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Original poster

Right move listing am I being ridiculous?

141 replies

holigogo · 30/04/2025 07:41

Settle a discussion between me and my husband.
I said that if a right move listing doesn’t have a picture of the front of the house as the main picture I usually scroll past. e.g if the first pic is of the garden, inside of the house, or drone shot.
He said I’m being ridiculous. He’s probably right but got me thinking as we’re going to sell our house soon what stops you clicking on a listing and what is the ideal first picture?

OP posts:
Chewbecca · 30/04/2025 08:42

I agree that it would irritate me.

But I couldn't rule a house out because of it, the incompetence of an EA's listing won't make me miss out on a potentially perfect property, talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Aliceal · 30/04/2025 08:44

I agree with you.

I tend to think the property must be pretty ugly / in a bad state from the outside for them to do this.

AlmostSummer25 · 30/04/2025 08:49

Chewbecca · 30/04/2025 08:42

I agree that it would irritate me.

But I couldn't rule a house out because of it, the incompetence of an EA's listing won't make me miss out on a potentially perfect property, talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Exactly that!!

I would always look in the photos for one of the front, but I wouldn't let an agents twattery stop me looking at a house

nothing would stop me looking at a listing where the house was in the right location at the right price, there are so very few anyway there's just no need to limit them further.

FlatWhiteExtraHot · 30/04/2025 08:52

The ONLY reason I will discount a house is no floor plan. I couldn’t care less about so-called kerb-appeal; I’m going to live on the inside not sit outside looking at it.

WhatterySquash · 30/04/2025 08:53

It makes me a bit suspicious but I wouldn’t not look at the listing because of it. If there’s no pic of the whole house at all, I assume it must be hideous or have a front garden full of mattresses or something, but if I’m still interested I look on street view.

What I really hate is either not enough or too many pics. 15-20 or so is good, I want to see inside, outside, garden, and every room. Just a handful of random pics is useless and having to scroll through countless pics of your ceiling rose and bowls of fruit pisses me off.

GeorgianaM · 30/04/2025 09:02

I agree with you. More often or not it will be an older property and they have modernised it and it's not in keeping with the traditional exterior of the house.

BangersAndGnash · 30/04/2025 09:05

I wouldn’t scroll past if the house size , price and location are ok.

It just means it probably isn’t its best feature.

I want to live in my house not look at it.

Ratisshortforratthew · 30/04/2025 09:10

What?!! This is ridiculous. I’m with your husband. The only thing I care about is the size of the interior and what state of repair it’s in. As a PP said you’ll be inside it, not sat outside staring at it. Insane behaviour on your part, this has never even occurred to me

ChocolateCinderToffee · 30/04/2025 09:12

I think it depends on the house. There’s a listing for a house near me and it’s an aerial shot that shows it’s got a couple of acres and a sea view. The sea view and huge garden are the selling points.

Doris86 · 30/04/2025 09:20

Ratisshortforratthew · 30/04/2025 09:10

What?!! This is ridiculous. I’m with your husband. The only thing I care about is the size of the interior and what state of repair it’s in. As a PP said you’ll be inside it, not sat outside staring at it. Insane behaviour on your part, this has never even occurred to me

Exactly. Plus it doesn’t even mean the front of the house is ugly. It might just be they want to show off what they consider the main sellling feature in the main photo - massive garden or brand new kitchen for example.

It’s bonkers to scroll past the listing without spending a minute clicking into it for a closer look.

LurkyMcLurkinson · 30/04/2025 09:28

I’d assume they had something they wanted to hide

amooseymoomum · 30/04/2025 09:31

i would expect that to be the main picture, the one that draws you in to the rest of the details so to speak. if they skip that it is a case of what is being hidden? has the house got no kerb appeal? a large pylon or other eyesore right out front? busy road with no parking possible?

MzHz · 30/04/2025 09:38

You are being ridiculous tbh @holigogo

if a house is big enough, a drone shot perhaps IS the best image to show the situation

our neighbours house main pic was a drone shot. It’s a farm, big garden, over £1m.

people market homes with their best attributes

our back garden and the sunsets is one of the best points of our house and the farm next door

our house exterior is lovely but there are features that are stunning and some agent may suggest these as bigger selling points.

at the end of the day, the exterior of the house is for others, the interior and other points are for the one living in the home

GasPanic · 30/04/2025 09:44

I agree. It's normally omitted because the front view gives a bad impression of the overall house, or the front view is not consistent with the internal finish.

Unfortunately humans are quite shallow. They are more likely to show interest in something that looks attractive than something that doesn't. They also mostly like to impress their peers. Who wants to drop XXXK on a place that looks like shit to the rest of the world ?

I usually expect the house to look awful if a front view photo is not first in the list and I am rarely disappointed.

Comeoutside · 30/04/2025 10:00

I would be the odd one out here, it's the kitchen I want to see.
If it's got the kind of kitchen I like and want, the rest of the house needs to match up but shit kitchen, I'm scrolling.

GnomeDePlume · 30/04/2025 10:00

If you want the best chance of selling your home quickly and for a good price then you do everything to remove barriers for people coming to view.

For photos you de-clutter everything, you make sure curtains are hanging straight and beds are smoothe. You clean the bathroom so that it gleams. You remove all personal paraphernalia.

You make sure the front is the best it can be. Put the bins out of sight. Clean the front, pick up litter up and down the street.

And have the best shot of your home from the front as your first picture

It doesn't matter that some people will scroll past and others won't. You are only looking for one buyer. Don't put them off.

Wahsingday · 30/04/2025 10:03

It would make me skeptical, but I wouldn’t just scroll past. You don’t even need to open the listing to flick through the pictures and if you are spending hundreds of thousands on a property don’t you want to see everything that is available? Even if just to be sure.

Rightmove can also automatically order pictures now on what generates the most clicks, so it may be the agent has chosen to do that, and the algorithm prefers a different image.

JoyousEagle · 30/04/2025 10:12

Generally I agree, but I’ve seen a couple where the first picture is of a really stand out feature that they clearly want people to know the house has as it’s a real selling point. In that case I don’t dismiss it because I can see why they’ve done it. If it’s just a bog standard living room they’re showing, then yeah I’d agree.

TheShiningHostess · 30/04/2025 10:19

I almost discounted the house we live in now because I really didn't like the look of the outside, despite the inside being exactly what we wanted.

We booked a viewing anyway and when we pulled up outside I almost said "I don't think we're in the right place" as it looked very different to (and much nicer than) the photo which really didn't do it justice.

We decided to make an offer within 10 minutes of going inside. I am very glad that I didn't dismiss it out of hand because of the photo.

MzHz · 30/04/2025 10:23

Comeoutside · 30/04/2025 10:00

I would be the odd one out here, it's the kitchen I want to see.
If it's got the kind of kitchen I like and want, the rest of the house needs to match up but shit kitchen, I'm scrolling.

I’m kinda all about the floor plan bizarrely

my current house has no bedrooms near me, all up the other end of the house. If I were to move, I’d want to be away from others again.

ideally with his and hers bathrooms so mine stays nice and clean/fragrant 😆

minipie · 30/04/2025 10:27

No, I only get put off if the front if the house is buried at picture 10 or 11

Sometimes a house has an amazing feature like a stunning garden or a huge newly done kitchen/family room - if that’s the main selling point of the house then makes sense to put it first. Round here a lot of the houses look the same from the front so the front picture tells you very little, may be better to lead with what makes your house special.

If the front isn’t in the first 2/3 pics though I do get suspicious

romatheroamer · 30/04/2025 10:41

When searching I look at sold prices for the road and some have only a photo of the front...they've obviously sold though!
Actually I find the facades of a lot of the housing stock in the UK quite unattractive but of course it's all the other factors.

Fifthtimelucky · 30/04/2025 10:45

I would expect to see the front of the house as the first picture and might be a bit suspicious if it wasn’t- unless there was something very special to show off, like a spectacular view from the back or an overhead shot showing the house in its context (eg if there was a lot of land).

TwoLeftSocksWithHoles · 30/04/2025 10:52

No picture of the front of the house? They're the one's I look at!
On the basis there must be something awful about them.

(I'm not looking to move, just a bit nosey.)

latetothefisting · 30/04/2025 11:06

Doris86 · 30/04/2025 08:21

You are being ridiculous Why would you scroll past what might be the perfect house for you? It only takes a minute or two to click into the listing, and decide if it’s something you’re interested in viewing or not.

Exactly
It could just be due to a mistake by the EA in the order they put them up or whatever.
It's not like you have to pay per house you click on, it takes 10 seconds to click on all photos and scroll down to see if there is an exterior shot.
Unless you have a very wide net of potential properties how many come up per day that it's not worth taking a few seconds to check out something that otherwise ticks all your boxes?

Actually I've changed my mind, you keep doing that, could end up cutting off your nose to spite your face when you miss the perfect house but it gives the rest of us less competition for it!