Nearly two years ago, I started working as a real estate photographer here at Grand Showing. I had been practicing photography for about seven years prior to this, mainly doing it as a hobby until I shifted in February 2020 to providing real estate media and customer service to dozens of realtors, sellers, and businesses. Additionally, I started this job just before Covid-19 took hold in the U.S. and also during Spokane’s unprecedented housing boom that made it rank consistently in America’s top housing markets. Here’s some of what I learned:

1. THE IMPORTANCE OF TIME MANAGEMENT

In a fast-paced industry like real estate photography, staying on schedule and accurately predicting how long something will take is extremely important. During our busiest days, I will do up to 8 different photoshoots in a single day, and if one shoot takes too long, it can derail the whole day.

For me, staying on time starts the day before. Double-checking travel times, appointment information, and that my gear is ready and charged at the end of the day allows me to come into the office the next morning knowing that I’m prepared for everything. As anyone who’s put off getting gas on their way to work until the morning knows, you never have as much time as you think you will.

Staying on time allows me to be efficient, and not sacrifice my work quality in order to rush.

2. YOU CAN’T BE EVERYTHING FOR EVERYONE
Since businesses are run by people, they often run into problems that individuals face in their personal lives as well. In my case, I can be a people pleaser, which can be great for customer service, until a point. Sometimes a current or potential client will make a request that just doesn’t work for you.

Occasional favors are a great way to strengthen a relationship with a client, but repeated requests to do something outside of what you offer can end up costing you productivity and profit.

New requests can be an opportunity to reevaluate what you do and how you do something, but being able to say no is important. Real estate photography, and photography in general, is a form of art, and art is to a large degree subjective, so if someone doesn’t like our style, that doesn’t mean we necessarily need to change it, but that they simply would be better off with someone else.

3. THERE’S ALWAYS ROOM FOR GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT
One thing we like to do at Grand Showing is consistently track our travel, shoot, and edit times for our appointments. This allows us to have great data to analyze how quickly we’re getting our work done and see how our times change over time. There have been periods when I’ve gotten complacent and thought “I’m good enough at this” only to find out that I can still get better, especially when there is pressure to do so.

For example, my edit times dropped by about 30 minutes last year when we shifted from our slower season to our busy season, by having the pressure of having more shoots to get done, and through finding new editing techniques to incorporate.

Sometimes it’s hard not to settle, or even imagine how you might get better at something, but by identifying goals and committing to self-improvement, you can look back and surprise yourself at how far you’ve come.

If you’re interested in more of what we have to say about real estate and real estate photography, check out some of our blogs in our “Tips” section, where we cover various topics like how to prepare your home for photos and using social media to help sell your listing.

Or if you’re interested in seeing some of our work, head over to our “Portfolio” section and see some absolutely stunning homes.

Post Written By: Jackson Erb, Real Estate Photographer

Thank You

We want to say thank you for taking the time to read this. Our desire is for our clients to succeed. We hope that this writing helped you in some way, and if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions feel free to reach out, we appreciate any feedback.

Lastly, we would be truly honored to have you share this article on social media.