so ive been doing real estate photography on weekends for about 8 months now and honestly its going better than i expected. i charge $150-200 per property depending on size and i've been getting 2-3 bookings most weekends through a local realtor i linked up with. started doing the math and its not crazy to think i could replace my day job income if i could fill my weekday schedule too.

my buddy thinks im being naive and that the market is saturated but idk, in my area at least there arent that many people doing it seriously. a lot of the listings i see still have terrible phone photos or zero aerials at all so it feels like theres still room. anyway i guess my question is — has anyone actually made the jump to full time and what was the first year like financially? did you diversify into other stuff besides real estate or just go deep on one niche?

yeah i made the jump about 3 years ago and honestly the first year was rough in a way i wasnt totally prepared for. not because there wasnt work, but because the work is so uneven. like january and february i was basically sitting on my hands and then march through june i was turning down jobs. you really need a savings buffer going in, like at least 4-5 months of expenses, more if you can swing it.

real estate was my base too but i ended up adding construction progress shoots and some event work to smooth out the slow months. the construction stuff especially is underrated — you get on a project and they want monthly or even weekly flyovers for months at a time, its reliable in a way that real estate just isnt. would definitely recommend poking around in that direction if you havent already. also get an LLC sorted before you go full time, the liability stuff matters more than people think when youre not covered by an employer anymore.

im kind of in the same boat as you actually, still part time but thinking about it. following this thread to see what people say. the saturated market thing is what scares me too but like you said it really depends where you are i think