Who pays, and what that does to your price list
Listing photography is usually booked by the agent and paid for by the vendor as part of the marketing campaign, which means your price ends up on a schedule the vendor sees before the property goes on the market. In NSW the agent can only ask the vendor to pay for advertising and similar costs if they are set out in the agency agreement, and the agreement must state the amounts or estimated amounts of any commissions or discounts the agent receives on those services. So if you offer an agency a discount on vendor-paid shoots, it becomes something the agent has to disclose to the vendor, and a plain published price list is usually simpler for everyone. Check the equivalent rules in your own state before you offer an office a special rate.
Set the list out the way agents sell marketing to a vendor, with a base set of photos and then add-ons for a floor plan, aerials, twilight shots and video. The agent wants to give the vendor a number at the listing appointment, so a price list they can paste into their marketing schedule is more useful to them than a quote per job. Headshots and team photos work differently because the agency pays for those itself. The real estate agents page covers how agents pick suppliers and the rules on referral fees, and the photographers page covers venues and the other buyers worth writing to.
Flying the drone on a suburban street
Aerial shots are where most of the rules sit. For a drone of 2 kg or less flown for business, CASA's sub-2 kg excluded category means you don't need a remote pilot licence or an operator's certificate, but you do need an aviation reference number, an operator accreditation and a registered drone, and you must fly within the standard operating conditions. CASA names photographers and real estate agents among the businesses that fly in this category. The landholder category that allows heavier drones without a licence doesn't help a photographer, because it only covers flying over your own land and you can't accept payment.
The safety rules are what make a suburban job tricky. CASA's drone rules keep the drone under 120 metres, at least 30 metres from other people and never over anyone, in daylight and within your own line of sight, and out of populous areas. A drone over 250 grams can't be flown within 5.5 km of a controlled airport, so whole suburbs near the major airports need an approval or a different approach. Check a CASA-verified drone safety app before you quote an aerial, and tell the agent straight away when a property is in a no-fly area so it doesn't come as a surprise on the day. Put your accreditation details on your price list, because agents ask.
Who owns the photos once the house sells
Under Australian copyright law the photographer is the first owner of copyright in photos taken for a commercial purpose unless the photographer and client agree otherwise, and listing photos are commercial. Photos taken for private or domestic purposes, such as a family portrait, work the other way round, with the client owning them by default. So the agent and the vendor are using your listing photos under a licence whether or not anyone wrote it down, and disputes usually start when the photos are used for something nobody discussed: a different agent relisting the house a year later, the owner advertising it for rent, or a builder using the shots on their website.
Put the licence in your booking terms and keep it short. Say who can use the photos (the agency, the vendor and the portals the campaign runs on), for what (marketing the sale or lease of that property) and for how long, and say what a later use costs. Decide up front whether the agency can keep using the photos in its own sold-property marketing, since most will ask. Whoever holds the licence, you keep the moral right to be credited as the photographer.
Edits an agent can't afford
Editing is part of the job, but some edits can make the agent's advertising misleading. The REIQ warns that photos may be misleading if they are digitally altered or enhanced, giving examples such as changing the colour of the walls or removing electricity towers or objects on neighbouring properties, while cleaning the house and adding lighting before the shoot is fine. In Queensland an agent must not represent anything false or misleading, with a maximum of 540 penalty units under the Property Occupations Act, and under the Australian Consumer Law it doesn't matter whether anyone meant to mislead. Agree with each agent what you will and won't change (sky replacement, a greener lawn, a power pole across the frontage), and keep the unedited originals so the agent can show what the property looked like if a buyer complains.
Being careful here is also a reason for an agent to choose you. An agent who has had a complaint about an over-edited listing will value a photographer who raises the question before they do. If you'd rather not write to agents yourself, Curlew writes to the agents near you in your business name.
A first email you could send
Hi Josh, I’m a property photographer based in Manly West and I shoot listings around the bayside most weeks. I deliver photos and a floor plan the next morning, my price list is set out so you can drop it straight into a marketing schedule, and I’m CASA accredited for aerials where the airspace allows. Every booking comes with a simple licence so you and the vendor know exactly how the photos can be used. Would it help if I sent the price list and a recent gallery? Tom If you’d rather not hear from me, just say so and I’ll leave it there.
An example only. The business is made up.