Nobody publishes real numbers for this, which makes it almost impossible to tell whether a quote is fair or whether somebody is guessing. This is how the pricing actually works, what moves it, and what to ask so you can compare two quotes that look identical and are not.
What you are actually paying for
Almost everyone quotes a day rate with the edit folded in, and the shoot itself is usually the smaller half of the work. A two-hour walkthrough of a four-bedroom house might produce ninety minutes of raw footage that takes most of a day to cut properly. The cutting is where the difference between usable and good actually happens — pacing, the order rooms are revealed in, how long the camera holds on the thing worth holding on.
This is why two quotes at the same number can be very different products. One includes a single edited walkthrough. The other includes that walkthrough, three or four vertical cutdowns sized for social, and stills pulled from the video footage. Ask what comes back, not just how long somebody will be at the property.
What moves the price
- Square footage and layout. More rooms means more setups, and setups cost time both on site and in the edit. An open-plan 2,000 sq ft house is faster to shoot than a compartmentalised 1,600 sq ft one.
- Drone. Aerials add a licensed pilot and airspace checks — parts of New Jersey sit under controlled airspace near Newark and Teterboro, and authorisation is not instant. Worth it for land, waterfront, and anything where the surroundings are part of the sale. Wasted on a mid-block townhouse.
- Twilight. Dusk exteriors mean a second visit inside a window that lasts about twenty minutes. It is consistently the most-clicked image in a set, and it is the single most common upsell for exactly that reason.
- Turnaround. Next-day delivery costs more everywhere, because it means dropping something else to do it.
- Occupancy. An occupied home takes longer. Somebody has to move things, and the edit has to work around whatever could not be moved.
- Vacant and staged. A staged property shoots fastest and films best. An empty one is quick but unflattering — empty rooms read smaller on camera, not larger.
Stills and video together is cheaper than either twice
The travel, the setup and the walkthrough are shared costs. Booking stills in one visit and video in another means paying for that overhead twice, and it usually means the two sets do not match — different day, different light, different arrangement of the furniture. Where a listing needs both, one visit is meaningfully cheaper and produces a more coherent set.
The question worth asking instead
Not "what does this cost" but "what does this cost against what the listing earns." On a $600,000 sale at a 2.5% side, the commission is $15,000. Video that shortens time on market pays for itself immediately. Video that wins you the next listing pays for itself repeatedly, and that second effect is the one most agents underrate.
Sellers hire the agent who markets. At a listing appointment you are competing with people charging roughly the same commission, so showing a seller exactly how their property will be filmed is a concrete answer where everyone else is offering a promise.
How to compare quotes properly
- Ask for the deliverables list rather than the day rate. Two numbers are not comparable until you know what each returns.
- Ask how many vertical cutdowns are included. That is where most of the reach now comes from, and it is frequently excluded.
- Ask whether stills are included or billed separately, and whether they are true stills or frames pulled from video. Pulled frames are fine for social and not good enough for the MLS.
- Ask about turnaround in business days, and what happens if the listing goes live sooner than planned.
- Ask to see a complete recent walkthrough rather than a showreel. Showreels are cut from the best three seconds of fifty jobs and hide pacing problems entirely.
- Ask who owns the footage and whether you can use it after the property sells. For an agent building a body of work, this matters more each year.
Common mistakes when buying it
- Buying on price for a listing that carries your brand. The gallery is the most-seen thing you produce all year.
- Skipping preparation. An hour of tidying improves a listing more than any equipment upgrade, and no editor can fix bins in the driveway.
- Ordering forty images. A listing needs the right twelve to eighteen. Volume dilutes.
- Treating video as an extra rather than the thing that filters viewings. A walkthrough that stops the wrong buyer booking has saved you a Saturday.
If you want a second opinion on what you are currently getting for what you spend, the free content audit scores it in about ninety seconds. There is more on how we approach this work on the real estate page, and a related walkthrough in the listing video checklist.