When you are just your real estate photography business, one of the hardest (and most important) things to do is establish a solid real estate photography portfolio.
Your real estate photography (and marketing services) portfolio is the foundation of your business growth as everyone you approach will want to see the quality of your real estate work before investing their (or their clients’) money. It can be difficult to build a real estate photography portfolio when starting out as you need access to several well-presented homes similar to the properties that your target group of clients will be selling or renting. The following are three methods of building a portfolio of your real estate photography and other services (i.e. real estate floor plans, video, aerial photography, 3D tours, virtual staging, etc.).
Display Homes
Many new housing estates and apartment buildings will have a variety of display homes and apartments for the public to view. If you approach the sales agent/representative and explain to them that you are trying to build a real estate photography portfolio, they will usually let you take photos of the display homes. It is best to only approach them on a weekday when the display suites are quiet as you will have a better chance of being allowed to go through with your camera equipment.
Friends and Family
Make use of your connections by approaching friends and family and asking if you can photograph their home in exchange for a set of images of their property. If they are putting their home on the market, they may be able to provide these images to the real estate agent who is selling or renting the property. If the agent likes the images or they get a fast result, they may also contact you to shoot their future listings.
Free Photo Shoots
Completing free real estate photo shoots for new real estate agents or property managers is an excellent way to grow your real estate photography portfolio (when you are starting out). They will be able to provide feedback, and if the home receives a lot of enquiries, you’ll have more confidence in the quality of your work. This is the only time I would recommend working for free, as you are deriving huge value from the images and this time spent shooting for free is an investment into the future growth of your business.
Once you have established a strong portfolio for the photography and marketing services you are going to offer, you can start to implement marketing strategies to secure your first clients.
Note: This article is an extract from the resources on the Education page on this website.
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