I shoot independently for several different realtors here in the Bay, several of whom belong to one broker location. The broker has his own graphics person onsite, who does website work in addition, plus layouts for flyers, business cards, ads in Realty publications around S.F., etc. The firm retains the branding (and of course insists on its being used in all publications, as it should be insisting): specific color hues, specific fonts, specific logos, and even some consistency across all of the agents’ listing materials as to the general lay-out of the front and back (not a specific template, but specific margins, headers and footers, etc.) Printing is either done in-house or out-sourced to the primary person of their choice.

While I do have layout skills, own a CMYK laser printer that does near-photographic reproduction and have lots of proper software, I stick to doing flyers for MY business (including for the recruiting of more agents for whom to photograph), and ‘just try to be as flexible and user-friendly as possible with the graphics person already onsite. That said, it is great for one’s photo-business to know as much as possible about what the other side requires (CMYK ?? RGB ?? White balance on a Mac or on a PC ? What final dimensions do they require for the window display posters ?), and to anticipate layouts when shooting (for example, photos that will be more than likely used side by side need to have compatible framing, lighting, and sight-lines or angles that lead the eye well…stairwells in a photo can be great in a single shot but disruptive at times when placed adjacently to another room-shot). Similarly, if the house flyer has a cream background and the property has cream walls, photos whose edges fade out without an accenting wall-hanging or small vase near the edges, etc. will look terrible once printed on such a flyer…I therefore often mimic the graphic layouts here at home and propose photo-groupings to the agents to best showcase their work, enable them to have a fast turnaround graphically, and of course, to allow my own work to be best represented whenever possible.

Lastly, it’s imperative to know the graphic deadlines when doing a shoot (or accepting the schedule imposed)! There are times that one thinks correctly that there’s plenty of lead-time for the MLS web-postings only to discover that the flyer for the open house is a 12-Noon deadline the day before, the ad was 4 p.m. the afternoon of the shoot, and the advance postcard targeted mailing for the first Open House was the morning of the shoot itself !

Good ideas from all; thanks !

Franck

Each agent would need to have an account with them. The guy I talked with said like example most major Realtor companies have their services now in office, like Remax has all 80,000 agents signed up.

Great Idea, in fact one I may take a step beyond an make available to all us Photo dudes, a set of similar templates everyone can use.

But for now they will not give me an account as a “company” for re-selling to agents, without being an agent !!

Russell

The actual printing is a separate subject from flyer creation. Some brokers subsidize the printing for agents (provide free color printing) so you can’t compete with that.

@anon#2- You’ve missed my whole point… I’m suggesting that you can use top graphic design services. Each flyer or brochure doesn’t have to be a custom design.

This is the equivalent of a design blog telling designers, hey you can just buy a point and shoot and start offering photography services, no one will know the difference!

If you’re a photographer with some designing skills, then it’s a great idea to broaden your services but if you’re just going to use some website template, you might as well leave it to a designer or printer.

My 2 cent.

Why would they want a middle man involved?
I wouldn’t.