People selling houses need good images. Some realtors will shoot the images themselves, and others leave it to the pro’s. We set about to see if we couldn’t tap into that resource so we contacted a local realtor that specialized in Seattle’s floating homes. They were skeptical at first, even with a personal connection. How could they ask their sellers in this niche market to allow a photographer to shoot their home and sign a property release? Would the photos present the home as the realtors thought they should be presented?
We let them take their time to think about it and sent them links to our work. The stars aligned just right when a couple wanted to get their home on the market, and the realtors usual photographer was unavailable. They posed the question to their sellers, and their sellers agreed. The sellers got images of their beautiful home as a keepsake, the realtors got great shots for their listing, and the buyers will get a disk of images to pour over while they are waiting for the home to close. We got beautiful property released images of a super
home. Win-Win right? Not so fast!
The realtors were a husband and wife team with 2 distinct personalities and opinions. She was out of town on the day of the shoot so her husband worked in the home while we shot it and trusted us to do our thing.
In the end, everyone was happy with the results, we all learned from the experience and it was time well-spent. The single most important aspect of this process was building the relationship, and this cannot be stressed enough. We have found homes to shoot by trolling the real estate section of craigslist and cold-calling (starting with an email proposal and links to our work). Some will respond, and some won’t, and follow-up is important. Also, referrals can come when people are pleased, and word of mouth is the best advertising. So get out there and shoot!