Shot my own rental photos at 4pm and the unit sat 11 extra days
Small portfolio, and I've always taken my own listing photos to save money. Two bedroom unit, $1,450 a month, and I shot it on my phone at 4pm on a Thursday because that's when the cleaner finished.
The windows face west. Every photo has a blown out window and a dark room, because a phone camera exposes for the bright part and gives up on the rest. The kitchen looked brown. I posted them anyway.
Two weeks of inquiries that mostly asked if there were more photos. Four showings, and two of those people said the place looked better than the pictures, which sounds like a compliment and means the pictures cost me applicants. I paid a photographer $165, she came at 10am, brought a light and a wide lens, and delivered 22 photos in a day. Applications picked up within four days and I signed a lease the following week.
Cost of the detour: 11 extra vacant days at $1,450 a month is about $530 in rent I didn't collect, plus the $165 I ended up paying anyway. Call it $695 to avoid a $165 invoice.
What I'd do differently: book the photographer for a morning slot when I schedule the cleaner, before the unit is even ready to list. And if I ever shoot it myself again, I'll do it mid-morning with every light in the unit on, which the photographer told me is half of what she was doing.