Gene - That really did make a huge difference.  I still have not figured out how to change the exposures while I'm taking pictures - I would have edited it on my computer later.

If the sellers are at all handy you could ask them to hack saw some of the low lying branches, it would make the house more visible from the street and would probably brighten the interior.  (it is hard to turn the stager in me off - forgive me).

The easiest ways with point and shoot cameras is to push the shutter half way down that usually sets the exposure.  If you have some real dark areas try pointing your camera at the dark area, push the shutter halfway down, point your camera back to where you want to take a picture and shoot.  You have to be careful about light areas as this will blow out any highlights but it does work well in some situations.  You can do the same for light areas, just point at the light areas, push the shutter halfway and then shoot where you want.  Of course the best way is to learn how to do it correctly but then I don't always remember that in the field.

What an enormous difference.  I knew how to do this when I used a SLR.  Didn't realize I could do anything about it with the point and shoot.  Thanks for sharing the info.

Gene is right - pointing the camera to a darker or lighter area than the center of the photo you want to take, pressing the shutter button half way down and recomposing without taking your finger off allows you to change the exposure.