“How on earth am I supposed to price my real estate videography?”
It’s a common question we receive and today we’re going in-depth on real estate video pricing, and exactly how much you should charge whether you’re a beginner, or an advanced videographer.
We’re naturally drawn to motion and visuals. For the most part, humans also respond better to auditory stimuli than text when retaining information. Both these things, the amazing medium of video delivers in spades. That’s why it’s no surprise to know that more and more homebuyers are finding websites with embedded video to be more helpful and trustworthy.
We’ve talked about How to Become a Real Estate Photographer, but it’s a competitive field. Many agents and real estate agencies are starting to do this in-house, and it’s driving the demand (and prices) for real estate photography down.
Enter: Real Estate Videography
Remember when the Minecraft’s creator outbid Jay-Z and Beyonce for this $70 million Beverly Hills home. Heck, the real estate video created for that home (linked within that article) could have easily drove the final sale up a couple million dollars. Yes, they clearly spent a lot of money on production, staging, even actors… but it obviously paid off.
In our last article, we talked about the gear you need to get started in real estate videography. Today, however, we’re going to run through some of the fastest and easiest ways you can put your gear and skills to use, and start making money in real estate videography.
How Much Can I Expect to Make as a Real Estate Videographer?
This is probably the first question that pops up in everybody’s minds who’re looking to break into real estate videography. Unfortunately, this is almost impossible to answer as the income you generate largely depends on a lot of moving parts. Your location, for one, is a huge factor that determines how much you can charge. Generally speaking, real estate videographers in smaller cities might not be able to charge as much as someone who’s based in New York.
Another obvious factor is the quality of the product you’re delivering. Would you be shooting aerials or set up lighting inside the property? Or would you be happy with just a simple walk-around highlight reel? There’s certainly a market for all levels, but I would recommend upping your game and we have plenty of videography tips that can help new filmmakers.
The best advice we can give you is to call up a couple or more professionals in your area and ask about their rates. Asking around and scouting your competition should give you a good ballpark to base your pricing on. One key thing to remember though is that you should only reach out to professionals who you think produce the same level of work that you do.
See how Florida based videographer and photographer Ken Dono structures his pricing for real estate work. Highly recommend checking this out especially if you’re an absolute beginner!
Real Estate Videography Pricing
Building Pricing Packages for Real Estate Video AND Photo
If your goal is to make money, there’s no reason you should only be doing video (or photos for that matter!).
Here’a a general guide for entry level Real Estate Videography Pricing + Photos Package:
Photos
- Under 1500SF – $100
- 1501-2500 SF – $150
- Over 2500 SF – $200
Video
- Walkthrough Video – $100
- Drone Footage $100
- 60 Second Edited Promo Clip – $300
This should put your right around $100/hr, which I’ve found to be a good rate starting out. I’d recommend even being a little more aggressive with your pricing to attract more clients and build clientele. One way to approach this would be to offer 30-50% off to new clients.
Work for a Real Estate Brokerage Firm
If you’re in a pinch and need to get some income going, working for real estate brokerage might be the way to go for a beginner. No, you won’t be enjoying as much freedom or cashing in bigger paychecks as you would if you were to go solo. But the constant stream of projects will help develop your skills further while you make decent money.
As an in-house talent, you’ll probably also be tasked to help with the company’s video marketing efforts. That means you’ll be filming talking-head style videos for testimonials or agent bios to branding videos for the firm. If you work for a larger real estate company, know that you’ll be doing more than interior shots of listings, which should be great practice if you need real-world experience for things like setting up lights and audio. Check out this article for a crash course on the larger scope of the real estate industry’s video marketing strategy and see how you’ll fit in.
The skills you learn by creating these types of highly valuable marketing videos can turn into services that you can carry over to your own real estate videography business when the time comes. Here’s a little taste of something that you might do outside of your typical listing videos. Matthew Stallone shares behind the scenes and the process for creating a real estate agent intro.
Start Reaching Out to Real Estate Agents Directly
Now if you think you already have a strong portfolio and you’re confident with your skills, you might want to start building your clientele from the get-go. You shouldn’t expect to make reliable income if you go this route, but being able to expand your network this early in your career does have its advantages. So if you’re keen on going solo right out of the gate, here’s what you can do.
Fire up a spreadsheet and scour the internet for local listings, sellers, realtors or firms and then list down the contact info of the people you want to work with. Zillow.com and realtors.com are both good places to start. A simple cold email that introduces yourself as a real estate videographer with a link to your portfolio should be able to net you some leads.
The reality, however, is that a lot of the agents or sellers you reach out to would be hesitant to take on your offer, seeing as you’re still quite green in the game. There’ll be a lot of rejections and that’s absolutely fine. What you can do to sweeten the deal is to offer a one-time discount for your first project with an agent. If you’d normally charge $150 for a fairly small property, consider slashing your rates down to $100 to better your chances at landing your first paid project. Hopefully, you’ll deliver a product they’ll love and you’d be expecting repeat business from them going forward.
But even with discounted rates, you may still not get lucky. At this point, it might be time to consider offering free work. A free real estate video almost always gets through doubtful realtors, so treat this as an opportunity to add “real” client work to your portfolio. Chances are, the free work you do today would give you the “in” you need to jumpstart your career. Here’s something to keep in mind though; if you’re going to work for free, make sure that the property is worth at least >$750,000. This should guarantee that you’ll be padding your reel with a high-end listing video, giving you that extra credibility points as a real estate videographer.
Here’s some awesome advice coming from Ryan Snaadt covering everything from building relationships with your clients, gear recommendations, to creating a portfolio.
Learn to Market Your Real Estate Videography Business
At some point, cold calling and cold emailing your prospects won’t be a sustainable as your sole method of getting more business. These direct, in-your-face lead generation tactics will forever have a place in your client-getting strategy, however, there are a ton more marketing tools that can help you grow your business better in the long term.
Before COVID, networking events used to be a thing. So when we do get out of quarantines and gathering restrictions, be sure to go where your market is. This would be your open houses, realtor conferences, workshops and so on — go where agents and sellers hang out. Talking to your ideal clients in these environments and introducing your services would certainly snag a few interested individuals. If anything, you’d at least be top of mind for many potential customers when they do need a videographer.
What you can do right now, without ever needing to step outside, is to build a social media presence. The obvious thing to start pursuing would be your Facebook business page, Instagram, and even LinkedIn. Just start sharing your stuff on these platforms — publish your finished work, shoot a little explainer about the value of professional videography, or a clip showcasing your sickest aerials to date. By creating a social media presence, you get more social proof and a bigger platform to show what you can bring to the table. Social proof alone is one deciding factor that can help you sell your services that much easier.
Final Thoughts
The “build it and they will come” strategy sort of works here, but only if you put in more effort after the “building” part is done. Routinely uploading more content, while actively chasing down leads for your business is always a surefire way of expanding your clientele. Here’s Ryan Snaadt once again with 5 solid tips on growing your videography business covering grassroots marketing to doing spec work that’ll take your portfolio to the next level.
For more like this, checkout our post on How to Become a Videographer.