I don't think it's a dark house in real life. And it looks like there are shear sunshades on many of the windows. But, as you said, all the lights are on and the photos appear to be tweaked to be very clear and bright.

Perhaps they are lying by omission by not writing "lots of natural sunlight but only in the winter". But, It's a real estate listing not a legal document so I wouldn't dissect it like a legal document.

I do like that a number of the rooms have more than one window, on more than one wall, which is nice.

And the current owners do like their houseplants, which seem to be doing well : ) .

Definitely seems like it would be worth checking out in person, if you're nearby.

Depending on where the house is located, filtered sunlight during the summer months might be a good thing. However, yes, the yard seems to have abundant trees and bushes that would filter the sunlight. The landscaping, though, is not that difficult to change.

I don't know.

I think the windows are too small and some of them are too high and/or too skinny for the house to have what I would consider to be lots of natural light (natural light is one of my number one considerations for a house and I was obsessed w/ windows everywhere when building/buying).

I think natural light is different than natural sunlight...so it depends on which way the house and windows are oriented to the sun. Since there are sunshades on some of the windows, it might be that at certain times of the year and certain times of day, the sun might stream in the windows. In the summer, even with foliage filled out, the sun is higher in the sky and more intense, so the rooms could still be very bright, but the sun might not come through the windows in the same way.

You could easily figure some of that out if you find out the orientation of the windows and how far up in the summer sky the sun rises. Do that for each window and look at what foliage might be affecting the sun coming into the house.

DD is moving to that area in the near future, so we've been scanning the local listings. She wants a house that will have pretty good natural light, all year round. She and her hubby will have very little time to house hunt, before relocating for his job. Therefore they'll give the realtor a list of houses they've seen online, to prioritize the viewings to their favourites first, as they did for their first move.

DD said she'd be inclined to not include one like this on her list, for example, because despite liking the interior, all the photos (which show sufficient natural light through the windows) appear to be recent, with the trees not in bloom, with the exception of the last photo, which shows heavy foliage on the property's trees. I told her I'd get some opinions here.

(Sorry for the ignorance on my part, but I've been in the same house for 35 years and DD's only moved once)...we don't know if a listing's description of 'lots of natural light' is in general, based on communication between the realtor and the homeowner, or is it strictly based on what the realtor perceives in the photos taken for the listing?

I like it. Once it is cleaned out and not so cluttered, I think it could be a wonderful house. I would not discount it for fear of the trees blocking light in the summer. The back of our living room and dining room is glass and thank goodness for the trees. Even the bedrooms benefit from the softening of the light in summer.

The interior lights are most likely on to balance the brightness of the room with the brightness of the windows and not indicative of not a sun filled house. When the windows are bright and the light is not balanced in the room the room looks darker than it really is in photos that's why photographers always carry lots of light sources. It looks like a happy house to me.

https://www.photo.net/discuss/threads/interior-photography-with-bright-sunlight-coming-in-through-windows.141039/

It looks like the house has good natural light, but the clutter is very distracting. They need to get rid of half the stuff in there.

There are A LOT of lamps...the pencil fixture on the peninsula tells the tale in my opinion.

There is A LOT of everything in the house. If it was spare with many lamps that might be a red flag. But there are so many accessories that it is hard to know for sure if the lamps are there just for function.

I think photo's can be deceiving either way. That said, with a split style home not being one I care for I really like the home. Aside from the kitchen and one bathrooms flooring it is beautifully decorated.

In the area I live there are farm homes circa Civil War (which I am now fortunate enough to live in now), tract homes( splits, faux colonials), townhomes or custom homes which start at 3/4 of a million and up and lately some semi customs and the 1950s Sears Homes. I have lived in all of those type homes except the customs. I love my farmhouse and am thankful to be out of a cookie cutter. In my area (surrounding 40 miles) many people "have" to live in splits. That designer or home owner did a fabulous job. Sorry, to go off topic. I don't know much about photography but I do think lighting is difficult. IMO, a real estate ad is meant to put the best foot forward. I would go see the house in person, so to me a successful ad.

I practically had to tackle my realtor to keep him from closing all the blinds and turning all the lights on in my extremely sunny condo for listing photos. So it might be a good contender, of course would want to see it in person.

I guess in my muddled post, what I'm wondering is this: To those of you whose homes have as much surrounding greenery as this picture, what percentage 'darker' would you say your home is, during the months when the trees have their foliage?

http://www.centris.ca/en/houses~for-sale~pointe-claire/10557621/photos?&uc=2

As the interior of this home was photographed during the winter when the trees were bare, DD's just trying to decide if she should factor that in at all. Or is the difference in incoming light (for half the year in this area) so minimal, that it needn't be anything to be concerned about?

I think you need to consider all the factors and various trade-offs at different times of year, especially because it's Canada. In the summer, as Olychick points out, the sun will be more intense and out longer. And since it's Quebec, it can be warm and humid, and trees do offer shade and passive cooling.

I think adding the house to list of properties to visit in real life, especially now that it's Spring, would be a good use of time for your daughter. That's probably the easiest and best way to figure it out, particularly if she's inclined toward the house based on photos.

I lived in a 2 story colonial that was nested in the trees. Trees virtually wrapped around the house on 3 sides. Even with heavy foliage, the house had a lot of light. The sun is at a different angle in the sky every day, and it goes up and comes down. So we would get strong sunlight at certain times of the day despite the foliage because at times the sun is fairly low to the ground and is below the tree limbs.

This doesn't look like a dark house to me, but having just bought a home I can tell you that nearly every listing I read said something about "sun-drenched" or "great natural light!" This is a selling point and realtors will put it in the description whether it's true or not.

One potentially good way to get a look at the house in different seasons is to look at it on Google Earth - they often have several photos of any given house, taken on different dates. The property tax website for the county or town should have photos as well. That will give you a better idea of the surrounding foliage and how much it might block the light.

DD's current home is really bright and she much prefers the option of adjusting shades to filter sunlight on really sunny days, over the need to use interior lighting on less sunny days. (That's the case in my home...we get insufficient natural sunlight on our main floor, due to the overhang of the veranda roof, in the front and back of the house. It partially obscures the light from entering those windows.)

DD will be travelling to Montreal soon to house hunt, so the trees will be just budding and not providing any shade. But I'll advise her not to eliminate possible viewings, based solely on 'guesstimating' about the trees.

Clearly I forgot that the sun isn't stagnant and you've reminded me that despite heavy foliage for half the year, an entire house will never be less sunny for the entire day, but rather, some areas may be less sunny during certain times of each day. Thank you for all your responses.

very cute home

it is not dark for sure. It does get a lot of light most of the time, from what I can judge

as for interior lights turned on-that's just common silliness nowadays. We had an extremely bright home, huge windows, southeastern exposure mostly..the light was blinding at times. When the photographer came to take the pics for the listing, it was a sunny day. The house was literally flooded with light. Still our realtor said that all the lights inside the house are supposed to be turned on. And so she did. She's a great realtor, and I admired her in many respects..but these turned on lights didn't add anything to already too bright listing pics. they just looked mighty stupid.

So don't pay attention to these..just some strange recent rule of real estate listings.

I'd go and see it. It won't stay on the market for long. It's quite lovable.

It is surrounded by unleafed trees. So what happens in the summer when they are in full leaf? I guess it depends on which way the house is situated wrt north and east.

That house has no more windows than I would expect. We have more.

It does however in every photo all the lights are on so don't be fooled by photos.

As for the listings' descriptions I mostly read them to amuse myself.

That's from the listing of the home we bought and where we live now:

"With a living room immediately to the left and the inviting family room with a custom fireplace in front of you, it's time to make a decision. "

BTW I loved the PO's listing agent..extremely decent gentleman. Very good agent. And some sentences in the listing actually made sense. But hey, you can't be Charles Dickens all the time.

The descriptions on different sites, not only real estate ones, are sometimes a great source of entertainment.

"With fifteen timeless nutcrackers, your home will hum with holiday cheer"

Lol. The listing agent of the home you bought is certainly more inspired than most.

As for how sunny that original home is, need to know north, south, east, west and latitude, with which rooms where. But I suspect it's accurate enough. Note that the living room has good windows on at least two sides, not one (bigly important!). Also that as you look around the active living areas your eyes tend to continue on out windows, such as those in the far kitchen/dining corner, instead of crashing to a stop on some dark wall. This is also really big for making a home feel both light and large. "Feel" being an important issue here.

Didn't check the trees, but deciduous stop the heat waves before they his the house-box and turn it into an oven-box in the summer, and then they drop and let sunshine and warmth through for a good half of the year in many regions.

As an appraiser, aside from location-location-location, of course (which could also include the kind of stunning views common in the west), I never saw any single factor more promising for a good sale than lots of natural light because of well placed windows that don't have to be kept covered for privacy. Something that made a lot of potential buyers rethink their must-have lists right then and there.

I certainly wouldn't NOT go see it due to the way the ad is worded. It's a very cute house. It has lots of windows. I see it's in Canada, and I think anyone would enjoy some shade in the summer.

This is my 1937 home in Maine taken in August. That's a 200 year old oak tree behind it. I don't know what I'd do without the shade that tree provides on a hot summer day. I've planted many others, since this pic was taken.

I don't know for sure, but the photographer sure knew how to use a mix of natural and photographic lighting to full advantage. It would certainly depend on the orientation of the house at certain times of the day when the trees were in full leaf, but I'd guess it's not totally 'dark'.

Tell her to put it on her list in the last spot (#10 or however many they plan to see). As she adds other houses to the list she'll either find another house that she wants to see more and bumps it without regret or she'll realize it's worth seeing to investigate the natural light.