Premium Members, click here to access this interview in the premium area.

Thomas Vargeletis of  www.tv.photography is a real estate photographer who started as a listing agent after earning his license to sell real estate. Following bad experiences with local photographers, he learnt how to shoot for himself.

A few years later, other agents began hiring him to photograph their listings and Thomas Vargeletis Photography was born.

Since then, he's released three books, on real estate, photography and business. He hosts a podcast, Full Time Real Estate Photographer, where he covers real estate photography business information, best practices and gear recommendations.

In this interview, Thomas shares the details on growing a real estate photography business from scratch, scaling and profiting. He covers how to generate bookings with agents, pricing, scheduling, shooting, post-processing and delivering images.

If you've entertained the idea of shooting real estate photography for profit, you'll get a ton from what Thomas shares in this interview.

Here's some more of what we cover in the interview:

  • A snapshot of Thomas' real estate photography business
  • Why hire a team of real estate photographers?
  • Thomas' philosophy when hiring employees
  • Who are Thomas' target clients?
  • The booking process with real estate agents
  • How are real estate agents finding Thomas' business?
  • The importance of building a good portfolio for your business
  • How to sell the idea of presentations to a real estate agent
  • How easy is it to find real estate agents to service with your photography?
  • What happens during a photography presentation and what items to bring?
  • The best time to discuss pricing during these sales presentations
  • The need to have engaging presentations
  • The process of booking appointments during the sales presentations
  • Email automation Thomas is using in his business
  • The importance of utilising a CRM in a real estate photography business
  • The loyalty value of real estate agents is high once you have them
  • Finding the right real estate agents to target with your business
  • Why real estate agents choose to do business with Thomas
  • The importance of creating consistent customer experience for clients
  • Why talented photographers find it difficult to scale their businesses
  • How to prevent associate shooters from stealing work and clients
  • Taking into account the personalities of people you will hire to help your business
  • Pre-shoot consultations for agents – yes or no?
  • How Thomas trains people to be consistent with what they do
  • Virtual staging process
  • Where Thomas finds people to outsource parts of his business
  • Licensing requirements to fly drones
  • Who pays for the cost of photography in real estate imagery?
  • What happens after a photoshoot?
  • Dealing with SD cards for every photo session
  • How often Thomas formats SD cards
  • Using G-Suite to manage files
  • Post-processing for real estate photographers
  • Thomas' shooting process
  • Tilt-shift lenses for real estate photography
  • Image resolution for real estate photography
  • Target clients for house photos with painterly effects
  • Why photographers should venture into real estate photography

Thomas Vargeletis Photography Podcast

What’s on Offer for Premium Members

If you’re a premium member, you should have received an email with links to your version of this interview – the full length and more revealing version where you hear the absolute best tips and advice from every guest.

If you’re on the fence about becoming a premium member, join with the $1 trial today and get access to the FULL interviews each week, get access to an amazing back catalogue of interviews and ALL future interviews delivered automatically to your phone or tablet.

Plus special member-only interviews.

One of the best things about real estate photography is that if you have a portfolio, and you can prove that you can take decent quality images, real estate agents are super super easy to find. – Thomas Vargeletis

You'll also receive access to the members-only Secret Facebook Group where you can connect with other Premium Members and interview guests to help, support and motivate you to take ideas you hear in each episode and put them into action. There are also FB live video tutorials, role-play interviews and special live interviews happening in the group. You will not find more friendly, more motivated, caring and sharing photographers online.

Joining a Mastermind Group (encouraged by Andrew) has been incredibly valuable and fun, I look forward to connecting with my group members every week. Jina Zheng, Premium Member and Melbourne Children photographer.

Seriously, that's not all.

In addition to everything above, you'll get access to and instructions on forming or joining a MasterMind Group with other premium members. These groups are super motivating, make you accountable and build friendships with other pro photographers with similar motives to you – to build a more successful photography business.

Thomas Vargeletis Photography Podcast

What is your big takeaway?

Following this interview, I’d love to know if you're taking anything away from what Thomas shared. Is there something you heard that excited or motivated you to the point where you thought, yeah, I'm going to do that! If so, let me know by leaving your thoughts in the comments below, let me know what your takeaways were, what you plan to implement in your business as a result of what you heard in today's episode.

If you're a really talented photographer, it's not too difficult to get busy, but it's exceptionally difficult to scale your business. – Thomas Vargeletis

If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you’d like to ask Thomas or if you just want to say thanks for coming on the show, feel free to add them in the comments area below.

6 Month Membership Special

I recently announced a flash sale on the 6 month PhotoBizX Premium Membership.

In light of the current circumstances, I'm be extending this offer. It's my attempt to make the education and motivation provided by the interview guests and other members inside the Facebook Group as affordable as possible.

If you are an existing member who has already made a monthly payment this month, let me know after signing up for the 6-month membership, and I'll refund your $20 payment.

Once you sign up for the 6 month membership, make sure you cancel your existing monthly payments via your automatic payments dashboard inside your PayPal account.

For more info and to sign up, click this link —>> https://photobizx.com/sms

New members are also welcome to sign up with this special offer.

Thomas Vargeletis Photography Podcast

iTunes Reviews and Shout-outs

Each week I check for any new iTunes reviews and it's always a buzz to receive these… for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, it's confirmation that I'm on the right track with the interviews and that they really are helping you improve your photography business. That's awesome!

Secondly, iTunes is the biggest search engine when it comes to podcasts and it's your reviews and ratings that help other photographers find PhotoBizX. More listeners mean more interviews and ultimately a better show.

There's no reason to spend that much money to get the quality that I need out of a real estate shoot on a lens. – Thomas Vargeletis

If you have left a review in the past, thank you! If you haven't and you'd like to, head to https://photobizx.com/itunes and you can leave some honest feedback and a rating which will help both me and the show and I'll be sure to thank you on the show and add a link to your website or blog if you let me know the URL of your website and your name.

Alternatively, if you've left a review for PhotoBizX and are looking for more backlinks to help your SEO, leave a review for the new Photography Xperiment Podcast and email me your keywords or keyword phrase and where you'd like me to link to.

Another great way to get a backlink to your site is to send a video testimonial. It doesn't need to be fancy and your phone will be perfect. Click record and tell me how PhotoBizX has made a difference to you and your photography business.

Here's the latest review…

★★★★★ Getting Me Through

In Apple iTunes by North East wedding photographer, Daz Mack Photo from the United Kingdom on April 30, 2020

This is such a great podcast, I've listened to Andrews Podcast for years and its at times like these when you can go back on that content, and here some of your favourite people talking, that you realise we're all in the same boat.

Now's the time to focus on business and the podcasts are really helping with that!

★★★★★ Invaluable Resource for Photographers

In Apple iTunes by Hudson Valley family photographer, Christine Ashburn from the USA on April 29, 2020

I have been a PhotoBizX Premium Member for a couple of years. The PhotoBizX library is a thorough and diverse resource.

With every new step I take in my business, I turn to the PhotoBizX catalogue first for specific research. I also love listening in every week, especially when I am editing.

★★★★★ Best Decision I've Made for my Photography Business

In Facebook by Lindsey ‘Linz' Robertson, Essex Wedding Photographer  – in the UK on May 1st, 2020.

I'm a long time listener to PBX. It took me a long time to become a premium member. I lurked in the shadows of the free members, listening for entertainment and not much else. All while wondering why my business wasn't taking off like others.

I finally became a premium member in 2018. Best business decision I've made. Andrew delivers amazing content, is so helpful and does it in a way that's easy for you to understand. He always asks the questions I'm thinking when I listen to the podcast and there's no fluff. Just great business and marketing advice.

For the small investment that the premium membership costs, it's the best investment I've made for my business. I've gone on to do various courses by Andrew, and I can't think of a single person better to learn from.

From information overload to actually marketing my photography business! I'm finally implementing the things I should have been doing years ago.

And Andrew has been so helpful and so kind replying to my, what must be super annoying, messages and being so so helpful.

Andrew, you seriously rock! Thank you for everything you do.

Thomas Vargeletis Photography Podcast

Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:

Thomas Vargeletis Website

Thomas Vargeletis Pricing Page

Full-time Real Estate Photographer Podcast

Thomas Vargeletis on Instagram

Full Time Real Estate Photographer Paperback by Thomas Vargeletis

You Are A Business Paperback by Thomas Vargeletis

Streak – CRM for Gmail

Calendly

Coronavirus Resource page

Thomas Vargeletis Photography Podcast

Thank you!

Thanks again for listening and thanks to Thomas for coming on and sharing his thoughts and ideas on building a successful real estate photography business.

Something that's really important, I think, in any business is being able to build a relationship with the people that you're working with. – Thomas Vargeletis

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions about this episode, please be sure to leave them below in the comment section of this post, and if you liked the episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post!

That’s it for me this week, hope everything is going well for you in life and business!

Thanks and speak soon
Andrew