Real Estate Photography - Pricing
Alright, let’s dive into one of the most commonly asked questions I get when a photographer wants to start getting into the real estate photography side of the industry which is how much do I charge?
The short answer to this is “it depends like most things in photography”. There is never going to be a specific dollar amount that is a good baseline to start across the board for all people, all skill levels, all localities, all businesses, and all clients. There is a pretty large range here when it comes to pricing but hopefully, the goal by the end of this is for you to have a better idea of where to start when determining what those dollar amounts look like for you.
We are going to strictly stick to photography for this and not discuss the nuances of other services like virtual tours or video work. So let’s get started and break things down.
Number one right off the bat you need to know your operating costs for your business. The math and the admin side of running a business are not fun or sexy but it is a fundamental requirement for you as a business owner to know your numbers. You need to make a list of all of your fixed costs which is the easy part and then you need to make a list of all of your variable costs which is a bit more of a challenge and requires either some educated guessing out of thin air or even better some educated guessing based on historical data. This usually occurs after your first year in business and I would suggest that you review your operating costs every single year. You would be shocked at how often you find areas of your business where you are bleeding unnecessary money. One major thing to keep in mind when estimating your variable costs is you want to try and overestimate those numbers a bit. It’s much better to think you’ll spend $2500 on gas in a year but only spend $2100 versus estimating you’ll spend $1800 a year for gas and you spend $2600.
You also need to list out all of your own personal expenses and the money you spend to maintain your current lifestyle and decide if you want to maintain that or if you are willing to sacrifice some of that in the early years of your business so it can grow more efficiently. Knowing how and where you are spending your money allows you to create an absolute minimum baseline for how much money you need to survive and maintain your current living situation.
Once you have that number then you can start doing some market research into the pricing in your area. Of course, if you are in LA you’ll be charging more money for photoshoots than you would if you serviced a small town area. You can google what companies in your area are charging and that can help give you an idea of where to start but you also need to make sure that you are delivering a product and level of customer service that at a minimum can match if not exceed what others are doing in your area. Prices can range pretty heavily depending on the area and the photographers who service it. Here in AZ for example I know a few photographers that offer photoshoots of up to 35 photos for $90, I also know other photographers in the exact same area who offer up to 35 photos for $400. This major discrepancy is usually due to two major factors. One is the skill level of the photographer, if you can deliver incredible images and have good customer service then you can charge more money but you also limit your clientele usually to luxury listings or commercial real estate. On the other hand, if you shoot standard bracketed photos and merge them in some HDR software then you are not going to be able to charge the same amount of money as the first photographer in most cases due to the more quantity over quality style of shooting and editing that usually more massed edited processing that requires.
The great thing about all of this is that there truly is an abundance of work out there for those willing to put in the effort. You may start at the lower price range but over time as you improve your craft and your skills as a photographer and business owner you will be in a position to either expand out and hire more people or you can expand up and confidently raise your prices. How to choose that is another topic for another day but always remember that pricing while it may seem daunting at first is 50% knowing your numbers and 50% knowing your market and what it is willing to pay. If you don’t charge enough then over time you will start to burn yourself out and you’ll either need to adjust or you won’t be around for long. The opposite is also true if you come out the gate too hot and too high in pricing without the experience or skills to justify those dollars and you aren’t getting hired for the volume of work you would like to have then you adjust. Business is not about making the right decisions all of the time, it’s about making decisions and not being loyal to the death about those decisions if they don’t work. If something doesn’t work then take the loss, make a correction, and move forward. As Gary Vee would put it. Macro Patience Micro Speed.
We’re going to call that done for today, thank you all so much for sticking with me and listening. I hope there is value in this for you and if you have any questions or topics you want covered please feel free to reach out and let me know.
Thanks everyone!