Should I Be A Real Estate Photographer?
If you’re just starting to ask yourself the question “Should I become a real estate photographer?” chances are you need to do a bit more research before diving into the industry. Luckily, you’re in the right place.
In this article, I’ll discuss what it’s like being a real estate photographer and whether or not you should become one in today’s market and industry.
Table of Contents
The Startup Costs
Before you really start to decide whether or not you should be a real estate photographer, you’ll need to figure out if you have the necessary camera equipment to become a professional, or if you have to make some purchases.
Just to get started, give our articles Best Camera for Real Estate Photography and Best Lenses for Real Estate Photography a read so you can get an idea of the immediate costs involved.
If you already own a camera and lens, you’ll need to make sure that they are up to the task and have the capabilities that professional real estate photographers need. Check out our article Minimum Amount of Megapixels Needed for Real Estate Photography to see if you have a camera that will work.
After you figure out the camera and lens questions, you need to look into the rest of the gear that a professional real estate photographer owns and uses daily. Our article Inside a Real Estate Photographers Bag will show you every piece of gear I have.
You’ll need to decide on if these start up costs are even worth it for you before you decide to do anything else. If you already own a lot of the gear, then you don’t have too much to worry about. But if you need to buy everything, it can start to get very expensive.
Landing Clients
Once you have all the gear, you’re going to have to start to land some clients and build up your portfolio. These two factors sort of go hand in hand since your portfolio will land you clients, but you’ll need some clients in order to develop your portfolio.
I’ve written guides on how to achieve both of these which I’ve linked to below:
Income and Daily Life
Both the income level and the daily job description can be wildly different between any 2 real estate photographers.
Some real estate photographers only make $40k to $50k per year while some clear six figures quite easily. Likewise, some real estate photographers have very laid back lifestyles while others work 80 hours a week.
In truth, the amount you want to make and how you want your daily life to look can be well within your control. As long as you live in a market that can support another real estate photography business, you really can make a nice lifestyle business for yourself.
You can read more about both income level and the daily life of a real estate photographer in the following articles:
Ups and Downs
Exactly like the real estate market itself, being a real estate photographer comes with a lot of ups and downs.
Summer is the high season and you’ll be busier than you can imagine if you play your cards right. Winter is much slower if you live in a place where it snows or gets freezing cold.
You’ll have multi-week stretches where you’ll work 60+ hours a week, and you’ll have multi-week stretches where you’re just working to stay busy and struggling to find 20 hours worth of work.
Unless you become an employee for a real estate photography company, this is the life you’re likely to live as a real estate photographer. You’ll need to decide if it’s right for you.
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.
