How to Photograph Your Home for a Tax Appeal

A quick guide for building strong condition evidence

Assessors value your home assuming average condition for its age. Photos are how you prove otherwise — every deferred repair, dated finish, or piece of damage you can document is a specific, factual reason your home is worth less than the assessment assumes. Vague complaints don't move a board; clear, close-up evidence does.

Before you start

Shoot in daylight with the lights on — avoid harsh shadows and dark, hard-to-read rooms.
Take a wide shot of the space, then a close-up of the specific problem. Both together tell the story better than either alone.
Leave photos unedited — no filters, no cropping out context, no brightening that hides the real condition. Evidence that looks touched-up gets discounted.
More is fine. Take as many as it takes to cover every real issue, including repeat angles on anything serious. There's no meaningful downside to a thorough set — redundant photos don't hurt your case, they just get analyzed and folded in.
Skip anything that reveals personal information you don't want on file — mail, screens, family photos, people's faces.

What actually moves an assessment

Focus your camera on four categories. These are exactly what gets weighed as evidence, so covering them thoroughly is more valuable than covering everything superficially.

1. Deferred maintenance

Peeling or fading exterior paint
Worn, curling, or missing roof shingles; visible sagging rooflines
Cracked or heaving driveway, walkways, or patio
Gutters pulling away, downspouts missing or draining onto the foundation
Fencing that's leaning, rotted, or missing sections

2. Damage

Water stains on ceilings, walls, or in the basement/crawlspace
Any fire, smoke, or mold evidence — even old, resolved damage still affects perceived condition
Foundation cracks (photograph with something for scale, like a coin or tape measure)
Pest or structural damage — termite trails, soft/rotted wood, sagging floors

3. Dated systems and finishes

Original kitchen cabinets, countertops, and appliances if they haven't been updated
Bathroom fixtures, tile, and vanities showing their age
Visible age on the water heater, furnace/HVAC unit, or electrical panel (a label with the install year helps a lot if you can find one)
Windows that are original, single-pane, or fogged between the panes

4. Location and lot issues, if they apply

A busy road, highway, or train tracks directly adjacent to the property
Drainage problems, standing water, or a low spot that floods
Power lines, easements, or a neighboring commercial/industrial use bordering the lot
Steep or unusable portions of the lot

A simple room-by-room pass

If you'd rather just walk the property once, go in this order and shoot anything that looks less than average for each area: exterior/roofline and all four sides of the house, foundation, driveway and walkways, kitchen, each bathroom, the attic or crawlspace if accessible, basement, HVAC/water heater/electrical panel, and finally the yard, fencing, and anything at the property line worth noting.

Last step

Upload everything you took — there's no reason to pre-filter down to a handful of "best" photos. Let the analysis sort out what's meaningful; your job is just to document the property honestly and completely.