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Home > Going Freelance: I think I Can!

Going Freelance: I think I Can!

January 26th, 2007 at 09:40 pm

I've been mulling over the whole "generate your own income" thing for a while. Some of you might remember it's one of my new year's goals to come up with 10 ways I can make about $500 per month. On that list I've already include "something to do with photography". Real specific, right?

I've always been better taking pictures of inanimate objects for some reason or another. Especially buildings. I have a 'thing' for architecture and I really enjoy taking pictures of houses, churches, etc. Probably 2/3 of the pics I took in Argentina were architectural. This combined with my realtively recent house purchase has made me think of real estate photography on and off for the past couple of months. I know when I was looking at houses, if it didn't have a picture I usually didn't bother. I think that's pretty much the norm.

Things were slow at work today, so I revisted the idea. Went online to my favorite real estate watering hole to see what the market looks like right now. Generally, there are about 6000 houses on the market at any given time in my area, over 600 in a 5 mile radius of my house. Even with a 'bursting real estate bubble' our area is booming, what with BMW, Michelin, FUJI, and

Text is ICAR and Link is http://www.clemson.edu/autoresearch/
ICAR calling the upstate 'home'.

6000 properties. If I could just grab 1% of those...

Anyways, when browsing today I picked 21 listings, ranging from $64,900 to $1,649,000. These listing either had no pictures (BAD), or really crappy pictures (WORSE!). Don't believe me?

This house is listed for $77,900




This house is listed for $210,000




WHAT THE FOO? Who's gonna bother looking when the pictures are like this? What does that say about the real estate agent, or the agency?

When I saw these pics, I thought to myself "A trained monkey could do better than this. Or an untrained human!" Since I myself am an untrained human, I figure I qualify.

So, I have 21 listings from 14 different agents, all in about a 5 mile radius of my house. This weekend, I'm going to go around to several (one's even on my street!) and take some pictures. Next week I'm going to email the pictures to the realtors directly, letting them know I'd be happy to work with them.

BTW, I don't have any 'normal' house pictures with me that I've taken, but here are some of my more 'artsy' ones for comparison purposes.











Posted in General Commentary | 15 Comments »

15 Responses to “Going Freelance: I think I Can!”

  1. JanH Says:
    January 26th, 2007 at 09:43 pm 1169847786
    1169847786

    That idea is awesome! That's great that you can take something you really like to do and get it to generate money. I'm sure you will be taken up on it from several places. Good luck! By the way, the pictures just now turned up and boy you were right. I can't imagine why they would use those in a professional setting like listings. Yours are exceptional.

  2. tinapbeana Says:
    January 26th, 2007 at 09:45 pm 1169847955
    1169847955

    ooops, you caught me while i was uploading, jan! they should be there now...

  3. JanH Says:
    January 26th, 2007 at 09:48 pm 1169848129
    1169848129

    Have you ever thought of taking a class? Not that it looks like you need to, but you might enjoy it. You take great pictures!

  4. denisentexas Says:
    January 26th, 2007 at 10:04 pm 1169849053
    1169849053

    Ohh, nice pics and what a great idea!

    What would you charge the realtors for that service?

    Out of curiosity, why were you in Argentina and how long were you there?

  5. tinapbeana Says:
    January 26th, 2007 at 10:16 pm 1169849772
    1169849772

    denise, i was in cordoba, argentina for a month (may of 05) for work. at the time i was a corporate customer service trainer for a national phone company, and i was asked to go to argentina to assist with the roll-out of one of our new call centers. i did my job too well: that center stayed open when ours closed june of last year! Stick Out Tongue
    i'm not really sure what i would charge just yet. i'm thinking a flat fee of X for the site visit and 2 websize external shots. additional shots (websize or print size) would cost an extra Y or Z respectively. as for what X, Y, or Z are, i'm not quite sure! maybe $25/$5/$10...

  6. monkeymama Says:
    January 26th, 2007 at 10:30 pm 1169850604
    1169850604

    I know someone who took pictures for a real estate lady - she found her on Craigslist - was just looking for a job she could do with an infant. Since she never really left the car I wondered how good of a job she could do though - LOL. I have recommended dh but they only hire by region so so far no go. They will hire anyone though as long as they live in the region they are looking for. They reimburse gas and everything (that is why they want you to live close - hehe). They were paying here like $10/hour here (but everything here costs more) + mileage, etc. Gave her camera and everything. Start keeping your eyes open, call the real estate offices, etc., see what you can find.

    I know my real estate agent spent a lot of time taking pics when we listed our house last year. Maybe some of them are overworked and could use some help.

    Good Luck!

  7. LittleGopher Says:
    January 26th, 2007 at 10:58 pm 1169852339
    1169852339

    What a great idea! Your pics are far superior than what ended up in the real estate listings. Best wishes on your newest venture!!

  8. princessperky Says:
    January 27th, 2007 at 02:27 am 1169864847
    1169864847

    heh, untrained human Smile, I like the photos (yours) cool idea.

  9. baselle Says:
    January 27th, 2007 at 04:01 am 1169870491
    1169870491

    Some of those pics look like cell phone pics, and you just can't do that and expect the house to get sold.

  10. LuckyRobin Says:
    January 27th, 2007 at 11:37 am 1169897838
    1169897838

    I love the way the church is all lit up in front of the angry clouds. Just gorgeous. Like a beacon of hope in the storm or something.

  11. LuxLiving Says:
    January 27th, 2007 at 12:21 pm 1169900503
    1169900503

    Go 'fer it!! Gotta love a go-get-em kinda gal!!

  12. KEALINA Says:
    January 28th, 2007 at 02:24 am 1169951055
    1169951055

    your photos are way superior... good luck...

  13. Broken Arrow Says:
    January 29th, 2007 at 04:29 pm 1170088167
    1170088167

    Ack. Speaking of which, I'm suppose to work on my 2007 challenge, which is probably to do some kind of home business as well. Sadly, I still don't know what I should be doing.

    I'm glad you've made some progress though.

  14. LuxLiving Says:
    January 29th, 2007 at 07:10 pm 1170097840
    1170097840

    Hey BA - how about some kind of private personal security classes for women? Or write a book on how-tos??

  15. boomeyers Says:
    January 30th, 2007 at 01:40 am 1170121215
    1170121215

    I work for a real estate agency and know these realtors! Where we live in Missouri, they can let the MLS people go and take the pictures for them, so see if there is a logo in the corner of some of the pictures and those should be done by the company. If you find some really cruddy pictures, you can take some new ones maybe and contact that agent and say, "hey, for a small fee, I can do better for you!"
    Some agents just don't care either!!
    At places like Remax, each agent is an individual and doesn't necessarily have to follow the set "rules" of that particular broker. Also, look for the names you see over and over, cause those are the busy agents and if the price is right, they will snatch you up!!
    You also may want to find out how to get a "key" for the lock boxes on the front of houses, so that you could get inside to take pictures. I know they let certain people besides agents get these, like appraisers and inspectors. We call them SUPRA keys here (it is actually an electronic key).
    You may even want to offer additional services like putting their sign up in the front yard for them. At times they go get the listing and have to go back to put on the lockbox and put up the sign and take the pictures.... and they are too busy.
    Sorry so long!! Hope this makes sense!

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