Uncovering the Secrets of Real Estate Photography with Nidal Battikha from Battikha Photo & Video

In this engaging episode of "Just 2 Minutes," host Kamil Sarji sits down with Nidal Battikha, the Owner and Photographer at Battikha Photo & Video. Nidal shares his journey into the world of real estate photography and media, offering listeners a glimpse into the importance of high-quality visuals in the real estate market.

Highlights of this Episode:

• Fun and Fast-Paced Start: As usual, the episode kicks off with Kamil asking Nidal some random, fun questions to break the ice. From Big Macs to conspiracy theories, this segment is sure to entertain!
• Journey into Real Estate Photography: Nidal discusses how he transitioned from general photography to specializing in real estate, and the unique challenges and opportunities this niche presents.
• The Importance of Visuals: Learn why professional photography is crucial for real estate listings and how it can significantly impact a property's marketability.
• Handling Challenges: Nidal shares his experiences dealing with less-than-ideal conditions in homes, from cluttered spaces to unexpected items in the frame, and how he ensures the best possible results.
• Building Client Relationships: Discover Nidal's approach to working with real estate agents and building long-term professional relationships, including his innovative marketing strategies to reach new clients.

Why You Should Listen:

Whether you’re a real estate agent looking to enhance your listing presentations, a photographer considering a niche in real estate, or just curious about the behind-the-scenes of real estate photography, this episode offers valuable insights and practical tips. Plus, it's packed with the usual humor and spontaneity that makes "Just 2 Minutes" a must-listen.

About Nidal Battikha:

Nidal Battikha is the Owner and Photographer at Battikha Photo & Video, specializing in real estate media. With a keen eye for detail and a passion for capturing the essence of properties, Nidal helps agents showcase homes in the best light, attracting more potential buyers.

Whether you're a seasoned agent looking to stay ahead, a newcomer eager to learn, or a client seeking reliable real estate advice, "Just 2 Minutes" offers a wealth of information in a convenient and enjoyable format. Join us as we explore tips, tricks, and insights from industry leaders and professionals that can help you navigate the dynamic world of real estate.

Join Us:

Tune in to "Just 2 Minutes" and elevate your real estate knowledge. Subscribe now and never miss an episode of quick, insightful conversations that make a big impact. https://kamil.buzzsprout.com

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For more information on joining our team or how we can assist you with your real estate needs, reach out to us today!

Transcript

0:00

Welcome everybody to Just Two Minutes. I'm your host, Kamil Sarji, and I got Nidal here. You want to tell us about you? Yes. I'm a real estate photographer and media specialist. I sort of do anything in the real estate media field. That's, that's me. Nice. So the way this works is, for the first two minutes, I'm just going to ask you some random questions. Try to pick your brain, see how you process things. Okay. No, I'm just kidding. It's not psychological at all. Or is it? It's an emotional test. Hmm. Okay, so I got my timer right here. Alright. Okay, you ready? You got your seatbelts on? Yep. Okay. Alright, uh, if someone gave you a Big Mac from McDonald's, would you eat it? Yes. Okay. Uh, what else would you get from McDonald's that you would eat? Large fries. And probably a soda, but diet soda, of course. Nice, okay. Tell me what color you see when I say these words. Banana. Yellow. Hunger. Blue. Cowboy. Red. Cowgirl. Red. A house. Brown. Alright. Um, if you saw two women arguing, what About something? Would you jump in to help them stop it? No. What if, uh, they were pulling hair? No. What if they were fist fighting? No. Okay. Alright, so, as far as, like, conspiracy theories, alright, which one would you say is the most believable out of these two? Global elitists harvest chemicals from kidnapped children. To ingest as an elixir for youth or The government killed every bird and replaced with robots B Though the second one the one the last one you just said, okay So if if they did kill all the birds, do you think maybe they gave them? Spy Equipment to, to spy on humans. Is that the new birds? Yes. The new birds. With the robots. The robots would definitely have spy equipment. Yeah. Yeah. What kind of, what kind of spy? Well, cameras and not microphones. I would assume I would probably guess like some sort of infrared or you know telescoping microphones the usual, okay and as far as Squeeze it in. Uh, oh Man I'll set you quick. It was a rapid fire. I was ready. I was ready. So what'd you think? That was interesting. Definitely a psychological test. Yeah. Yeah. People wonder how I come up with these questions. I'm not revealing my ChatGPT would be my first guess. I'm just a crazy guy. I just sit there and I'm like, you know what? Do a little bit of research and just throw that stuff out there. So, tell me about you and like why you got into real estate photography. Sure. So, I've been doing photography for years actually. Weirdly enough, it was another business that got me into photography where I was, Taking pictures of just customers and just started developing photography interest from there and that business was doing well, but I needed to shift my salary out of there and want to take my photography and make that my income and difficulty with photography is a general thing is that finding clients. Because there's no real niche, like you could go wedding photography, but then you'd have to hunt down people interested in getting a wedding, and that's not an easy task. And I'm not a wedding photographer, I never wanted to be. But with real estate, I have a whole group of people that are already interested in potential photographers, agents. And I decided that that was the proper direction I should take my photography. And that's how it began. Started about, uh, a little over a year ago. The last, uh, 2023, the beginning was when I started. I did my first shoots in March and just been going strong ever since, so. Nice. So, yeah, I see that a lot. Photographers, they're just focused on what they do. They don't want to go off and do other things like wedding. Yeah, it depends on the, it depends on the photographer. There are, you can niche down to different, So I could do headshots and portraits. But those are the things again, that come to me more of a occasional thing. It was not, it's hard to really target that audience unless you've been doing it for years. And then, you know, you build up a reputation. I don't have quite that many years in the, in the business, but niching makes it easier to target an audience. And have a dedicated website just for that. So, I want to niche down because it's easier to then focus. But again, I'm still doing portraits and, and headshots. I actually am going from here to do a headshot shoot. So, that is something that you don't have to niche down that much. But it's better to niche down so people go to your website and they don't see like 16 tabs of all the different things you do. And they have to click through all the tabs and go through there. Some photographers will niche down but then they'll have separate like, Businesses, so I do have the photography of headshots and portraits and things like that sort of separate But I do include it in the real estate because agents need photos. So headshots So I know it's a tough market for listings Did you have you tried because I know you reached out to agents and try to see you know Incorporating you into their process of you know, get a listing have me do the pictures Have you tried reaching out to like for sale by owners Fizbo? And I might only do that It's like if I'm looking to build a certain part of the portfolio, like I want to do some videos and so I might reach out and try to just do a video that way and then build up a, you know, that end of the portfolio. But the difference between the for sale by owners and the agents is that's a one time thing. I'm not building a client base. I'm building just a portfolio. And so it's better to work directly with the people that you are going to be doing business with. So working with Asians and doing like maybe a promo or adding in like free drones or something like that and then offering something value then getting in that way and then building a client base from there. So for sale by owner might be good to just build a portfolio makes a little bit of money if you're looking for a long term relationship. Yeah, we're looking. Yeah, I'm looking for a client base, not really just. You know, one time payment. Nice. I know, like, as far as, you know, as an agent going into a listing appointment, sometimes we're like, oh my gosh, this is like, so messy, or the lawn is not cut, or like, the rug. By the way, what do you think of this rug? It's lovely. You like that? Yeah. Just going in and seeing all that. It's, for the, for the seller, it's, Like, you know, this is them, this is what they are, but it's hard for us to tell. That's how, that's why we're bringing in a stager or someone to help them organize all the clutter, landscaping. But have you gone into a house where it's messy? Yes. And what do you do? You do the best you can. So, it depends on the level of mess. So I've been in houses, especially starting out, that's kind of the houses you get, are the ones that are, I've had hoarders, and they just have stuff, I've had, just people, because they're, you know, a multi family, and they're cramming in a lot of people. Does the agent, like, know this, and tell you, and warn you? Sometimes. I've found, I know which agents will give me which properties. And so, I go in knowing that this agent hasn't really necessarily done their due diligence in terms of the cleanliness. I do provide, uh, like a checklist. Here's the things that you should do. Though both the realtor should see it and they should pass it on to the, the agent. But, that doesn't always happen. Or, I've had agents where they, they come to, with me. Like I'm showing up before them and they're, they're just seeing property. So if it's incredibly messy, there's not much you can do. It's just, the shots still come out great, you know, the best they can, but they're not, they're still, you know, it's a lived in place. But then there are places that are sort of in that midway where you just have to move. You know, a cup or you have to move the vacuum or something like that. Like just things need to be moved and shifted. I did a high rise a couple weeks ago and it was just a matter of we shot one room, moved everything into that room, shot another room. It's just because that's a lived in space. I mean, yeah, they're not, they don't have another place to move to. They have to stay there. store it. They don't have, you know, the, the time or money to store something. So it's like in between that point, you just have to do that. And so you do what you got to do to make it look good. Either the agent has to kind of work with the owners. And I've heard when an agent comes and they're like, Oh my goodness, it looks so much different. So they've done their work. Whereas again, that one agent where I come in and they're like, yep, this is it. I'm going to move this one little thing that doesn't affect the photo, but I'm going to move it. You know, you let them do their thing. So you do the best you can with what you have available. What's the best process for you as far as like a real estate agent? So for me, when I go on a listing appointment, I meet with them. I look at the house, try to assess the value. And if they sign the paperwork, we're ready to shoot right then and there. Yeah. What's the best process for you as far as, you know, So I, realistically, I'm just going by what the agent is directing me in terms of they're trying to schedule it as soon as possible. So on my end, I'm just trying to make sure I'm working with them and for the time and the day and the, that sort of thing. So there's not much, I guess I'm not sure I understand that part. I only understand when I'm setting it up based on what they're looking for and then walking in and At that point, I have a process of what I'm doing, you know, when I'm set doing the shoot then. So maybe I'm not sure what you mean by the So sometimes, so everybody's different. For me, I like to get everything done right away. Uh, so if I go in, of course, I tell them going in to look at the place. So it needs to be neat in case we take pictures. Um, so if that's the case, I go in, I check everything out. So you're essentially hiring that photographer, that media person, when you're going in for the listing, signing. So most, I can have both. I, like, a couple days ago, they were filling out the paperwork while I was doing the photos. Nice. And I booked it in advance, so she'll, you know, they knew they were coming. They cleaned up a lot of them will make sure they've signed the paperwork before I do the photos because I've seen issues. I had one where she lost it because it was some sort of scam of some sort, which she'd anticipated. I don't know if any paperwork was signed, but you want to get the photos done as quickly as possible. And that was, you know, that was just a land. It wasn't anything more. So it was difficult to go in and see the property in advance. So it can be, you know, so some really want to get that signature first before they commit. Some will do, like you say, where you go in with the listing, where you're talking about the, the paperwork and what to, you know, sign or whatever. So I see both. So there's no, on my end, I'm just doing a job. Because we're paying for it, you know, like it's, we want to make sure when we're paying for it, it's like, it's going to happen. Yeah, yeah. So that, I mean, makes sense. So I always generally assume everything's all set. In the time I've been doing it, nobody's cancelled as a result of, you know, Somebody not signing or somebody not moving forward. Uh, I've had a couple cases where an agent was fired afterwards. Not because of the photos, but just because whatever reason, whatever conflict was there. But it's just cases that, that don't affect me directly. I actually, there was one recently where I guess, I don't know if they signed the paperwork, but the agent or the, the seller ghosted the agent. And so the only thing for me was just payment was, uh, Because for me, I did my job. You know, I sympathize. Yeah, I sympathize, but I, you know. That's, you know, we have to take a chance. Right, right, yeah. So, once you do the pictures and get it out there, who owns the pictures? Well, technically, I still own the pictures. I'm always leasing, or licensing, rather, the photos. And generally, my licenses are a year. I would do five years for, like, an Airbnb. So, that has a little bit of a different pricing structure. But, uh, They have longer term usage for the photos. So have you ran into an issue where an agent gets back to you and says, Hey, remember the pictures you took last year of this house? I listed while they're selling it. The new buyers are selling it, and the agent took those pictures. Does that happen? Yeah, it does happen, but it hasn't happened to me yet because I haven't been prepared. What's your game plan when that happens? Yeah, so I would just reach out. I guess it depends on how it works. My game plan, especially still being somewhat new in the industry, is reaching out to the agent and saying, the new agent, and saying, hey, you know, that was me that took the photos, I'm glad you liked them. I'd be happy to do future photos for you. Here's my contact information. And just, you know, considering it done. But, realistically, If I've been doing it for a while, and if this is happening often, I'll probably ask for a licensing charge, ask them, you know, do a takedown request, and then, you know, or, here's my, here's my fee for relicensing photos that I've taken, or, ideally, just going in and taking photos again. Because that would just be you know, that would make everything kosher and the house could have changed between one order to the next I mean the room is blue not pink, right? Like right like it was so it makes more sense to just go in and take more photos But there there are multiple options to go with so I mean the only time closest was I had a house where the agent was fired, and then somebody took over and took their own photos, like cell phone photos or something. And, uh, and I just reached out and said, Hey, I've already done this house, so I know the property. Would you be interested in, you know, having me do it? I could have, because of the short time frame, I could have used the same photos, but, you know, wanted to offer me to shoot. Actually, I didn't necessarily do that. I did it on purpose because I would reshoot because the original agent, Like, I asked her for permission and she said, no, I prefer, you know, you not offer the photos because I'd rather, which, which might play into my talking to the new agent. I would rather be talking to the old agent, the previous agent, say, are you okay if they use the same photos? Because they've already paid for the work. So, ideally, it's best to, yeah, so it's best, first of all, make sure that the original agent is aware. If they're reaching out, they're already aware. Uh, if they're not reaching out, then I would ask them about it. But I would ideally take new photos because, like you said, the walls would be different, the kitchen appliances would be different, the counters would be different. So, it, ideally, it's best to take new photos. And I'm already familiar with the property, so. Uh, if you take the pictures and use them. Alright, you give me 50% And then you give the previous agent 50 percent and we'll call it even. Something like that, yeah. So, speaking of like messy homes when you walk into the messy home, have you, especially multi families, walked in and you're taking pictures and you're like, oh my gosh, this, there's undergarments on the wall, like hanging on the wall or on the nightstand, like what? There are things that do not make it into my portfolio. Sex toys, like just There, I haven't had anything Weird like that. I mean, being part of communities like Facebook communities, you see a lot of that, you know, Hey, look what I saw. But I have not run into anything wacky, you know, no sex dungeons or anything like that. Uh, I'm waiting for that time. I want to be part of that group that runs into those things, you know? You're like, Whoa, what's this room used for? I want to tell that story, you know? So, but no, nothing like that yet for me. Nothing crazy. I mean, you know, things are out. Yeah. And if it is out, what do you see? Well, I, yeah, I would probably photoshop if I can, but I would probably work with the realtor, the agent again, to try to clean up the place or hide certain things. It's just like, you know, wall of shoes, you know, hanging shoes, you can't do anything about that, or a clothing rack, you can't do much about that, you just have to work around it. But pillow in the middle or, you know, underwear sitting on the bed, you just gotta get the tongs and, you know, move them, you know, so. Who does that? I mean, I got the tongs if I need them, so. You do? You carry it with you? I know. But there are tools you should have that should be like that. Like door stops, you should have door stops. Well, you should have tongs, because you never know. I would go into the utensil drawer. Yeah, there you go. Take two forks. There are plenty of options. Go like this. And then put it back in the utensil drawer. If they won't leave it out like that. It's not your fault. Yeah. Or, I would go tell the homeowner and say, Hey, you see how, you see, I'm taking this picture. You see how this underwear is like, on the, the bed? I think you should put it here, hang it up on the wall, look better in the room. And then this way, when people want to buy it, They'll be like, wow, this is, this is really nice. But that would be on the agent, because I don't usually meet the owner. So, ideally, I'm not dealing with owners. I'm dealing just with the agent. And occasionally, I meet owners, but I, you know, try not to, because they're, like you say, it's their private place. I don't wanna, you know. And if it is their private place, keep things private. Don't, you know. It is private. Amazing. And I'm sure you've seen plenty of it. It is amazing when you walk into a house that's being sold, not walk into a house that you're talking about selling is being sold. And it's just in a condition that's like, you know, I have one agent that has a house that it's like, there's like the underwear sitting out. It's that kind of thing. And there's no preparation for open houses, according to, I don't know. I don't see the open houses, but it's like, makes it tough to sell the house. When, not only is somebody living there, which is hard enough, but just their personal stuff is all out. Yeah, it's, it's crazy, because, I mean, I've seen it a few times, and it's mostly in multi families, because the tenants don't really care how it sells, they actually don't want the house to sell. Right. It's unpredictable what's going to happen with this. Yeah. Yeah, so, it's crazy. Alright, so, as far as, like, have you seen, or what do you do when you see, like, bad pictures on a listing? So, I have, and many of you viewers might even have seen, my emails come through. I go through Zillow listings, and I message everybody that has a new listing, every new agent that I see. Wow. I message everybody, just to introduce myself. And so I've come across lots of ugly photos. And I just, I don't, like, say they're ugly photos. I say something more, you know, understandable, like, you know, they don't show the property in the best light. This is not something I do, but it amazes me. The amount of like million plus dollar homes that are taken with a cell phone and it's like, they're not like, they're crooked, they're, they're of the floor, they're, you know, taking some blurry photo of, I don't know, the kitchen, sink, I don't know. And it's just amazes me that, that those are on there. That's, it's, the thing is what, what I think agents, maybe newer agents, I don't know, but what agents don't realize. Is this not just the house you're selling, but it's your brand that you're selling? It's you. You're in those pictures. I mean, obviously they're my pictures, but that doesn't relate when you're looking online. So if you're comparing two different houses and one less expensive, not as pretty house has better pictures than the other one, the million dollar home has cell phone pictures, you're more inclined to go to the other photos that have the, that are prettier to look at that, to visit those houses. Because usually for us, like if we're looking at a listing and our buyer's like, Hey, I want, can we see this house? Cause there's not many pictures. And then you look at the picture. It's like of the door, you know, the long, like you can't really see the room. Yeah. So first thing we do is like, look and see who the agent is. So yeah, branding is super important and having good pictures. Eliminates the need for it does make it easier for the buyer to know that house. Yeah, it's, you're going to get more views and more interest when you have, I mean, not just video, uh, photos, but videos or 3d tours or floor plans, all that stuff helped to get the customer's mind or the, the buyer's mind into the home and saying, Yeah, I can picture myself here. And so that's kind of the goal of those higher end pictures versus the cell phone pictures or bad pictures. I mean, I've had agents use other people because they're cheaper and you can tell and they're happy because it's cheaper, but you know, are you going to sell the house any faster? No. I mean, it's probably gonna sit a lot longer and the longer it sits, the harder it's going to be to sell. So you definitely want to try to get that first impression right away. So, yeah, it's great to have, you know, when you're building your team, you've got to have all these different roles that each person plays. So it's like less craziness that you have to deal with and you can focus more on the client. Yep. Yeah. I had one more question. Not a question, really. It's, I'm impressed in your like marketing strategy with the reaching out to listings, like looking up listings and knowing when new listings coming up. How's that been? It's been okay. I think the issue, it's a twofold thing. So I've now collected tons of emails and names. And next I'm going to just start collecting phone numbers. But I'm not the best on the phone, so I haven't tried the cold calling approach. But I built up a list. I don't know what to do with it. I'm not trying to email people, you know, that aren't actual clients. But I built up a list that maybe I might be able to use. But I think people get a lot of emails. Agents, I mean. They're getting a lot of emails. And so, my response rate is probably okay. But my actual hiring rate is It's pretty low, whether those people, you know, next year when they list again, because not everybody's listing, you know, five or six homes a year, they might be listening one to maybe next year, I'll get people in the next few months, I'll get somebody reaching out saying, Hey, you've reached out to me on the email, although I do reach out on Instagram, but it is I think that's part of the issue, lots of emails that come in that are just junk off my email marketing is just crazy. Yeah, it's like we are emails everywhere. So We just get so much stuff. I'm like, I don't remember subscribing to this. You know, I never subscribed to anything. But, I don't, you know. Yeah. I mean, I have, in theory, I have an open rate of 78%. Which is pretty good. But, I don't know what that means. Just click delete. Click spam. Click Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll look back at it later. I mean, I, I get editors that reach out to me. I've got a couple hundred emails from editors in the last year. That's not, I mean, it may not be a lot. But that's like, every day you get two or three. Oh, another editor wants money to hire them. You I get, I get it, you know, I know, uh, but I'm sure in the other, I don't get that many, but, you know, tenfold what agents are getting because they're, you know, out there a little bit more public than I am, so I get it and it is what it is. It's just, it's getting it out there. I just recently, uh, joined the MLS, the local MLS as an affiliate. Okay. So that's another avenue that I'm hoping to pursue that I'll be in the next newsletter, whatever. Whether people read that or not again, I don't know. Yeah. But I'm one of the very few photographers that are an affiliate. So it's like, it's just trying to find avenues to reach people that may or may not be normal channels, I guess. I don't know if that's the right word. Yeah, I think People, I mean, people have their photographer, but they're not always available at the time we want them. So I think it's important to have a backup person. So you'd be a great backup person to someone who already has their primary. The other is, is retirement. I just, I got an agent earlier this year because their agent, I mean, their photographer retired. Wow. So it just, it's just time to get that, that whole list of, uh, yeah. Or reach out to that retired, uh, That's actually a good, I don't know why I haven't thought about it. That is a good thing. He is actually somebody that is listed on the MLS. As sort of a recommendation, but he is retiring. So they weren't okay with me being the new offering. So they're no longer going to recommend somebody, but that is an interesting thing. I don't know how I'm going to figure that out, but that's good. Once we stop the recording, you tell me the name and I'll let you know if I know them. Maybe I'll make a connection. Sure. We'll see. Awesome. Yeah. Thank you very much for coming down. Any questions for me or anything? No, I think this has been great. Keep up the good work, I guess. Thank you very much. Excellent. All right, so this is the part where we go thumbs up, and then you point at the camera, and then you wave, and then you point, and then you say, all right. All right. We didn't have to do all that. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. That lawnmower in the background. Goodness.