Fair price to charge real estate

Any thoughts on pricing or improvement in quality would be most appreciated.

I'll leave it to others to comment on pricing, but since you asked, I will give you my opinion on how you might improve the quality. Please don't take this personally as that is not my intent. Most of my comments are directed at video #1 but many apply to #2 as well.

Too much driveway footage. Nice that the property has a long driveway off the road, but this was overkill. Most viewers would click away after about 10 seconds of that.

Too long. Could be shortened by at least a minute.

Too fast/too much movement. Camera moves, especially interior pans, were mostly way too fast. Slow down and let the audience soak it in. It's not necessary to show every corner of every room or you risk making the viewer dizzy spinning around like that. A wide angle lens for interiors would be best, fish-eye notwithstanding.

Too much drone footage. More ground based footage to set up the "wow!" drone shots for dramatic appeal. Aerial shots alone can get quite dull after a while.

Too far away. Make some slow flybys getting as close to a corner or feature of the house as you dare. This would reveal architectural elements that mostly go unnoticed with so many wide shots and would add interesting perspectives.

Remember, your goal is to create interest, to tease the audience into wanting more by seeing it in person, not spray it down like a fire hose. Sorry, I don't mean to sound harsh, but like I said, you asked! HTH.
 
RyanK

I like the videos but think they are a little too fast and choppy..........slow down
I appreciate your advice, but it breeds another question. I've also read that for the most part, you want to keep each scene to 8 seconds or less. So how do you do that and slow down at the same time?
 
I'll leave it to others to comment on pricing, but since you asked, I will give you my opinion on how you might improve the quality. Please don't take this personally as that is not my intent. Most of my comments are directed at video #1 but many apply to #2 as well.

Too much driveway footage. Nice that the property has a long driveway off the road, but this was overkill. Most viewers would click away after about 10 seconds of that.

Too long. Could be shortened by at least a minute.

Too fast/too much movement. Camera moves, especially interior pans, were mostly way too fast. Slow down and let the audience soak it in. It's not necessary to show every corner of every room or you risk making the viewer dizzy spinning around like that. A wide angle lens for interiors would be best, fish-eye notwithstanding.

Too much drone footage. More ground based footage to set up the "wow!" drone shots for dramatic appeal. Aerial shots alone can get quite dull after a while.

Too far away. Make some slow flybys getting as close to a corner or feature of the house as you dare. This would reveal architectural elements that mostly go unnoticed with so many wide shots and would add interesting perspectives.

Remember, your goal is to create interest, to tease the audience into wanting more by seeing it in person, not spray it down like a fire hose. Sorry, I don't mean to sound harsh, but like I said, you asked! HTH.
beeline,

Thank you VERY much for the advice. I took no offense whatsoever.

I agree about too much driveway footage. I only kept so much because the realtor wanted me to highlight that for some reason. He also asked for extensive outdoor shots from all angles both looking at the house and away from the house, so I did include a few scenes in there I would not have otherwise.

This was only my second indoor video shoot, and I agree, I have a lot to learn, so I really appreciate your comments there. I am actually using the P3 for the indoor shots as well. I purchased the Elephantom (Phantom handle) in order to make it easy to carry around inside. Do you think they will make a fisheye lens that could be screwed on or put on over top of the phantom camera?

Could you maybe elaborate on the up close slow flybys?? Do you have some example videos you could show me more of what you mean?

Once again, thank you very much for your advice. I do appreciate it and hope that I can continually improve my skills.
 
I've been doing some indoor shots as well with the P3. I bought an Elephantom to hold the P3 with while walking around with it inside. Here are my latest 2 videos. The one with inside shots (the first video) took quite a while to shoot and a lot longer to edit. What would you guys charge for something like that?

The second video didn't take nearly as long to shoot or edit, but there wasn't as much subject matter either. Any thoughts on pricing or improvement in quality would be most appreciated.

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Forest, VA! I went to college at Liberty, grew up in Bristol. I miss the mountains.


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I don't pay gas, don't have insurance, and my time is worthless.

This is essentially a more expensive version of a kid with a lemonade stand.
You miss the point - if you charge $50 per hour, and you can probably finish a home shoot in an hour, then that is the standard that the realtor will always expect. Even if everyone else charges $150 to $300 for the same work.

Assume you enjoy the work and clients come easy (at that price, they will), but you graduate, move out of Mom's basement, and pay all your own bills like phone, insurance, business license, etc. Then you realize that you will lose money at $50 per. Guess what, that client list you have built is worthless because all of the realtors you did work for at $50 will still only pay $50. If you won't do it, there's always another student living in his Mom's basement with the same unrealistic approach to pricing. And you have to start over building a new client base.

You should base your highest price on the value to the client, and the lowest price at a point where you can make a profit.

Here is a poll that a Real Estate Photography blog just took (started today) that may provide some insight.
[link]
 
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Some of you won't like to hear this... but I do some of this for free. It's fun to do and I'm too worried about $ changing hands. The minute even one penny changes hands.. the rules change and it's not a hobby anymore and there are other things to consider I would imagine legally speaking.
I agree with others that free is better than unreasonably low prices that poison the well for everyone.
What "rules" are you worried about if you charge 1¢?
If you are worried about the FAA, then when the realtor uses the video to further his business, your flight becomes a commercial flight. According to the FAA. But note that with hundreds of aerial photographers promoting their service on their web site, maybe thousands if you count those trying to stay under the radar, the FAA has only charged one drone pilot for using his drone for commercial purposes (Raphael Pirker) and that charge was dropped (by pretrial petition) because the NTSB Administrative Law Judge agreed with Pirker's lawyer that there are no FAA rules covering personal drones for commercial uses.
 
Forest, VA! I went to college at Liberty, grew up in Bristol. I miss the mountains.
Josh . . . I'm always glad to see fellow Virginians on here (even if they're in Uganda now). I also went to and graduated from Liberty. Have you made or posted many videos of Uganda?
 
Having someone without a FAA 333 exemption, not a license pilot, and no liability insurance, will soon be like hiring a guy driving down the street to rewire a house,,just not something a true real estate office should do.

I just paid more than the cost of a P3P for liability insurance for a year, and am a licensed pilot,,the heads of large offices are telling me they are stopping agents from 'hiring the kid down the block' because they realize if something goes wrong, they are the one with the exposure.

it's not that someone is a better pilot because they are a licensed pilot, or have a waiver or have liability insurance, its just getting to be big business,
 
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You miss the point - if you charge $50 per hour, and you can probably finish a home shoot in an hour, then that is the standard that the realtor will always expect. Even if everyone else charges $150 to $300 for the same work.

Assume you enjoy the work and clients come easy (at that price, they will), but you graduate, move out of Mom's basement, and pay all your own bills like phone, insurance, business license, etc. Then you realize that you will lose money at $50 per. Guess what, that client list you have built is worthless because all of the realtors you did work for at $50 will still only pay $50. If you won't do it, there's always another student living in his Mom's basement with the same unrealistic approach to pricing. And you have to start over building a new client base.

You should base your highest price on the value to the client, and the lowest price at a point where you can make a profit.

Here is a poll that a Real Estate Photography blog just took (started today) that may provide some insight.
[link]

I never intend to do it as a business, so it doesn't matter to me.

I understand what you guys are saying, but it doesn't change anything for me.
 
I never intend to do it as a business, so it doesn't matter to me.

I understand what you guys are saying, but it doesn't change anything for me.
Then, please don't charge anything.. Free is better than unreasonably low prices that poison the well for everyone.
If the agents know it's just a hobby for you and contributions to your hobby costs would be appreciated, then I would be cool with that. (It's still a commercial flight according to the FAA, however).
 
Then, please don't charge anything.. Free is better than unreasonably low prices that poison the well for everyone.
If the agents know it's just a hobby for you and contributions to your hobby costs would be appreciated, then I would be cool with that. (It's still a commercial flight according to the FAA, however).
Nick is the one that's charges $50/hr.
As I said, if you're doing it for fun, do it for free.
As soon as you start charging people, it's a business and you should charge accordingly.
 
Josh . . . I'm always glad to see fellow Virginians on here (even if they're in Uganda now). I also went to and graduated from Liberty. Have you made or posted many videos of Uganda?

Not any I'm willing to post :) been doing lots of flying and filming, just haven't come up with a storyline for a video yet. I have been doing aerial photography jobs to help pay for the Phantom - anything helps!
 
You need to raise your prices. You're killing the economy and setting the wrong precedence.

But when you set a ridiculous rate like this, no professional can compete with you (because of above overhead). When you go away, people looking for your type of service will have a mindset that this is a $50 service and be upset with pros for charging more.

Just because you're a kid, does not mean that you should work for free, and BTW, charging $50 for whatever, is working for free.

I think a better way of getting this message across to entry-level folks is letting them know that aerial photos and videos are valuable and people will pay more than $50/hour for them. If someone knows they can charge $100/hour, and still only charge $50, you won't convince them of anything anyways.

That being said, I have to respectfully disagree with the rest. It's a common occurrence in many industries - new kid on the block buys a DSLR, a Phantom, a new lawn mower, whatever, and starts a business. Or a hobby. Whatever you call it, the "professionals" get their feelings hurt because they can't compete with the prices and say that the newbies are stealing their customers.

They aren't. Unless, as a professional, the low-budget minded people are your target market. But if I'm a professional aerial photographer (I'm not), realtors looking to drop 50 bucks for my services are NOT my customers. My customers know what my services are worth and know that I'm good at what I do, so they pay more. If you're a professional, a kid charging $50 for some photos isn't tapping into your market. You've got a steady client base who knows the value you bring to their business and are willing to pay for it.

Honestly, if you're good at what you do, someone charging cheap prices shouldn't make you nervous. Unless they're just as good as you. Then you should be nervous.

I deal with it all the time in the businesses I run. I raise chickens for eggs and my eggs are the best in town. They're twice as expensive as "local" eggs but mine are healthier, taste better, and have yellow yolks. Some jack rabbit raising terrible quality birds and selling a carton for half the price doesn't upset me because that isn't my market. Same with my mechanics garage. Some people don't like my prices. But when they pay a cheaper mechanic and end up on the side of the road, suddenly my prices aren't so high.
 
To RyanK:

In an attempt to answer some of your questions (and I apologize for taking this thread off-topic), for the driveway shot I would have attached a GoPro to the hood of a car and driven the length of the drive, then sped it up. As for your "8 second shot" rule, forget about it. If the shot is compelling enough, the length does not matter. I can remember some producers (long ago) claiming that 5 seconds was the longest a shot should be. Hogwash, IMHO. As for close-up fly-bys, what I'm really talking about is perspective. Having objects of interest close to the lens as well as far away to give the shot depth, which you did somewhat with the Japanese Maple in the foreground. I would have flown closer to the tree for drama (and it would have been a slow pass). And about the wide-angle lens, again, a GoPro would serve you well (except for the %&$* auto-iris). The old adage "to a hammer, everything is a nail" comes to mind when trying to do it all with the Phantom alone.

I wish you well with your endeavors!
 
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To RyanK:

In an attempt to answer some of your questions (and I apologize for taking this thread off-topic), for the driveway shot I would have attached a GoPro to the hood of a car and driven the length of the drive, then sped it up. As for your "8 second shot" rule, forget about it. If the shot is compelling enough, the length does not matter. I can remember some producers (long ago) claiming that 5 seconds was the longest a shot should be. Hogwash, IMHO. As for close-up fly-bys, what I'm really talking about is perspective. Having objects of interest close to the lens as well as far away to give the shot depth, which you did somewhat with the Japanese Maple in the foreground. I would have flown closer to the tree for drama (and it would have been a slow pass). And about the wide-angle lens, again, a GoPro would serve you well (except for the %&$* auto-iris). The old adage "to a hammer, everything is a nail" comes to mind when trying to do it all with the Phantom alone.

I wish you well with your endeavors!
Thanks again for the info beeline. I have a go pro, but I guess the reason I don't use it for shots like you're describing is the benefit you get from the gimbal on the p3. I know they make separate gimbals for go pros, but they are very expensive, so that's why I kinda do see the phantom as an all in one for real estate purposes at least. I have seen several neutral density filters come out for the p3. I wish they'd come out with a wide view or fisheye attachment.

I like what you were saying about the tree though. I will try to use shots like that more often to show depth and perspective.
 
This man would like me to inspect his roof for damage. I shouldn't be in the air for more then a few minutes. How much should I charge?
 

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