What is a good starting price for real estate photography?

Start with the shape, not the number. Three packages on one page, the middle one in the range of the three photographers in your market or just above it. Cineminn's sheet reads $390, $999 and $1,499.

Should I charge per photo for real estate photography?

No. A per-photo rate makes her count photos and compare numbers. Say "my standard package is [price] and it includes [three things]," then stop talking.

Why did the agent say she was checking with her team after my quote?

Because a bare rate left her with six questions: how many photos, drone, twilight, floor plan, video, delivery. A confused agent does not say no. She says she is checking with her team.

Answers › Pricing & packages

Ask the agent

How much should I charge for real estate photography?

An agent asked ’how much,’ I said $150, and the second it left my mouth I didn’t know if I’d lowballed or scared her off. She’s ’checking with her team.’Asked by a photographer on Reddit, r/RealEstatePhotography

Quote a package, never a rate. The $150 is not what lost you that job; the format did. Same house, same hour on site: one photographer leaves with $200, the other with $525, and the gap is how you answer "how much."

A rate starts a comparison. A package ends one.

Same house, same hour on site. One photographer leaves with $200, the other with $525. The gap is not talent and it is not gear. It is how each one answered "how much."

You said $150 and the first thing she did was line it up next to the last number she heard. That is all a rate can do. It is one number with nothing around it, so she compares it to another number.

Then it hands her homework. How many photos is that? Is drone in it? Twilight? Floor plan? Video? When do I get them? Six questions she has to go ask you before she can book, and she is reading your text between showings.

"Checking with her team" is what a confused agent says. She is not shopping you. She does not know what she would be buying.

Two photographers shoot the same house. One leaves with $200, one with $525. Same hour on site.

Three packages on one page. Sell the middle.

This is the sheet my Twin Cities studio, Cineminn, sends agents today. Three packages: $390, $999 and $1,499. There is a $149 basic too, 20 photos, but that is a volume play, not a package, and it does not share the page.

The add-ons are where the money is. Drone adds $100 to $200, twilight $75 to $150, video $200 to $500. Editing runs me 50 cents a photo with Anna at PixlMB, so the margin lives in the package, not in the photo count.

I listed houses for ten years before I shot one, and I never once picked the cheapest photographer. I picked whoever’s email I could forward to a seller without rewriting it. A package is that email. A rate is a text she has to translate.

Price the middle one for the agent you want

Most people get the number wrong, and not by charging too much. They set the middle package by nerve instead of by market.

Look up three photographers in your area and write down their middle price. Put yours in that range or just above it. That is the whole exercise. The agent you want is not hunting for the cheapest line. She lists enough homes to care about the forwardable email.

Never be the cheapest line on her screen. The cheapest line gets compared. The middle line gets picked.

When she asks how much, say the middle price and three things that are in it, then stop talking. Never "$25 a photo." Format first, number second.

The line

My standard package is [your middle price], and it includes [three things].

The big lesson

You’re not underpriced, you’re unpackaged.

Do this

This week: write three packages on one page tonight and put the middle one in front of the next agent who asks.

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

What is a good starting price for real estate photography?: Start with the shape, not the number. Three packages on one page, the middle one in the range of the three photographers in your market or just above it. Cineminn’s sheet reads $390, $999 and $1,499.
Should I charge per photo for real estate photography?: No. A per-photo rate makes her count photos and compare numbers. Say "my standard package is [price] and it includes [three things]," then stop talking.
Why did the agent say she was checking with her team after my quote?: Because a bare rate left her with six questions: how many photos, drone, twilight, floor plan, video, delivery. A confused agent does not say no. She says she is checking with her team.