Real estate photography pricing

[mercphoto]

Originally Posted by Killjoy

I also sent her this link explaining that better images get better prices on homes.

Well... there is a rather important caveat to that link above, and I've posted it here:

One exception: The low end of the market. Listings priced below $300,000 were less likely to sell with nicer photos, possibly reflecting unrealistic expectations on the sellers behalf. At the low-end, price cuts would seem to be more important than photography.

We were in that below $300,000 camp when we went house shopping nearly two years ago, and I can tell you that the quality of the online photos would not impact if we went to look at a house or not.

[texkam]

A nice photo of a cluttered, poorly-decorated place will do more harm than good.

[merock]

I've been shooting Architecture/ Custom Home Builder/ Interior Designer photography since 2005. I go after these types of clients and not realtors for a few reasons. The first being, realtors are cheap. And in their defense rightfully so. The money is coming out of their pocket. The less they spend on a listing, the more they make on the listing. For a lot of realtors, it doesn't make any sense for them to spend more than $150 for photographs, especially since here (Austin) there are many companies that are set up and established to provide such a service.

In my experience working with Custom Home Builders/ Architects/ Interior Designers, they want good shots for their portfolios, they want good imagery for their marketing materials, and they are more willing to make that kind of investment if you have the portfolio that can prove that you can deliver. But of course to quote Mr. Scott Watters, "IMHO, YMMV".