Should a Real Estate Photographer get their Real Estate License?
Sooo, this is an interesting subject - especially since I gave back my real estate license in March 2024. But let’s cut to the chase - in the end, the root of your success and problems is this - Lead generation.
In order to grow your Photography or Real Estate business you need to convert leads to clients. No way around it. This takes Time. So if you spend 2hrs a day on generating Real Estate leads (calls, door knocking, host open houses, etc), that’s 2hr you’re not spending on your photography business. And vice versa.
The only way to grow the Real Estate side is to COAST on the photography side, because you’ll need that extra time to generate leads. And once those Real Estate leads are clients, you’ll still need the extra time for showings, inspections, writing offers, closings.
Then there’s the time/money problem of the leads themselves.
The AVG time it takes to close a Buyer can be 30-60 days, a Seller 3-6months. Sounds like Buyers are the better right? Not really. Buyers are easier to acquire and close, but take more time physically as you’ll need to be present for things like showings, etc.
Sellers takes more time to acquire, are sometimes harder to close, but are the backbone to a successful longterm real estate business. The big players don’t go after Buyers, they work with Sellers. Period.
Now the money problem.
Here in Ohio, the cost to stay in the real estate game annually is roughly $2,000. (This doesn’t include taking the real estate classes and the test fee for your license.) This includes monthly brokerage fee, MLS Dues, Board of Real Estate dues, over the course of the year.
So to break even from year 1 you’ll need to likely to close 2 Buyers, or close 1-2 Sellers. This means you’ve spent various amounts of hours over the course of, call it 60-180 days, working to break even.
Sounds daunting, but I’m also trying to be transparent and not blow smoke up your ass. You can definitely close more. But all of this 100% depends on your hustle and time management. And you need to become a MASTER of the latter.
Every realtor I’ve spoken with has told me that it takes about 5 yrs to get to the point where you don’t need to lead generate and your business becomes referral based. And that’s them working full-time. So image the grind it will take to get those results working part-time on it.
What I noticed over the past 3 yrs of being licensed was that you can’t GROW the photography side while trying to grow the real estate, because you simply need the time. The only way you may be able to grow both simultaneously is to outsource as much as possible the photography side.
Now, if you want the license just to have in your back pocket in case opportunities present themselves, that’s totally cool. Just remember the cost to stay in the game, at least in Ohio, is about $2,000 per year. Likely more for other states. Point is - there’s no soft “trying it out”, haha… If you want to “try it out”, by all means go for it, but you’ll be paying for the experience.
But if you find you like real estate and can come up with a system that works, one that makes retaining the license worth it, then why not. There’s is a lot I like about real estate as an industry. But personally, I just found that I didn’t like the sales side of real estate. The more I got into it, the more I felt myself wanting to grow my photography business. For me it was a 3 yr experiment to show me where my passion truly lies.
If you do decide to try real estate, I strongly suggest these 5 things.
ONE : Join a team. DO NOT try it solo. You will waste time and money. As I mentioned before, what you learn in real estate class has nothing to do with the business of real estate. What they don’t tell you is after you ace your test with flying colors, you will be back at ground zero.
The key to success is experience. Considering every transaction will throw vastly different problems at you, you need all the experience you can get. Take a lower commission split so that you can LEARN as quickly as possible. Learning = Success. Once you get understand how run the business side, then decide if going solo makes sense for you.
TWO : Shadow someone. Again - this is because what you learn in real estate class has NOTHING to do with the business of real estate, haha. Follow someone (preferably a successful someone) for at least a month.
THREE : Practice writing offers and contracts - immediately. Your team will tell you to focus on lead generation (contracts are pointless without clients to sign them right?) but I found that sometimes a lead, especially buyers, can get thrown in your lap, and then you’re off to the races. Things can move quickly, and I personally don’t like feeling overwhelmed or like I’m playing catch up. You also don’t want to be fumbling through a contract in front of your client, or worse, filling it out wrong. Practice writing them before, it will increase your confidence overall.
FOUR : Have patience. Everything in real estate takes time. A lot of it. (Another reason I don’t like real estate, I like to move fast.)
FIVE : The magic is in the follow-up. This rule applies to all sales. My rule now, developed from real estate, is Follow Up or Fuck Off. Meaning, I don’t stop reaching out to a lead until they give me a HARD no.
In closing, something like 70% of new realtors will be out of the game after 2yrs of being licensed. This is because they think real estate is a get rich quick scheme. It’s quite the opposite.
Only those in for the long term, willing to grind for a MINIMUM of 5 years will come out the other end with the foundation of a real business.
Learn from me! I hope this helps and good luck, wherever this journey leads you!
