Ryan: Welcome to Realty Hack where we talk about the top tips and tricks that Top Producing agents and team leaders across the nation are using. Today I am joined with Leonid Furmansky. Did I say that right?
Leonid: Yeah, you got it.
Ryan: Okay. And what we're talking about today is the use of architectural photography. What we're doing here is we're having a series on basically, how luxury agents promote their listings. And so Leonid works with one of our agents who does some very high end, spec homes and they sell for anywhere from one and a half to just over $2 million. And we have seen his photography. It's the best, first of all, Leonid, how long have you been doing this for?
Leonid: just picking up a camera since I was 14 years old. As a professional architectural photographer around 2000... When did I start? 2017. So it's almost been three years.
Ryan: Okay. Um, and what made you did you started doing residential regular and then move into it or--
Leonid: So I actually landed in a home store for residential projects. And I actually have never shot any residential before that, maybe a few here and there for some small projects with some developers and architects but never a real full shoot. So I kind of just jumped into the wild with 12 beautiful homes across Austin. And then after that, Just kind of kick-started my career.
Yeah, so there's obviously a big, you know, size. There's a sizable difference between monetarily between what agents pay for, you know, your quote, regular pictures, and architectural photos. What can you find us what the difference is?
Leonid: Sure. So, architectural photographers generally spend around eight to 16 hours at a location, capturing the best lighting situation throughout the house. And generally kind of or they're creating a portfolio for an architect.
And so, there they are. Pretty much we're building a portfolio for an architect today. Tell a story about a project because the only thing an architect can take home is photography until your project is done. And my goal is to get an architect published more often and have his or her clients understand what kind of projects are making, developing, design, all that kind of stuff. So, we have a big, we have a big purpose into sharing the architects work. Compared to a real estate photographer, their job is to shoot a house within the same day, edit images within the same day to get it on MLS as soon as possible. I know how important it is to the client and the real estate agent to get that house on the market as soon as possible, where an architectural photographer will take two to four weeks to get that turnaround period because the editing process takes around that 10 to 14 hours or more, if there's a lot of retouching that needs to be done,
Ryan: Okay, and who typically uses your services?
Leonid: Architects.
Ryan: Architects. Well, I noticed there's a trend for luxury agents, you know, on the new build site to use architectural photography. Are you seeing more real estate agents do that?
Leonid: So, so far, I've been working with Davey and Chris. It's been an amazing group process, and we kind of have a special plan that we work together to get things done a lot quicker. Yeah, um, I will say this in the architectural world. A lot of real estate photographers have a bad rep. And I want to just be clear about this, that the real estate photographers have a great purpose just like we do and as sense that they're they have a specific job to get something flipped pretty quickly. Our job is to do portfolio work.
Now, you said luxury real estate agents? That's a really good point. Should they use architectural photographers? Absolutely. If a real estate agent is selling a house out in the US the outreach of the suburbs, you know, go find a real estate agent to flip those pictures really quick. The one thing and I haven't done some deep research on real estate agents or anything like that, but the one thing that I think would be a game-changer is if they had a portfolio of homes that they've sold in the past to kind of show like, I can sell beautiful homes. I can sell that.
You know, there's so many special architectural homes all over Austin beautiful home designs that you know, if you send a real estate guy in there, it almost looks bad on the guy because you know, I mean, I know what budget comes out of selling a home. There's a budget for it. And if you put the extra time and effort into it, it sticks you out from the rest of the crowd, right? There's a lot of people looking at each other and kind of copying what they're doing to each other and kind of going after the cheapest rate. When if you stick out of the crowd, you're going to get that specific market that can really you'll end up one of the top guys selling the most beautiful homes in Austin. I think I should be you know, that should be the biggest goal. And so if real estate agents that are shooting or selling homes, I'm sorry, selling homes that big and that beautiful. Absolutely.
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If they hire an architectural photographer, it's going to come back tenfold. It will sell the house a lot faster. It will look good on their portfolio. Yeah, I mean, it's just they're sticking out. And the rest of the crowd.
Ryan: So that's another question I have for you, you know, when we talk about luxury and Austin, you know, it's typically what used to be 1 million and now it's kind of like 1.5 and Bry. But there's another qualifier and maybe there's one and a half million dollar homes that are you know, 50 years old on a decent lot doesn't make a difference there we would you kind of look at like, you know, this is kind of a not just a home that could be made into a beautiful home but actual home that you know, there's a structure matter, right.
Leonid: It absolutely does. So I have a story where like, there are times where I will go out of my way to if a real estate and it's not even that they're reaching out to me because they know immediately like, oh, man, it's not in the budget. If I see a Fehr and Granger house on the market, I'm going to call that guy up because I love Fehr and Granger. I would love to have his work on my website. Right?
And, you know, why not choose something that you're passionate about? And have it on your portfolio and still get a little bit of money out of it here and there, right. And it's access to get in. And I've had those moments where it's a Fehr & Granger project at A.D. Stenger house mid-century, kind of renovations are some really rare gems. And those kind of projects I've kind of carried with me and found multiple publications, even came up with a book idea to work with preservation Austin, they don't know about this yet, but I'm trying to propose something to them. But you know, but this is coming from passion. This isn't coming from a financial standpoint. I mean, if there are people out there making money for it, you know, it's not going to make a difference to them. But it's really up to the real estate agent.
I mean, that's to me, a real estate agent can use that as street credit to say, Hey, I sold a Fehr & Granger house. And that's kind of something really hard to sell, especially knowing that some of these homes are going to come with a hefty renovation fee. Right? They're gonna have to hire an architect to renovate a really rare home. You know, having to explain that without scaring off your clients. It's a big deal and it comes with a well educated real estate agent.
Ryan: Yeah, and again, a good point when I earlier my career when I was wanting to get my price point higher and getting the luxury you know, I approached a couple of sellers and said, look, you know, we'd already did you know a whole lot with marketing with with our retargeting and, you know, the way we do the staging and stuff and, and I wanted to get my price point higher and so I did a very discounted rate with all the services just to get that portfolio right? And that's a good way to do it. You don't have that issue anymore. Your homes have been featured in Dwell magazine, where else featured?
Leonid: A lot. I guess. You know, I've recently gotten to Austin Home that which That was amazing. And now Tribeza. I love that I love their magazine. There's such a huge, great representation of Austin and interior design to architecture to everything local. Right. And then we have what is it Austin San Antonio Home magazine, there's Texas Architect magazine, which I work with regularly, but that's focused on architects, right? There's a million blogs out there. You know, Austin Curbed which really wasn't a lot of the Austin real estate area and you know, there's a lot. I can’t really name of them but yeah.
Ryan: We love your stuff you and Chris’ stuff on Instagram. And, you know, for this, this broadcast is sent mainly to real estate agents. So I'm going to put your information in the description, we're going to put your link to your Instagram account and your website below. And our now and I've, I've This is the first time I've actually actually seen Leonid. And I can just tell you the reason he's on here is because he does masterful work. And if you are a real estate agent, and you have this great listing that you want to show off in the best possible way, there's nobody better to do it that I know. So, thank you for being on here. And, you know, I hope to talk to you soon.
Leonid: No problem. Thanks a lot, Ryan.
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