1. Decide what you actually ship on day one
The old kit was 25 HDR photos. The 2026 kit is photos + walkthrough video + vertical reels + a social carousel + a flyer. Pick a service whose default output already matches your day-one deliverables — you should not be assembling them yourself.
2. Optimize for turnaround, not per-image price
A $1.60/image edit that ships in 48 hours loses you the Saturday open house. A $29/listing platform that ships in 6 hours doesn't. On any listing over $300k, the speed math dominates the per-image math.
3. Insist on iPhone-first capture
You already have the iPhone. You already have it charged. You can re-shoot a room in 10 minutes. Every hour a vendor forces you back to a DSLR is a tax on your calendar.
4. Judge on video, not on stills
Stills have been commoditized. The listing that wins the click-through in 2026 is the one with a 60-second cinematic walkthrough on the listing card. If a vendor cannot ship that, they are a legacy vendor.
5. Confirm the social kit is native, not extra
Vertical reels, carousel graphics, and a branded flyer should come out of the same job. Any workflow that requires re-uploading files into a second tool is broken.