The Woodpecker

Is there anyone here doing Real Estate Photography? I am familiar with architectural photography - even large format, but I have never done work for a Real Estate company before.
Does anyone have insights - what kind of expectations does the Realty company have? and what kind of fees are reasonable?
The Woodpecker

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

In addition to the responses you receive, try the search function at the top of the page - there are a zillion threads on the subject.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

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mlamken

There is an online course on Udemy for Real Estate photography. There is even a few for Drone photography for Real Estate which is big for online sale now. I like the courses I have taken there, they were very helpful. You can go to Udemy.com and search Real Estate Photography, or here is the link https://www.udemy.com/courses/search/?q=real%20estate%20photography&src=sac&kw=real%20estate. Cost is also reasonable and they often have sales where the complete course is only $10.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I have done only one real estate session. The way it looks to me is that the real estate agent pays for the photos. It comes out of their commission so they want the low bidder unless it's high end real estate. Most contract RE photos are for mid-range houses. The cheap houses get cell phone photos by the agent.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Unless you are in a high-end market, you'll be competing with agents and even homeowners, so I would not quit my day job. It takes a long time to transition from architectural and interior photography to RE. You will be lucky to get $100 per house. I sold my house in Yonkers, NY in a "mid-range" market for almost $700K. The RE agents told me they had a great photographer and didn't mind paying him more. I asked what they paid him, and they said $150. I took one look at his work and decided I was doing the shooting. On the other hand, I mentored a very good photographer in a high end market - down in Scottsdale, Arizona.

His website has some what I consider excellent examples of RE photography. But I will tell you he gets a lot more than $150 per property.

http://ronnachtwey.com/

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

You can look at lots and lots of photos online to see what kind of thing appeals to them, what they think appeals to others.

jcboy3

I charge $100 per photo used, 5 photo minimum. I don't shoot most home sales, because it's just not worth my time (they sometimes don't even pay my per photo charge for an entire shoot). That's fine with me, because low price retail home sales are BORING. I shoot commercial and vacation; more interesting from a photography standpoint.

There was a company paying $75 for a full VR shoot. Lots of photographers are willing to do it because they like getting paid, even a little bit. But for me, if it's not fun, I need to be paid a lot. Most real estate is NOT FUN.

JDG3

I took a course at the local university from a pro that concentrated on Real Estate photography. I learned enough to know that it is hard to make a living at it. Like someone else here mentioned, the agent pays the photographer from their commission and unless it is a very high end home the pay will be somewhere between $75 and $150. The majority of the homes in our location sell in the $200K-$350K range and the fee for these are in the $125-$150 range.

Agents here in our location usually require somewhere between 20-30 photos which includes outside shots of the front (required) and the back (optional) and various shots throughout the house. Often photographers have to be pre-approved and be listed on the agency's list before the agent can use them.

The pro in our class shot only jpgs and tried to spend less than 45 minutes to an hour for the shoot. He shot jpgs because he did not want to spend any time in post processing other than sizing the images per the listing requirements. If you are trying to shoot several dozen homes per week spread across a wide area, you have to turn the images quickly and efficiently to be profitable so no time for LR or PS. Agents make their money by turning homes quickly, so they do not want to be held up waiting to list a home while you process their images. They pretty much want the images ASAP after contracting you to shoot. Ideally this means within a couple of hours after completing the shoot. All of this could change of course if the market slowed down. If houses were moving slower, the agents may feel they need more and better images to help move the house, but then on the downside there would be fewer homes selling.

Your biggest competitor, as someone else mentioned are the agents, themselves. Many have high end cell phones so they shoot it and save themselves the fee and eliminate the photographer. With the real estate business as hot as it is now, the property usually sells almost immediately and an agent friend of mine has even sold some with no photos at all. One thing to remember is that these images rarely SELL the home, they are only used to get the potential buyer to come SEE the home. The agent will select the images they think will pull in the buyers.

If there is any money to be made it is with the very high end homes. Our instructor made most of his money here with special packages to photograph these homes. Other locations may be different. This subject has been on here before and there were photographers from some areas of the country who said they had more work than they could handle and were making good money. One guy said he did nothing but high rise, high end condos in Miami and was doing well. That is certainly NOT the case here.

Hope this helps. Good Luck.

berchman Loc: South Central PA

Is that high end or stratospheric? Terrific photos!

Blair Shaw Jr Loc: Dunnellon,Florida

Thanks Gene: These images are certainly what sell those homes.Wonderful talent indeed. Wow.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Well, it's not Bel Air, Beverley Hills or Malibu, but yes, he is an excellent photographer, works with great houses, and completely understands lighting and how to have a residence properly staged. My input to him was on lighting (which you can see before and after examples), selecting the right lens(es) and creating complex HDR/Focus Stacked/Stitched panos. When he started out he shot Canon and processed on a dual screen iMac, now he shoots Nikon and has upgraded to PCs with a very big NAS and large internal storage. I think he is up to 12 TB of internal and easily 3X that in external storage.

I also offered him detailed critique on his images - but he was a very good photographer to begin with - he just needed a little tweaking. His brother, James Nachtwey, was a photojournalist and war photographer, so it seems to run in the genes.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Indiana Loc: Huntington, Indiana

Realtors generally do their own video's and still shots of their listings. Realtors don't get paid until the listing is sold, and often the listing expires or is never sold. Reasonably good photo's are used for the brochures and MLS services and are created and provided by the listing agent. The only real market for professional photo's is a Realtor with deep pockets, or more likely a Realtor who markets up scale houses or properties that need the visual punch. If you are located in a larger city with lots of Realtors and high end properties, you can offer your services and perhaps have some clients. The same reason Realtors don't have their listing professionally appraised or professionally inspected; it is an out of pocket expense that they may never be able to recover. I have been a Realtor and Appraiser for 45 years. If you want more advise PM me. I am now retired.

pedroho

I have been doing real estate work, as a soloist since I retired from real architectural photography. The main difference is that the real estate agents don't want to pay, thats why most of them drive the Mercedes. Yet they are rather demanding, they want everything from the drone to HDR to video. Architects are great because they always pass the bill to their clients. Architects are professional, highly educated while the agents have a wide range of background, from ex-charter accountants to mom and pop operations. Try to explain to them about mixed light? Good luck.