How I use BoxBrownie for affordable real estate photography

Save money on professional listing photos, without sacrificing quality.

Many agents know that having good photos can make or break a listing. Professional-looking pictures can go a long way in helping to attract potential buyers and give them an accurate impression of what the home looks like. But another reason why it is so important to have good photos is because it's also the first impression future sellers have about how you will market their home. Sellers can quickly tell if you are a professional or amateur agent based on your real estate photos, so having professional photos is essential not only to sell your current listing, but also to get more clients.

But with professional photographs costing around $250+, your out-of-pocket costs can add up quickly. So, I started to investigate ways I could save money on my professional photos, without sacrificing quality. It was really important to me to make sure that the photos still looked amazing, but just cost less to do. Then, I stumbled upon BoxBrownie.com.

I've used BoxBrownie all the time to turn my "pretty good" smartphone photos into "I bet she paid hundreds of dollars for those professional photos." Here's are two examples from my listings:

When should you use BoxBrownie.com?

I usually opted to use BoxBrownie over professional real estate photos for lower priced listings or rental properties. The photos still come out great, but cost less than a professional photographer. For average or higher-priced listings, I always went with a professional photographer.

Tips on how to use BoxBrownie.com

You should already know how to use your smartphone to take decent real estate photos. BoxBrownie works like magic, but there is only so much they can do if you have crappy photos to start with. So make sure none of your photos are blurry or crooked. If you don't know how to take decent photos, then I would just hire a professional since the quality will always better.
Take lots of photos at the listing and then pick the ones you want BoxBrownie to edit. Take about 50-100 photos and get multiple angles and shots of every room. Take photos of the outside and neighborhood too. Since their photo editing service is per photo, you don't want to just upload a ton of photos and then choose later. Our MLS was limited to 30 photos, I typically used BoxBrownie to edit about 35 photos. The total cost for 35 photos is $49, compared to $250 for a professional photographer, which is an 80% saving!
Keep in mind the 24 hour turn around time. I typically took my photos on a Monday and had the photos back by Wednesday to upload to the MLS. Just don't expect same day service.
They also have a ton of other services too, such as virtual staging and item removal. I've used these on occasion, but remember that the photos still need to reflect the actual property. Otherwise, buyers will be disappointed if the photos don't match the actual home. If you do virtual staging, you can include both the empty and staged picture in the listing.

While it doesn't completely replace the need for a professional photographer, BoxBrownie.com is a great option if you want to save money on real estate photos, without sacrificing quality.

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