Estate Agents

CarlukeDave

CarlukeDave

Suspended / Banned
Messages
1,048
Edit My Images
Yes
Do estate agents employ photographers for the photo's for schedules and websites, or is it just the agent with a camera, or a mixture of both?

Been looking at some sites, some pics look really good and some are really shabby!
 
I know some high end Estate Agents that use Photographers with lighting to really set off a property.

Then again I know Agents that just use a compact.
 
From experience, albeit many years ago, the photo quality was down to the skill of whoever they send around to view the property. That was in the days of film so I should think its even more so now with digital.

I wish there had been something like photoshop in my day.... would have sold more houses! I used to have to edit with white Tippex liquid :naughty:

Cheers,

Neil
 
My wife works for an Estate Agent. Mostly they take their own photos, they have a G9 and a 400D.

One of the chaps that works their is pretty handy with a camera too, and I think he's taken some of the more prestigious stuff.

I've offered advice when they were having exposure problems.

Steve
 
I am selling two properties at the moment with two different agents. When I spoke to one of them about the quality of images they had taken with their point and shoot cameras all they could tell me was their cameras had wide angle lenses. They had no interest in staging or lighting, I ended up taking the shots myself. There are some companies who specialise in photographing highend properties for estate agents.
 
Top end agents use real Togs (which the client has to pay for). The others use Joe Bloggs from the office with a P+S.
 
Yeah they do.

Well, some of them anyway. The posh ones all use marketing companies e.g. Quidos (who I work for) Niche, BPM, or Ehouse as they will provide proper CAD represented floorplans and print and design the brochures as well if they require it. Our company also offers training facilities for those who don't wish to use our services.

Agents we work for include.... Strakers, Staggs, Dreweatte Neate, Savills, Knight Frank, Hamptons, Humberts, Cooper & Tanner, Davies & Way, Cobb Farr, Andrews to name but a few.

Some of these are local and some are international companies. We do all sorts of properties from 200k boxes up to multimillion estates.

I think a lot of the high turn-over agents like fox's and halifax still use the agents to take their photo's.

Why do you ask?

If you're interested in doing this sort of stuff the best thing to do is to approach a local agents and see if they'll let you do one or two as a (free?) trial and then work from there. Ask them why they don't use a proper 'tog, it'll probably be down to budgetary reasons I would imagine.

Should only be an hour or so's work for a standard sized property. For a fancy mansion it'll be all day more than likely.
 
i used to be a estate agent and all they used was a simple camera with a wide angle lens on it................ No Frills Photo taking.
 
Gandhi said:
The posh ones all use marketing companies e.g. Quidos (who I work for) Niche, BPM, or Ehouse
Click to expand...

Interesting. I have heard of Quidos and Ehouse, but not the other two. Do you have website links for them please?

Thanks.
 
A lot of estate agents-especially the large ones foxtons for instance employ people who go round with good grade camera and do it all and make all the floor plans and eveything-other companies do specialise in this but more for the high end market as stated before.
 
Usually a P&S and very often its more a case of what fits in the handbag
 
I would call and check before sending off a CV if you're interested. I know they took on a snapper in burg back in the spring and most agents aren't exactly falling over themselves to spend extra cash at the mo.
 
Gandhi said:
Yeah they do.

Well, some of them anyway. The posh ones all use marketing companies e.g. Quidos (who I work for) Niche, BPM, or Ehouse as they will provide proper CAD represented floorplans and print and design the brochures as well if they require it. Our company also offers training facilities for those who don't wish to use our services.

Agents we work for include.... Strakers, Staggs, Dreweatte Neate, Savills, Knight Frank, Hamptons, Humberts, Cooper & Tanner, Davies & Way, Cobb Farr, Andrews to name but a few.

Some of these are local and some are international companies. We do all sorts of properties from 200k boxes up to multimillion estates.

I think a lot of the high turn-over agents like fox's and halifax still use the agents to take their photo's.

Why do you ask?

If you're interested in doing this sort of stuff the best thing to do is to approach a local agents and see if they'll let you do one or two as a (free?) trial and then work from there. Ask them why they don't use a proper 'tog, it'll probably be down to budgetary reasons I would imagine.

Should only be an hour or so's work for a standard sized property. For a fancy mansion it'll be all day more than likely.
Click to expand...

Cheers for all the info guys!

I was thinking about approaching a few local agents with a view to getting some work, I've recently started up on my own, and although it's only in my spare time, I was thinking it might be a decent way to get some business.

Dave
 
Go for it......

I love my job, despite the fact that I sometimes get to tidy peoples houses for them, have to put up with whingey agents who want you to go back and take the same shot again 5 feet further to the left and draw floorplans of the wonkiest houses you've ever seen.

I do get to see some lovely places and generally the vendors are all lovely, interesting people with some good stories to tell and interesting facts about the history of where they live. In the last week or so I've met the manager of the Stranglers and the bloke who used to do production for Genesis. Nice. ;)

When the sun is shining and the vendors have a vague idea about interior decoration then it's brilliant. I just wish we were given more time at each property to be a bit more creative!
 
Thought I'd changed my avatar for a mo there. :lol:
 
JumboBeef said:
Interesting. I have heard of Quidos and Ehouse, but not the other two. Do you have website links for them please?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Can't find anything about Niche, may have gone under as they're a relatively new startup company.

BPM can be found at BigPropertyMarketing.something, I would imagine.
 
dazzajl said:
Thought I'd changed my avatar for a mo there. :lol:
Click to expand...

You can't disguise the fact that is fundamentally a brilliant job as far as photography work goes. No screaming kids in the studio, No tangerine coloured glamour models with bad boob jobs, no chasing around in the middle of the night trying to get a shot of Paris Hilton, no standing around in the freezing rain watching 3rd division football, no taking photographs of the village fete and some of the best coffee I've ever had ;)
 
and some of the best coffee I've ever had
Click to expand...

There really is some seriously good coffee out there.

I had 5 straight days in the studio last week faffing about with endless still lifes and product shots. I can't tell you how good it felt after all the millimeter adjustments to be walking through some field, in the sunshine and wind to get a good shot of the back of some big gaff. :thumbs::thumbs:
 
I think most estate agents, apart from the high enders already mentioned, shoot their own pictures using a Digi with a wide angle lens and flash on. When I was selling my house, the agent only used a digital compact, but I was still fairly pleased with how the photos turned out.
I think they have to be very careful not to misrepresent the property with the use of wider angle lenses etc... under the same grounds of false advertising.It's also the same with the property descriptions. Also, the average house probably has'nt got the room to set up a full lighting rig in every nook and cranny.
 
smithphoto said:
I think they have to be very careful not to misrepresent the property with the use of wider angle lenses etc... under the same grounds of false advertising.It's also the same with the property descriptions.
Click to expand...

A friend of mine took his own pictures, going to great lengths to get them just right, when the agent came round they said they couldn't use them for the reasons above, they had to take all the shots themselves or their indemnity insurance wouldn't cover them if they got sued for any reason

he was gutted, they took all the pictures in about 30 seconds :lol:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top