# 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.


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## 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.
> 
> ...



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  ), 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.


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## CdTSnap (May 4, 2014)

Thanks guys, might pass on this idea now haha.


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## 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.


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## manaheim (May 5, 2014)

bribrius said:


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



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.


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## 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!!!)


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## 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...


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## CdTSnap (May 5, 2014)

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

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk


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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.  

Sent from my LG-LG730 using Tapatalk


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## sonicbuffalo (May 5, 2014)

robbins.photo said:


> 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 disagree...they know they're getting quality shots with a pro, but realtors are mostly tightwads!


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## Steve5D (May 5, 2014)

I don't necessarily agree with the idea that real estate agents are tightwads. They're not going to give money away but, like anyone else, will pay for something they see value in.

Our job as photographers isn't to just show up, provide excellent results, and expect to be paid. Our job is to show a real estate agent the value in what we can provide. We can't assume that an agent will look at a photo and say "YES!".

We need to sell them on the fact that there is value in what we provide. If you can do that, you'll be hired. If you can't, you won't...


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## manaheim (May 5, 2014)

My experience isn't that they are tightwads, so much as they have a very hard time understanding the value of spending $400 or more on a professional... when they seem to be doing "just fine" with their P&S camera.  They also tend to be... uh... confident... and have a default position of looking down their nose at anything that they hadn't already thought of on their own.

There are exceptions, of course, but this is generally what I've found.

COMMERCIAL real estate, however... is a whole different ballgame. Get into that if you can, and you'll be doing great.


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## bribrius (May 5, 2014)

lot of agents are just like mwac. Husband works wife is agent for supplemental income. They don't have a lot of money to be tight wads with. They can go a month with no pay check at all.


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## manaheim (May 5, 2014)

And here I thought _I_ was overgeneralizing.


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## skid2964 (May 5, 2014)

I got started doing this 5 years ago by offering to shoot a house for free, just to get my photos in the local Multiple Listing Service. They really stand out, even in thumbnails and they catch people's attention, even if they don't buy the home, it draws attention to the agent with good photos... Now, 700+ photo-shoots later, the agents come to me. Some agents don't care about their photos but the ones that realize that professional photos sells homes will seek out a pro. If they sell one home from better photos, they are already WAY ahead in terms of bottom-line profits for the year. I've had several tell me: "I sold that home in three days and I believe it was your photos that did it!"...


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## SquarePeg (May 5, 2014)

The town I live in has a very good broker who seems to get all the hot listings.  A friend works there so i know that they use a pro and also stage the homes.  You can tell it's working in her favor.  Some Realtors have seen the lighting.


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## Designer (May 5, 2014)

CdTSnap; in addition to all of that, some realtors have purchased their own DSLR.  They can write it off as a business expense, like their car and all the rest.  That doesn't mean that they suddenly become proficient, but you've got to show them that you really can make better pictures than they can using essentially the same equipment. It's going to be a tough sale for the average realtor and average house prices.  Where things change is in the higher end of things where the RE is high end, the realtor is more likely to spend some money getting really good pictures.


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## SGK (May 6, 2014)

A good piece of advice I've heard is to approach the owner, not the agent, especially if it's a house that's been on the market for awhile. I have not shot any homes yet, but I've advertised my services for 45 USD (approx. 50 NZD). 

For agents and owners alike, I link my Flickr portfolio in the ad and let the photos speak for themselves. https://www.flickr.com/photos/121411995@N07/sets


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## The_Traveler (May 6, 2014)

skid2964 said:


> I got started doing this 5 years ago by offering to shoot a house for free, just to get my photos in the local Multiple Listing Service. They really stand out, even in thumbnails and they catch people's attention, even if they don't buy the home, it draws attention to the agent with good photos... Now, 700+ photo-shoots later, the agents come to me. Some agents don't care about their photos but the ones that realize that professional photos sells homes will seek out a pro. If they sell one home from better photos, they are already WAY ahead in terms of bottom-line profits for the year. I've had several tell me: "I sold that home in three days and I believe it was your photos that did it!"...



My neighbor is a realtor and I did two houses for him as a favor (500+ and 780+) 
Less than an hour each- but of course I'm not a pro. 
Listings looked great
The houses sold in 4 day/6 days.
So he showed up with a check and gave me a couple more to shoot.
In fact I just shot his house before a remodel.

It's not rocket science, it's fun for me and I wait until the house closes for the money.
It's definitely not a live-on-this-income but I use the occasional fee for poker money.


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## snowbear (May 6, 2014)

I saw a CL listing a while back for a business that is doing this.  They were looking for people wanting a little extra money - just send a portfolio of interior and exterior shots.  The company supplied the equipment for consistency, and (I suppose) called you when there was a job in your area.

It is true that many of the listing photos are crappy.  I constantly see, what is obviously the same house, on multiple listings.


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## Steve5D (May 8, 2014)

This is an article which, while it doesn't deal specifically with professional photography, does mention it, and it certainly suggests that agents see a real value in it, to wit:



> We posted professional photos online and never had to put up a &#8216;For Sale&#8217; sign.
> 
> &#8220;Professional photographs are a must to create a strong online presence.&#8221;




South Charlotte News
Read  more here:  South Charlotte neighborhoods are seeing houses sell quickly
​


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