Anyone doing/done Real Estate Photography?

[Travis]

A little out of place being a fine art forum but I'm just starting to promote real estate photography and was wondering if anyone had experiences to share.

I'm starting off fairly cheap to build a referral base with the agents. It's not like the real estate market is hopping here in Canada so I don't want to price myself out of attractiveness.

$250 Listings under $299g

$325 Listings 299 - 499g

$375 Listing 499 - 649g

Custom quote above 650g


These prices include travel, creative photography to highlight property assets/minimize weakness, post processing, and limited usage single license for a period of two years. Prints are generally not used in this field. Quick turnaround of product required.

Shooting will involve lots of wide angle shots/pano's, lots of off camera flash, exposure blends to keep the windows looking good etc.

Anyone have any experience with this?

Would I be crazy to offer one free shoot per agent I solicit?

[Iguanasan]

I'm not doing any paid photography but I would suggest to you that you should never work for free. Today, it's all about branding. Do work for free and they'll always expect to get it cheap or free and if it's cheap or free then it's not worth much.

Charge a reasonable price for good work. Build by reputation. Market intelligently but honestly. Spamming on the Internet or on the street is not cool. It will get you ignored pretty fast. If you produce a good product for a good price then the work will come.

Picking real estate photography in this economic climate may not be the best timing but you'll have to judge based on where you plan to work.

[Travis]

I'm not doing any paid photography but I would suggest to you that you should never work for free. Today, it's all about branding. Do work for free and they'll always expect to get it cheap or free and if it's cheap or free then it's not worth much.

Charge a reasonable price for good work. Build by reputation. Market intelligently but honestly. Spamming on the Internet or on the street is not cool. It will get you ignored pretty fast. If you produce a good product for a good price then the work will come.

Picking real estate photography in this economic climate may not be the best timing but you'll have to judge based on where you plan to work.

Thanks for your feed back. The real estate photography is to supplement portraiture and event photography. If I could pick up 5 or 10 of these jobs a month it would be a good benefit as these jobs are generally during the week day when nothing is happening anyway.

I really appreciate the sentiment of not working for free. I generally don't think like this, however at the moment there is not much in the way of this service being delivered. Mostly still the agents taking unskilled shots with their p/s. I fear only the most successful agents will see value in the work. I have some sample material to supply, but thought of the one free thing really as a stimulant to build referrals in a very soft market. Maybe 50% off?

[Iguanasan]

If you think it's necessary, then by all means, make it cheap. But the 50% off idea is good. That way they can get a peak at the difference between their stuff and your stuff and do it inexpensively.

I have heard a lot of good things about http://www.fasttrackphotographer.com/ so if you haven't heard about it before you might want to at least take a peek. I think you might find it useful. I'm not planning on photography for a living so I haven't been inclined to get the book myself.

Maybe someone else here has some other recommendations?