The subject must be a home. A home that proudly represents homes in that community
No interior shots. No lakes, golf courses, mountains, pastures, etc. without a featured home. Sometimes, great photographs are provided that pass all of the tests, except the subject is not a home. This type of photograph presents a visual that says this is a lifestyle publication rather than a catalog of homes.

Cover Photo Resolution
Minimum Pixel Count = 1536 x 1024
Recommended Pixel Count = 1800 x 1200

The subject must be landscaped and litter free.
Grass, not dirt or straw around the home.
The grass is cut.
There is no trash in the landscape

The sky should be blue.
A blue sky adds a great deal of cover appeal. We realize, however, you may not always be able to shoot a cover with a blue sky. If a blue sky is not available, please choose a border color that will add impact to the cover. Or, if you wish, NCI will touch up your cover shot to add blue sky to the photo.

The house must be properly lit.
Is the porch, no matter what, going to be in the shade and end up too dark? Will there be a sunspot due to the light bouncing off into the camera? It may be a great house, but if it cannot be photographed, it will not look good on the cover.

Commercial property is not permitted.
No hotels, motels, restaurants, office condominiums, etc. We understand that you may wish to show a connected town home or condo on the cover from time to time, but we need to say "homes" to the person who is walking by our display racks.

No artists' renderings, graphics, and people are permitted on the front cover.

No advertising may appear in the photo.
No yard signs, no subdivision signs, no builder signs, no "Model Home" or "Open House" signs, no security signs, no window signs, no home-style signs. (Photo retouching may make the photo acceptable. Please consult with your NCI CSR for further information about photo retouching services.)

No utility lines, telephone poles, fire hydrants, flag poles, etc. may appear in the photo.
Etcetera includes storm sewers, drainage pipes, ditches, retention ponds, underground wiring boxes, and excessive amounts of street and/or curb.

The home must have cover appeal.
In most instances, if all the other criteria have been met, your cover will be accepted. There are times, however, when it will not be approved. Some of those reasons include, fog, haze, conflicting homes or buildings, conversion photos, poor quality photos, and in some cases, a sensitive subject selection. We understand this last one can be extremely subjective as we try to maintain cover standards throughout The Real Estate Book®. Occasionally, a cover will slip through that should not have been approved. That does not mean we have changed our policy about what is acceptable. It simply means that one slipped through the system. Manufactured housing, mobile homes, oil-stained driveways, asphalt roadways and curbs, homes in need of repair, "low end" housing, and homes under construction are a few examples of unacceptable subjects.

Indexes and page references are not allowed on the cover.
With the exception of the advertiser's credit and page number of the cover home in the lower area of the photo, no other page references, indexes, reference to an individual advertiser or section, page or page number is permitted.

Text promoting certain local events is allowed on the front cover in the following circumstances:
The promotion of occasional community-wide residential real estate events, such as "Street of Dreams" or Parade of Homes must be placed above the Moving Hotline number in the lower left corner of Cover Option 1 or 2.

"New Homes Section" may be used when running a separate new homes section in your book. It is placed above the Moving Hotline number when requested on Form 320, the cover order form.

Text promoting local events is not allowed on consecutive issues, even though they may be promoting separate events.

No inset photographs are allowed on the cover.
Inset photographs are not permitted on the front cover.

Understand the importance of selecting photogenic feature homes and selecting them well in advance of the submission date. Strive to shoot the photograph under good to ideal conditions. We strongly suggest you submit the cover photo two or three days prior to book submission as a precaution. Clearly, you recognize that your front cover is more than a task, more than just another page of your book - it is your show window, and you are giving it the attention it deserves. You are the one in control of your book, and are committed to a positive presentation!