When you think of online real estate listings, you may just think of properties for sale or rent on a real estate website, or perhaps some colourful photos of houses and apartments. What about all the people who made those listings happen? The photographer and the real estate agent.
The relationship between real estate agents and photographers is an interesting one, because they work as a team to ensure the success of the property listing with each combining their business and creative skill. Each party also relies on the other for the success of their business.
Real estate agents are always on the go. They’re constantly looking for the next home to sell, the next client, and even the next deal. A photographer working with successful real estate agents will also be busy chasing the agent around town photographing homes for new their new listings.
The real estate agent trusts their photographer to capture the images for their upcoming listing using the best compositions possible for the home. Through their images, the photographer helps the agent communicate messages to the buyer and tells the story of the home.
It can take a few (or many more) photo-shoots for the real estate agent to ‘let go’ and trust the photographer to capture the necessary images without too much of their input. This trust is the foundation of loyalty, where an agent will sometimes only use the one photographer for many years, sometimes their entire career.
Both the agent and the photographer need a home looking its best for the photographs to reduce the number of hours spent retouching, and have the greatest impact online. This can be challenging for some properties, but a great real estate photographer and real estate agent will work together to solve problems quickly.
There may be issues with furniture placement, disgruntled tenants, leaf litter on the driveway, issues with power and lighting, etc. Many times, the real estate agent and real estate photographer will work as a team to solve these kinds of problems onsite.
The best agent and photographer relationships are those where each party wants the other to thrive in their career. The photographer was the agent to sell their homes quickly at the highest possible sale price and continue to win more listings.
The real estate agent wants their photographer to continue shooting at their most creative level, while growing their business. Most real estate agents will happily refer their friends/colleagues to their photographer as they know they will do a great job.
I hope this article has helped shine a light on the powerful and mutually beneficial working relationship between the real estate agent and the professional real estate photographer.
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