Real Estate Photos

Eric and I are shopping for a house. That is, we are saving our money and occasionally will search the interwebs for houses so we have an idea of prices for different areas and sizes of houses and such things. We anticipate being able to actually buy a house within the year, but we are not gung-ho searching yet. One thing that completely befuddles me are the photos people post of their homes.

Folks, I get that your home is not spotless all the time. (Neither is mine.) I get that you maybe are not a professional photographer. (Neither am I.) I get that you are maybe not particularly good at decorating. (Neither am I.) What I don't get is why some people are completely incapable of cleaning up a room, even a little bit, before they post photos of said room on the Internet. Aren't you trying to impress me? The cluttered counters, toys all over the floor, vacuum in the middle of the living room and pile of clothes heaped casually in a corner do not impress me. They make me think you are maybe not savvy on how to market a house. But really? Isn't it common knowledge to make something look nice if you are trying to sell it? Look at some of the photos:

I mean, really. Is it that hard to just clear the clutter out of the area you are about to photograph? I'm not even saying you have to actually clean! Just move the stuff out of the way, snap a photo, and put it all right back where it probably doesn't belong anyhow. And the thing is, a lot of times the things that make the photos look bad really could be easily remedied and would make the rooms look so much more appealing!