Want to be a free lance real estate photographer?

Hi everyone.

I thought I would share my experiences with a company called airbnb

I joined up to them about 6 months ago. They send you properties through your account, you can either accept or decline depending on their location. They pay me 50 bucks per shoot + travel expenses, so for each shoot I could make around 80 bucks.

I didnt need to send them any pictures or portfolios, you just need a camera over 12 megapixel (I think) and obviously a wide angle lens. So far Ive made around $3000 doing this on the side of my real job.

Check them out, and if you want some extra cash hit them up. Its actually been really good experience for me. Anyway, Im mainly posting this because this forum is mainly american (so you cant steal my business) :P

The standard rate here is between $150 and $200 per property.
Even that I think is a bit low considering the work involved. They are pretty picky here and want you to do absolutely everything including the dirty dishes in the sink if that's what you find when you get to the properties.

How many hours in total from getting the job to finishing editing including calling the owners etc would you spend per job on average?

Hi Glumpy. Is that through airbnb as well?

I would love 150-200 a shoot! And no, they arnt that fussy. I basically dont clean at all, and have taken photos of houses that are cluttered to the max!

I suppose 30 mins editing, and 15 mins organising shoot. I really dont mind doing the editing though. The travel is a **** though, might take me 30 mins to get there, 30 mins for shoot and 30 mins to get home... so all in all, its not really worth it, but I enjoy the extra $200 a week or so..

Sounds interesting for someone who has some extra time. $50 pay isn't much though for my area. It's closer to glumpy's range for quality. Most of the photos I see in local real estate sites simply look like point and shoot snapshots, so I guess most real estate companies go for the cheapo content.

MOST agents in my city now have a P&S camera and the Reps take their own pics.
Some of the more savvy agents use shooters, mainly on the more profitable properties.

I put my home on the market 6 months ago and did the pics both of my own and next door who we are selling with. The agent was not expecting what he got and rang to say so.
I Did RE work for a short time but didn't have a passion for it which is what you need if you are going to excell at it.

I did mentor a guy that was doing it and he got right into the whole thing and became one of the best shooters in the country for that work. He started with an agent as an employee and after about 15 months when they basically laughed at him when he asked for a raise, He told them to shove it and went out on his own.

He did very well out of it for about 2 years till he got bored and moved onto other things. The agents he had worked for had 3 offices and they became one of his biggest clients. The satisfaction he got when he could bill them in a day 50% more than they had been paying him a week never wore off.

He priced himself at the top of the market and he still got more work that he wanted most weeks.

I think if you are really good, there is plenty to be made in the game but you really have to be able to do something that the agents can't do themselves. my mate always watermarked his pics (Especially as other agents would take over the property and steal them) and people would see his pics on line and ring him to do theirs or get their agents to because his work stood out so much.

One thing was really good was the lack of gear required. One cam, one lens, tripod and a flash for very occasional use.