Real Estate Photography & Media

Real estate photographers create professional photos, videos, virtual tours, and aerial drone footage for property listings.

Quality visuals dramatically increase online engagement and showing requests for listings.

You shoot properties highlighting best features, edit photos for optimal presentation, potentially create video tours or drone footage, deliver fast turnarounds agents need, and possibly offer floor plans, virtual staging, or Matterport 3D tours.

Success requires photography skills and equipment, understanding real estate marketing and what sells, fast editing and delivery turnaround, business relationships with agents and brokers, and potentially drone licensing for aerial shots.

Pricing varies—basic photo packages ($150-300), premium with video and drone ($400-800), virtual tours ($75-150), Matterport 3D ($200-400), or bundle pricing.

Shooting 3-5 properties weekly at $300 average = $3,600-6,000 monthly.

Startup costs include professional camera and lenses ($1,500-4,000), wide-angle lens for interiors, drone and Part 107 license for aerial ($1,000-2,000), lighting equipment, editing software (Lightroom, Photoshop, $20-50 monthly), potentially Matterport camera or service ($15-100 per scan), vehicle, website and portfolio, and marketing totaling $5,000-15,000.

Building client base involves marketing to real estate agents and brokers, offering introductory pricing to build portfolio, before/after showing listing improvement with professional photos, joining MLS or real estate photographer networks, demonstrating fast turnaround (24-48 hours typical), potentially partnering with staging companies, targeting new agents needing photography, and building referral relationships.

Revenue comes from photography packages, video tours and drone add-ons, virtual tours and 3D scans, potentially floor plans or virtual staging, or corporate real estate clients.

Operating costs include equipment maintenance and upgrades, software subscriptions, drone licensing and insurance, driving time and mileage, editing time, marketing, potentially assistants for larger shoots, and continuing education on techniques and equipment.

Challenges include competitive market in many areas, agents expect fast turnaround limiting volume, weather affects exterior shoots, seasonality with real estate market, equipment expensive and changes frequently, and pricing pressure especially from part-timers.

Success requires excellent photography making properties look their best, fast reliable turnaround (agents need photos immediately), understanding what agents and MLS require, potentially specializing (luxury, commercial, specific property types), offering complete media packages (photo, video, drone, 3D), building bulk relationships with high-volume agents or brokers, and staying current on technology and techniques.

Real estate photography serves agents needing professional listing presentation.