I had a quick question for all of you realtors out there... I'm getting into the real estate photography end of the business and was wondering When you list a home for someone, who takes the photos? And I'm talking about everything. From the exterior shots to the interior shots. Do you do it or do you hire someone to take your photos? If you hire someone, what do they usually charge you for? Do they charge by the hour or by the home? I don't want to know how much they charge you. That's irrelevant because every market is different.

Thanks!

I take my own pictures. Most agents do. And yes, I realize that most agents suck at taking pictures. No argument there.

What I would probably do if a seller wanted me to hire a professional is to ask the seller to pay for it up front, and then, when the house sells, I would reimburse them for the cost of the photography out of the commission. *shrug*

No doubt, pictures may be are the most important marketing tool we have, but price, location, condition, and seller motivation are also key factors that can make or break a deal.

Agents with luxury homes/mansions/estates would be more likely to hire a professional to do the photography. If you have a luxury market in your area, I would pursue that.

It seems to me that a lot of listings I see have the worst
pictures or worse yet none at all.Being new I feel this is something that is very important with the amount of people that view properties on the internet.I interviewed with a company that said they had people that do virtual videos on average size houses for 110.00 and that seems a small price to pay to have professional pictures and videos for buyers to look at.Am I wrong to think this way? One thing we have to remember is first impressions are lasting impressions.

$110 seems a little cheap for Virtual photos? You're talking about a lot of money spent on software. Unless the realtor is getting the photos from a pro and setting up the Virtual Photo tour on his/her own. I'd have to look around and see what the going rate for that is.

You wouldn't happen to have a link to one of those videos would you? I'm curious to see what it looks like.

No I do not and I did not ask what was included for that price. Sorry

Yeah, $110 seems really cheap for a video. I'd like to see what they put out for that.

I made this video from a combination of video I shot and stills I took and I can't imagine someone charging only $100 for it - it was easily, 8-10 hours of work from taking the photos, processing them, taking the video, editing the video...and that's just for an amateur job. LOL

http://youtu.be/gBxHW5wba5Q

Perky/Cameraman. I also thought it was very reasonable priced I regret not asking more questions about what you get for the dollars.Perky your video looks very professional to me. Did you sell the house because of it? Do you do this for all the houses you list?

To the OP. I think that breaking into the real estate photography business is going to be a very hard sell at this point.

Despite pictures being very important most REALTORS will do there own because they don't see the value in spending the $200 or so on your services.

Personally I'm investing in my own camera equipment and skills and will be following Perky's path of doing the job myself.

Perky, nice video. I liked the cup of coffee being poured. It added a nice feel.

To the OP, I usually hire a professional to do the photos/videos. And to answer your question, fees are per property NOT per hour (after all, of working by the hour one could claim it took 10 hours when it only took 5). Anyway, in my opinion, your best target audience will be Realtors who deal with high-end homes, whose owners will have a high level of expectations. Best of luck.

Great video! That is above and beyond what regular photos would bring to visually showing the home on line. That's a huge production even though it is an amateur video. There are not only videos of the home but there are photographs being panned through during the whole production. That's a great video. Nice job!

[quote=maui real estate]To the OP, I usually hire a professional to do the photos/videos. And to answer your question, fees are per property NOT per hour (after all, of working by the hour one could claim it took 10 hours when it only took 5). Anyway, in my opinion, your best target audience will be Realtors who deal with high-end homes, whose owners will have a high level of expectations. Best of luck. [/quote]

Maui
Do you do the videos on all listings or do you have a cut off at a certain listing price? What kind of money does your professionals charge? Thanks

Thank you CameraMan. & BPO123 A lot of professionals raise their hackles when I tell them I do my own. LOL. Of course it helps that this is a very photogenic house. Some homes I don't think even a pro could make look good without a lot of "make up" (staging). LOL

Cameraman and Perky

You were asking about the firm that did the 110.00 videos. I am not sure if this is the one that the person that told me is talking about but here is their link.

www.arizonaimaging.com

Cameraman this will give you an ideal of what other people charge.