Real Estate

StevenV · May 6, 2006

Anyone doing real estate photos, for agents and their MLS listings? If so, would you mind sharing tips, tricks, what works & what doesn't, what to watch out for?

A friend who's an agent asked me if I'd shoot for her, she wants not only exteriors (which I figure are reasonably easy) but also interior, "virtual tours," and other than looking at other pictures she's already got and then showing up with my camera I'm not sure where to start.

thanks,

StevenV · May 9, 2006

Bueller? Bueller?
a weekday bump.

cmason · May 9, 2006

StevenV wrote:

a weekday bump.

I'd be interested in some info as well?

docwalker · May 9, 2006

My sister is a real estate agent. I have offered to help her out by using the mapping feature that SM provides and creating custom photo maps to her listings. So far she has not taken me up on the offer. The housing market is very dynamic. Usually she carries her P&S camera with her when she does a listing. Listing a house for the MLS involves a quick shot or 2 from the street. If she is going to do a more advanced listing, she takes a few key shots inside.

Agents spend a lot of money paying for ads. So far her customers are either very web oriented and use a site like realtor.com or totally non web oriented and use the paper or circulars. At least on realtor.com the more expensive houses often use 360 degree tours from companies like ipix.

Some of her listings take weeks to cultivate, a few hours to get it listed, and then take anywhere from a few days to weeks up for sale. Turn around can be pretty rapid.

I am not saying it is a market you should not try. You need to really take a look at what is being done to see if you can offer something unique to the process. A lot of the photos that you see are really low quality and tiny. You might be able to offer higher quality and larger photos that can be used as circular covers. You might also talk to them about offering presentation ~8x10 photos of the sold house to the client. Some people treat their houses as babies and would love to have a high quality photo of it to hang at work. Goofy, I know.

A lot of the interior shots of houses for sale you see are either furnished or totally bare. Often when she gets the listing call, the house is in no shape to be shown. People often live like pigs and that makes if very difficult to sell a house. Most often that house is being sold pending someone else moving out of the house that her client is buying. If the house is a wreck, you have to convince the client to clean up or rent a storage unit.

I hope this helps. I am interested to see what others do as I want to help my sister.

Jamoke · May 9, 2006

I've Tried
More info Please: Are they looking for virtual tours? Looking for something different? Looking for just a quick shot to post a frontage shot in MLS? Are they looking for emotionally moving picture flattering finer points of a high end home?

I've pitched the concept to a bunch a couple friends who are higher end real estate agents. For your run of the mill house, it just sells too fast. But the houses going on the upper end (2 Million or more... Hey I live in Vegas) it makes sense to take some really flattering pictures. Trouble is, most of the higher end realtors already have a solution or somebody they use for the high end homes. But if I could get in, Getting super flattering pictures could make a 20,000 dollar difference to the person buying it. Making them fall in love with the property can pry a couple more dollars out of their pocket, and with that as an incentive, the price for excellent pictures can be a pretty good chunk of the difference (If quantifiable). I've got no tips on marketing a photographers service though, since I've only accomplished it once with a friend (and he didn't pay very well, I was just trying to get in the market). It'd be a great market to hit though.

StevenV · May 9, 2006

my realator-friend specifically said "virtual tours," but i'm not sure what she (or others) mean by that - 'just' photos of each room, or QuickTimeVR-type movable images? I dunno.

BrettG · May 9, 2006

I have no particular knowledge of the business side of this, but as someone looking for a place right now I'm irritated to no end with the lackluster (or complete lack of) photos on a lot of MLS listings. I'd say some were taken with a cellphone camera...

When I sold my last place, the realtor brought in someone to take overlapping stills of various rooms. They then ran them through whatever software to create the "360 degree virtual tours" available on the web site.

docwalker · May 9, 2006

That would probably be the www.ipix.com system. It is the industry standard around here.

http://www.ipix.com/products_studio.html for pricing

David_S85 · May 9, 2006

Steven, yes, Virtual Tours does mean those 360º photo bubble things.
Here's an example of one in QuickTime at the PanoramaFactory's website...

http://www.panoramafactory.com/vtour/index.html

Just click any thumbnail pano and you'll enter a tour - then be sure to click the hotspots within each image and the next image in the series will appear.

Another popular presentation method is with PTViewer. This is a Java applet.

The actual shooting of the panoramas is the same. The applets are different, as well as the post-processing routine.

Many other methods exist. The very expensive Ipix system is quite popular with the realtors, but budget concerns and less expensive software from competing companies is pushing that closed system aside.

An understanding of panorama shooting is a must with any of these options.
http://www.panoguide.com is a popular resource.

StevenV wrote:

my realator-friend specifically said "virtual tours," but i'm not sure what she (or others) mean by that - 'just' photos of each room, or QuickTimeVR-type movable images? I dunno.

juliejules · May 10, 2006

I listed my house for sale before I got my Canon 20D, and the agent came and took photos with a good P&S. She used some software to stitch the photos into panos rather than do the whole IPIX thing. I've had the IPIX thing done too. IIRC, the camera sits on a tripod in the middle of the room and using some funky mirror thing aimed at the ceiling, gets a picture of the whole room at once.

Here are some interior shots of Real Estate that I've done myself. I have a Canon 20D with a 16-35mm 2.8L. I don't have a lot of experience, so I can't really talk about lenses, but the 16-35 is great for interiors. I've experimented with flash, but I never like the results, so I use a tripod and natural light.

The dining room shot below was a real pain, because of the window and the dark furniture, so I took 3 shots at different shutter speeds to get a range of exposures, then I used CS2's HDR function to blend them. What do you think? The window is still a little blown, but I didn't have time to fiddle with the HDR process before this house went on the market.

Here are my smugmug galleries with real estate shots:
http://www.juliejules.com/gallery/1430263
http://www.juliejules.com/gallery/1365693

I never thought I would post these pictures on dgrin. There's not a single bird in any of these shots!

StevenV · May 15, 2006

Thanks for all the info, especially the pointers ot the 360-degree tools. I'll have to look into them.

My friend should be at tonight's baseball game and I'll ask more about what she's looking for.

ian408 · May 16, 2006

juliejules wrote:

I never thought I would post these pictures on dgrin. There's not a single bird in any of these shots!

They are pretty nice shots. Nicely exposed and they give some idea as to
what furniture fits in the space.

But don't the real-estate people like it when you make the tiny house
look gynormous and the mansion look like a country estate

THE TOUCH · May 17, 2006

Steven -

We're just starting a real estate package but I'm finding that most the real estate agents are taking they're own digital images. Also, when they purchase a listing in an outside source such as a real estate magazine, the cost of the listing usually includes one free shot of the home.

As Jamoke mentioned, I think the right target would be the higher end homes & agents. This would apply to the 360 degree stuff as well - it's a great nitch on the market but nobody will pay for a 360 degree gig when the house will most likely sell a week later.

While advertising our real estate package, I'm getting more business from agents wanting portraits for their business cards and listing adds rather than property!

I'd like to keep in touch - keep me posted as I'll do the same!

Real Estate

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