4 Tips For On-Site Time Management For Real Estate Photographers
Most realtor clients prefer that real estate photographers are relatively quick on site since they have busy schedules. Learning some easy time management techniques can really help you cut down your time on site and make your clients happy.
In this article I’ll share 4 tips for on-site time management for real estate photographers.
Table of Contents
1. Scout The Property Online
Scouting the property online by looking at past photos on sites like Zillow or Realtor.com can really help to speed up the photography process before you even step foot in the house.
Previous listings may provide photos that give you an initial understanding of the floor plan, room sizes, and the property’s overall flow.
Each property comes with its unique selling points. Past photos can highlight these features, whether it’s a grand staircase, a fireplace, or custom-built ins, allowing you to plan your shots around them and guarantee you bring the correct gear.
2. Send Your Client A Staging Checklist
Nothing will make a real estate photography shoot go faster than a perfectly clean and staged house. Now, maybe it’s a bit too much to ask for every house to be perfectly staged, but the cleaner and better prepared the house, the faster the shoot will go.
Sometimes the homeowner will do this by themselves, other times the realtor will show up early and make sure everything is in order. But that’s not always the case.
To fix this in my own business, I wrote a Home Staging Checklist to Give Realtors. You can download it to give your own clients or use it as a guide to create your own.
3. Develop A Shooting Sequence
What do I mean by a shooting sequence? Many photographers find it efficient to start with exterior shots, followed by common areas like the living room and kitchen, then moving on to bedrooms and bathrooms.
Then, once all the main and most important areas of the home are captured, you end with detail shots to ensure you don’t miss capturing essential features of the home.
This can be helpful for several different reasons and you don’t need to go in that exact order. Personally, I like to start at the front door and photograph the natural layout of the house, likely ending in the basement, attic, or garage area.
Once you develop your own shooting sequence, it becomes second nature and you know exactly where you’re going to start photographing and how you’re going to flow through the home.
4. Prioritize Invasive Services First
By invasive services I mean anything where you are going to need the rooms staged and nobody in them. Mainly photography and videography. I always handle these services before moving on to other services to ensure that anyone else present only needs to avoid being in my shot once.
If homeowners are present or the realtor needs to get to another appointment, you’ll want to be finished inside the house as soon as possible.
Saving exterior photos, drone photos, or floor plans (which you can do while the homeowners/realtors are in the same room) until the end means that you won’t need to keep staging rooms and asking people to move.
I’ve found that not only does this speed up my shoot time, but my clients are usually very grateful as I watch them drive away while I’m just pulling out my drone.
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.
