Approaching real estate agents.

CdTSnap · May 4, 2014

Hi guys,

I was wondering if anyone has done this or has any advice on how to go about it?

I was going to approach some realestate agents about shooting houses and properties for advertising. Not sure where to start, I have NO IDEA what people charge for that sort of thing.

bribrius · May 4, 2014

Don't know. The agents I know seem to shoot the houses themselves. They run into a problem of keeping expense low because if it doesn't sell they have no way of recouping that money.

CdTSnap · May 4, 2014

bribrius said:
Don't know. The agents I know seem to shoot the houses themselves. They run into a problem of keeping expense low because if it doesn't sell they have no way of recouping that money.

True, thats a good point... In NZ most of agents have truly ****ty photos so they must be doing it themselves lol.

Although, they could list it as an optional fee for the seller.

I just noticed it when I sold my car last week, I advertised first with some old photos I had and it didnt sell, not even any interest. But then I got my DSLR out and I sold it within 2 days of listing. Same description and everything so I guess it just got me thinking.

Light Guru · May 4, 2014

bribrius said:
Don't know. The agents I know seem to shoot the houses themselves. They run into a problem of keeping expense low because if it doesn't sell they have no way of recouping that money.

Yup most agents will just snap a few photos themselves. The ones where they will hire a photographer are the million dollar homes, and to get those jobs you just showing up with a dslr is not going to cut it your going to need to bring in lighting and to a top notch job.

deeky · May 4, 2014

Having been a realtor, I can say Bribrius has it about right. For most homes, the realtor eats the photo fee, so it needs to balance out in the potential commission.

Identify the realtors that typically list the higher end homes. If your local realtor association has a public access page to their listings, you should be able to search by list price and identify those. If nothing else, drive through those neighborhoods. Agents love to put their own names on the signs. Then, like any other photo business, they are going to want to see evidence of your skills, i.e. portfolio of real estate shots. Remember, it's their money for no guarantee of commission.

As far as price, last I heard the guy in town was getting $100-$150 for around 2 dozen shots. Figure cost of your time, camera, tripod, at least a couple of flashes and modifiers - I was tempted until I worked it out, at least doing it all solely for real estate work.

IronMaskDuval · May 4, 2014

The listing photos of the home that I a bidded on was taken with a potato. I don't think you'll find much luck there. I have friends who are agents for multi-million dollar homes, and they use a zucchini instead.

manaheim · May 4, 2014

Wear bottles of Prozac around your neck. Most real estate agents are out of their ****ing minds.

Oh. Second set of advice... really don't bother. Most RE agents think it makes perfect sense to take pictures of the house they're selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars... with a point and shoot with the flash on full. Approach a RE agent and tell them that you're going to charge more than $100 to do it properly, and they'll look at you like you have six heads. Even after you just gave them some shots pro bono, and their open house brought in more people than they'd seen in months, and the house sold in one day, and 1/4 of the people coming in say they came in just because of the pictures.

Seriously.... RE agents are off their fricken rockers.

You will VEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERY occasionally find one with a clue. But it's rare, and IMO, not worth the effort.

The only way to make real money off an RE job is to charge $400+ to do the work. Houses are a LOT of work to do them right. And VERY few RE agents will pay anything close to that.

Scatterbrained · May 4, 2014

manaheim said:
Wear bottles of Prozac around your neck. Most real estate agents are out of their ****ing minds.

Oh. Second set of advice... really don't bother. Most RE agents think it makes perfect sense to take pictures of the house they're selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars... with a point and shoot with the flash on full. Approach a RE agent and tell them that you're going to charge more than $100 to do it properly, and they'll look at you like you have six heads. Even after you just gave them some shots pro bono, and their open house brought in more people than they'd seen in months, and the house sold in one day, and 1/4 of the people coming in say they came in just because of the pictures.

Seriously.... RE agents are off their fricken rockers.

You will VEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERY occasionally find one with a clue. But it's rare, and IMO, not worth the effort.

The only way to make real money off an RE job is to charge $400+ to do the work. Houses are a LOT of work to do them right. And VERY few RE agents will pay anything close to that.

I just had to quote this because it's so fracking true. There's a service here stateside that phototographers can joins; it allows agents to book a photoshoot of the house. You have to be ready to jump when they say jump, drive where ever the house is in your area (for me that could be up to an hour each way) and be in and out within an hour of getting there. All for between $50 and $150 dollars per house. They expect finished, edited shots delivered within a few hours of the shoot. If you figure most agents are only going to spring for the $50 shoot (the difference in price is for using on camera flash and a tripod indoors :lol:

), you'd spend at least 3 hours before expenses for every $50 you make. Unless your main job is flipping burgers at McDonald's it's really not worth it.

CdTSnap · May 4, 2014

Thanks guys, might pass on this idea now haha.

bribrius · May 4, 2014

CdTSnap said:
Thanks guys, might pass on this idea now haha.

I spoke in a generality. I would still suggest you talk to local realtors. We are discussing you making money here might be worth the foot work.

manaheim · May 5, 2014

bribrius said:
CdTSnap said:

Thanks guys, might pass on this idea now haha.

Click to expand...

I spoke in a generality. I would still suggest you talk to local realtors. We are discussing you making money here might be worth the foot work.

Spending some time to network and try to get in with the realtors selling really expensive homes MIGHT be worth your time. Trying to get business from Joe Random realtor... will not.

AceCo55 · May 5, 2014

Another slightly different tack is to get the Real Estate agent to ask the clients if they would prefer photos taken by you rather than stock standard point and shoot.
I did that with one agent - he was very good about it and pushed his clients to use me.
The client then paid me - not the real estate agent. I provided disk of images to client and the real estate agent.
(mind you, all of the other agents in town didn't want to know me!!!)

Steve5D · May 5, 2014

An agent can't say "NO" if you don't ask.

Will it be worth it? Maybe, maybe not. But I can promise you that you will never get paid a dime, and will never shoot a single frame, if you don't ask.

I shoot for a local retirement community's website. We're updating the images on their website a few at a time. I charge them $65.00 per image, and will usually provide them between five and ten images at a time. It doesn't take long to shoot them (I do both interior and exterior shots), it's not difficult and the community manager knows that she, or anyone else on her staff, would struggle to get anything close to what I'm providing.

Could I charge more? Maybe, but they have a threshold of pain, money-wise, which I know I'm extremely close to. The shooting isn't all that challenging, and doesn't take long. It's easy editing of simply shot subjects. Total time for shooting and editing might be three hours. If I provide ten images, that equates to $216.66 per hour.

The main point, though is that I approached them, showed them what I could offer, and got the gig.

If I'd first asked here about doing it, it's pretty easy to see that most would've tried to dissuade me from doing it. Instead, it's a nice, easy little revenue stream...

CdTSnap · May 5, 2014

Thanks guys. I'll have a look round and see what I come up with. Great advice

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robbins.photo · May 5, 2014

Ok, well best bet is to approach slowly and try not to make direct eye contact. Hold out your hand and let them sniff it but don't try to pet them right off the bat.

Oh... wait, thats pit bulls. Lol

I'd have to agree with most of whats already been posted, most agents don't understand or recognize the value of well done professional pictures.

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