Peter - Toronto Real Estate Photo & Video

When I'm not shooting properties or head shots, I like to take photos of dogs. Here are a couple I shot some time ago, added a santa hat and snow-flake border in photoshop.These are christmas cards going out to family. Hope you enjoy them. If anyone is interested, I can sell you printed cards and can customize them with text, etc.

The Jack-Russel was actually sitting by her own volition on this bench in a closed hair salon on Yonge street. I'm not kidding--she was seated by her self and, what's more, is that she didn't even shift positions. Even after 5 minutes of photographing and just staring in awe, she stayed put. Priceless.

This guy was a funny bouncy one...much happier than his expression implies. The cone was to keep him from licking some post-surgery wound.

Marketing: Home-buyers use the Internet First

I've been working on an advertisement and I've finally decided on a design/layout I'm happy with (below). Content wise, it was a battle, however after some a couple hours of editing/writing, I scrapped the idea and decided that a quote from NAR had more credibility than anything I could say to support my real estate photography and videography business. Unlike my other ads, this one is targeting home sellers and will be mailed to a general public in affluent neighbourhoods. 

Real Estate Photo Terms of Service--forget and you'll pay

As a real estate photographer and videographer, I'm essentially selling a service to realtors in the Toronto and GTA area. Since this is not a product, and there is no immediate exchange, I have to--or at least I thought I did-- give realtors the benefit of doubt regarding payment for my work. For quite some time, I would do the work without any payment upfront and would trust that I would be paid for it. Hehe. Except for a few realtors who chose to pay me three months after I did the work for them and following many emails and calls, I got paid for all my work. I was lucky, I guess.

Since learning that my competition takes payment upfront before doing any work, I have began doing likewise.

And I wish I would have implemented this earlier. Yesterday, I received a cheque from a client (I would never divulge any client names so don't ask) for an amount less than what I had invoiced. This client decided to alter my invoice, straching out the travel charges with a note stating "I was not aware of this", and then proceeding to recalculate the total before the travel charges. At first, when I saw this, I was upset and ready to email this client a piece of my mind. I had, after all, travelled 1 hour each way (that's 2 hours total--not to mention the hour of photography) to this property, which is my time (which I could have used to shoot local jobs for clients in need), car fuel, and wear on the vehicle. But, thankfully, I stopped myself before reacting and quickly realized that I was at fault. I had failed to have this client read, sign, and return my terms of service agreement before commencing work, so he could not have known that I charge for extended travel (which, by the way, is industry standard) and was right (I think?) to modify my invoice and pay me less.

I learned two lessons here:

1) Always request that your clients give you a signed copy of your terms of service.

2) Always take payment upfront.

After I cooled down, I emailed the client back, apologised for the misunderstanding, and explained that I had forgotten to request for the terms to be read and signed. I hope that was appreciated.

I appreciate my clients and over such a small misunderstanding, would rather swallow my pride and admit fault than to bicker about what's right, etc.

Oh ya, one more lesson: You learn quick when you lose money!

Last night I decided to clear my desktop and purge the trash and unused files/folders from my computer. Without fail, I delete more than I ever expect to on these routine purges. It's amazing how much useless junk accumulates on our computers. But, once in a while, I'll find something interesting that I've forgotten about. This time I came across a Far Side drawing I scanned years ago from one of those desk calendars. Coincidentally, and the reason I'm posting this here, in my real estate photography terms of service--that I have all clients sign before commencing work, I clearly state that I won't enter a property if dangerous animals are not safely restrained. Luckily, over the years of doing my photo and video tours, I haven't had the bad luck of coming across a dangerous "doug" on my shoot. So far they were all happy, friendly dougs... :)