Comments on: Competition In Real Estate Photography?

By: Brad

Brad — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 03:53:25 +0000

Josh, I respectfully disagree. As a first time home buyer recently, I found the MLS made the bad pictures look like absolute garbage and we wouldnt even consider those houses. It may close the gap on high end and medium-high end quality pics, but crap will be crap.

By: Josh Lee

Josh Lee — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 06:52:19 +0000

As an outsider, the problem I see that’s killing architectural photographers is the MLS system and the way it degrades and butchers image quality. I’ve been impressed by the quality of the pics people post on their websites, but those pics just don’t show as well on the MLS. And, as long as that’s true, it narrows the difference between the good photographers and the average photographers and hacks.

By: Mike Martin

Mike Martin — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 03:28:55 +0000

Larry,
Maybe this isn’t such a bad idea. This is an extension of the “teaming” idea. We, as photographers, are a part of the Real Estate “team”. Realtors charged commission of results. No result, no commission. Why not us? I have long considered charging nothing down and a commission at closing. I just don’t know what it should be. It seems like half of one percent might be about right. If we think great photography matters, why not bet our money on it?

By: larry

larry — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:32:42 +0000

Michael- Yes, he’s desperate… to many properties don’t close these days. Sounds like a bad idea!

By: Michael Yearout

Michael Yearout — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:02:52 +0000

Larry:

My wife picked up a flyer in her office today from a new real estate photographer. He’s offering to do shoots for a $75 down payment, with balance due on closing. Plus, no closing, no balance due. Yow, I think he is desperate.

I’m not going there.

Michael

By: Dylan Darling

Dylan Darling — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:56:14 +0000

With more interior shooters out there, more homes are being professionally shot. This is good news for all of us. The homes that have professional photographs are getting noticed by other home sellers. They want their homes shot as well. I’ve had a couple clients that have contacted me because they new I shot another listing that they saw.

More competition could mean more demand.

By: Lucas Fladzinski, AIAP, ASMP

Lucas Fladzinski, AIAP, ASMP — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:32:23 +0000

Larry,

As an architectural photographer, it is not only my duty as a professional to provide excellent service to my clients and saturate this planet with nothing but awesome and informed photography, it’s also my calling to educate my fellow clients.

I have been a professional architectural photography business owner for 4 years now. Prior to my start, I received my Master of Fine Arts Degree in Photography and taught for a couple of years at a UC school. I entered this market at an interesting time; the time when the old guys with a truckload of lights packing large format cameras were not able to compete with the emerging digital market and were slowly entering retirement. I used to use a large format and medium format camera so I understand the skill that is required to satisfy a client in an evolving market, on budget and on time.

When I entered this profession, I’m afraid to say that I was not equipped with the experience needed to set my prices with respect to what a professional photographer should charge and I made some serious mistakes. I was working for too cheap from my lack of experience as well as my nearly nonexistent portfolio. After a couple of months of building my portfolio from mostly real estate and construction projects, I sought out other photographers for their pricing structure, joined organizations, created my business identity and website and bought professional pricing software to help me develop my rates.

It didn’t take long for me to see the difference in projects I was now being sought after for. After careful consideration for the direction that I wanted my business to go, I left the real estate jobs (for the most part) and marketed my look toward architectural projects that were more challenging and of course, pays better.

I have exhausted a lot of time, money, effort, money, and more time into educating myself to be able to compete for large, more sophisticated projects. With that said, for me, real estate photography was a stepping stone to what I do now. I tailor my pricing for the individual project rather than having a set rate. Every project requires a particular degree of sophistication (different lighting, assistants, scouting, etc.) and every project is backed by a client with a different sized wallet. I will not expect to receive the same day rate from an independent residential real estate person as I would from large marketing firm for the same project nor should the smaller projects expect the same degree of a finished project if their budget cannot afford it.

As a professional photographer in a rapidly changing market and in a terrible economy with clients with a suffering marketing budget, I must be flexible with my services yet remain true to my principles of maintaining a price point within this profession of photographers.

There will never be a day when a camera does everything for you. A camera is a tool and nothing more. It lacks the experience, the eye and technical and artistic sensibilities that only a seasoned and educated professional can provide.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:16:40 +0000

Competition is good for 2 reasons:

1. it seperates the the good work from the garbage (which there is alot of these days). If you produce excellent work, having alot of subpar competition around you will only make your work stand our even more and that much easier.

2. it does keep the prices a little lower….which is better for clients and probably more in line with what the work is actually worth. Too many photographers are charging WAY too much for a product knowing that they are really the only option for alot of the agents in their area…which leads again to my #1 point.

Bottom line is that if you have a good product and at good price you should have ZERO problems with the competition….let your work speak for itself.

By: Erik Grammer

Erik Grammer — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:36:44 +0000

So many excellent points above – thank you all for posting (I found myself nodding over and over again, especially Alan’s post at the top). I have a great mixture of clients that range from budding self-shooters to agents who couldn’t identify the shutter release on a camera and have no interest in learning… In all cases the feedback I get is that they will cut corners where they can to save a buck in this market but when it has to be done right they will pay what I charge.

The only people who ever question my prices are the people who have never worked with me. They see my shots online because my site has really high ranking and they call because they think they can get me to shoot it for what the cheap guy charges. My answer is, “No.” They always seem surprised that I won’t budge but I say let the market be flooded with low-ballers. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve re-shot a bad photographer’s work which really drives home the point that it is much more cost effective to do it right the first time! They provide a great source of marketing material for good shooters (by comparison) and I know from experience that even the price-shopping agents will end up booking me when it has to be done right – and lets face it… doing it right feels gooooodddddd!

Happy, productive shooting!
Erik

By: Ron Rosenzweig

Ron Rosenzweig — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:57:49 +0000

There are some pearls of wisdom and sage advice from the posters above. To add another nugget from the AIAP forum:

“The Federal Bureau of Statistics states that “pro photography is one of the the only professions that has not had any income growth in 14 years. Only 5 percent growth in 27 years. Equipment costs 10 times what it did 30 years ago”. It is, after all, about having fun isn’t it. Do we really do this to make money?”

Larry, one aspect of photography that should not be overlooked on your site is the one entitled: BUSINESS
1. The Cost of Doing Business
2. Setting Up a Budget
3. How to establish pricing to afford a decent living, cover the cost of health insurance, sending kids to college……..
4. Etc.

It is not all about the wiz bang of technology.

Best Regards,
Ron