefer 1600 x 2000 pixels for page photos. When uploading photos on a web page, your images tend to change or become smaller.

What is the standard everyone is using today? Is there a new standard for uploading property photos? With the high demand for real estate photography service and online tours, you must learn the right formats and sizes for uploading quality photos. 

MLS Photo Size Recommendations

Today's listing photo delivery standard is to deliver two sizes of photos, one set of photos sized for MLS uploading, preferably exactly what works best for the particular MLS, and another for printing. However, MLSs run a wide variety of system software.

Some MLS software does a good job at downsizing photos if you give them bigger sizes than they like. Although in the past, MLS downsizing has been notorious for mangling photo files, which means it's much better to give them the exact sizes they want to avoid changes when uploading photos.

MLS File Size Guidelines for Uploading Photos

The photo size may depend on the website where you're going to upload the photos. Some websites prefer to maintain a uniform appearance, so the page automatically adjusts logos and listing photos to fit in the spaces provided.

MLS listing image sizes

While you're free to choose what you think works best for a photo, a web page may still determine the appropriate pixels. These are the ideal sizes for uploading photos on common real estate listing sites, such as Zillow.com and Realtor.com.

The real estate agents at CA Flat Fee share that when it comes to displaying the photos on various sites, the most important thing is that the images are not pixelated or blurry. When that happens, it can instantly turn off buyers from a certain property, and it can make the house harder to sell.

Listing photos 

Listing photo dimensions must be at least 330 pixels wide and 220 pixels high. Depending on the page, a photo can go as big as 3,264px (width) and 2,448px (height). You can save in JPG, PNG, TIF, or GIF image format while keeping the size around 10-50 MB.

Agent profile

A professional photo represents an agent, so you need a polished photo with an ideal size of 500px for the width and height. 

A top agent must answer the basic factors and principles that can benefit a local client. You must include a background photo showing the local area with high resolution photos of 1200px (width) by 628px (height).

Brokerage firm logo

You can also save a 3:2 aspect ratio for office logos, with a minimum of 270px x 180px high resolution photo.

Office profile 

A company profile informs people of your background, services, and unique qualities. You must accompany it with a quality corporate photo up as big as 2530px (width) by 800px.

Incorrect Sizes for MLS Listing Photos

There's no black and white answer to this, as each real estate website has guidelines for uploading photos. You may be using an incorrect photo size for a particular page if you end up with different sizes or low quality photos after uploading.

Some websites would automatically resize your photos according to their system's guidelines, especially if the photos are for articles. Meanwhile, others would only add borders or blank spaces in the top and bottom sides to maintain the original aspect ratio of a photo.

A wooden desk with laptop and phone near the window

Reminders When Choosing Image Size for Uploading MLS Photos

While it is advisable to deliver photos sized for printing and listing images sized for the local MLS, you need to consider these recommendations for figuring out what photos you need for MLS service uploading.

  1. Call your local MLS(s) and ask them what pixels they recommend for uploading photos to their MLS. Try to get them to tell you what photo pixels to use rather than a file size because the pixels may trigger photo downsizing.
  2. For photos online, always upload in the sRGB color space because this is the color space that all browsers use.
  3. Explain that you are a photographer who supplies photos to MLS members, and you are inquiring to better produce photos for their members.
  4. If you are uploading photos on a small local MLS, interface problems between your MLS and Realtor.com can also result in incorrectly sized photos.
  5. The listing broker who is managing the listing can claim the listing and upload their own version of photos that must override what comes from the MLS. The photos that look great may be photos the broker has uploaded.

Technical Photo Specifications

Besides the information captured by your camera, most photographers add additional information about the photo using a photo editing program like Photoshop. However, different real estate websites have varying guidelines on the information you should capture in the actual shot or add during post-processing.

For instance, most real estate websites do not permit you to capture objects that include branding and contact information, such as signage and FSBO signs. Most sites do not allow adding details such as phone numbers, logos, text, and watermarks during post-processing. 

Also, the images should not include photos of the office or agent, whether through text or logos. With this in mind, it’s advisable to avoid these elements entirely when taking the photos. This eliminates the need to crop the photos during post-processing to remove these elements. This ensures your image aspect ratio and quality is not compromised.

Exterior Front Image

In real estate photography, the first impression is key. In case potential buyers don't like the first photo, there are chances they won’t proceed to view the other photos. The exterior front photo is generally the photo that captures the front view of a property. 

It's the main image used in listings, and is usually the first photo potential buyers view. Given its significance, you should ensure this photo meets all the MLS photo size requirements right from the camera. This reduces the chances of sizing and aspect ratio manipulation afterwards.

This photo must be loaded for the MLS listing to be active. It’s advisable to take this photo using a high resolution camera, so it won’t become pixelated even when buyers view it on a large display. Some of the guidelines for uploading the exterior front photo include the following:

  • You need to enter this image in the first slot when creating the listing for all the different types of property.
  • Suppose you have a water view photo or an aerial photo of the property that showcases its entirety and its relation to the surrounding environment. In that case, you should put it in the first slot and then the exterior front photo in the second slot.
  • In the case of a condo building, the exterior front photo should capture the front of the building.
  • You cannot use Google map images as the exterior front photo in your listing. 
  • You can use a model home or rendering for the exterior front photo if the building is under construction. 
  • The front image should show the majority of the property. 

General Rules for Listing Images

When you are taking real estate photos, MLS photo size is not the only issue that can make your photos rejected. Most MLS websites have common rules that govern the objects that can be included in the photo and whether the photo should be in the first position or not. 

So, apart from the photo technical specifications that vary across real estate websites, the following general photo rules cut across websites and can make your photos rejected, even if they are high quality, in good orientation, and in the right sizes. 

  • You are not allowed to reuse listing images unless you have written permission from the owner. Note that cropping the photo, changing its dimensions or changing the orientation doesn’t mean it’s a different photo.
  • A pool in a real estate property is not regarded as a water view, and you should not upload a pool photo in the first slot of a listing. 
  • For a vacant land listing, you should upload a plat map, site plot, rendering, or an aerial photo in the first position of the listing.  

Tips on Taking Acceptable Images

After understanding the standard MLS photo requirements, you must learn to capture photos that meet these guidelines, even without post-production editing. Depending on your shooting equipment and the property you are shooting, here are tips to help you take acceptable photos. 

  • Considering that you are targeting the property, you should remove objects such as laundry, trash, and personal items from the sinks, table, and tops before shooting.
  • When taking interior photos, it's advisable to use a good lighting setup to ensure the room is evenly lit. This reduces the chances of heavy shadows or glare from shiny objects.
  • Even if you are using an ultra-wide-angle lens to take photos in tight rooms, avoid excessive wide-angle distortions that can make the room appear spacious or fixtures appear larger than they are
  • While avoiding the distortions, it's advisable to take as wide-angle shots as possible to cover the whole room in a single photo.
  • Do not capture people or pets in the photos. Although you can capture pets and humans using slower shutter speeds and blur them to an unrecognizable level, it’s still not advisable as it will degrade the overall image quality.
  • It's advisable to take the exterior images on a sunny day. This ensures the property is illuminated brightly, with any harsh shadows naturally falling behind it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Do Listing Images Go Missing?

Listing images go missing on the listing or home page if they don't meet the size or format requirements. You must edit the dimensions and upload the photos again on the listing page. Additionally, you must upload the photos directly on the page's feed.

Why Do Photos Change Display Orientation?

When a photo becomes sideways or upside down, it's most likely that the picture has incorrect or missing EXIF orientation data. Fortunately, many listing websites allow you to change and save the right photo orientation manually after uploading.

How to Resize Photos Before Uploading?

The best way is to resize photos before uploading is to edit your photos directly in Photoshop. Likewise, there are many free photo editing programs such as ResizePixel and FastStone Photo Resizer.

Conclusion

The real estate market is competitive, and agents need quality photos to sell their property listings quicker. Once you find the best way of uploading the proper format and size, you can save time when editing real estate photos and have more time for photoshoot services.

28 comments on “What MLS Photo Size Should Real Estate Photographers Deliver?”

  1. I always deliver two sizes, 1500 long side and 3200 long side. The MLS wants 1500 long side.

    Now here is where I differ from every other photographer that I know. I do not restrict my ratios to "what comes out of the camera."

    Getting the best composition while documenting the homes best features, to me, becomes less of a challenge when I am free to chose the ratio, and I do. I don't ask permission I just do it. When shooting UWA lenses like most of us do, it aids composition to be able to cut out all that extra ceiling or trim distractions on the edges without cutting out important details on the adjacent sides. It allows the viewers eye to roam naturally where I want them to go. I freely choose 16-9 16-10 4-3 1-1 and free form. I chose whatever fits the composition. It's amazing how well this works and there are no "rules" saying you can't.

    So my friends break those chains of conformity that force you into 4-6 3-4 boxes. Try it you'll like it.

    Those are my recommendations...

  2. Frank - the annoyance of that, if I understand you correctly, is when the viewer has to adjust to where the next picture arrow is on some sideshows. Maybe those types of sideshows sent that common.

  3. May be able to avoid a call to MLS as many times the Realtor or their assistant may know. Typically, when they upload a photo to MLS it states the recommended size, usually in both pixels and MB. Ask them - which would apply to all clients on same MLS - otherwise you have to call MLS to ask. My MLS had evolved over the years from 600, the 800 and now 1500 and those on the older standard when looking at historical listings show as postage stamps. It also shows those Realtors not up with the times as they post postage stamps on current listings. I deliver 2 sizes - 1500px (MLS and Web) and full size (suggest for brochures/printing) and label the file name on Lightroom export "address" or "address-1500px" to tell the difference with the sequential number remains the same between the two. While pixel is preferred measurement, size may matter as well as it combines with pixel dimensions. My full size (typically 7821X5217px 4.8MB if not cropped in composition processing) flat out won't upload to MLS for them to downsize. While that size is overkill, when you naturally have that size, why take up additional hard drive space with a third group in the 3000px range.

  4. I agree with Frank. Good composition is key. Two-story spaces, powder room basins, grand stairways, don't fit the out of box rectangular aspect ratio or the MLS recommended sizes.

    However my Chicago area MLS wants 1980 x 1080 sized images, so I deliver 1080 on the long side of vertical images, but in some of their displays they crop or cut off the verticals to fit their small rectangle. They have a full-screen slideshow option that displays all images in full properly.

    I had been adding blank space on sides or top and bottom to fill out the images to fit their aspect ratio so that they don't get clipped by the MLS, but some clients objected "why don't my photos fill up the space?"... Plus the problem is that on some of the MLS displays they use a white page background and on the full-screen slideshow, they use black, so my added space looked odd whichever color I used to fill the space.

  5. 800 x 600 is really small. I provide clients with 2000x3000 @ 300dpi files. I try to keep them under 4mb in size. This accommodates most MLS systems, but still gives the client a large enough file if they wish to use the images for print material. However, when a client goes to their gallery within my website to access the photos, they are given several choices of what files size they would like to download other than the original. That eliminates the need for me to provide different sizes to different clients according to what MLS they use.

  6. I deliver two sizes to all, three sizes to some. I send the same as our MLS wants (@72dpi), then also Print size at 2700 pixel long edge (@300dpi) and Web size at 1024 long edge (@72dpi). I make the verticals come out with the same height as the horizontals, in terms of pixels, so the MLS show displays do NOT have the vertical of the smallest bathroom at twice the height of the gorgeous horizontal kitchen, etc. I use Dr Brown 123 to package images for shipping and run it once on verticals, and once on horizontals. DBrown will resize, apply whatever actions I need, rename each image and drop them into proper folders. DBrown123 is the same as Image Processor in Photoshop, but, does up to three outputs at one time. DBrown123 plugin is not supported ongoing, so when it stops working, I will probably switch to send just the print size. Unlike Frank, I am not that freeform, sounds fun. I am happy to get what works best when we talk through the shoot beforehand. Sometimes people want square, sometimes 16:9, most still want 4:3 and that is what I send most.

  7. Our MLS, NWMLS, says for "best viewing results" to load 1024 X 768px photos. That's pretty tiny by the time they get to sites like Zillow. Some of my 'top brokers' blow out the NWMLS photos on sites like Zillow and reload 2000px ones I furnish (makes a huge diff). For print 3500px at 300 ppi seems to work nicely.

  8. The real estate work that I do I always supply my clients with a folder of high res images 6000 X 4000 @ 300 DPI.
    I also supply the client with a folder of what I call MLS size which is 1080 on the tall (verticle) side @ 72 DPI.
    Never had a complaint and they love not having to interpolate the size themselves.
    BTW: I use a free resize program: FastStone Photo Resizer I find it quicker and easier to use.

  9. I send two sets of images.
    One MLS size that is the max current size allowed on the local MLS. (Currently 1280 on the long side)

    The other set is Full Size Hi Res version for my client's printing needs.

    Just simple Export presets out of LR into a Dropbox Folder then shared with my client.

  10. Resolution matters.
    I deliver one size.
    800 x 600 at 222 ppi (resolution).
    I used to also deliver a larger (print media) size, but my clients all tell me they use the RMLS images with zero problems, and prefer only working with one image.

  11. I deliver 5, yes 5, sizes. One each for the local MLS, Trulia, Zillow and Realtor plus a separate archive of 3,000px (long side) images for printing. It's easy to do with a LR preset and adds value to my services. Agents can just upload the images from the appropriate folder without having to change file sizes themselves for the best quality images on each listing site. dpi doesn't mean anything, it's the pixel dimensions that count.

    It's very difficult to find a MLS tech support person that can tell you what the maximum display size it. They will nearly always just tell you upload a file "no bigger than" something. I sat down with one of my customers and we uploaded a a file we knew was bigger than the displayed size and looked at what was posted on the MLS along with a sampling of images posted by others. It turns out the GAVAR MLS is 767pixels wide so it's no wonder they look bad and images that syndicate from there look bad too. I guess the good thing is that you can post as many images as you like. /sarcasm

    I have potential new customers sometimes ask for current listings to see how my images look so it's good to have the best image quality online. Real estate agents are rarely very good at image processing so I hate to leave it up to them. It's also sort of pointless to spend the time and effort to make good photos only to leave a critical step to a customer that doesn't know what they are doing.

  12. I, like Dave above use the the NWMLS but my software is set for 2880 X 2880. These come out as 2880 x 1920 JPGs. The MB size ranges from 4 to 6 megs.
    I've found that many agents really like the way they come out.
    As a side note, I have to amp up the brightness as the MLS finds a way to muddy up the shots.

    Pete

  13. I just found out that HAR (Houston) requires 2048x1536 like some previous posters have mentioned. My question is for those sizing to 2048x1536: that obviously is a 4:3 picture ratio and not a 2:3 ratio which is standard full frame sensor size. Do you all seriously crop everything down to 4:3 or do you keep the 2:3 ratio full image and just resize the long side to 2048? at 2:3 the pixel dimensions are around 2048x1365. I just resized the images to 2:3 and 2048 long side and HAR accepted them.

  14. I have tried many different sizes but the issue I am running into is that when I view the photos on a site like realtor.com after they are uploaded to the MLS, the photos are smaller and box shaped. I know they can get larger because I see others that go from arrow to arrow on the screen. Anyone have any insight as to what I might be doing wrong?

    Thanks,
    Bill

  15. @Jessica, There are a bunch of different MLS's in Florida. A listing is at the top of this page, "MLS-directory". You can call the office of the MLS that you are interested in getting photo specs from, but it's rare that you wind up talking with somebody that knows what they are. If you hear "just" upload this size, they don't know. If you aren't a member and have direct access, work with one of your customers and sit down with them at their computer and pull up some listings from the MLS and get the pixel dimensions of the largest images you find. The best bet is to look at listings with professional images as that photographer may be supplying images at the maximum size. The give-away is if the horizontal dimension is something common such as 1,024 or 2,048px. That isn't infallible. Until recently, the MLS in my area had a size of 767px x 511px and they've wound it up to 1,152px on the horizontal.

    As far as "required", an agent could likely upload images at 640x480 and they would be accepted. They'd look pretty bad especially if the system tried to apply a watermark and upsize them. I don't think any MLS has a requirement for good image quality. Agents just have to upload something.

  16. Photoshelter is a great resource for photographers. One of the nice things about it is after you've delivered the photos via a web gallery, the client can download from a selection of sizes that best suits their needs. Then you don't have to worry about it.

  17. Sadly, we allow the mls to dictate ratio and they are 20 years behind times. As for size, I believe the rml will resize and run a sharpening routine that some baffon developed deceases ago regardless of what is uploaded, so I deliver half again larger then what the mls wants and without any sharpening, trying to allow for the final image to look 'good'. The realtor also receives a second set of full size images to do what they want with. Yhis is done in both aspect ratios, the correct 35mm and the mls cell phone.

  18. Our local MLS accepts 1024 x 768 pixels, 96 dpi images. Print services are a separate component, but for print size I'd go 300 dpi at 11" x 8.5" (3300 x 2550) to be safe. The last thing you want to happen is have your images enlarged in order to fit the final size. This is where you lose image quality.

  19. ... I should mention that our MLS will accept anything over 1024 x 768 pixels, 96 dpi images, BUT they end up resizing those images to 1024 x 768 pixels, 96 dpi. In this case I think it's best to provide images as close as possible to the final image size they use.

  20. Great article, but still. Given our technology today, it is an utter travesty that all MLS services require different resolutions AND that they do such a horrible job at resampling images when downsizing, wreaking havoc on image quality. There are two primary MLS in my area, agents always uploading to both, and both that require vastly different resolutions & file sizes. Utter ridiculousness!!

  21. There is a misconception regarding DPI and PPI having relevance to resolution or quality of an image when it comes to online publication. The only thing that matters for publishing online is the pixel dimension of the image. Though there are many articles addressing such, here is a good one that explains why this is true.

    For print, yes DPI and PPI are relevant considerations.

    https://www.foregroundweb.com/dpi-ppi-irrelevant/

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