Guidelines for Discovering the Optimal Real Estate Photographer in Your Area
Searching for a real estate photographer near you is no different than searching for any other local contractor. This article will help you by providing the keys for finding the best real estate photographer near you.
Unless a friend, relative, or family member handles all of your photography needs, you’ll almost certainly start by performing an online search to locate the best real estate photographer in your area. You might even type in the exact words: “real estate photographer near me.”
But when the search results appear, what then? How do you choose a vetted real estate photographer that’ll do a great job at taking exquisite pictures of your home or create awesome aerial drone videos?
5 Keys For Finding the Best Real Estate Photographer Near You
There are five simple keys (or criteria) to keep in mind as you search for the best real estate photographer near you. These will make your search both quick and easy.
1) Credibility
One of the most essential terms to remember when selecting a real estate photographer near you is credibility.
When looking on Google, the top results that appear on the search engine results page (SERP) are usually sponsored ads produced by an auction-based algorithm. Some real estate photography companies won’t hesitate to spend the money for this extra visibility, which means that credible real estate photographers in your area can get lost in the mix.
Paid ads will vary greatly depending on how much companies are willing to pay for this prime advertising space. What won’t vary as much are the rankings and reviews for professional real estate photographers near you that appear below the ads.
Real estate photographers with a long track record of providing excellent service don’t need to pay more for advertising space or keywords. They’ve already built an organic following by delivering superior value to their clients.
That said, real estate photographers near you with over 100 reviews that average 4.7 stars or more are worth looking into. This benchmark provides enough volume (number of reviews) and consistent quality (highly-rated services) to paint a picture of a verified and competent photographer.
You should also consider their years of expertise. Most photographers in your area will include this information on their About or Home pages, but you might also find this information while browsing online reviews.
The longer these photographers have been in business, the steadier and more experienced they’ll be, increasing their credibility.
2) Flexibility
The second key to finding a top real estate photographer near you is to look for one that offers flexible scheduling.
Accommodating your needs as a customer is not only a huge factor in saving you time and energy. It’s also an indicator of the photographer’s level of professionalism.
Real estate photography businesses are no different from other service industries where the client matters most. When searching for the best real estate photographer near you, you should be more inclined to hire someone who will be less likely to cancel or reschedule the photoshoot at the drop of a hat.
As a customer, the photographer should arrive at the property on your time and not the other way around.
3) Availability
The third key to finding a great real estate photographer near you is availability.
In addition to looking for a well-rated photographer who’s also prepared to work around your schedule, you’ll want them to be available for work right away.
Too often do local real estate photography businesses operate in small teams with limited availability. This can pose a huge challenge for real estate’s seasonal swings. For instance, May’s boom in listings can look quite different from the market’s nosedive in December.
The point is that many local real estate photographers don’t have enough resources to properly staff a team that could handle a high volume of listings during peak season while still affording to carry those team members off-peak.
This balancing act is one that a well-regarded real estate photographer near you should be able to handle with relative ease. On the other hand, larger real estate photography companies tend to be more successful at adapting to the ebb and flow of the market.
You may not know when you’ll score your next big listing, just as you can’t always tell the homeowner when is the best time to sell. You’re at the mercy of the market, which is all the more reason why you should look for a real estate photographer near you who meets these key criteria.
4) Reliability
So far we’ve highlighted how important it is to find a real estate photographer near you who is highly rated, flexible with your scheduling needs, and available to shoot “yesterday.”
Great!
Now all you have to do is hire a professional photographer to visit your property, take great pictures, and send the files in a timely and consistent manner. You also need to know what you can anticipate from them regularly because even if you’ve worked with them a hundred times, there’s a possibility that you won’t work with the seller again.
When it comes to sellers, they won’t usually care how many times you’ve worked with the same real estate photographer. What they do care about is a job well done, whether it’s with your go-to photographer or someone else who’ll do a fantastic job.
It’s also worth noting that sellers are looking to close quickly and efficiently, so you can bet that they won’t be thrilled with a real estate photographer who slows things down.
This is why, to be worth their weight in gold, real estate photographers near you should be more than credible, flexible, and available. They should also be highly reliable.
5) Transparency
The final aspect to consider while looking for the finest real estate photographer near you is transparency.
To illustrate our point, let’s say that you’ve scouted a top-rated photographer who meets all of the other four prerequisites.
If that’s the case, the photographer should have no trouble being completely transparent with their services. Besides, if they’re so great, why would they hide anything?
Professional real estate photographers near you won’t only show you all of the work they’ve accomplished on their websites. They’ll also be completely transparent with their services and pricing so you can avoid unpleasant surprises down the road.
Signing up with a photographer before seeing their body of work or discussing pricing is not always a good idea. This could be a sign that they lack confidence in their product or want to leave wiggle room in the transaction for add-ons or upcharges.
This is why transparency matters. The best real estate photographer near you will stand by the quality of their product, the value behind their pricing, and the precision of their creative process.
To summarize, the following are the five most important criteria for selecting a real estate photographer near you:
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Credibility
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Flexibility
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Availability
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Reliability
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Transparency
These keys for finding the best real estate photographer near you criteria should be easy to root out as you research. Once you’ve found one, the photographer should be able to articulate these five keys with confidence and no hidden strings attached.
