What insurance do I need to be on a brokerage vendor list?

Whatever the vendor form requires, at the limits it names. Usually general liability, sometimes errors and omissions. Ask the office manager before you buy anything.

How much does real estate photographer insurance cost?

Reddit threads put liability, E&O and gear at roughly $500 to $1,200 a year. Get your own quote from a local insurance agent; rules and prices vary by state.

Should I charge agents an insurance fee?

No. Divide the yearly premium by your shoots per year and build that number into the package price. The agent sees a photographer on the list, not a fee.

Answers › Running the business

Ask the agent

What insurance does a real estate photographer need?

A brokerage wants a certificate of insurance before I go on their vendor list. I have nothing. What do I need?Asked by a photographer on Reddit, r/RealEstatePhotography

What the vendor form asks for, before you walk in. You don’t need every policy the internet argues about. No certificate, no spot on the vendor list, and the vendor list is the sheet her agents pull from when a listing needs photos.

The certificate is your ticket onto the list

The office manager keeps the list. No certificate on file, she can’t add you. That’s not a judgment about you. It’s a rule she didn’t write.

She isn’t asking if you’re careful. She’s asking if she can say yes. Walk in with the certificate and you skip the second visit.

The vendor list is worth more than it looks. Every agent in that office pulls from it when a listing needs photos and their usual guy is busy. That’s the call you want.

Think about what the list is to her. It’s the shortcut. An agent asks who to call, the office manager reads off three names, and the names come from the binder. You can be the best shooter in the county and not be on it.

To a brokerage, insurance isn’t protection. It’s paperwork that gets you on the list.

Liability, gear, and drone if you fly

So what do you actually buy? Most photographers start with three pieces.

General liability: the vase you knock off the staging table. Gear: the camera that walks out of your truck. Drone liability if you fly. Part 107 doesn’t insure anything; it’s a license, not a policy.

Reddit threads put liability, E&O and gear at roughly $500 to $1,200 a year. Your quote will be your quote. Rules vary by state, so check with a local insurance agent.

I sat on the brokerage side of this for ten years. My office manager kept a vendor binder. No certificate, no place on the sheet agents pulled from. Nobody read the policy. They checked the binder.

My office manager kept a vendor binder. No certificate, no place on the sheet.

The premium goes inside the package

Most photographers eat the premium instead of pricing it. Don’t.

Divide the yearly premium by the shoots in your year. That per-shoot number lives inside the $390, not as a line on the invoice.

She never sees an insurance fee. Just a photographer who’s already on the list. That’s what she’s paying for, whether she knows it or not.

The reason is simple. A $390 package is a $390 package. A $390 package plus an insurance fee is a reason to ask what else is extra.

Before you buy anything, one question for the office manager: what does your vendor form require, and at what limits? Some add errors and omissions. If hers does, buy that too.

The line

What does your vendor form require, and at what limits?

The big lesson

Buy what the list asks for, not what the internet argues about.

Do this

This week: get one brokerage’s vendor form, then one liability-plus-gear quote from a local insurance agent.

Where you actually are

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Straight answers

What insurance do I need to be on a brokerage vendor list?: Whatever the vendor form requires, at the limits it names. Usually general liability, sometimes errors and omissions. Ask the office manager before you buy anything.
How much does real estate photographer insurance cost?: Reddit threads put liability, E&O and gear at roughly $500 to $1,200 a year. Get your own quote from a local insurance agent; rules and prices vary by state.
Should I charge agents an insurance fee?: No. Divide the yearly premium by your shoots per year and build that number into the package price. The agent sees a photographer on the list, not a fee.