Ask the agent

Is real estate photography too saturated to start in my market?

You’re counting photographers. Agents can’t

Your forty came from searching. Agents don’t search. They call whoever answered last time.

A website doesn’t change that. A decent website is what she’d see if she searched, and she doesn’t search. She texts the last photographer who picked up.

I listed for ten years in a market full of photographers. I could name two.

A market full of photographers is a market full of names no agent remembers. And the $99 half is fighting over the agents who shop on price. Let them have each other.

You’re not entering a race with forty runners. You’re entering a town where nobody’s keeping score.

Your competition is the phone in her pocket

So if it’s not the forty, who are you actually up against? Pull up Zillow.

Scan your zip for new listings shot on a phone. Dark rooms, tilted walls, a thumb in the corner. Then look for price cuts. A cut means a nervous seller and an agent who needs a fix.

Every one of those listings is an agent who decided a phone was fine, and a seller who’s about to find out it wasn’t.

We did this on a call with William Bateau in Palm Beach and found three targets in five minutes, one with a $24,000 price reduction.

Those agents aren’t choosing between forty photographers. They’re choosing between you and "good enough."

Those photos went up in a market with forty photographers in it. Forty photographers, and the listing still got shot on a phone. That’s your answer on saturation.

Start with the busiest agents who have the worst photos

Here’s where you start, and it’s ten people, not forty photographers’ worth of worry.

batchleads.io, $100 a month. Sort agents by listings in the last twelve months. Keep the ten-plus.

Cross them against your Zillow scan. The busiest agents with the worst current photos are your first ten. Message them: one observation, one question. No portfolio, no rates.

Ten names is a week of work. Not forty photographers to beat, ten agents to message, with one thing to say about one listing each.

So, is it worth starting? Yes, if you count the right thing. Forty photographers no agent can name, and a zip full of phone photos and price cuts.

The $99 question answers itself once you’ve seen the scan. The agent with ten-plus listings and phone photos isn’t shopping at $99. She hasn’t been shopping at all.

Straight answers

Is the real estate photography market too saturated?

Not the way you’re counting it. Agents can’t name your forty photographers. They call whoever answered last time. Count agents with listings and phone photos instead.

How do I compete with $99 real estate photographers?

You don’t. The $99 half is fighting over the agents who shop on price. Your competition is the phone in her pocket and "good enough."

Which real estate agents should I contact first in a crowded market?

The busiest ones with the worst photos. Sort by listings in the last twelve months, keep the ten-plus, and cross them against a Zillow scan of your zip.

Related questions

• How do I compete with the $99 real estate photographer?
• How do I find the agents who actually list homes in my market?
• No real estate photography clients yet. Where do I start this week?

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.