Real Estate Photography - a niche market ripe for the taking

Real estate photography is an excellent market for photographers. Most of the photos currently being used are just amateurish, at best, and there's a huge demand for good images. I did a shoot last week and the photos were uploaded to the MLS on Friday for the weekend's open house. With only one day of being on the MLS the open house had record attendance (compared to the last 4 yrs, that is) and by Sunday there were 3 offers in writing. They're attributing much of this to the photos that were uploaded since several comps in the area are cheaper yet have been on the market now for 16 days w/o any offers.

So if you're looking for a nice little niche market with little to no competition, this is the place to be.

Here's a sampling of the images from my most recent shoot. All are HDR which obviates the need for additional lighting.

Very nice work Dave! As part of my local business I do a fair amount of Real Estate photography. Also there is money to be made by using the pictures in a video slide show DVD for clients. One of the biggest mistakes I see by some is not correcting for vertical convergence especially when using wide lenses, some of the work I see is absolutely amatuerish and hideous. Always look for the photog in the bath mirror lol.

Once you create a nice slide show with text slides for info sq feet etc you can upload it online and use the link in the virtual tour location most MLS's have. Just a tip

I agree, that is a niche market for people to look into, every area has a need for something like this.

Is it just me, or do the perspectives in the interior shots not accurately portray the home as it would appear in person?

I have never, ever seen photos like these within an MLS. These are nice and bright and make me want to go visit.

WJYPhoto said:

Very nice work Dave! As part of my local business I do a fair amount of Real Estate photography. Also there is money to be made by using the pictures in a video slide show DVD for clients. One of the biggest mistakes I see by some is not correcting for vertical convergence especially when using wide lenses, some of the work I see is absolutely amatuerish and hideous. Always look for the photog in the bath mirror lol.

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I agree 100%. Without a PC lens, some photographs will still retain a bit of a bend even after manipulation, especially the pans, so it becomes a bit of a balancing act. Hopefully my lines aren't too off. On the bright side, doing real estate photography does indeed justify the purchasing of a new PC lens, doesn't it? lol!!!

Dave, very nice set of images... beats most I see on mls... You should get lots of work with those as a referal..

When I retire next year, maybe thats something I will look into... Thanks for sharing!

Pat in NH

Love the look of your shots, Dave! So, how did you start into this niche? Were you into Real Estate first, and worked on your photography skills? Or were you a photographer that marketed yourself toward Real Estate Brokers?

Very nice HDR images, proper HDR and actually needed, rather than making a HDR from a scene with small dynamic range (those cartoon or ultra surreal type images).

The outside view visible through windows makes a huge difference, it makes the room feel opened rather than contained.
No wonder it encourages people to book a viewing.

Lakeside Annie said:

Love the look of your shots, Dave! So, how did you start into this niche? Were you into Real Estate first, and worked on your photography skills? Or were you a photographer that marketed yourself toward Real Estate Brokers?

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My wife is an agent with Prudential and so I guess it would qualify as a form of nepotism, eh? That being said, I offered agents one shoot for free as a sort of introduction. Typically, a free shoot is an easy thing to give away and it works very well as a "look, this is what I can do for you" type introduction. And since the MLS is littered with tons of horrible photos, anything decent you produce makes a big impression with most agents.

So if you were looking to get into this market, contact a few agents either via phone or attend a couple of open houses on the weekend and introduce yourself and tell them you're a photographer and offer them a free shoot. The key is to produce 25 (that's the limit on the MLS) high quality images that are no larger than 6 mb and all ready to be uploaded as soon as they receive them. The MLS will shrink everything down under 1 mb but often times the agent will want to make fliers and/or posters so it's best to give them at least 5 mb's so it will suit both their needs.

Btw, is the "Lakeside" where you live the same as the Lakeside here just south east of El Cajon?

Dave_W said:

...Btw, is the "Lakeside" where you live the same as the Lakeside here just south east of El Cajon?

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Opposite coast of the U.S. So, we wouldn't be competing for clients. LOL!

Nice shots Dave. I have a friend who just went to work for Prudential, here. I might look into that. She asked me about it once before and I sort of blew it off. Good post.

Very nice, Dave. I've been after a couple friends locally who are in the biz to give me a shot, but I guess they only think I can do wildlife and homes that haven't been lived in for decades. LOL

What do you charge?
I have been offered this kind of work also.

John P said:

What do you charge?
I have been offered this kind of work also.

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I do it a little differently than most. I charge $200 a session but don't require payment until the house sells and if the house doesn't sell, I get nothing. That way the agents don't have to have to take money out of their pocket and I have a vested interest in providing the best photos I can make. If they don't want to do it that way then I charge $150 up front, however, no one has opted for that plan yet. You know with the way the housing market and the rest of the economy is taking off, it works out better for both of us to wait until the house sells. And right now real estate is moving very quickly. Believe it or not, inventory is extremely low here in SD and most homes are selling for above asking price, sometimes as much as 10% over. Crazy how fast things can change, huh?

I just have spoken with some photographers here in Thailand. They start taking 200US$ for Real Estate (Depends on the building) and Events like Wedding starts 250US$ per day (Depeends on the location) Temple, House, Beach, etc.

Wow! These are really rich and lush for real estate photos! Certainly better than any ads I've seen!

So Dave, you mentioned a PC lens, which I researched and it's a perspective control lens. I don't plan on buying one of those, but which lens did you use to shoot those? It's quite wide. I know you used a tripod for the HDR, but what else did you use? What equipment and software? Also, once the stills and video are done, what are you downloading them to? A disc? My friend who is in real estate, said that the potential is big with real estate photography. She also mentioned video. Have you tried that?

One thing you have to consider is the price of real estate. From watching all the flip this house type shows real estate in California is considerable more than it is where I live. Not sure what it is in your area but the house in the shot looks like maybe 1200 to 1500 sq feet? 1960 style and probably starts at $350,000. That same house here with a large yard would be $75,000. Agents can't afford to spend that much on photos. Yes they would be better off doing it, Will have to contact a few of them with your idea and see what they do.

Phillydog1958 said:

So Dave, you mentioned a PC lens, which I researched and it's a perspective control lens. I don't plan on buying one of those, but which lens did you use to shoot those? It's quite wide. I know you used a tripod for the HDR, but what else did you use? What equipment and software? Also, once the stills and video are done, what are you downloading them to? A disc? My friend who is in real estate, said that the potential is big with real estate photography. She also mentioned video. Have you tried that?

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I used my 14-24mm lens and a tripod. I brought a bunch of lights and a couple reflectors but didn't end up using them. I took 5 images @ 1 stop intervals (+/-) and compiled them with HDR Efex 2. I used LR to fix the perspective lines when needed. As for transferring the images, I've used both a thumb drive and dropbox, depending on the agents preference. I've not been asked to do video yet so I can't comment on that.

Tracsoft - Don Kuykendall said:

One thing you have to consider is the price of real estate. From watching all the flip this house type shows real estate in California is considerable more than it is where I live. Not sure what it is in your area but the house in the shot looks like maybe 1200 to 1500 sq feet? 1960 style and probably starts at $350,000. That same house here with a large yard would be $75,000. Agents can't afford to spend that much on photos. Yes they would be better off doing it, Will have to contact a few of them with your idea and see what they do.

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This house received 3 offers with the lowest at $450k and a high of $469k.

Dave_W said:

This house received 3 offers with the lowest at $450k and a high of $469k.

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Was I close on the age and square footage?

Here is what you get for that kind of money in my neighborhood.

http://www.remax.com/realestatehome...-lake-ct-prattville-al-36067-id145019659.html