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Congratulations Alex Vincent, March 2024 PFRE Photographer of the Month! The theme this month was "Kitchen". Alex Vincent - #906 Yvonne Raaijmakers - #909 Peter Wingfield - #902 Here's what Alex has to say: Thank you for the award of Photographer of th ...

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Top 6 Real Estate Photo Editing Services

Published: 08/11/2023

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Beautiful, quality photography is crucial in today’s real estate industry, and to create stunning photography, you need an editing service. In this article, I have listed the top 6 real estate photo editing services in the industry and compared them regarding services offered, pricing, turnaround time, and customer support.

Top 6 Real Estate Photo Editing Services

While you can edit your shots in Lightroom and Photoshop, you can rely on PhotoUp for a quick turnaround for basic and high-end photo editing. BoxBrownie, Phixer, FixThePhoto, Smart Photo Editors, and PadStyler also provide reliable photo editing services for real estate photographers.

Let’s start by comparing the top 6 real estate photo editing services that produce incredible results.

Comparing Real Estate Image Editing Services

Here is a quick comparison of the features and benefits of my top real estate image editing service providers.

Service ProviderNotable ServicesPricing RangeTurnaround Time
PhotoUpBasic photo editing, virtual staging, video editing$1 per credit24 hours or less
BoxBrownieBasic retouching, virtual staging, exterior enhancements$1.60 - $16024 to 48 hours
PhixerBasic photo editing, object removal, virtual twilight$2 - $2518 to 24 hours
FixThePhotoObject removal, sky replacement, HDR$1.50 - $1248 hours
Smart Photo EditorsExposure correction, sky replacement, HDR$0.80 - $1518 hours
PadStylerExposure correction, sky replacement, color balance$2524 hours
PhotoAndVideoEditsColor and exposure correction, HDR editing, objects addition and removal$1.0-$1.5 per credit, or $1.75 pay-as-you-go24 hours
Esoft InternationalExposure and color correction, HDR editing, Virtual dusk additionNot specified12 hours

1. PhotoUp

PhotoUp homepage shows a bedroom with a white bed frame that has gray and white bed sheets near a sliding glass window overlooking the lanai

PhotoUp is a real estate photo editing and real estate marketing company headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Their editing, virtual staging design, and development teams are located in Cebu City in the Philippines.

They offer a full range of services, including:

  • Real estate photo editing
  • Virtual staging
  • Floor plans
  • Video editing
  • Single property websites
  • Real estate photographer websites
  • House portraits
  • Virtual Assistants
  • And more

Pricing

PhotoUp uses a credit system for purchasing its services and offers discounts for bulk buying of credits:

  • As low as $1 per credit for subscription clients
  • $1.50 per credit for pay-as-you-go clients

Standard photo editing costs are as follows:

  • Single exposure – 1 credit
  • HDR processing – 1.25 credits
  • Flambient editing – 1.5 credits

And here are their virtual staging prices:

  • Half set – 15 credits per photo
  • Single set – 25 credits per photo
  • Double set – 35 credits per photo

Sets vary in terms of how many pieces of furniture, the number of design pieces, as well as how many frames a single room or space requires.

Turnaround Time

PhotoUp provides a fast turnaround time of 24 hours or less. Rush options are also available on most offers for just a slightly higher cost.

Customer Support

PhotoUp offers phone, email, and live chat support as part of all of their plans. Their chat and email support are available 24 hours a day, Monday through Saturday.

Their core sales/support team is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. And you can contact them directly at (888) 330-7559.

2. BoxBrownie

BoxBrownie homepage shows a before and after image of a white house with a gray roof showing an expansive front yard with green grass

BoxBrownie is an Australian company that offers quality visual marketing services across multiple industries, including real estate. They are one of the largest companies in the industry.

Some of BoxBrownie’s services include:

  • Photo retouching, including exposure corrections and vertical line adjustments
  • Color changes and enhancements
  • Object removal
  • Virtual staging
  • Floor plans
  • Virtual tours
  • And exterior enhancements, including sky, lawn, and landscaping improvements

Pricing

BoxBrownie prices related to real estate photo editing are the following:

  • Image enhancement – $1.60 per image
  • Virtual staging – starting at $24 per image
  • Sky replacement photo editing – $4 per image
  • Object removal – $4 for 1-2 items and $8 for 3 or more items
  • 360 virtual tours – $16-$24
  • 2D and 3D floor plans – $24-$32
  • Virtual renovation – $24-$176
  • Development site plans – $24-$160

Turnaround Time

The company’s turnaround time is 24 hours for regular photo editing and 48 hours for virtual staging.

Customer Support

Similar to PhotoUp, BoxBrownie offers customer support through email, chat, or phone. Keep in mind, given the size of the company and the volume of work, their customer support ends up being a bit impersonal.

3.  Phixer

Phixer's homepage shows a white mobile phone showing a gray and yellow house with a two-door garage and a gray driveway

Phixer is another large company offering real estate marketing and photo editing services. The company was founded in Seattle, Washington, in 2009, and it quickly expanded with editing teams in India, the Philippines, and Singapore by 2010.

Today, they employ over 900 digital photo editors, serving real estate sales professionals in over 40 countries.

Here’s a look at Phixer’s basic services:

  • Photo editing and retouching
  • Video editing
  • Sky and lawn replacement
  • Decluttering and object removal
  • Virtual twilight
  • And virtual staging

What’s unique with Phixer is that they also offer an app (a DIY application designed for real estate agents). As a result, most of Phixer’s efforts are aimed at having real estate sales professionals use the app.

Pricing

Unfortunately, Phixer doesn’t have its pricing readily available on the website. But this is what I could dig up:

  • Basic photo editing services — color enhancement, cropping, and exposure correction — $2 to $5 per image
  • High-End Photo Editing – HDR blending, sky replacement, and object removal — $10 to $25 per image

Turnaround Time

Similar to PhotoUp, Phixer offers a turnaround time of 18-24 hours for standard editing. Also, the Phixer app promises photos back in 8 hours or less.

Customer Support

In terms of customer support, Phixer’s priority is large-scale professional customers who purchase at least 3000 monthly credits ($3,000/month). The company offers phone, email, and chat support (24/7 customer service on their live chat feature).

4. FixThePhoto

FixThePhoto homepage with a woman with curly hair wearing a white tube top and gold hoop earrings on a gray background

FixThePhoto has been an online photo editing company in business since 2003. As an online service, they employ and work with hundreds of photo editors worldwide.

The company offers various services aimed mostly at portrait and wedding photographers, but they also include photo editing services for real estate photographers and sales professionals.

Here are some of their services:

  • Object removal
  • Sky replacement
  • Line straightening
  • Color changes
  • Virtual staging
  • Video tours
  • HDR compositing and blending

Pricing

FixThePhoto’s standard real estate image editing is $1.50 per photo, including single-shot HDR photos. However, other services are labeled “High-End” photo editing, and the price quickly jumps to $12.00 per image.

To give you an overview, their pricing is as follows:

  • Standard photo editing – $3 to $12 per image
  • Virtual staging – from $79 to $199 per photo
  • Real estate photography – from $119 to $829
  • Drone photography – from $229 to $329
  • 3D video tours – $199
  • Video walk-through – from $99 to $449

Turnaround Time

FixThePhoto offers a 48-hour service time for most real estate photo editing. Rush services are available, but for an extra cost.

Customer Support

Like the other real estate photo editing companies I’ve listed, FixThePhoto offers instant chat, email, and toll-free telephone support.

5. Smart Photo Editors

Smart Photo Editors homepage with a brown wooden table and wooden chairs on a gray and white house

Smart Photo Editors (SPE) is an international photo editing company from India that offers services across various sectors, including fashion, antique photo restoration, cars, and much more.

In business since 2004, they offer most of the basic, standard features provided by the other companies. However, they are less engaged with complex work and virtual staging.

Here are some of Smart Photo Editors’ services:

Pricing

This focus on simpler editing tasks influences their pricing, with most photos costing between $0.80 to $15 per image.

Turnaround Time

The company has a turnaround of 18 hours which they seem to honor in most cases.

Customer Support

It seems like most of Smart Photo Editors’ customer support is handled via email. Unfortunately, I can’t find any phone number or information about phone support on the website. They also have a live robot chat function.

6. PadStyler

PadStyler homepage shows a before and after look of a living room with a wooden round table and gray chairs near a white wall

Based in Austin, Texas, PadStyler is a global real estate photo editing company.

PadStyler’s photo editing is mostly focused on virtual staging services. In addition, they offer the following:

  • Image retouching and corrections
  • Corrections for exposure, lighting, and color balance
  • Twilight sky replacement
  • Line and perspective adjustments

Pricing

PadStyler is more expensive than the other photo editing services on my list. The base pricing is around $25 a photo. However, they do offer discounts for bulk work and unlimited revisions.

Turnaround Time

The company offers a turnaround time of 24 hours. On a positive note, they also offer same-day services at an additional cost.

Customer Support

PadStyler offers phone, email, and live chat support. They also have a comprehensive FAQ page on their website where you can find answers to most questions.

PhotoAndVideoEdits

Homepage of PhotoAndVideoEdits

If you are looking for a real estate service provider who understands the MLS requirements for listing photos, then PhotoAndVideoEdits might be the best option. This service provider was founded by Colin Forte, a real estate agent who had already sold properties worth $165 million in a span of 3 years.  

With this massive exposure and success, PhotoAndVideoEdits knows what to remove or add in photos for MLS listing, and how to balance the colors and exposure. Some of the photo editing and retouching services you will get from PhotoAndVideoEdits include:

  • If you have shot the photos with a wide angle and there is distortion, or the camera was not level when shooting, they help to straighten the vertical lines of objects such as wall edges, door frames, and windows, so the property doesn’t look distorted
  • Exposure, contrast, and shadow adjustments, so parts of the property don’t look washed out or heavily shadowed and details obscured
  • They help to adjust and make the brown grass on the lawn look green
  • If you had photographed shiny objects such as windows and there is glare, or shot in backlit conditions, and there is ghosting, they help remove the reflection and ghosting 
  • They offer HDR editing if you have several photos with varying contrast, brightness, and exposure values. However, for the photos to be blended into HDR, they need to be of the same static scene, with one underexposed, one well-exposed, and one overexposed
  • If there was no fire in the fireplaces when taking the photos, they help add it
  • If there are unwanted objects in the photo, such as old furniture, they help to select and remove them from the photo

Pricing

PhotoAndVideoEdits pricing is based on credits or pay-as-you-go. In the credit pricing, one credit is the price for editing one photo, and you can only purchase a minimum of 200 credits. Usually, this credit system favors those buying in bulk, as the price per credit varies with the number of credits.

For instance, one credit is $1.5 when buying 200 credits, and $1.0 when buying 2000 credits. At the end of the month, all your credits are rolled over to the next month. However, if you cancel the plan before the month ends, the remaining credits are converted to pay-as-you-go. 

Note that panoramic images are treated like two images, and editing one panoramic image deducts 2 credits. However, for the pay-as-you-go option, you must pay $1.75 per photo, which is expensive compared to service providers such as PhotoUp. The good thing is that PhotoAndVideoEdits offers a 7-day trial with 20 free credits. 

Turnaround Time

PhotoAndVideoEdits offers an impressive turnaround time of 24 hours or less. That means you can upload the photos today, and tomorrow, they will be ready for listing on a real estate website. They also offer 24-hour customer support via live chat, which allows you to follow up on the editing progress.

Esoft International

Homepage of Esoft International

Founded in 2007, Esoft International providers have been in real estate photo editing for over 15 years and have expertise in complex real estate photo editing jobs. The company is versatile, and they can also help to edit your videos and tours. Some of the key services they offer include:

  • HDR editing, just like the PhotoAndVideoEdits
  • Add virtual dusk to showcase the property in a more dramatic light to emphasize the warm glow of interior and exterior lights against a twilight sky.
  • Stitch together several photos taken from a single point to create a 360-degree panorama image, which offers a better understanding of space 
  • Advanced retouching to correct the colors, exposure, contrast and reduce the distortions 

Pricing 

The pricing varies from client to client, depending on the volume. Unlike the other service providers on our list, this pricing plan isn't clear, and you might not know what to budget for the editing. 

Turnaround Time

Esoft has a turnaround time of 12 hours or less, depending on the number of photos and the edits needed. Although this turnaround time is better than PhotoAndVideoEdits, the Esoft team works from Monday 6:30 am to Saturday 10:30 pm, GMT+7. 

This means you might not have a team to serve you over the weekend, which can be challenging if you are on a tight schedule. 

Why Use a Real Estate Photo Editing Service?

Consider this — you’ve just posted a house listing for sale, and within minutes, your listing appears on the MLS, dozens of other real estate property sites, and social media platforms. When buyers view your listing, what will they spend most of their time looking at? The photos of the home!

A beige-painted bungalow house with a spacious space outside with plants and a driveway

Going further, buyers have grown sophisticated over the years. Real estate photos taken on an agent’s cell phone camera simply don’t cut it. Today, only high-quality photos will entice potential buyers to see the property in person.

Simply put, the better the photos — the more showings. And the more showings, the more offers. Best of all, the happier clients — the more returning customers you’ll get for your photography business.

Professional photo editing can boost the quality of real estate photo posts, attract more visitors, and thus increase the chances of a solid sale. A real estate photo editing service can, for example, help with the following:

  • Accurate color and exposure
  • Eliminating flaws, wrinkles, and imperfections
  • Remove unwanted objects
  • Correcting perspectives and vertical lines
  • Making sky replacements
  • Declutter rooms and spaces
  • Reduce noise
  • Remove flash shadows
  • HDR blending
  • And much more

Related Questions

How Do Real Estate Photographers Edit Their Photos?

When real estate photographers edit their images, the basic steps involve contrast adjustments, color corrections, and straightening verticals. Complex editing may include object removal, changing backgrounds, adding more elements, or HDR stitching.

How Much Does It Cost to Edit Real Estate Photos?

Some photo editing services may cost around $1 to $5 per photo. This may cover cropping, exposure correction, and color enhancement. Meanwhile, high-end photo editing, such as object removal, HDR blending, or background replacement, may cost at least $10.

How Long Does It Take to Edit Real Estate Photos?

Professional real estate photo editing services have an average turnaround time of 24 to 48 hours. However, this may also depend on the number of photos and the complexity of the requested editing.

Conclusion

To conclude, there you have my list of top real estate photo editing services. I hope it will help make the decision process a bit easier for you. Using any of these services, I’ll help boost image quality and ensure that you deliver top-quality real estate photography to your clients.

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