Being a real estate photographer in Colombia hasn’t been and still isn’t the easiest job.
Real Estate Photography in Medellin Colombia
Just four years ago I couldn’t even give away a free photo session to real estate agents and property managers here in Medellin.
I’m not kidding – I literally printed out and distributed over 200 flyers saying “Our professional real estate photos will help you sell and rent your properties faster. Don’t believe it, we’ll even photograph your first property for FREE”.
But guess how many people contacted me? A big fat ZERO! Not one person took advantage of the free, no commitment photo shoot offer. It just didn’t make any sense to me.
Taking a step back to 2012
I arrived in Medellin in 2011 and started my photography business in early 2012. Although back then I offered my photography services to just about anyone willing to pay a decent rate, I saw an obvious opportunity in real estate photography.
Searching online for furnished rental apartments, I found tons of written listings but virtually no listings that showed me what the properties actually looked like. Even the best listings were generally accompanied by a small sampling of blurry, low resolution camera-phone photos.
Whenever I asked about fashion, wedding or product photographers, everyone knew someone or had a friend who was a photographer. However, no one knew the name of a single photographer specializing in properties. Naturally, I thought – ‘there must be a shortage of photographers doing real estate photography in Medellin‘.
I decided to be the saviour of the struggling agents and property owners.
I would be the first photographer to offer professional real estate photography in Medellin. I was about to change the game…
Or so I thought.
Targeting Luxury Real Estate Agents
Although I am a photographer, my formal education and employment background is in strategic marketing. I knew that before offering my photography services I had to be very clear about who my target market was.
Based on the average property rental and sales prices in Medellin, I determined that I would target people who were offering luxury properties. Why? Well, because this market was big enough and could clearly afford and benefit from my professional photos in their listings.
I did a search for luxury properties in Medellin and found several agencies and independent agents who only offered high priced properties in their portfolios. I contacted a handful of them by email and got a response from one who agreed to a meeting with me later that day.
I was happier than a butcher’s dog. I was actually about to get my first Colombian client.
I showed up early with my portfolio loaded on my laptop and my printed FREE photo session flyer as an unexpected bonus for the agent. I was ready to rock… except… she never showed up. After 4o minutes waiting in the coffee shop I decided to call her. She answered and the first words that came out of her mouth were “Que pena con usted”, a response that is usually followed by an excuse you don’t want to hear. She said that she had an ‘inconvenience’, so she couldn’t make it anymore. To add salt to my wounds she ended off by saying “My son has a nice camera and he can take my photos anyways, but thank you.”
In short, she flaked on our meeting and then less than gently declined my services. I don’t think that she actually ever planned on showing up to our meeting. It was my first experience with what I later realised is very common in Medellin culture – they have a hard time just saying no.
The Real Estate Photographer In Medellin Colombia – Switching to the foreign owned real estate companies
I decided to take a different approach – Target foreigners with properties in Medellin.
My Google search in english for ‘Rent furnished apartments in Medellin‘ returned two main companies – The Apartment Medellin and First American Realty Medellin – both of whom are my clients today.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
I sent emails to both companies offering my photography services and the owner of The Apartment Medellin responded to me in less than 15 minutes. We set up a lunch meeting for the following day, and unlike the Colombian real estate agent, he showed up – before I did.
We discussed the terms and prices and a few days later I shot my first furnished apartment in the city. As the months went by, I continued photographing for The Apartment Medellin and managed to pick up a few smaller agencies as my portfolio flourished.
I cannot say that all of the foreign agents readily accepted my services. As a matter of fact, I wrote some of them about 5 times each and many either never responded or said they weren’t interested. One in particular, who’s company name I won’t reveal said “Sorry but I am more interested in money coming in not going out“.
With that being said, my client list of colombian companies also remained quite unimpressive.
So why were no colombian companies taking my services?
Probably for the same reason why there were no other interior photographers in Medellin – they didn’t see the value in paying for photos.
Although Medellin has changed dramatically over the past two decades, and was even given the title ‘Most Innovative City in the World’, it still has a very small town, stuck in its own ways thing about it.
The marketing of properties is virtually non-existent. Colombian companies continue to operate like they did some 10-30 years ago. Most business is done out of a physical office where customers go in to speak with an agent who verbally describes the properties that they have for rent.
Jumping forward a few years to 2016
So here I am today (4 years later) photographing for every top foreign-owned real estate company in the city – AirBnB, The Apartment Medellin, First American Realty, Casa Col, Suite Medellin, and a some others. I have also started getting some interest from Colombian companies, but mainly interior designers and architects trying to build their portfolios.
So what’s changed? Why am I getting real estate photography jobs now.
Competition – that’s what’s changed. The competition in the real estate sales and rental market has really heated up in Colombia. With the appreciation of the US Dollar relative to the Colombian peso, more foreigners are visiting the country and spending on real estate. What that implies is that there are more companies fighting for this profitable market.
As in most markets with increasing competition, companies have to increase their spending on marketing to cut through the clutter and attract customers from their competitors. Well…luckily I am still here helping to cut clutter.
I am certain that more competition is also coming my way in the form of other photographers trying to get into real estate photography market. It’s only natural and I welcome it with open arms. My plan isn’t to sit back, but rather to push the limits of my creativity and continue improving the quality of my work.
My goal is to be the best real estate photographer in Colombia, and one of the best in the world.
Those are BIG words – I know. I am happy to make this big declaration here because now there is no looking back. It’s in writing!
