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How Much Time Should You Spend Photographing a House?

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How Much Time Should You Spend Photographing a House?

There are a lot of factors that go into the amount of time a real estate photographer should spend on site photographing a house. Generally speaking though, you should probably be at a house for roughly 1 – 3 hours to fully photograph it.

In truth, this is a hot topic amongst real estate photographers and the answers given will vary by a wide variety.

In this article, I’ll talk about why 1 – 3 hours is probably the correct amount of time to spend at a property depending on a number of different variables.

Table of Contents

Variables that Determine Time Spent Photographing a House

I want to start this article off by saying that I’d like to work under the assumption that we are talking about photographing the entire home. Also, it’s unlikely that there is a definite amount of time that should be spent photographing a specific sized house.

For example, saying something like a 2500sqft house should take you 1.5 hours. There are too many variables in play to create a rule that specific.

Instead, I want to outline all the variables in play and come up with a range of times that each sized house likely should take you to photograph.

So, what are the variables? Here are the ones that I consider to play the largest role:

1. Size of the House

More than anything else, and this one is probably quite obvious, the size of the home is going to be the largest factor in how long it will take you to fully photograph a home.

2. Experience of the Photographer

As you photograph more and more homes, you’ll be able to photograph homes quicker while producing the same quality images. This is true in most professions. The more experience you have, the faster you can operate.

3. Shooting Style

It’s going to take you longer to photograph a home if you choose to use several flashes for every image rather than using no flashes at all.

Some shooting styles require a lot of set up on site, which increases time spent on site. Other styles spend much less time on site and more time editing on the computer.

4. Image Quality

This variable will definitely be the most debated, but generally speaking, better quality images take longer to capture. That means if you want to be producing very high quality images, you’ll be spending more time photographing the house.

Does More Time = Better Photos?

In short, of course not. It’s not as simple as saying the more time you spend photographing a house, the better the photos will turn out. However, creating better photos does take more time, generally.

I’ve spoken with real estate photographers that have claimed they can photograph a 6000 square foot house in 30 minutes. I’ve also spoken with photographers that say they’ll spend an entire day photographing a standard sized home.

I can promise you, in both of these cases, neither of those options are the proper amount of time you should be spending at a house for real estate photography.

If you’re spending 30 minutes photographing a 6000 square foot house, the quality of your photos will suffer. If you’re spending all day photographing one home for simple MLS photos, you’re sacrificing a lot of potential income.

We all know the arguments that both of these types of real estate photographers make…

For the photographer taking 30 minutes to photograph a 6000sqft house, they’ll say that their clients like the photos and that’s all that matters…

Well, as soon as a photographer moves into their market and takes an hour and a half to photograph the same 6000sqft house and the photos are of a much higher quality for the same price point, the realtors will take notice.

For the photographer taking all day to photograph a standard house, your images may be flawless, but your clients do not want you spending all day in one house just for photography. I guarantee it.

You also could deliver extremely high quality photos spending half as much time in a house and double your daily income.

The proper amount of time spent photographing a home lays somewhere in between those two extremes.

How Much Time Should be Spent Photographing a House?

As a general guide, here’s how much time should be spent photographing a house, based on the size of the house:

Less than 2500sqft: 45 minutes to 1.5 hours

2501sqft – 4000sqft: 1.5 to 2 hours

4001 – 5500sqft: 2 to 3 hours

5501+ sqft: 2.5+ hours

If you find yourself spending more than 4 hours photographing a home, you need to ask yourself a few questions:

  1. What is the square footage of the home? If it’s not around 6000+sqft, you probably shouldn’t be there that long and are likely losing out on potential income.
  2. How many photos are allowed on your MLS? If your MLS allows 50 photos and you’re delivering 85, try to find the angles that are repeat angles or not needed to fully show the space and cut them.
  3. Consider your hourly wage, what it could be if you streamlined your approach to photographing homes, and how much higher it would be if you were able to photograph even 1 or 2 more homes per week.

Recommendations

I know I risk sounding like a broken record here, but the amount of time that should be spent photographing a home truly is objective. There are so many factors to consider that this article is just meant to be a general guide.

Spending too little time in a house sacrifices the quality of your images and opens up the possibility that a photographer producing higher quality photos will steal your clients.

Taking too long to photograph a home limits the amount of income you can make and is generally unwanted by most realtors.

Find a good balance, think about how you can either increase the quality of your images or streamline your photographic process, and try to keep it between 1-3 hours for a standard home.

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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