Expert: Don Wood - 5/31/2006

Question
Hi Don,
I saw an old letter of your regarding what to charge for
photographing house for realtos. Did you ever find a baseline
price/per house? I've been asked to do this and it's hard to get a
feel what the market would bear before they use their own
cameras. A realtor love my work and wants a price for pictures
and a price for a an illustrated listing sheet ( I use Pages on the
Mac) Any info would be appreciated. I'm in Quincy, Illinois.
Stephen Cullo
www.ihaveacamera.com

Answer
What ever the market will bear is the easy answer. With the advent of the digital camera with its ease of operation, in my town, the market is nil. All the realtors and surveyors use the small disposable cameras if they don't have a camera of their own. When there was a Polaroid and film for it, they used that. Seems that your realtor wants to not only have a picture but a displahy sheet of the pix. In my town, we even have a monthly magazine showing listings with pix of houses for sale and grouped by sales organizations. When trying to find a fair price, consider that you must charge for time and gas to and from the house, number and type of shots wanted (whether just a record shot, or a little more extensive record), your time should be compensated for the time you spend at the computer producing the pages. Need I also add that you should contemplate a charge for the computer. This could be optional. To help further, I would find a photographer in a town in the same geographical region and ask them the same questions. Probably in a large city there would be more of a demand for your work since the realtor must close more sales and generate more income rather than taking pictures. I would ask your customer to go with you on a couple of shoots to get a feel for what he wants and needs. Your price probably should be based upon per print, rather than per job. I wish I could be more explicit but with the advent of digital, any advice I give could be eclipsed by new technology tomorrow. Who would have thought that the cell phone could become a camera? 25 years ago Kodak gambled that they would continue to produce film for their cameras. Now the bin for film which used to be three shelves deep 6 ft wide by 4 feet deep is barely 1 shelf 2 ft. wide beside the display of throwaway cameras.
Good luck, keep me posted.