Getting paid for taking pictures of property

1

Alright guys,
Need some help.

I got a call yesterday from this woman asking me if I was willing to go take about 150 pictures of a property her company is financing renovations for. She said she does not have anyone in the area she has worked with before because they are in New Jersey (I’m in TEXAS). She does not need an Inspection, just pictures to verify the existing structure, mechanicals, electric, plumbing etc.
Here is a link to their website and it seem legit,…but I’m not sure. I’m supposed to take the pictures and send them to the company and they will send me a check.
**Anyone done this before? I wish I was so busy I could say NO but the way things are slowing down I want to stay open to new revenue streams.
Most of the email she sent me after we talked is copied below.
strong text
What do y’all think?

Allison Frasca afrasca@phinj.net|![Attachments]Wed, Oct 11, 4:31 PM

Hi Trent,

Nice talking with you. Thank you for offering to provide photos at the following location:

Property Address: ** Navasota TX 77868**

**Client Name: Chrisanthus,

**On: Friday, October

The agreed to payment for successful completion of photos is $, *** for mileage.*

I will contact you as soon as the borrower confirms if this date and time works for them.

The client or a representative will give you access to the property.

Please follow the attached photo protocol and when taking the photos, ask the inspector to rotate the device to landscape with the bottom of the device in their right hand, as it is otherwise difficult to see the pictures.

Note: Please remember to put your settings to still photos, NOT LIVE PHOTOS, prior to taking the pictures.

Please plan to provide photos the same day as the visit.

Photo Sharing Instructions

Please follow the instructions below. First create an album and then upload into the album. Then share a link with draws@phinj.net .

Upload items to Google Photos from your browser

  1. On your computer, open photos.google.com.

  2. Create and name your photos file

  3. At the top right, click Upload. Computer.

  4. Find and select your photos.

  5. Click Open.

Send a link or share through other apps

  1. On your computer, open photos.google.com.

  2. Place your cursor over the photos/photo folder and click Select.

  3. To send a link, click Share.

  4. Choose how to share your link. To share a link, click Create link.

Thank you for your effort. Please make this a priority.

If you are using an Apple device, please convert the HEIC files into JPG files before uploading to google photos.

PHI will mail a check to you. Checks are run weekly. Please make sure your invoice has your payment mailing address on it. Send your invoice to Rosean Weiss - rweiss@phinj.net .

In the event of an emergency that will affect the agreed to date/time of your photo visit, or if you have any questions or concerns, please call me directly on 908-500-6101.

Best Regards,

Allison Frasca

Hiring, Recruitment & Scheduling Manager
PROFESSIONAL HOME INSPECTIONS
EMAIL:
TEL: -973--*

WEB :
For all new 203k inquiries, email our Pre-Closing Team: info@phinj.net, Peter Lustig, plustig@phinj.net or Allison Frasca, afrasca@phinj.net

For pre-closing report documents and questions, email info@phinj.net and Vanessa Megura: vmegura@phinj.net

To schedule draw inspections, email Allison Frasca, afrasca@phinj.net and our Post-Closing Team, draws@phinj.net

For draw document questions or to send change order invoices email our Post-Closing Team: draws@phinj.net and/or Michelle Ross: mross@phinj.net

For other matters email Rosean Weiss, rweiss@phinj.net

For check payment status or financial questions regarding your renovation loan, please contact your lender.

2

I’ve done something similar a couple times for a guy handling a renovation loan. The first time it took about 3 months to get paid, the second time I raised the price and required payment up front.

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3

Thanks for the response.
I was thinking about requiring payment upfront as well.

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4

Joe’s got it. Get paid up front and price accordingly. 150 is a lot of pictures.

5

I think I will tell them I want to be paid before I send the pictures. I typically take between 150-200 pictures during an average inspection so it’s not new to me.

6

Good luck with that!

How much they paying you? $35? $50?

7

They said they would pay me $200.00

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8

They’re not going to do that, don’t waste your time.

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9

I did a few of these when I was getting started. Here is what I learned.

150 photos of a property is significantly more than what you would think when you are not taking CYA photos during a home inspection. There are only so many exposures on the exterior of the home, only so many rooms in the home, & typically only one HVAC system, water heater, & electrical panel. It is actually pretty tedious to take that many. You end up spending a fair amount of time trying to find things to photograph.

“We just need you to take 150 photos of the home.” Oh yeah, we forgot to tell you that they all need to be labeled, & then uploaded in a particular order. This is when you better make sure that you know exactly what side of the home you took the photo from and what direction the bedrooms were located. It takes a couple of hours labeling everything and putting them onto the provided document.

Now upload them onto our antiquated portal. It never goes smooth. Even though you ZIP the file as required, it seem like it always says that the file is too large to download. You email them and then they want you to send them through a shared fill. You do this and two days after the deadline, they email you telling you that they never received it. The email includes the notice that you agreed that each day that you are late that you will have $50.00 deducted from your payment. This takes two or three emails to get straightened out.

The first time you do it, they will try and reject a few of your photos. All general photos of the room in the home must include the floor, walls, & ceiling. This is harder to do than you think in landscape mode. You are now under 150 photos, so we are deducting a portion of your fee.

In you take the photos during the winter, you can almost always expect to receive an email requesting that you go back and photograph the roof & exterior for free once the snow is gone. We cannot afford to pay you more for this, but don’t worry. We will take care of you on the next case. This never happens. They can never afford to pay you more. Sometimes they will even try to pay you less after your first time.

The contract normally always says that you will be paid 30 number of days after the photos are accepted. You normally receive and email 7-10 days after you have uploaded them, letting you know that the files are accepted.

You email them on day 35 after you have not received your payment. The person that can provide the answer is never in the office that day. They will get back to you when they return to the office on Monday. You then receive an email letting you know that its 30 days after the case is accepted, not when it is submitted. Ok, you then send another email after it’s been 30 days after the accepted date. Again the person that can provide the answer is not in the office. They get back to you and let you know that they cannot send it because they need a W9. You send it. Oh, we only issue checks on Fridays so you will have to wait until next Friday before we can issue you a check. You finally receive a check around 55-60 days after you sent the file.

You will typically get a handful more cases before they start wanting you to do special cases that only require 50 photos. They always cut the payment significantly, then remind you that they took care of you on the rest of the jobs…

You can make somewhat decent additional income while you are slow if you are willing to put up with all the BS. It all comes down to how quickly you get busy with everything else or how long you will put up with the BS, before you no longer respond to their emails.

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10

You failed to mention that there are companies that will only accept photos that are taken in a certain orientation.
Better be damned sure which one they want before you even leave your driveway, or you’ll be going back for all new photo’s for FREE!

11

100%
I did a TSA/environmental inspection right before deploying for FEMA a couple of months ago. I took everything in landscape. When they received them, they all went to portrait and were wonky looking. It wasn’t anything on my end. My screen shots of the photos showed everything was correct, yet they wanted me to figure it out. In the end it all worked out. Just don’t want the extra hassle when you are trying to move on to something else.

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12

Yup. In most cases, these “Field Services” jobs are more trouble than they’re worth, regardless what you get paid. I understand the need to put food on the table. Been there, done that. It’s a necessary evil sometimes. Went through all that when the ‘bubble burst’, and in some ways seeing that potentially happening again today… especially with winter beginning soon. Minnesota doesn’t do all that well in winter.

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13

Yeah, I remember doing these and other similar gigs during the melt-down of 2008, lots of “banks want photos to see who lives there” or if “it’s still standing”, blah, blah…"

Uploading photos, getting some request for an additional or extra pic of some specific item, getting yelled at by the occupant or owner, etc.

Always too much post-production hassle.

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14

During that “melt down”, wife and resorted to doing clean outs on foreclosed properties. Sometimes you’ve got to do whatever makes it to pay bills. Interesting and disgusting at times to say the least. Thankfully, it was a short stint in our careers.

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15

WOW! guys thanks for the feedback! So far I have not seen a contract yet and that made me suspicious about the whole thing. We will see what happens. I am doing OK for now and I don’t have to do this if I don’t want to. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Later…

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16

You may not ever see one.
Many companies just go with a “verbal understanding”, and if you accept the job, it confirms your understanding.
Sometimes they will provide a formal Agreement after you have completed one or few jobs for them, requiring your signature, making it a legal agreement, usually for insurance purposes.

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17

Back around 2008-2012, I was doing a lot of them. They usually allowed 10 days to do the pictures. I’d get a list of properties and I’d tell them which ones I would do and which I wouldn’t do. I only did the ones in areas where I worked on a regular basis so I never had to travel out my way more than a few blocks and they only took a few minutes so I could easily fit them in my schedule.

One thing to be careful of is some companies who take on a large number of jobs but subcontract them to inspectors. I was working directly for the company that got the jobs from lenders and so on. They usually paid around $12-15 for each photo. There was a local guy in NW Ohio who was advertising for inspectors to take the photos. He was paying the inspectors $5 a photo and pocketing $7-10 for each photo. All he did was run ads in newspapers, collect the photos, and pass them on to the company that hired him directly.

I don’t remember the name of the company but they were originally in Chicago and had moved to California. The owner of the company that contracted directly with lenders told me that the guy in my area was making boatloads of money by subcontracting the jobs to local inspectors. I was one of the few in my area who worked directly for the company. There’s no way I would have done them for $5 a photo but $12-$15 was quick and easy money.

18

Trent Barnes,

I have done thousands of inspections similar to what you are describing over the years. Yeah, it’s not as good as a Home Inspection but money is money. You can get a lot of these and from different companies (I even had 1 company I think Amerispec or US inspect train me for months on different things like structural, facades, etc). Some require you to carry identification badges to identify you. Last I remember I had 3 in my glove box. You can get screwed if you’re not careful. Always, always, always go knock on the front door and identify yourself and be nice and professional. Make sure you are at the right address and take a photo of the mailbox. You are at these peoples homes and 9 out of 10 times it is because they are trying to refinance their place. I always had my service area at 2 miles, anything over that they woule have to pay me round trip mileage. You’re not just stuck with the 1st amount they offer to pay you. They say we can’t pay you anymore than what is offered. Okay then, have a good day. Oh they will email you very, very soon and may even call but it will be email. They will say that they need it done by a certain time and they can go as high as an X amount of dollars. Go $30.00 higher than what they say is the highest amount, they will fold, trust me.

Oh and sometimes it can be a headache. Example: I had 5 set up for 1 day. My first 3 was a good 30 to 50 miles from my home and the other two were just a few minutes from where I lived. Okay, that 1st Inspection … nobody’s there, lockbox on the door, everything is good to go. Move on to other inspections working my way back home. I send everything in and the lady gets back in touch with me and tells me I am going to have to go out another 50 miles back to the 1st property and take more photos because mine were time stamped and that they could only pay me for 1 trip and no more mileage. I have always time stamped my photos and this company had a big issue with it. Needless to say they pissed me off and I refused to do anymore work with their company. After 3 days I received an email with an apology and a check around 2 weeks later. You normally get paid about a month after you do the work. When you have a wife and kids, you do whatever it takes to provide for them. On this message board you’ll hear Inspector’s say that they won’t start their truck for less than a hundred dollar’s. They are good Inspector’s that I respect but I don’t have Momma and Daddy paying my bills because I am throwing a temper tantrum. I like getting paid well too but the bills aren’t going to pay themselves, that’s why you negotiate for better terms (win/win for all parties).

It’s a business decision that you’re gonna have to make on your own Trent. Listen to other’s but do what’s best for business.

Sometimes in this businesses you get flashbacks too, like right now I can’t get out of my head these 3 pitbulls that chased me back to my van. This one in particular (I can smell him, I can hear his breathe and loud sounds coming from his mouth. I can see his sharp teeth and that tongue. I have cold chills going down my spine and my legs are shaking).

One thing about InterNACHI is there are certain people that read your posts like this and they will reach out to you in a phone call and say: Yeah Trent, this is Tom from over here at 5 Brother’s and I noticed you do inspections in your area of Texas, just so happens we need 2 good Inspectors right now and are hoping that you’ll be the first one. I can’t tell you how many times I have gotten calls from individuals and companies just from them reading something on the InterNACHI forum. Sometimes they will do that personal message thing on your personal account with InterNACHI. Probably landed as many paying jobs just off of posting on InterNACHI as I did with how many with my time with ASHI (THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF HOME INSPECTORS).

One more thing … something about this business that you just get off on, it becomes you and honestly over takes you. It is your way of life. That’s good and all but it will overtake you over the years. For me, it’s been a blessing and a curse for nearly 30 years. There are those that love me on here and there are those that are arrogant and speak without thinking, not showing respect as they should. I respect everybody and I will do work that other’s won’t. That’s alright, let them pass up the work because they are too good to do jobs like this. I can and have done what I had to do to take care of my family while other Inspectors post, yeah it would be nice to have a pizza now. Also, you land more jobs doing actual inspections because people saw your vehicle in a spot you may not have been to yet and you get a call to do an inspection, which always leads to 3 more around that area and the process keeps repeating itself. It’s just how far are you wanting to go?

Today you young people can do pretty much everything on a cell phone. I am set in my ways with a camera and a computer, and that’s technology for me. I wish you the very best and stay safe out there.

  • Michael
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19

So how did this go for you? I had the same person (Allison Frasca) contact me today about doing one of these for them. Sounds good, I’m a photographer as well (I do many realtor photos) and understand 150 photos is going to be a chore to get, but definitely doable. I wanted to see how things went for you?

20

Welcome to the forum!

I’ve been performing draw photo inspections for PHINJ / Allison Frasca on one property the last couple months and its easy peasy. No reporting, just photos. 200 bucks for an hour roundtrip drive and 45 mins taking photos. Upload to G-drive and I’m done. Works out to about $100/hr. I could do these all day long. Check usually takes a month but that’s how they roll.

I’m not sure why you feel 150 photos would be a chore? You mentioned you’re a photographer…you might want to leave your “professional photography hat” at home on these inspections as they don’t need to be Nat Geo quality. I easily take a couple hundred high-quality photos of a property inside and out with my iPhone.

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