By now, I'd be surprised if we didn't all know the term, "Side Hustle".
There are a ton of them, probably literally, and I'm constantly trying to find some that will work for me. In fact I would go so far as to say that all I really do is side hustle, I have yet to manage to make anything a real hustle. Or perhaps what others might call: A Job.
Over the course of the last year, a friend had been hinting and suggesting that I join her in real estate photography. She's done it forever and has essentially made it her daily job. For one reason or another, I was never hooked on the idea. I didn't believe I would have the availability, maybe it wasn't worth the time, I'm not sure...but I never jumped on board.
Until now. As I'm just getting started I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to help anyone else that is thinking about getting into the industry to understand just what it takes to make it or get broken by becoming a real estate photographer. So you're going to get the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God.
I will tell you that what finally changed my mind was availability. All year I have been running around and would not have been available consistently to try and get to properties to photograph them. My plans for fall and winter (to become a Solid Waste Technician in Antarctica, no joke) seemed to have fallen through and now my completely booked schedule of October through the end of the year opened wide up.
What was I going to do to fill the time and make the money I was originally planning on?
Enter, Real Estate photography.
It sounded wonderful. A few houses a day. Not too much of a time commitment, work when you want kind of a deal. Make pretty decent money, I feel like some friends make a couple hundred bucks a day for less than half a work days’ hours. That’s really not terrible, I could have another job in the evenings!
I went on a ride along with the owner of the company to see how it’s done. We checked out a large space that was a bit rare but good to see. It was an old college that had fallen into bankruptcy, but that’s not the regular spaces I would often be seeing. Next we went to a pretty fancy house, you know the kind that costs a million dollars to own. I’m not exaggerating.
I got a feel for the angles the photos should be taken at. I saw the settings that the company used to keep things consistent and make good images. I learned about how to enter the homes and work with real estate agents if they were present. And overall, it seemed pretty simple! Definitely like something I could do. Something I will do. Something that will help me reach my financial goals.
But first…the one thing I hadn’t thought of…the reality.
I will cover that in more detail in my next post. So stay tuned as I learn more about this process and the validity of it as a side hustle. Or full time hustle. Or whatever it becomes.
(The pictures you see are from Tanzania, a wonderful farm that rents rooms and a campsite for you to come visit at. I offered to do photos for their AirBNB in exchange for a discounted stay. This is before I knew what I was doing and started to get into real estate.)