Cost

What Real Estate Photography Costs

Almost every quote you will get for listing media is built from the same four things. This page explains what they are and roughly what to budget, so that when you compare two quotes you are comparing the same shoot. For the actual numbers at your square footage, the pricing page has a calculator.

Square footage, and why it bands

Square footage is the largest single driver, and it is priced in bands rather than per square foot. That is not a rounding convenience. A 1,900 sq ft house and a 2,000 sq ft house take the same time to shoot: the same rooms, the same setups, the same number of frames, the same drive. What changes the work is crossing into a different kind of property — a fourth bedroom, a finished basement, a second storey, a lot big enough that the exterior becomes its own set.

Banding also means the number you are quoted does not move because a measurement came back forty feet different from the listing sheet. It is a rate for a size of property, not a meter running.

The practical consequence for budgeting: the jump between bands is real and the movement inside one is nothing. If a property sits near the top of a band it is worth knowing, because a finished basement measured into the total can push it over.

The service mix

Photography is the base of almost every shoot and the cheapest part of it. Floor plans are inexpensive and, per dollar, the highest-return item on the list — buyers spend longer on a listing with a plan because it answers the question photographs cannot.

Video is where the price moves. A vertical social cut and a cinematic horizontal walkthrough are different products with different costs: the vertical is shot and cut quickly for a feed, the cinematic needs sequencing, stabilised movement, and an edit that holds together as a single piece. Expect video to be the largest line on a quote that has one.

Drone and Matterport sit in between and are priced per property rather than per band. Drone is a flight and a set of frames; Matterport is a capture plus hosting, which is why it behaves differently from everything else on a rate card.

Travel and turnaround

Travel is the line agents most often forget when comparing quotes. A studio quoting from twenty minutes away and one quoting from an hour away are not offering the same thing, and on a single-listing booking the drive is a real proportion of the day. It is worth asking any studio how they handle it, because a headline price with travel folded invisibly into it and one with travel quoted separately are not comparable numbers.

Turnaround affects price wherever a studio offers a rush option, because a rush is not faster work — it is your listing moving in front of someone else's in the edit queue. It is worth asking any studio what their standard turnaround is in writing, and what a rush actually costs, before you need one.

What to budget per listing tier

As a planning figure rather than a quote: a condo or townhome with stills and a plan is the least expensive shoot on the list and the one most agents book most often. A detached family home with stills, a plan and a vertical cut is the everyday middle, and is what the majority of listings in this market get.

A higher-value property with a cinematic film, drone and a 3D tour is a multiple of that, and it is the tier where the media budget should be set against the commission rather than against the last invoice. On a listing where the marketing is genuinely doing work — a new build, acreage, anything competing at the top of its street — the difference between the middle tier and the full one is small against what it is being spent to sell.

The number that matters is cost per listing against time on market, not cost per photograph. That is the comparison worth making, and it is the reason the cheapest quote is rarely the one that ends up cheapest.

Common questions

What does real estate photography cost in Vancouver and the Fraser Valley?

It depends on the size of the property and what you book with the photographs. A condo with stills and a floor plan sits at the bottom of the range; a detached home with a vertical cut is the everyday middle; a large property with a cinematic film, drone and a 3D tour is a multiple of that. The pricing page prices all three at a square footage you enter, which is more useful than a range.

Why does price change with square footage?

Because a bigger property is a longer shoot and a longer edit — more rooms, more setups, more frames, and an exterior that becomes its own set once the lot is large enough. It is priced in bands rather than per square foot so that a measurement coming back slightly different from the listing sheet does not change your quote.

Is video more expensive than photography?

Yes, and by a clear margin on the cinematic end. Photographs are a set of frames; a film is sequenced, stabilised and edited into something that has to hold together as one piece. A vertical social cut sits between the two — quick to shoot and cut, and the cheapest way to put motion on a listing.

What is included in a standard listing package?

Forty HDR photographs and a measured 2D floor plan, delivered sized for MLS, for web and for print, branded and unbranded. That is the package that gets a listing live. Video, drone and 3D tours are separate and can be added to the same visit.

The pricing page prices every package and every individual service at the square footage you enter, with no request form in the way.

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