• Photography 16

Photography

• What affects the price of real estate photography?

  The main factors are property size, the services you add, and whether you book a package or individual services. Photography alone starts at $300 and scales at $50 per additional 1,000 square feet. Adding services like a 3D Matterport tour, cinematic video, or aerial photography increases the total, but bundling them into a package saves you between $150 and $750. 

• Can I schedule a “Go Anytime” appointment for a certain time?

  Unfortunately, this can be difficult to coordinate, as our photographers will often complete a “Go-Anytime” appointment between their other scheduled shoots and they may not know for sure when they’ll arrive. If you have very specific shot requests, have important instructions for the photographer, or need to be onsite to provide access, it may be best if you choose a scheduled time instead, so that you can be onsite with the photographer.

• What does “Go Anytime” mean?

  “Go Anytime” means just that – go anytime! Our photographers may arrive at the property any time between 8:00am and 5:00pm. Agents may select the “Go-Anytime” option if they don’t have to meet the photographer and can provide via a lockbox, hidden key, etc.

  If you have very specific shot requests, have important instructions for the photographer, or need to be onsite to provide access, it may be best if you choose a scheduled time instead, so that you can be onsite with the photographer.

• How much does real estate photography cost in the Bay Area?

  Real estate photography at Open Homes starts at $300 for properties up to 999 square feet, with pricing scaling by square footage. Packages that bundle photography with other services start at $800, with options that add Matterport, video, and aerial starting at $1,000. Packages offer savings of up to $750 compared to booking services individually.

  Use our instant quote tool to get exact pricing for your listing in minutes.

• What if I need to Cancel or Reschedule my appointment?

  We know there are a lot of moving parts to getting a listing up, and marketing is typically that last effort to go live, so we are happy to quickly cancel or work with you to reschedule appointments. However, we do need to adhere to some strict guidelines in order to keep our staff productive and not affect our other customers.

   

  Cancellation Fees:

  Appointments that are cancelled or rescheduled within 24 hours of the appointment time are subject to a $150 cancellation fee. Note: This is a differs from our past cancellation policy which was only applied if the appointment was cancelled or rescheduled on the day of the appointment.

  Twilight shoots are particularly dependent on weather, and if the reason for rescheduling is based on bad weather, the customer can avoid the cancellation fee if he or she gives us at least 2 hours notice.

  Aerial shoots are also particularly dependent on weather, and if the reason for rescheduling is based on bad weather, the customer can avoid the cancellation fee.

   

  Rescheduling Fees:

  OHP allows customers to reschedule an appointment one time at no charge. Additional rescheduling requests may incur a rescheduling fee of $50.

• Is there a price difference for commercial property photography?

  We regularly photograph industrial and commercial properties, but it really depends on the coverage and number of photos you need, as well as the complexity. Because a commercial space’s complexity varies, we simply charge $250 per hour for commercial properties (including general post production from our creative team). That said, most warehouse type listings can be photographed for $250-$350, but we’re happy to discuss additional needs!

• Do you reuse “Common Areas” and other shared property listing photos?

  Yes! In order to make our shoots more efficient and cost-effective, we will often photograph common areas, shared property attributes and facilities like gyms, pools, spas, etc. beforehand, afterward, or from other photography sessions. This helps us deliver consistent, timely, and quality photos and marketing materials for our clients. We provide these extra photos (and others like neighborhood photos) at no extra cost to you for use on Open Homes Photography created materials. However, unless a specific photo shoot for these areas or neighborhoods was ordered with an extended license, Open Homes Photography is free to use these across our platforms and for additional listings.

• Can I give the photos I commissioned to a third party (stager, contractor, etc)?

  As the purchasing agent, you have the right to use the photos as desired in order to market, sell, and otherwise promote the listing that was photographed (in addition to promoting your own brand). However, you cannot offer the photos to a third party such as a stager, contractor, architect, or designer without first contacting Open Homes. These groups must first purchase license rights before using the photos for their own commercial purposes.

• I saw a photo of my listing on your website (or in other marketing and promotional materials). Why?

  Open Homes Photography is very proud of the work we do, and we try to show it off! And since we hold the exclusive end-use rights to our photos, we are free to use them for marketing and promotion. That said, we typically try to always include the listing agent in promotions, so hopefully it is a win-win for everyone! See our Terms of Use for more information.

• Can I use your Neighborhood Photos in my own marketing?

  Sorry, we do not share or sell our neighborhood photos for personal marketing use, they are only for the websites we create!

• How does Virtual Staging for photography work?

  Virtual Staging service offers a convenient alternative to staging a room – with the added bonus of never having to move a single piece of furniture.

  Explore our expansive online furniture gallery, find the perfect home decor, and our team will provide a masterfully-edited photo full of virtual furniture after just one day of editing.

  The cost is $100 per image and will take one additional day to complete once the images are ready!

  Here are some before and after images of virtual staging!

  Our editing team places the furniture in a way that best fits the room, so they can move the furniture’s angle so that it looks natural by increasing/decreasing the size of the virtual furniture so it looks better in the room. I hope that helps!

• How many photos are included in my shoot?

  We want to make sure you get the coverage you need and that we do the best job of telling your listing’s story, so we do not have a hard limit on photos (except in some multiunit or TIC cases). Instead, we price based on the listing’s square footage. That said, you can expect to get around 25 per 1,000 square feet.

• Do you offer same day appointments?

  We can usually offer same day appointments and deliver photos by 9am the next day! However, because our photographers are busy bees, we do not offer same day turnaround on photos.

• Can you use my photos for Virtual Staging or Virtual remodeling?

  Unfortunately, it can be very difficult to add Virtual Staging into photography from other people or vendors. We use sophisticated CGI (Computer Generated Imaging) much like Hollywood does, which means the way that we shoot, capture, and process the photography is very important (color and light consistency is key). We would really love to help, but many photos cannot be well re-rendered with new CGI components to sufficient standards. And unfortunately, we don’t often know how well it will work until we’ve put in a few hours of effort.

  We are happy to review your photos to see if they are good candidates for Virtual Staging before ordering, but please note that if you wish to proceed with any Virtual Staging processing we will not be able to offer refunds if the processed photos don’t appear to your liking. Please keep in mind that we invest considerable time into manipulating each photo.

• I just need a few photos taken. Can you do that and how much is it?

  Yes! We offer hourly pricing ($250/hr) if you’re not sure what you need, have a large commercial space, or just don’t need a full standard photoshoot.

  If you just need exterior images for pre-marketing or you need a few more photos of that new landscape after we’ve already done the standard shoot, we can offer a supplemental shoot called a “pick up” and they start at $150. We’ll provide up to 1-10 photos, fully color corrected and delivered the next day! Check out our pricing here. However, Pick Ups and Pre Marketing shoots must be ordered in conjunction with standard shoots (at the same time or after). Unfortunately, we cannot offer stand alone pickups at this time unless they are only “go anytime” exterior images only.

  Pick-Up Shoots are ideal for a number of situations when just a handful of new photos are needed, such as:

  • New staging or re-staging a room
  • Better weather
  • New paint
  • Remodeling
  • Pre-market advertising
  • New landscaping

  Note: Standard shoots cannot be substituted for pick-up shoots. If you need standard photography, please choose from the square footage pricing tiers or contact us for our hourly pricing options.

• What are “Pick Up” shoots?

  Pick up shoots are very small, supplemental photo shoots that we provide to save you some coin when you need just a few exterior shots for pre-marketing, or say, the landscaping was redone after your primary shoot has taken place. We want to make sure you get real marketing value with Open Homes Photography, so we’re not going to charge you for a whole new standard shoot when all you need are a few “pick ups” to make your listing perfect. Pick Ups must be ordered in conjunction with standard shoots (at the same time or after) and cannot be substituted for standard photography. However, we do offer a Pre-Marketing shoot that is 1-10 exterior photos and can only be scheduled as a “go anytime” on a specific date. No interiors are included with the Pre-Marketing shoot.

  Pick-Up Shoots are ideal for a number of situations when just a handful of new photos are needed, such as:

  • New staging or re-staging a room
  • Better weather
  • New paint
  • Remodeling
  • Pre-market advertising
  • New landscaping

   

  That said, if you don’t need full coverage of a property, we can offer hourly photography (minimum 1 hour) for any sized property, and this will typically start you off at 15- 25 images.

  Note: Standard shoots cannot be substituted for pick-up shoots. If you need standard photography, please choose from the square footage pricing tiers or contact us for our hourly pricing options.