11 Reasons Why You Might Want To Become A Real Estate Photographer?

OK. The other week on my blog I opened up the subject of real estate photography. This is the first post where I take one of the points and go as deep as I can into it.

Here are my 11 reasons why you might want to become a real estate photographer

There will always be buildings

There will always be real estate agents
There will always be a demand for great photos of buildings
There is work locally wherever you are

You know who your customers are and what they want
Pricing and terms are easier to agree in one market
Marketing is easier in one area of business

The skills to take photos are repeatable elsewhere
You do not need a lot of gear
Image processing is also a repeatable skill

It is great work to do

OK? lets do this.

1 – There will always be buildings!

This is what I said in the first post.

“Well there will always be buildings, I think we can be pretty confident of that. And if there will always be buildings there will always be a requirement for photos of buildings to help real estate agents market, sell and lease buildings.

So in an uncertain world we can be pretty confident that there will always be a demand for real estate photographers. Photographing buildings is one of the few areas of photography that you can virtually guarantee is not going to go away.

And that is for me a pretty good reason to become a real estate photographer.”

That was not a bad beginning was it? And in an uncertain world like the one we find ourselves in that is a pretty exceptional thing to be able to say, that there will always be a demand for real estate photography.

So if you need no other reason than this go for it, but please of course read on as there is lots more.

2 – There will always be real estate agents

There will always be buildings. And as long as there are buildings and people there will always be a demand for real estate agents. People do not live in the same building forever, so any time someone wants to move house they need a real estate agent to help them.

Actually thinking about it, the real estate agent business is a great business to be in isn’t it!

I am talking here about not only buying and selling but also the rental market. And let us not forget this is not only about residential properties but also commercial premises, which are bought, sold, and leased all the time as well.

No this is not just about houses, but a little bit broader, which has to be a good thing. And I will broaden it out even further in this post.

3 – There will always be a demand for great photos of buildings

As long as there is a demand for the sale and lease of buildings there will be a demand for photos of them. And yes some of these are done by agents with phones, which is fine, but phones still cannot compete with the right camera gear.

Photos are used on real estate agents websites and in shop windows. The photos that people see are potentially the first time they see a property. As the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression!

If the photos are rubbish the chances of someone moving on to the next building are higher.

If the photos are great, high quality, interesting and show a building at it’s best then there is higher chance that the viewer will stop and take a look.

And if you think of the value of buildings, and the fees that real estate agents demand, the cost for getting some great photos is built into their fees, they are an inevitable requirement of the agent’s services.

No one expects an agent to market a building for sale or lease without photos do they?

4 – There is work locally wherever you are.

Another big thing, wherever you are, there will be buildings. Unless you live on a camp site on an island that is.

And local work is great. I do not like travelling too far for my commercial photography work as with distance come costs, time, and complications.

Local work is good to me, and do you know what else?

Work locally and you are getting out and about locally, and you will get known locally as a photographer who does real estate photography. And this is where you begin to grow, begin to build a brand.

And it is all local, potentially.

5 – You know who your customers are and what they want

Check out local real estate agents websites and what do you see? What they have already bought – the products that they need. Which is pretty cool isn’t it?

Of course there is an issue here – they already have a photographer, but that is one for another time.

Let’s stick with the subject matter in hand.

Study the websites of the real estate agents where you want to work. There will of course be a range of values of properties, types, sizes, residential properties, commercial premises etc.

So you are looking at your potential markets online, which will help you determine where you want to place yourself in that marketplace.

6 – Pricing and terms are easier to agree in one market

Think about it. This is one of those hidden benefits of doing one thing and one thing only. The pricing of your work will become pretty standardised.

If you are getting regular work the chances are that the fee that you get paid will be similar for similar jobs – obviously the bigger the building the more photos and the higher the fee. The smaller the building….. You get it.

And if you do a great job the first time around chances are you will get more work with that agent, as they will always have more buildings to be photographed.

And that is your pricing done. Getting the pricing level correct is one for another post which I will write and publish in the future.

You will have different price levels for different clients, depending on where they are, and where the buildings they are marketing are in the marketplace.

But at the end of the day your price will reflect the 2-3 hours taking photos plus the processing time.

If, however, you were pricing weddings, portraits, pets, baby showers, christenings etc etc etc there would be lots more variables.

That is why I advocate doing one thing very well rather than a lot of things quite well.

7 – Marketing is easier in one area of business

As with pricing, your marketing efforts are in one commercial space, using the same marketing material for all potential clients. OK you will probably have to go the extra mile to land high end clients, but in the main you are marketing yourself and getting yourself known in one space only.

Using the same example as before, imagine marketing yourself to cover

Weddings

Portraits
Pets
Family photos

Events
Corporate work
Etc

Think how much work is in that lot!

8 – The skills to take photos are repeatable elsewhere

And when I say elsewhere let’s think about that – here are some other, closely related markets that require very similar products and services.

Hotel photography

Architectural photography
Construction photography
Industrial photography

Engineering photography
Commercial premises photography
Photography of any building that has a commercial service to show people

Advertising – yes I got there in the end. That is the end point is it not? Advertising photography, where a commercial organisation has a building

I am sure that I can add to the list but I hope you get the idea here – once you have become skilled in all aspects of real estate photography you can apply those skills to lots of other sectors.

And this broadening out will help fill the gaps if you are not able to earn a full-time income photographing real estate.

9 – You do not need a lot of gear

This is what I use on 90% of my commercial photography work.

Canon 6D
Canon 17-40mm lens

Tripod – which one depends on the shoot
Geared head
L bracket

Grey card
Loupe viewer
Photographers Ephemeris App

Cleaning stuff
Memory cards
Camera bag

And that, really is it.

Sure I have lots of other gear, but this is the stuff that I use like I say for 95% of the commercial photos that I take.

Surprised? Well I have written quite a few posts about this in the past, and yes there is another bag of gear in the car but that is where it normally stays.

10 – Image processing is also a repeatable skill

I have a workflow that I follow for basically all my architectural, construction, real estate, and industrial photography work. I have Lightroom presets that I have created that I use, and a methodology that works for me.

And all the other areas that I talked about above use the exact same workflow.

I will write about this in another post.

11 – It is great work to do

I love photographing buildings. I have been into buildings that most people would never see. I have met some great people, and got a fantastic collection of work.

I have photographed houses for famous people (I am talking A-listers here who I cannot name). I have photographed country mansions, sprawling estates, fascinating new builds.

I have photographed all sorts of buildings, and I have loved every minute of it.

And I also love processing my photos. I get a real sense of anticipation, especially when I do interior shots for some reason.

I still suffer from imposters syndrome when I look at photos that I have created – did I really do that? Those photos look like they were taken by a real photographer. But that real photographer is me…..

Some other info

What is a real estate agent?

Well the term is used in the UK and the US. In the UK Estate Agent is also used, but the two mean the same, so real estate agent = estate agent. And in terms of me and people finding stuff on my website the former covers the latter.

Who am I?

I am Rick McEvoy, and I photograph buildings. I am a real estate photographer. I am also an architectural photographer. I am writing about the subject of becoming a real estate photographer.

Photography Explained Podcast

Sorry, I have to mention this. I am the proud creator of the Photography Explained Podcast, available on all good podcast providing services.

Check out the website and ask me a question if you have one.

That’s all folks

I am done for this post. Thank you for reading all the way down to here, and if you have just joined me here where have you been? Get back to the beginning – this is good stuff!!

Rick McEvoy Photography