Insurance and whatever else lands on a listing photographer's monthly bill

Question

An agent I've been talking to says she'll send me two listings a month if I can turn photos around in 24 hours. Before I say yes I want to know what running this actually costs every month, not just the camera I already own. Someone in a photo group told me no brokerage will let me in the door without a million dollars of general liability. Someone else said editing all gets sent out for a couple of dollars a photo, and then a third person said the editing houses are all AI now and cost almost nothing. Is there a license involved too? I don't have a business license and I don't fly a drone, so I assumed I could skip all of that.

Rena Guide · Accepted Answer

General liability covers damage you cause on site, a tripod leg going through drywall or a homeowner tripping over your light stand. Brokerages and relocation companies often want a certificate naming them, and a million per occurrence with two million aggregate is the usual ask. For a one-person photo operation that tends to run a few hundred dollars to around $700 a year. It does not cover your own gear. Gear sits on an inland marine or scheduled equipment policy, priced off replacement value.

Business licensing is local. Most cities want a business license or a home occupation permit, and some states treat photography as a taxable sale and want you registered for sales tax, so check your own city and state because both of those vary by state.

Outsourced editing is real and runs roughly $1 to $3 an image depending on turnaround and how much sky replacement and window blending you want. The AI-assisted services sit at the bottom of that range. At 25 images a house you're spending $25 to $75 out of the shoot fee.

Software is small. A photo editor subscription is around $10 to $15 a month and a delivery gallery another $10 to $30. Matterport hosting is priced per active model on top of a plan fee, if you get into 3D at all.

The thing that bites people who promise 24 hours is redundancy. One dead card or a body that won't fire and you're reshooting for free on your own gas. A second body and a spare set of cards costs less than one blown deadline with an agent who lists twice a month.

gregpowell66 · Answer

Every sub on my jobs has to hand over a cert before they set foot on site, million per occurrence, two million aggregate. Brokerages ask photographers for the same thing for the same reason. You're carrying a light stand past a $4,000 mirror in someone's front hall.

priya_n21 · Answer

Two listings a month at whatever she's paying is not a monthly bill you can carry. What's her per-shoot number?

angela_burke · Answer

We send everything out at $1.50 an image on a 12 hour turn, so a 28 image house is $42 of the fee gone before I've paid the shooter. The AI-only services are cheaper and I've stopped using them for anything with a view out a window, because the blend on a bright window against a dim kitchen is still where they fall over. Budget for a human pass on maybe a fifth of your images and you'll sleep.

nataliehsu · Answer

Does the delivery gallery count as a real cost or can you just send a Dropbox link and be done?

ryanmck27 · Answer

@plumb agents lose Dropbox links constantly, that's the whole product. On licensing, my city charges $75 for a home occupation permit and the state wanted me registered for sales tax because delivered image files count as taxable here. Both of those are state and city specific, so don't take my $75 as your $75.

mitchell_ray4 · Answer

Your auto policy won't pay for the bag of gear sitting in the truck at the second shoot of the day. Ask specifically about off-premises theft when you price the equipment coverage, it's a separate line.

derekj19 · Answer

The part I never see priced out is what happens at month 14. You're holding a couple of terabytes of finished houses that agents keep asking for again, and cloud storage stops being free. Is anyone charging an archive fee, or does everyone just eat it and hope the drive holds?

Insurance and whatever else lands on a listing photographer's monthly bill

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