Niche Business Op

[cb_miller]

I recently started doing some shooting for a real estate agent that I know. She'd been doing her own shots and had gotten in a bind to get a new house up on the web while on vacation. Total time to shoot the house, select images and do some touching up took about 2 hours. The value of good shots that show a house well online to get buyers interested is very high to people trying to sell their house and to the agent representing them. There's no print business but all of my fee is in the time. I spent time looking at several publications to get a feel for what shots to shoot, arrangement of shots. Luckily I didn't have to stage this house; but that's the next part of the business model: staging.

We've moved corporately 4 times and have bought and sold 4 houses and when you move across the country what a house looks like on the internet can influence your decision to see it or not.

Since last weekend I've sent my shots to another friend who is a builder, he's bringing me on to shoot all of their construction and has passed my portfolio on to several real estate agents he knows as well. I've got a lot of room for improvement but the quality I put out right now is better than about 95% of what most real estate agents shoot on their own, this is evident on the web just see for yourself.

[Jim Bryant]

Do you also charge, mileage, gas, shooting, and all time spent behind the computer downloading, editing, pping and emailing? If not, you better start. Real Estate agents are cheap and don't want to pay for quality prices. Do you own studio lighting to properly lights up a room and then the knowledge to balance the outside window lighting to the flash output of your lights, so that the lighting from outside is not washed out?

If you don't, your photos will look like an agent shot them. Go to the bookstore or library and look at books on architectural photography. It might make a difference in what you are paid.

[CheaperKings]

I've been thinking about doing some of this, as well but. the market in my area isn't really worth the time. They don't pay very much at all. So, I've sorta left it on the back burner for now...