How much should I charge for Zillow Showcase photography?

Published add-ons run from $80 to $375 on top of a stills package: $125 in one market, $95 to $200 by square footage in another, $375 for a full package up to 3,500 square feet in Central Florida. Put your own number on your sheet as a named line and include it in your top package.

Do I need a certification to shoot Zillow Showcase?

No. The agent invites you through her Showcase order, you accept and confirm you meet the standard, and you deliver through a free Aryeo Lite account. The resource center is a 14-minute capture webinar and a practice tour.

What camera do I need for a Zillow Showcase listing?

Any 360 camera on Zillow's supported list, captured in the Zillow 3D Home app: the Insta360 X5, X4, X3, ONE X2 or ONE RS 1-inch, or the Ricoh Theta Z1, SC2, V or X. Your stills camera stays the same.

Answers › Pricing & packages

Ask the agent

An agent asked for Zillow Showcase. What do I charge, and how do I deliver it?

An agent I shoot for texted that her brokerage is putting her next listing on Zillow Showcase and asked if I can do it. I’ve never shot one. What does she actually need from me, and what do I charge?Asked by a photographer on the list

She needs three things: your stills, a Zillow 3D Home tour captured in Zillow’s app with a 360 camera, and the interactive floor plan Zillow builds from that capture, all delivered through Aryeo. Published add-on prices run from $80 to $375 on top of a stills package. Ours is included in the top package. Price it as a line on your sheet, ask one question before you leave the house, and you shoot it once.

What she needs, in Zillow’s words

Showcase is Zillow’s paid listing tier, and the media it asks for is specific. HD stills, at least 10 of them covering three interior rooms, with the first upload becoming the hero. A Zillow 3D Home tour, captured in the Zillow 3D Home app with a compatible 360 camera. An interactive floor plan, which Zillow generates from that 360 capture and which has to be Zillow’s: not a PDF, not a floor plan from another app, not a Matterport. A clip under 120 seconds is optional, and it can’t carry a persistent logo or a recruiting ad.

Delivery runs through Aryeo, which Zillow owns. She invites you by clicking "I have my own photographer" inside her Showcase order; you get an email, accept, and confirm you meet the standard. Uploads go through an Aryeo account, and the Lite plan is free and includes Showcase delivery. Pro is $49 a month and adds the 3D Home integration and scheduling, which you don’t need for the first one.

If she doesn’t invite you, the order defaults to Zillow’s own photographer network. So the invite is the job. Answer it the day it lands.

What to charge: the numbers on the street and the one that’s wrong

Published price lists from working studios: a $125 Showcase add-on on top of a stills package. $95, $145 and $200 by square footage, up to 5,000 square feet. $375 for a complete Showcase package up to 3,500 square feet in Central Florida, stills included. And one Houston account at $80, which agents there now quote at every other photographer as the reason a reshoot should be free.

Set yours against what she’s paying. Zillow doesn’t publish Showcase pricing; agents report quotes from about $300 to more than $1,000 a listing, and one Denver report had a $400-a-month subscription with one listing included. She pays Zillow for the slot and pays you separately for the media, at your price. The media is what the seller sees on the badge. It should not be the cheapest line on her invoice.

Ours: Showcase media is inside the top package and a priced add-on below it. It’s printed on the sheet with the twilight and the floor plan, so nobody texts to ask. I bought photography as a listing agent for ten years, and a photographer who could put the badge on my listing without a second trip was worth more to me than one who was $40 cheaper and needed to come back.

She’s paying Zillow hundreds for the slot. Don’t be the $80 line that fills it.

How to deliver it once, without a reshoot

The question to ask before you leave the house: "Showcase, or regular Zillow?" Agents say Zillow when they mean Showcase, and the 360 walk is the part you can’t fake from stills. If it’s Showcase, the 360 and the monopod go in the bag with the wide lens.

On site, shoot the stills the way you always do. Then the 360 walk: every room, doors open, lights on, blinds the same as the stills, camera at chest height, you out of the frame. The app stitches the tour and builds the floor plan, and you tag the stills to the rooms on it. The resource center is a 14-minute webinar and a practice tour; do the practice tour in your own place before the first paid one.

Deliver the stills on your usual clock. Ours is by 9 a.m. next morning or it’s free, and that promise doesn’t change because the listing is Showcase. The tour and floor plan process on Zillow’s side, and the studios advertising Showcase quote 24 to 48 hours for those. Say that number out loud up front, so the stills landing before the tour reads as fast, not as missing. Zillow only lifts the listing once both the tour and the floor plan are on it, so send her a note when the second piece goes live.

The line

Showcase needs the 3D walk and Zillow’s floor plan on top of the stills. It’s in the top package, or an add-on with its price on the sheet. Send me the Aryeo invite and I’ll bring the 360 Thursday.

The big lesson

Showcase is a line on your sheet, not a favor. Name it, price it, shoot it once.

Do this

This week: add a Showcase line with a number to your sheet, open a free Aryeo Lite account, and capture a practice tour of your own place in the Zillow 3D Home app before the first invite lands.

The three-package sheet I send agents

Put your numbers in it before your next booking. Free. Then take the sixty-second roadmap quiz and I tell you what to fix first.

Get the sheet Get my roadmap

Straight answers

How much should I charge for Zillow Showcase photography?: Published add-ons run from $80 to $375 on top of a stills package: $125 in one market, $95 to $200 by square footage in another, $375 for a full package up to 3,500 square feet in Central Florida. Put your own number on your sheet as a named line and include it in your top package.
Do I need a certification to shoot Zillow Showcase?: No. The agent invites you through her Showcase order, you accept and confirm you meet the standard, and you deliver through a free Aryeo Lite account. The resource center is a 14-minute capture webinar and a practice tour.
What camera do I need for a Zillow Showcase listing?: Any 360 camera on Zillow’s supported list, captured in the Zillow 3D Home app: the Insta360 X5, X4, X3, ONE X2 or ONE RS 1-inch, or the Ricoh Theta Z1, SC2, V or X. Your stills camera stays the same.