Industry

2022 Real Estate Photography Industry Recap (Part 1: Media)

2022 Real Estate Photography Industry Recap (Part 1: Media)

This 2 part series is meant to serve as a large picture look into the real estate photography industry from 2022.

This article, Part 1, will focus on the media that real estate photographers produced in 2022. Part 2, which you can read here, will discuss the most up-to-date pricing for the media that real estate photographers created.

You can use this article to see if you’re offering the same services as your peers, if you should consider adding additional services to your clients, or if you are already ahead of the game.

Table of Contents

Real Estate Photographers Are Media Companies

The overarching theme from 2022’s PMRE Conference was the idea that real estate photographers are more than simply photographers, we’re actually media companies.

If you weren’t able to attend the PMRE Conference, you can read an article that I put together highlighting the conference including a summary from each of the speakers talks: PMRE Conference 2022 Recap.

Once you get past the idea that real estate photographers only deliver real estate photography for the MLS, you can start to realize that there is so much more we can offer to the real estate industry.

This article will focus specifically on video, floor plans, and 3D tours, but you can expand this idea to all types of media content. We are capable of offering much more than just photography and the market is there for it.

The real estate photography industry must make the step forward from thinking of ourselves as just photographers and move to a place where we are media creators.

In my article Best Options to Scale Your Real Estate Photography Business, I discuss how adding more services is one of the easiest and fastest options to increase your revenue.

The statistics below offer real life examples of how often you’ll be able to sell these services. Part 2 will give you a detailed look into the exact prices your fellow real estate photographers are charging.

Video Services

Since 2020 began, the percentages of properties with video services continues to hover around 15% – 20%. Imagine if 15% – 20% of your invoices had video services on them. How much more income would you be making?

Video is an area where it’s clearly on the rise for social media and marketing purposes, but it’s also an extremely helpful sales tool.

I started offering a simple 45 second walk through video that I film on my iPhone 13 Pro with a DJI Gimbal and my clients absolutely love it. Video services don’t need to be extremely high end. They just need to be good quality and show the space well.

Since offering a simple mobile video, I’ve easily doubled my orders for video services. High end videos and the high end price tags they come with aren’t for every realtor, but everyone is starting to understand the importance of video in real estate.

Even if only a handful of your clients take advantage of the shift to video and your ability to offer them the service, you’ll have added to your bottom line and started to make the shift towards running a media creation business.

Other realtors in your area will take notice, and over time you will start to sell more video packages.

Floor Plans

Floor plans show a very steady growth in terms of the amount of properties for sale that feature one.

Although 15% – 16% of properties might not seem like a large percentage, that’s up from just 5% in the beginning of 2020. If you sold floor plans on 15% of your jobs, how much more would you be making?

I know that when I’m dream home searching on Zillow I love seeing floor plans. It’s such an easy addition and really helps to give the viewer a full idea of how the home is laid out.

They work so well with standard real estate photos to tell the story of the home that it shouldn’t be a surprise they continue to grow in popularity.

They’re also extremely easy to produce thanks to apps like CubiCasa.

3D Tours

3D tours are really interesting to look at since Covid came into existence.

Prior to Covid disrupting the entire globe, 3D tours were included in just under 10% of properties. Now they are included in around 15% of properties and seem to be staying quite consistent at that level.

Asking the same question again, how much more income would you be making if you sold 3D tours on 15% of the properties you photograph?

Zillow has a feature that highlights the homes for sale with 3D tours, making them eye catching to anyone home shopping on their platform. That’s definitely something that all my clients want from the homes they’re selling.

 

Non-Photography Media Services Are Great Ways to Grow Your Business

1/3 of Aryeo properties have at least a video, a floor plan, or a 3D tour. That means that 1/3 of invoices had more than just real estate photography as a billable service.

If you aren’t offering services besides photography, you are missing out on potential income and are likely missing out on landing some new clients as well.

Non-photography media services like video, floor plans, and 3D tours are becoming standard offerings in some markets and photographers that aren’t offering them are missing out.

If your market isn’t one of the places where these services are expected, then you have a massive opportunity to be one of the only photographers that can deliver media services other than standard photography.

Not only will that increase you average invoice, but it will land you more clients just on the simple fact that you are the only real estate photographer that’s also offering a 3D tour, or floor plans, or video services.

There’s really no excuse to not at least try out offering these services in your area. If you own a smart phone, you can offer floor plans. I use CubiCasa to create floor plans and, depending on the size of the house, it only takes me ~10 minutes on site.

Additional Resources

If you’re just getting started in real estate photography, check out our Beginners Guide. It’s full of helpful articles and tips that will guide you in the right direction as you begin your real estate photography journey.

You can check out our Gear section as well to see reviews and recommendations on the latest real estate photography gear.

If you’re more interested in other resources that can help your real estate photography business, check out our Business Resources page.

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About author
Matthew Digati is a professional Real Estate and Architectural Photographer. Matthew has worked as a Real Estate and Architectural Photographer since 2015 and has photographed properties and projects all over the United States.
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2022 Real Estate Photography Industry Recap (Part 2: Pricing)

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A professional real estate photographer uses real life examples and statistics to discuss the pricing of real estate media services from 2022.

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