Ask the agent
Should I partner with another photographer on a 60/40 split?
No, and 40 percent isn’t the problem. Two photographers with no agents is the same problem twice; a partner doesn’t fix slow. Split now and you lock in the hardest question for later: whose client is it when one finally books.
A split settles who shoots. It doesn’t settle who owns the client.
Sixty-forty answers one question: who gets paid for the shoot. That’s the easy one, and it’s the only one the two of you have talked about.
The question that breaks it comes later. An agent calls. She’s whose? She met him at the broker open, you shot her first listing, the invoice has both names on it.
And look at what you actually built. Two calendars, zero agents. You doubled the capacity, not the demand. Slow doesn’t care how many people are waiting for the phone to ring.
The 40 percent isn’t what you’re giving away. You’re giving away the answer to that question, and you’re giving it away before either of you has an agent to fight over.
Agents book one name that answers the phone
From the agent’s side, the split breaks the first busy month. Give her two names and she picks one. She always does. It’s whoever answered first, or whoever she met in person.
Now the other guy is working for 40 percent of a client he thinks is his. That fight shows up the first time the calendar is actually full, which is the one month you can’t afford it.
No agent I knew in ten years booked a partnership. We booked a name that answered the phone. One name, one number, one person to call if the photos were late.
Subcontract under one brand
So what do you offer him instead? Something smaller and cleaner.
One brand, one order page, one number the agent calls. He shoots at a flat rate, around $50 an hour. You own the client and the edit.
Or flip it and shoot under his brand. Either way, one name owns the agent, and the shooter gets paid for the work. Nobody is waiting on a percentage of a client who hasn’t called yet.
Then the thing that actually fixes slow, because a partner never will: ten first-touch messages a day. Slow is a rhythm problem, not a roster problem.
Fifty messages a week is what two slow photographers should be sending between them anyway. If you both did that, you wouldn’t need each other. If neither of you is, a split just makes the silence official.
No split. I’ll pay a flat rate per shoot under my brand, or I’ll shoot under yours.
A partner adds a name to the logo. It doesn’t send one message to an agent.
This week: send him the one-line reply. Then ten first-touch messages a day for five weekdays.
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
- Is a 60/40 partnership a good idea for real estate photographers?
- No. It settles who gets paid per shoot but not who owns the agent, and that question arrives the first busy month. One brand, one name, a flat rate for whoever shoots.
- How do I work with another photographer without a partnership?
- Subcontract. One of you owns the brand, the order page and the client; the other shoots at a flat rate, around $50 an hour. The edit stays with the brand owner.
- What do I do when real estate photography sales are slow?
- Ten first-touch messages a day to agents, five days a week. Slow is a rhythm problem. Adding a partner adds capacity you don’t need yet.
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.