Real Estate Photography Pricing Calculator
Your minimum price per shoot is the revenue you need in a year divided by the shoots you can realistically book. The revenue you need is your take-home pay grossed up for taxes, plus your business costs. The calculator does that math and turns the result into a square-footage price list and add-on prices you can put in front of agents. It runs entirely in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere.
1. What you want to earn
What you want to keep after costs and taxes.
Income plus self-employment tax. Ask your accountant for your number.
2. What the business costs you per year
Spread over the gear's life: a $6,000 kit replaced every 3 years is $2,000/yr.
Editing, cloud storage, tour hosting, scheduling.
Liability plus equipment often runs $500–1,200/yr.
The business share of driving to every shoot.
Website, phone, marketing, accounting, card processing fees, outsourced editing.
3. How much you can shoot
Averaged across slow and busy weeks.
Leave room for vacation and sick days.
Driving, on site, editing, and delivery for an average home.
Your starting price list
Estimates only, rounded up to the nearest $5. This is a floor built from your own numbers, not a survey of market rates. Rates vary a lot by region, so check what established photographers near you charge before you publish a price list.
How does the calculator work out my price?
It works backward from the life you want instead of forward from what competitors charge. Your take-home pay is grossed up for taxes: at a 25% set-aside, keeping $60,000 means earning $80,000 in profit. Your yearly business costs go on top of that, and the total is the revenue the business has to bring in. Divide by the shoots you can book in a year (shoots per week times working weeks) and you have the minimum price per shoot. Charge less and the math doesn't close, however busy you are.
The hourly rate is the minimum price divided by the hours a shoot really takes, door to door. It's the number to use when you price anything that takes extra time.
How is the square-footage price list built?
Bigger homes take longer, but not proportionally: driving there and back costs the same for a condo as for an estate, and a 5,000 sq ft home doesn't need four times the photos of a 1,250 sq ft condo. The tiers scale your average-home price by typical shoot time from our guide to how long a real estate photo shoot takes: 0.8× under 1,500 sq ft, 1× for an average 1,500–2,999 sq ft home, 1.35× from 3,000 to 4,999, and 1.75× above 5,000. Treat the top tier as a starting quote; estates with grounds or guest houses usually deserve a custom one.
How are add-ons priced?
Each add-on is priced at your hourly rate for the extra time it takes, including editing:
- Drone aerials: about 45 minutes (setup and flying on site, plus editing). Paid drone work needs an FAA Part 107 certificate; see our drone rules guide.
- Twilight: about 1.5 hours, because it's usually a second trip at dusk. More on twilight shoots.
- Walkthrough video: about 2.5 hours, most of it in the edit.
- Floor plan: about 45 minutes with a phone-scan app and cleanup.
- Hosted virtual tour: about 15 minutes of your time plus the hosting fee ($8–10 a tour on PFRE Tour, used here). It's the add-on with the best margin, because the photos already exist.
These are floors. An add-on is worth what it does for the listing, so plenty of photographers charge more than time alone would suggest, especially for twilight.
What if my minimum price is higher than my market pays?
Then one of the inputs has to change, and it's better to know now. You can shoot more (use the "test a price" box to see how many shoots a week a given price needs), cut a cost, or sell more add-ons per listing. Pricing below your minimum just to win bookings means working more for less; our guide to how much to charge for real estate photography covers why the cheapest photographer in town rarely wins.
Frequently asked questions
How much should a real estate photographer charge per shoot?
Enough to cover your costs, your taxes, and the income you want at the number of shoots you can actually book. For a photographer who wants $60,000 take-home, spends about $8,300 a year on the business, sets aside 25% for taxes, and shoots six homes a week for 48 weeks, that floor is about $310 for an average home. Your numbers will differ, which is what the calculator is for.
What is a good hourly rate for real estate photography?
Work it out rather than borrowing someone else's. Your hourly rate is your minimum shoot price divided by the real hours a shoot takes, including driving, editing, and delivery, not just time on site. A shoot that's one hour on site is often three to four hours of work in total.
Should I charge by square footage?
Most photographers do, in a few tiers, because it's predictable for agents and tracks the extra time big homes take. Keep it to three or four tiers so an agent can find their price at a glance.
What costs do new real estate photographers forget?
Gear replacement (lenses and bodies wear out), insurance, the business share of your vehicle, and taxes. Leaving taxes out is the most expensive one: at a 25% set-aside, a price that "covers everything" pre-tax leaves you a quarter short. See what insurance costs and how to start a real estate photography business.
Comparing tour hosting costs? Try our pay-per-tour vs. subscription cost calculator.
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