Starting in Real Estate Photography: How Did You Build Your Portfolio?21748
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Coeur d'Alene, Idaho |
lilnitsch private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Saw this topic popping up in a couple of my other groups and thought it may be worth discussing. Starting in Real Estate Photography: How Did You Build Your Portfolio? When you’re starting out in real estate photography, building a portfolio can feel like a catch-22: you need work to show people, but you need someone to hire you so you can create that work. Did you offer free sessions to agents or homeowners? Charge a discounted rate while you gained experience? Or charge your regular rate from the beginning? My path was a little different. I photographed the “uglies”—distressed properties, challenging listings, and vacant land. I never offered free or discounted projects. Those were the opportunities available to me, and they became my training ground. A beautiful, multimillion-dollar property gives you a lot to work with. But photographing a distressed home in a way that helps someone recognize its potential takes a different kind of eye. You have to find the light, choose your angles thoughtfully, and understand what makes the property worth a second look. Vacant land presents its own challenge: how do you communicate a sense of place when there’s no kitchen, living room, or front door to anchor the story? Those assignments taught me to look beyond the obvious. The goal wasn’t to hide problems or make a property appear to be something it wasn’t. It was to show it honestly while helping a buyer see the possibilities. For anyone just getting started, don’t overlook the less glamorous assignments. Your early portfolio doesn’t have to be filled with luxury homes to demonstrate skill. There’s real value in showing that you can make thoughtful, useful photographs of properties that are difficult to photograph. That was my experience, and I’d love to hear yours. How did you land your first real estate photography jobs—and what did those early assignments teach you? If you offered free or discounted shoots, did they lead to paying clients? And knowing what you know now, would you start the same way again? |
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ron0987 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @lilnitsch we were very lucky in 2014 we were one of the first with Matterport in the Seattle area and did photography second. We hand a lot of work for both services to the point we were turning it away not for the obvious reasons. My business partner and I were fully employed as police officers with a specialty in crime scene documentation. We were both very close to retirement and we had to decide expand the business and hope for the best or retire out and then focus on the business. We choose retirement which greatly impacted our availability. Unfortunately the last few years we were extremely busy at work forcing us to turn down work. I do not regret our choice but we did loose lots of photography work, that when we tried to rekindle those clients business it did not work. Then after retiring I moved changed location and tried to pull in new clients in smaller venue and nothing would work and Matterport had lost its appeal. After 2 years the fun and appeal lead us to close our business. I guess my advice would be focus on your clients and business, don’t let them walk because they may never come back. Just my experience. Ron |
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ron0987 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I also forgot to include the Washington state taxes that now want to tax our Matterport work, photography and now tax the drone work with speciality licenses. | ||
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