Ask the agent
Does Instagram actually get real estate photography clients?
Instagram does get clients. Just not from the feed. Three posts a week for two years is over 300 posts and zero agents, because agents don’t scroll for photographers. The inbox is where the bookings are, and the feed has one small job.
You’re using it as a billboard. Agents don’t scroll for photographers
Count how many of your 900 followers list homes in your city. That’s your real audience, and it’s a lot smaller than 900.
Nine hundred followers is a mix of other photographers, friends, and people who like kitchens. The agent who could book you is in there somewhere, and she’s scrolling past.
An agent opens Instagram to check her own listing, not to shop for a photographer. She scrolls past a pretty kitchen. She answers a message about her house.
Another year the same way is another 150 posts nobody books from.
Two years of posting built a pretty page. It didn’t build a single conversation, because a feed doesn’t ask anyone anything.
Use it like a phone: 20 DMs a day to agents with weak listing photos
If the feed doesn’t book agents, the inbox does. And it has a daily limit: Instagram cuts you off around 25 to 30 DMs a day. My VAs hit that number daily.
Warm her first. Follow, like two posts, one real comment. Then the DM.
Warming takes two minutes and it changes what the DM looks like when it lands. A follow and a real comment means your name is already in her notifications before your message is.
Never say her photos are bad. Blame the tech: Zillow might be compressing her images a little dark, and has she thought about bringing in a professional.
It’s a message about her house. She can agree with you about Zillow without admitting her photos are bad, and that’s what gets a reply.
I never hired a photographer off his feed in ten years as an agent. I hired the one who noticed my listing.
Post behind the scenes, not listings
The feed still has one job, and it isn’t showing off your best kitchen.
One story per shoot: you with the gimbal, you clipping a mic on the agent for her walkthrough. Agents see another agent on camera and think, I need that.
It’s not a listing. Nobody’s judging the kitchen. It’s proof that agents stand in front of your camera, which is the one thing a cold DM can’t say.
When your DM lands, she taps your name and sees you working. That’s the feed’s whole job. So, is it a waste? The posting was. The account isn’t.
Three posts a week of your best work is work for an audience that isn’t there. One story a shoot, for the agent who just got your DM, is enough.
Looks like Zillow might be compressing your images a little dark. Have you thought about bringing in a professional?
Agents don’t hire the best feed. They hire the photographer who noticed their listing.
This week, send 20 warmed DMs a day to agents whose listings went up with phone photos, and post one behind-the-scenes story from your next shoot.
The agent opener scripts
One observation, one question, and the day 3 and day 10 follow-ups. Free. Then take the sixty-second roadmap quiz and I tell you what to fix first.
Get the scriptsGet my roadmapStraight answers
- Does posting on Instagram get real estate photography clients?
- The feed doesn’t. Agents don’t scroll for photographers. The inbox does: 20 warmed DMs a day to agents with weak listing photos.
- How many Instagram DMs can a photographer send per day?
- Around 25 to 30 before Instagram cuts you off. Warm each one first with a follow, two likes and one real comment.
- What should a real estate photographer post on Instagram?
- Behind the scenes, not listings. One story per shoot of you working, so when your DM lands she taps your name and sees an agent on camera.
Related questions
Julian Lundgren sold real estate for ten years before he shot a listing for money. He runs Cineminn, a Minneapolis real estate photography studio, and writes these answers from the agent’s side of the table. Send a question to info@cineminn.com.