Get your MLS photos accepted first time.

There is no single MLS specification, and that is the honest answer to the question. Each MLS sets its own rules, so photo caps run from 40 on NWMLS to 75 on SDMLS to 150 on Bright MLS, and some boards require the first photo within two business days of the listing going live. The numbers below are the baseline most boards share. Always check your own board's rules before a big upload, because the penalties are levied by them, not by a portal.

Verified August 2026. MLS can change these, so re-check before a big upload.

Use the first prompt to improve your images: it fixes the exposure, verticals and colour without touching the property itself. If you want a walkthrough video instead, use the other prompt. Both work on any single photo and are reusable across every listing you own.

Improve the attached real estate listing photograph as a professional architectural photographer would, using corrections only. Recover the exposure so the view through every window is visible instead of blown out to white, while keeping the interior naturally bright. Blend the highlights and shadows the way a bracketed exposure would, without an over-processed HDR halo. Straighten the image so vertical lines are truly vertical and the horizon is level, correcting lens distortion and keystoning. Remove wide-angle stretching at the edges so the room's proportions read accurately and the space is not exaggerated. Set a clean neutral white balance and correct any colour cast from mixed lighting, so whites read white rather than orange or blue. Keep the image in full colour, as black and white is rejected by most boards. Crop to a 3:2 landscape frame with the main subject away from all four edges. CRITICAL: this photograph must remain a true and accurate representation of the property. Do not add, remove, move, replace or restage any furniture, decor, appliance or fixture. Do not virtually stage an empty room. Do not tidy, declutter, repaint, re-floor, re-roof or renovate. Do not replace the sky, remove power lines, cars or neighbouring buildings, or change the view through the windows. Do not widen the room or make the property look larger than it is. Adding or altering anything makes the image a virtually staged photo, which most boards require to be disclosed and labelled. Photoreal, no watermark, no text.

Animate the attached real estate listing photograph into one continuous, slow forward push into the room, as if walking in. The camera only ever moves deeper into the frame, so the shot crops inward and never reveals anything beyond the edges of the photo. No pan, no tilt, no orbit, no pull-back. Keep the property exactly as photographed: every wall, window frame, door, cabinet line, countertop and floor plank stays straight, rigid and dimensionally accurate, and no furniture, fixture or finish is added, removed, resized or restyled. Never widen the room or exaggerate its size. Keep the view through the windows exactly as it appears. Bright natural daylight, curtains open, clean and neutral. Any lamps already visible in the photo stay lit. The only movement besides the camera is what the photo already implies: sheer curtains drifting, dust in a light beam. No people, no pets, no vehicles entering frame. No text, captions, watermarks or overlays. Photoreal architectural cinematography, natural colour, level horizon, no lens distortion, no camera shake. Single continuous take, no cuts. 16:9, 8 seconds.

Searching for mls photo requirements returns three unrelated answers, which is why so much of the advice out there contradicts itself. The table above is for a stay listing. These are the others.

Nearly every board mandates that the first photo is a front exterior of the dwelling, and several will not publish a listing without one. That makes the lead photo a compliance requirement rather than a styling choice. Shoot it straight on with the verticals level, in the best light the street gets, and keep cars off the driveway. Land and lot listings are usually the exception and may allow a different lead image.

If you list the same property in more than one place, the frames do not match. Export to the strictest of the three and every platform is satisfied.

Mined from 32 real estate photography videos, about 6 hours 15 minutes, and ranked by how many separate creators said the same thing.

In the order a guest scrolls them. This is also the order that makes a walkthrough video work, because it reads as a walk through the property rather than a set of unrelated rooms.

1. 1

   Front exterior

   Mandatory on most boards and almost always the required first photo.

2. 2

   Living room

   From a corner, camera level, so the room reads at its true size.

3. 3

   Kitchen

   Along the counter run, showing appliances and workspace.

4. 4

   Dining room

   Shows flow between the main living spaces.

5. 5

   Primary bedroom

   Buyers look for this immediately after the kitchen.

6. 6

   Primary bathroom

   Renovated bathrooms carry real value; show them properly.

7. 7

   Secondary bedrooms and baths

   One clean frame each, alternating so the sequence reads as a walk.

8. 8

   Basement, garage, utility

   Unglamorous and frequently skipped, but buyers filter on them.

9. 9

   Rear exterior and lot

   Garden, deck, boundary. An aerial here if the lot is a selling point.

Once the photos pass the spec check, the tool at the top of this page reads them and writes one video prompt per room, describing what is actually in each shot. You take each prompt into an AI video model with its matching photo and get a slow, moving walkthrough of the property without filming anything or hiring anyone.

The order matters as much as it does for the photo set. Because the prompts follow your walking order, the clips cut together into a tour rather than a slideshow.