Real Estate Photography

I photograph a combination of commercial and residential listings. Many times listing agents & owners question the value of hiring a quality photographer to come in and photograph a property. My goal in this blog entry is to show what I do and why it can be so valuable to selling the property. I'll show the difference in value between the standard four options for photographing a building. I'll be focusing on residential for the sake of simplicity.

Option 1) A real estate agent or owner chooses to take images on their own. Interiors are lit by the flash on the camera or shot with available light if it is a bright room and not much thought given to composition to make a room look the best. Exteriors are photographed while the agent is there taking pictures. Usually without consideration given to time of day and direction of sunlight. Here are some samples from an actual listing for a $837,000 house that I found online.


Option 2) A photographer is hired that comes in with a tripod and a digital camera and shoots available light photos of the space. Some consideration is given to composition, but the room is very rarely arranged to make the best photo. Everything is still shot with available light. This causes windows, light fixtures and lamps to be blown out and not be very visually appealing. Exteriors are usually shot without consideration given to time of day. Very little time, if any is given to post-production to make the image look its best. These photographers are usually hired for anywhere from $75 to $150 per listing. Because of this they are shooting multiple listings in a day and running from job to job. Here are some samples from an actual listing for a $830,000 house that I found online.



Option 3) A photographer is hired to come in with some lighting (1-2 lights), a tripod, a digital SLR camera and usually an assistant. Listings take about one to one and half hours to photograph. The room is set up and organized to make the space look its best. Exteriors are photographed based on the time of day and the direction of sunlight to get the best lit photos of the facade of the building. After the photos have been taken, another 5-10 minutes of work is put into each photo in post-production to make it look its best. The cost for the photographer and assistant usually ranges from $250-$500 per listing. These are listings that I shot that range from $500,000 to $1.5 million.


Option 4) A photographer is hired to come in with a full lighting set up (4-8 lights), a tripod, a digital SLR camera and an assistant. Listings take four to eight hours depending on desired photos. All rooms are set up and fully lit. Exteriors are shot at the perfect time of day on multiple sides of the building (if shooting for eight hours). "Money shots", such as dawn or dusk can be taken of interiors and/or exteriors. After the photos have been taken, another 15-30 minutes of work is put into each photo in post-production to make it look its best. The cost for the photographer and assistant usually ranges from $500-$1000 for four hours and $1000-$2000 for eight hours. These images are also from homes that I have photographed.

Now let's look at the cost of the investment in photography.

The estimated monthly payment on a $837,000 home (from above) that had 20% down and a 6% interest rate is over $4,500 (including taxes and insurance). Let's assume that the home has been owned for 10 years, so at this point a little over $4,000/month is going towards interest, taxes and insurance. Spending money on quality photography could quickly be recouped if it helps the home sell just a week or 2 earlier.

For the agent, the sooner a property sells, the quicker they can deposit the money and spend time on other properties and their own marketing. Another major bonus for the agent is the higher quality photos have a great use for the agent to show the quality of homes that they sell in their marketing pieces.

All the listings that I photograph fall in the category of options 3 and 4. See more of my work at www.mccoryjamesphotography.com