A Guide to Real Estate Photography Pricing
How will you price your real estate photography services?
Owning a real estate photography business seems like an awesome idea. But have you crunched the numbers to price your services yet? Many photographers struggle with pricing services too, and it could be more challenging to price real estate photography. However, fret not, as we will help you determine how you can price your services for your upcoming real estate photography business.
Know your competition
After recently, real estate photographers have been sought because of the added marketing strategy it provides for realtors. If you want to start real estate photography, it would be easier for you to know your local competitors first. By doing that, you also need to understand their pricing rates—research on starting rates and price range.
Make sure you have the same level of quality as competitors you're comparing prices with. Getting to know your local market will help you define the services and prices you offer. Prices also differ in every region. Big cities charge more for real estate photography than those in the countryside.
Weigh in other factors
Taking photos of the property is not the only thing you need to consider when you are in real estate photography. Here are some things you need into account in your pricing.
Distance
Not all clients you're going to work with have properties a few blocks away. Your clients may have properties located in the north or south areas, and you would need to drive or use public transport going to the property. Either way, you're still going to spend money, and you have to take this into account when pricing your service. You can also opt to lower the prices, but you have to agree with the client to reimburse transportation costs.
Equipment
Before becoming a certified real estate photographer, you have to have the equipment to execute the service. You don't need to have the nicest and the most updated equipment to become a photographer. A camera, lenses, a tripod, and a few lights can do the trick. You don't have to waste all your money on equipment because this is one reason your real estate photography business will become unprofitable. Investing in the right equipment is one of the first things you need to do to walk through the industry.
It would be best to consider your equipment to your pricing to cover the wear and tear of the equipment being used.
Post-processing
Aside from actually taking the photos, post-processing is another time-consuming process. Almost always, post-processing photos take more hours to edit than the shoot. Replacing skies, balancing brightness, enhancing colors, and editing clutter are just some of a hundred different editing you need to do with those photos. Not only that, editing software like Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop are not sold for free. Again, you need to include this in your costing because you are rendering service and paying expenses. It is important to remember that post-production is also a crucial role in your business.
Editing is a factor when pricing real estate photography services.
Ensure fast turnaround
Real estate agents would usually need a quick turnaround when it comes to the output of the photos. They likely need to have the images right away as new properties on sale need listing all the time. This means that real estate photographers need to be more flexible to be more suited to do these photoshoots. Because you need to sacrifice other appointments and even family time, you can charge higher prices to make it worth your time.
Real estate agents would expect the turnover to be given not later than 48 hours after the shoot. Sometimes, others will request to be available within 24 hours after the shoot. You can even set higher prices for clients if they need quicker than 24 hours turnaround time.
Charge higher for premium services
While real estate photography is simply taking pictures of the property inside and outside for 35 to 40 images, real estate photographers do not settle at that service alone. Clients have been looking for photographers that offer other premium services, such as videography services, twilight photography, and drone photography, to make property listings stand out.
These services require more equipment and effort than taking pictures of those properties. It would be more advantageous for you to charge more for your extra services. For example, drone photography is becoming more and more popular in real estate. Obviously, you need a drone to make that happen. You also need to be a licensed drone pilot to fly your drone and take shots of the property.
Test your rates if it works
After all of the efforts of calculating your rates, trial and error are what you need to do next. Present your pricing to the world and be mindful of their reactions and if it affects your sales. Be open to the possibility of adjusting your pricing if the first ones don't work. It is also good to review your pricing yearly to audit your rates. In that way, you will be able to know if you need any changes. You can also send follow-ups on your old client and get to see some feedback and suggestions to improve your business and pricing.
Crunching the numbers for your pricing is not an easy task to do! But it is also an important thing to do to have a profitable business. Eventually, it becomes more comfortable with practice and time! If you are ready to start your real estate photography business, check the above mentioned first for you to compete effectively with other real estate photographers in your area.
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