Ask the agent
Who owns the photos, me or the agent?
You, probably. That’s the least useful part of the answer. What matters is what your checkout said, because get this wrong and you either hand a new agent a paid set for free or pick a fight that costs you her brokerage.
You usually own them. She bought the right to use them.
In the US the photographer usually holds the copyright, unless something in writing says otherwise.
The first agent paid to use the set for her listing. That’s a license, not a sale. She didn’t buy the photos. She bought the right to put them on one MLS entry.
Your terms decide how far that license goes. If your terms said nothing, that’s the gap, and it’s the gap the new agent walked through. Check with a local attorney before you lean on any of this.
That’s the part most threads get stuck on, and it’s the part that matters least. Knowing you own the photos doesn’t get you paid. Knowing what she was allowed to do with them does.
Put one license line in your order terms
Here’s why most photographers have no answer for this. They never wrote one line.
Two sentences in the checkout. "Photos are licensed to the ordering agent for this listing." "Use by another agent is a new license at" your price.
Now the relist isn’t a fight. It’s a sale with a price already on it. The new agent isn’t stealing. She’s ordering, and she just doesn’t know it yet.
The number is yours to set. A re-license is a set that already exists, so it’s less than a shoot. It is not free, because the set is what the new agent is about to market the house with.
Offer two prices: re-license or reshoot
Here’s the text to send the new agent today. No lawyer, no letter. Saw Oak Street came back on. I can re-license the set today, or reshoot it fresh with a twilight. Put your number on the first option.
No legal letter first. You’d lose her whole brokerage over one set, and every agent in that office would hear about it by Friday. Either answer to the text is a paid job.
Send it the day you see the listing. A week later it reads like a complaint.
Most of them take the reshoot. I took over listings from other agents for ten years and I wanted new photos every single time. The old set was why it sat. The relisting agent knows that better than anyone, and she’s already half-sold on the twilight.
Saw Oak Street came back on. I can re-license the set for [your price] today, or reshoot it fresh with a twilight.
Write the rule before you need it. A line in the checkout beats an argument later.
Today: add the license line to your checkout. If a house you shot got relisted, send that agent the two-price text this week.
The delivery checklist
What she actually needs when the files go out. Free. Then take the sixty-second roadmap quiz and I tell you what to fix first.
Get the checklistGet my roadmapStraight answers
- Who owns real estate photos, the photographer or the agent?
- In the US, usually the photographer, unless something in writing says otherwise. The agent bought a license to use them for her listing. Check with a local attorney about your terms.
- Can another agent use my photos when a house is relisted?
- Not without a new license, if your terms say so. Put one line in your checkout: photos are licensed to the ordering agent for this listing, and use by another agent is a new license at a set price.
- What do I do when my photos show up on a relisted house?
- Text the new agent two prices: re-license the set today, or reshoot it fresh with a twilight. No legal letter first. Either answer is a paid job.
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.