Real estate photography - who does it?

[GerryDavid]

This is something that I would like to get into. I was just wondering who does it, and what sort of pay it gives?

I know I would need a wide angle lens *is looking at the sigma 15-30mm for canon, or the sigma 8mm but that might be to wide*. Also some flashes.

Ive seen some advertisemnts for this area, the ottawa area, for this sort of thing, but it was just $25cdn a house I believe. If I was to do this, I would try to work directly for the real estate company, not a middle person.

And when you take pictures of the house, how many scenes do you usually take pictures of? The front/side of the house, the back/side, lots of interrior shots? I doubt they would pay $50 a picture for 8 different shots, but it would be nice.

[cactusclay]

I have some friends that are realtors and it seems that most agencies have their own digital cameras now, so if you find some that are willing to pay, then good for you.

[clorich]

^^^^^
I'm a Realtor and wouldn't dream of paying for the pictures on homes under 7 figures. My G2 is more than sufficient for real estate pictures of most average properties.

I don't think you could make a living at it, but you could probably find enough agents who are so afraid of technology that it might be some nice spending money. Just remember, as a profession we are a rather frugal bunch.

[Moppie]

Just remember, as a profession we are a rather frugal bunch.


From my own experiance you are almost as bad as lawyers :)


I thought about trying it last year, after I took some photos of some of my landlords properites, and then looked at other work to compare how I had done.
There really are some shocking photos in real estate advertising, but I don't think its a market that considers it all that important.
As long as the poperty is not mis-represented, and you can see its a house the agents don't really care.

In my ressuarch I did discover that more than a few were amature photographers though, and many were pretty hand with Photoshop, one had a folder filed with "Skys" for adding into photos that had a blown out background,

[robertwgross]

For normally-priced homes, the real estate agent generally shoots his own shots, or else he has a friend from the same agency that does it. As a rule, what they are producing is pretty small and of low resolution, but that's all they want. As a result, most of them are not willing to pay real money for somebody else to do it.

For very upscale homes, there is enough money riding on the deal that they do get serious photos and sometimes make serious brochures.

Your mission is to weed out the first type and go after the second type. Are you any good?

A friend of mine got her real estate agent license, and she bought a digital camera (the wrong one with N**** on it). The camera had no interchangeable lenses, so she was stuck with normal snapshots, and the houses looked pretty normal as a result.

---Bob Gross---

[chtgrubbs]

Most real estate photographs are apallingly bad. The business just doesn't value photography enough to pay decent money for it unless the properties are multi-million $ estates to be featured in glossy brochures. Some real estatae photograhers do okay by doing tremendous volume on a low per-house basis. I prefer to shoot for architects, contractors, building materials manufacturers, and so forth who need high quality photos for advertising and promotion. But this usually requires large format corrective photography and lighting to properly execute.

[Mike Panic]

staying somewhat on topic - avoid fisheyes, dont use flashes, get a tripod and a cable release and shoot in RAW so you can edit the WB as most homes have more then one light source, all at different temps

but i do agree- having a few friends as realtors, 5+ years ago yes, they used to hire photographers for fast digital turnaround, now, who needs em unless its a 7 figure home.

if you do want to offer something, start doing virtual tours, that is what a lot of realtors like and most dont have the time to do them - and the less techy minded ones couldnt fathom how to do it

[rolltide1661]

i need some help, reply to me if you get this message

[Avalonthas]

Most realtors can just snap there own pics with a P&S camera. So I doubt you would even get 25 bucks (atleast around here anyways). The only place I would see you making money is a multi million dollar home or high 6 digit home because they will want the outside and interiror to be heavily edited to look much better then it actually is to attract visits. So I wouldnt get into this unless a company is actually looking for such a position and pays good cash.

[GerryDavid]

I prefer to shoot for architects, contractors, building materials manufacturers, and so forth who need high quality photos for advertising and promotion. But this usually requires large format corrective photography and lighting to properly execute.

Architects, contractors, etc, those are really good ideas. Do you have any sample work online of what you do for each of these?

I want photography to be my career, but I dont really want to work for some company for min wage. So I like the idea of doing my own business which is why im trying to figure out ways to make money. I had heard real estate was good, but it doesnt seem to be according to this site.

Ive been researching fish eye lenses and one site recommended using them for interrior shots. But using a de-fishing filter on them to correct the perspective so it looks like it was taken with a normal camera. It lets you get most of the room into the one shot by distorting it a bit. Im just wondering if you would get the same result by using something not as wide. Like 15mm instead of 8mm.

[TH!EN]

i am being offered $100+ per house house and at least 5-7 houses a month is this worth it? I live in seattle and the drive would kill me.

[matthewlrigdon]

i am being offered $100+ per house house and at least 5-7 houses a month is this worth it? I live in seattle and the drive would kill me.

Well, does $500 a month work with your budget?

As for pricing, a lot of the MLS boards used to take a picture of every listing anyway. I think some of them have started charging, but it's only like $10.

[GerryDavid]

i am being offered $100+ per house house and at least 5-7 houses a month is this worth it? I live in seattle and the drive would kill me.

I would say it depends on what your time is worth. If its something you would hate doing, and you dont need the money, why do it?

I dont know the going rate, but $100 per house seems really good, depending you get paid extra for the gas to get there, and that they dont want extreme number of pictures.

[matthewlrigdon]

I want photography to be my career, but I dont really want to work for some company for min wage. So I like the idea of doing my own business which is why im trying to figure out ways to make money. I had heard real estate was good, but it doesnt seem to be according to this site.

Depends on where you live. Here in Los Angeles, there are agents selling houses at such inflated prices that they can afford to pay people to live in empty homes until they sell. One builder here is hiring actors to pretend to be a family in the model homes. But the average selling price of a home in Los Angeles is just under half a million dollars.

[Sp00ks]

I've thought about getting into this kind of work after seeing the horrid pictures a friends realitor took of the multi-million dollar home he is selling. This house has its own website.

I have another friend who is a photographer selling his house and his realitors pics were just as horrid. He ended up taking his own pics.

I just don't think there is a market for this in most areas. Yes, I could see a market in the Los Angles area or similar maybe.....

[tim]

i am being offered $100+ per house house and at least 5-7 houses a month is this worth it? I live in seattle and the drive would kill me.

Work out your "happy price". My personal "happy price" is $500 per job (US$300 or so), any less than that I don't bother going after work.

[Win]

I seriously considered offering this service after buying my home. We had a realtor and flew in from NJ to look at houses. One of the homes showed terrible in the picture but I insisted on seeing it. We ended up buying it!

I think a picture is worth a thousand words where homes are being considered, before you can actually be on site.

Win

[matthewlrigdon]

If you're here in America, you can get an idea of what realtors make by looking up the average selling price of a house in your area and then take 3%. Keep in mind, the realtor only makes money if the house SELLS. They don't make any money for listing it. So one house sale pays for the advertising on several.

My mother's in real estate and right now, things are pretty bad in a lot of places. She was joking with me that when they have office meetings, everybody always brags about how good they're doing, even when you know they aren't. She said that things are so bad now, the other realtors are complaining about how bad things are. So things are REALLY bad. (she doesn't live in Los Angeles).

[matthewlrigdon]

On a small business blog, this came up today.

Starting a Real Estate Photography Business (http://www.business-opportunities.biz/2006/10/12/starting-a-real-estate-photography-business/)

There's an interview with a guy who did just this, how he made it work, etc. Hopefully this will help.

[picturecrazy]

I've done a couple, and like it has been said, only worth the time for upscale homes. And in our area, the market is so darn hot that people are buying houses left right and centre without seeing the house, with no home inspection or anything. But those are not the houses that would pay good money for a pro to come in anyways.
Talk to realtors that do multi-million dollar homes. Go online and check out the photos of some uber expensive homes. Find the expensive houses with crappy photos. Contact the realtor and offer to shoot it for him/her for free. If you are really good, their jaws should drop at the results compared to their own P+S shots. Once they're convinced your photos could help sell the home better, they'll come back to you. Sometimes you gotta give to get.

[picturecrazy]

oh and forgot to mention, you also gotta have a sense of interior style and space too. I always rearrange furniture and remove items out of rooms to make the shot more appealing. Move lights and lamps, light up some candles, do whatever. I prefer to shoot at night as daytime lighting is usually too even and boring. Upscale home owners seem to like the dark and moody kind of shots.

It's fun if you have an interest in interior design.

http://www.nightanddayphoto.ca/nd/img/realedm2.jpg

[TH!EN]

oh and forgot to mention, you also gotta have a sense of interior style and space too. I always rearrange furniture and remove items out of rooms to make the shot more appealing. Move lights and lamps, light up some candles, do whatever. I prefer to shoot at night as daytime lighting is usually too even and boring. Upscale home owners seem to like the dark and moody kind of shots.

It's fun if you have an interest in interior design.

http://www.nightanddayphoto.ca/nd/img/realedm2.jpg

did you shoot this with your 10-20mm? im just wondering if a 17-40mm on a 5d will be wide enough for this type of photography.

[picturecrazy]

did you shoot this with your 10-20mm? im just wondering if a 17-40mm on a 5d will be wide enough for this type of photography.

Yes, I did use the 10-22. (I assume you meant 10-22 and not the sigma 10-20)

ISO100 F/8.0 2.0sec 13.0mm (21mm FF equiv)

I've found the 10-22 to do the job quite well. There are not many rooms this lens will not cover fully.

[rhys]

A supurb example of a real-estate photography job advert came up the other day:


An opportunity has come my way... or yours

If somebody from the camera club wants to assist me in conducting a few real estate virtual tour shoots this week and next, I'd be grateful and offer some "dinners out" gift certificates in exchange for you accompanying me with your equipment. I don't have the type of photo equipment needed!


Equipment needed is to be as close to this as you can get:
----------------------------------------------------------
A Panorama Rotator head having "16 clicks" (every 22.5 degrees)
for a 360 degrees panorama.


Nikon D50 camera
Nikon 18-55mm wide angle lens
Nikon SB-600 External Flash
Tripod and Head

OR

Canon 20d or 30d
Canon 17-70mm wide angle lens
Canon equivalent to Nikon SB600 external flash
Tripod and Head

Needless to say, questions about liability insurance, equipment insurance, contracts, terms and conditions, which restaurants would be able to use the "dinners out" certificates etc all met with zero response. I'd have done it just for the hell of it if I was to be covered for insurance, kept the rights and if the certificates were worth having. Since no response was ever forthcoming on any of my questions, they obviously realised they weren't dealing with a sucker and moved onto suckier ground.

[MHP]

I've been doing it for a year, am about to move on, but it proved lucrative for me. Atleast as lucrative as my partners full time job. You need to be able to create nice images. The people I shoot for would not accept the image above, no offence, but it isn't straight or bright enough. The main thing you need to do is market yourself, like get a list of every agents email address in your vicinty and send something every month, also a newsletter or something to those you shoot for and follow up calls. It's all about service. If you can't be bothered to do this then you will probably fail. It is a good market, if sales are slow you can sell it as being what they 'need' to be better than others to get the sale, and when they're busy they have the $ to spend. aim for high end properties and companies. I wouldn't do a 'free' deal, they'll take it and run, without rehiring you. they'll take anything for free. Sell it.

good luck

[picturecrazy]

It all depends on your market. The market is VERY hot in my area now so business goes down quite a bit; you have to fight for any of it. It's different wherever you go. As for the pictures being too dark... I always deliver a series of varying exposures and this is what the owners/realtor chose. Everybody has different tastes and you have to be flexible enough to work within it.
I actually don't enjoy it and hope to get no more calls about real estate. People making $300,000 profit on a house and complain about $1000 for a shoot.

[Mike Reynolds]

I agree realitors aren't willing to spend the money for quality phoography. I have shot a few homes for friends hoping to gain intrest and though they are overwhelmed but it doesn't get me $$. On the other hand contractors seem to be willing to part with a few bucks for my work every now and then. Shoot weddings! that pays the best.

[Lestat]

I work as a real estate photographer in australia, both for a third party marketing company and as a free lancer directly for real estate agencies. In order to get agents to see the value of professional photography you have to show them. Most agents do their own photography and it shows. But certain agencies understand good marketing and its reflected in the interest generated and prices on property.