Real Estate Photos

[Steel Cowboy]

I have an opportunity to shoot some real estate photos for someone who is starting an advertising magazine for upscale homes. The ads will be similar to what you would see in an auto trader magazine...a small exterior shot with a description of each home below the picture. The area covered will be eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas. I have no idea how much to charge for the photography work. I need to allow for travel time, expenses and such but don't want to price myself out of the job. Can anyone offer any advice?

Thanks!

[pdrow]

Hello, and welcome to the forum. This has question seems to be fairly popular lately. It seems real estate folks don't want to pay very much for this service. At the top pf the "cornering the pros" main page there is a place that says search this forum. I typed in real estate and got several hits. Some don't say that in the title, but this one http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=78389&highlight=real+estate and one more that said something about help with pricing photos were about this topic. GOod luck.
and again, welcome :)
pam

[Steel Cowboy]

Thanks Pam...Glad to be here! :D

[chtgrubbs]

Real Estate photography is notoriously low paying, but maybe if your friend is new to the business they won't have expectations of paying peanuts. If all they need is an exterior shot then most of your time will be spent travelling. When I shoot a house I usually make a scouting trip to check the location, try to figure what time of day the light will be best, will I need to make arrangements for moving vehicles, opening or closing window treatments,tidying up the lawn or driveway, etc, etc, etc. Of course this doubles or triples the time involved so your client may not want to pay for that. If they want interior shots that can add several hours to the shooting schedule. So the scouting, shooting the exteriors at the best time of day, and shooting interiors will generally end of being a whole days work meaning covering one house this thoroughly costs hundreds of dollars to shoot.

Most real estate publications go the opposite approach, the "drive-by shooting". Go to the house, hop out of the car, shoot a few viewpoints and leave. Pay can be as little as $20-30 per house. You have to shoot alot of houses in a day to make money. Take longer than 15 minutes and you will be losing money especially with the high cost gas and wear on your vehicle. Hopefully your friend will be somewhere in the middle of these two extremes.