Real Estate Photography

[DCI]

Hi all,
Been thinking lately about branching into providing a service to real estate agents and perhaps private vendors for professional photos of there properties.
I already specialise in professional photography but are looking at other avenues for buisness.I have had some experience doing a couple of private vendor shoots but I guess my big question is a strategy to approach real estate agencies who would be willing to hire me for professional photos of there newly listed properties and perhaps even rental listings.
I know there are a few people around who offer this service so any advise from agents etc would be apreciated.
My problem being I don't have an established portfolio in this field to present for initial buisness.
The other question is how much is a reasonable price in your opion to pay a photographer to come to the property and spend an hour or so taking pro pics of the place and then providing them on cd for agency.
I know many agencies obviously are happy to just take the pictures themselves but the quality of some is to be questioned...
Anyway would love peoples thoughts/ideas on the matter.
Thanks in advance
Dave

 

[wylie]

Mum just had professional photographers take photos for her house to be listed. These were the same photographers who took the photos when she sold her PPOR five years ago, so obviously they are well established and have a track record with particular agents.

I believe the cost was around $320 or $350. (I can find out for sure if you like.) It was money very well spent.

Perhaps you could photograph some houses (friends, your own) and send them on CD to some agents with what you will charge, to see if you can get a foot in the door.

 

[twobobsworth]

Last time we sold our PPOR the photographer was $100. Not sure if the agency also paid something (although I doubt it). Photos were fantastic and they spent a good hour at the house. Seemed to be a lot of work for not much money to me.

 

[eKwatee]

I believe professional photos are essential to a marketing campaign to show the property at its absolute best. We use a company called http://www.open2view.com.au/which for a standard shoot costing $198 gets you 25 photos of the property + being uploaded to their website. Our sellers love the professional photography package as you can see here with the number of vendors choosing this package.http://www.open2view.com.au/Agent/1672/Matthew/Lee. Maybe worthwhile looking at purchasing one of their franchise areas.

 

[sparky23]

We have these in NSW too so they probably have a fair chunk of the market already, worth looking into though for sure. If it was me I would be looking at some of the ads on realestate.com and approach the agents displaying crappy pics!

 

[DCI]

Thanks guys,
Certainly some good ideas.
I am thinking of offering the first property shoot for free to allow them to trial the quality of my services. If they decide to use me only once, then hey I will have extra images to add to my folio.

 

[DCI]

Thanks Wylie,
Will look at doing that.
I have friends at the White house....ohhh so many rooms
Cheers
Dave

Mum just had professional photographers take photos for her house to be listed. These were the same photographers who took the photos when she sold her PPOR five years ago, so obviously they are well established and have a track record with particular agents.

I believe the cost was around $320 or $350. (I can find out for sure if you like.) It was money very well spent.

Perhaps you could photograph some houses (friends, your own) and send them on CD to some agents with what you will charge, to see if you can get a foot in the door.

 

[urban cowboy]

great gig if you can pull it off - but us agents are lazy buggers generally and don't bother with referrals too often...

your other problem is there are literally dozens of folks in Brisbane offering this service - open2view are one as mentioned - you also have Highshots ( www.highshots.com ) who are my personal favourites and then a swag of independent operators.

but again, great gig if you can pull it off - your best bet is to approach some high profile agents and talk to them about what they look for in a pro photographer and find out what you would need to do to attract their business. Get the gig with one or two of them and use that to leverage with other agencies. most importantly - be creative in your approach, agents get hammered by photographers/brokers/conveyancers/etc etc who want their business so you need a unique selling point to get their interest.

good luck with it!

 

[marg4000]

We recently sold mum's house in inner Brisbane - 3 days on market and sold for 99.5% of asking price (which we felt was high).

The agency said they use a professional photographer. When we saw the photos we realised they were taken from angles we would never have thought of, and certainly presented the house in the best way possible.
Marg