So we are looking for people that do know how to shoot still photos, HDR still photos, to be able to send us those bracketed images so we can HDR the images and deliver those to the customer. But the main difference between TourBuilder Pro and TourBuilder Go is the style, the way you’re capturing the 360s. One requires the DSLR with a fisheye lens; that’s TourBuilder Pro. TourBuilder Go is shot with an app and paired with a one-shot 360 camera.
WGAN-TV | USA Real Estate Photographers Wanted for Large-Scale 360 Tour Projects for LCP Media | Guest: LCP Media Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Wojciech Kalembasa | Episode: 202 | Thursday, 7 September 2023 www.LCPmedia.com | www.LCPmedia.com/TourBuilderX
- Are you a USA-based real estate photographer that shoots 3D or 360 virtual tours?
- Would you like to fill gaps in your shooting schedule? Stay tuned.
Hi all, I’m Dan Smigrod, Founder of the [www.WeGetAroundNetworkForum.com]. Today is Thursday, September 7th, 2023, and you’re watching WGAN-TV Live at 5.
We have an awesome show for you today: USA Real Estate Photographers Wanted for Large-Scale 360 Virtual Tour Projects by LCP Media.
My guest today is [www.LCPmedia.com] co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Wojciech Kalembasa. Wojciech, thank you for being back on the show.
- Thank you for having us, Dan.
- Wojciech, before you jump into today’s topic, how about filling us in on LCP Media and TourBuilder Go and TourBuilder Pro?
- Sure, yeah, my pleasure. So LCP Media has been around for, gosh, over 12 years now. We just hit our 12-year anniversary, which is pretty incredible.
And we focus on creating virtual tours, photography, 3D renderings, virtual stagings for some of the largest real estate owners, developers and managers across the US. We’ve been, like I said, in business for over a decade.
And we have some pretty incredible opportunities for folks that are interested in joining our team and helping us execute on these types of jobs. And one of the reasons I’m here today, really, is to talk about that opportunity.
Because as our business kind of continues to scale, we are seeing more and more demand in the market for virtual tours and photography. And so we thought that the WGAN group and community would be a perfect place to start to seek out professionals that want to help and work with us.
- And can you give us some scale and scope of LCP Media?
- Sure, yeah, absolutely. So we are based out of Chicago, but we operate, I was going to say nationwide, but actually globally.
So we are looking for people that do know how to shoot still photos, HDR still photos, to be able to send us those bracketed images so we can HDR the images and deliver those to the customer. But the main difference between TourBuilder Pro and TourBuilder Go is the style, the way you’re capturing the 360s. One requires the DSLR with a fisheye lens; that’s TourBuilder Pro. TourBuilder Go is shot with an app and paired with a one-shot 360 camera.
Wojciech Kalembasa
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
LCP Media www.LCPmedia.com | www.LCPmedia.com/TourBuilderX
We have close to 30,000 photographers in our network. Now, a lot of those photographers joined us because they use our platform, TourBuilder, to publish their own 360 content to Google Street View. So that part of our business still very much exists and is available to any 360 content creator that wants to push their content to Google Maps.
But we produce and have produced over 12,000 virtual tours over the last 12 years ourselves, for our commercial real estate clients. We have close to 80 full-time employees, most of which are based in the US.
Some we have based in our second office, which is based in Poland, in Europe. So we have a pretty large operation and we continue to grow year-over-year.
And, again, we’re excited to talk about the opportunity here for folks that are professional shooters that are looking to fill their gap. Perhaps they have some gaps and some extra time where they’re looking for an additional source of income to do what they professionally do and are really good at.
We sort of want to, we take that first step, take the complexity of the sale out of the equation. These are contracts that we’ve been able to secure based on long-term relationships we’ve had with a lot of our customers. And what we’re looking for is those professionals out there in the field that are willing to help us fulfill those jobs.
- And are these projects: is it for hotels, resorts, retail, commercial real estate, multi-family?
- That’s great. Yeah, great question. Our focus on the enterprise side is mainly the multi-family industry. Now, we do operate in other verticals, such as senior living, in commercial real estate or commercial office, to be more specific, but most of our jobs are in the multi-family market.
So the type of shooting you would be doing is on the real estate side. So typically, we’re talking about shooting apartment buildings, single-family homes.
And when I say apartment buildings, we’re more focused on larger complexes that have amenity spaces and things like that, that they want to be able to showcase online to potential prospects. So, again, most of our focus is on the real estate residential side.
- And for context, just before you jump into some things you wanted to share on screen, LCP Media is the company, and you have two different brands: TourBuilder Go and TourBuilder Pro. Could you tell us what the difference is so that we’ll have context for our next discussion?
- Absolutely. So LCP Media is the, let’s call it the parent company name. That’s what we go by when we market ourselves to our enterprise customers.
Now, we provide various services, like I mentioned, so photography, virtual tours, 3D renderings, those types of things.
And TourBuilder is our platform. Now, TourBuilder, many of you may remember, used to be known as Panoskin.
We rebranded about a year ago. So Panoskin is no longer Panoskin, it’s called TourBuilder. And TourBuilder breaks down into two different parts: TourBuilder Pro, which is our professionally shot property tours, where we send out a professional photographer that is equipped with a DSLR, and a DSLR with also a fisheye lens because we do capture our professional 360s with the DSLR and a fisheye lens.
And so they are then capturing between 10 to 12 key areas of the property. So if we send out a professional, they’re shooting, let’s say, multiple amenity spaces and also some model units. All that content then comes back to us in-house. We process those virtual tours and deliver them to our customers.
That is the highest end, highest quality that our customers can receive, which is why we call it TourBuilder Pro. So when I say Pro, think property and professional. Now, on the other hand, we also have TourBuilder Go, which we just released maybe just over a year ago.
And TourBuilder Go is a mobile application that allows anyone to capture 360 virtual tours quickly using a one-shot camera. So currently, we support multiple Ricoh and Insta360 cameras. Our preference-
- So for clarification, if you have a [www.WGAN.info/RicohTHETAZ1], a [www.WGAN.info/RicohTHETAX], a [www.WGAN.info/RicohTHETAV], an [www.WGAN.info/Insta360X3], an [www.WGAN.info/Insta360oneRS1-Inch],
then you have the appropriate 360 camera to use with TourBuilder Go, the app.
- That’s correct, yes. So TourBuilder Go, again, is a mobile application. You download the mobile app on your phone, which I’ll present in just a second.
I’ll show you guys what that looks like. It pairs up with the one-shot camera and you’re able to go and capture a space very
quickly and easily.
So, between shooting for TourBuilder Pro with a DSLR, which takes a lot more time, TourBuilder Go is much quicker and just faster to produce these tours. Now, we are looking for folks that are professionals that have experience shooting with a DSLR because most of our customers also will request that we shoot still photography for them.
So we are looking for people that do know how to shoot still photos, HDR still photos, to be able to send us those bracketed images so we can HDR the images and deliver those to the customer. But the main difference, again, between Pro and Go is the style, the way you’re capturing the 360s. One requires the DSLR with a fisheye lens, that’s Pro. Go is shot with an app and paired with a one-shot 360 camera.
- And then just for clarification, the cameras that are supported today are the [www.WGAN.info/RicohTHETAZ1], [www.WGAN.info/RicohTHETAX], [www.WGAN.info/RicohTHETAV] and the Insta360 cameras.
The two:
[www.WGAN.info/Insta360X3] and the [www.WGAN.info/Insta360oneRS1-Inch]
are presently in beta, coming out of beta soon?
- Yes, yes. So over the next, let’s say, over the next month or so, we will be releasing a new version of TourBulider, which will then support the Insta cameras, as well. And as we kind of continue our development, we’re looking at multi-family the best cameras out there because, ultimately, our customers want quality and we want to be able to produce quality.
So we’re constantly looking at what cameras are the best, that’ll produce the best image. Our preference at the moment is the [www.WGAN.info/RicohTHETAZ1].
It does produce the highest quality image that we’ve seen, especially in the types of spaces that we’re capturing, which is the one we recommend and prioritize over, for the moment. But more support is coming and more cameras will be added very soon.
- So, Wojciech, so if I have one of those cameras, clearly, I have what you need. That said, let’s say I’m a professional real estate photographer. I’ve bought a [www.WGAN.info/RicohTHETAV]; LCP Media would prefer a [www.WGAN.info/RicohTHETAZ1].
So we are looking for people that do know how to shoot still photos, HDR still photos, to be able to send us those bracketed images so we can HDR the images and deliver those to the customer. But the main difference between TourBuilder Pro and TourBuilder Go is the style, the way you’re capturing the 360s. One requires the DSLR with a fisheye lens; that’s TourBuilder Pro. TourBuilder Go is shot with an app and paired with a one-shot 360 camera.
Wojciech Kalembasa Co-Founder and Chief Executive OfficerLCP
Media
www.LCPmedia.com | www.LCPmedia.com/TourBuilderX
Should I still apply? And then maybe just express interest to say, “Hey, once I know I get my first gig, I’ll go buy that [www.WGAN. info/RicohTHETAZ1] camera.”
- Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, whether or not you have the camera or not, if you have one of those or none of those, but you’re interested and have experience shooting 360s and creating virtual tours, I definitely recommend signing up. And to sign up, you would just go to our website, which is www.LCPmedia.com/TourBuilderX www.LCPmedia.com/TourBuilderX
The reason we chose TourBuilder X, we’re calling it the TourBuilder Exchange, which is where our professionals will be able to go and sign up.
So there’s a quick signup form [www.LCPmedia.com/TourBuilderX].
Once you sign up, our team will reach out with more details about next steps. Now, as far as jobs and opportunities, there are-
- Well, before we jump in, I just want to clarify here because, obviously, many WGAN-TV viewers are Matterport Service Providers.
You don’t support Matterport [Pro2/Pro3] cameras, but I want to say you’re interested in photographers, real estate photographers, that use Matterport because ...
- Because they’re experienced in capturing 360 virtual tours. So the process that Matterport users are used to, when I think about the Matterport app paired with their camera system, and the way you go about capturing a space using the TourBuilder
system is very similar in that sense.
So if you already have experience shooting for Matterport, this is just another tool that you can have in your tool belt that allows you to make extra money and potentially upsell your future customers on.
Because one of the things we didn’t really talk about yet is that TourBuilder Go currently is only available to our enterprise customers, but in 2024, we do plan to release a version of TourBuilder Go that will be available to anyone that wants to sign up and use it.
So, for example, if you have customers in the real estate space and you’re looking for an easy, quick, cost-effective capture solution, TourBuilder Go becomes another option for you, other than perhaps Matterport in this scenario, if you’re using Matterport.
But at the end of the day, if you have been shooting with the Matterport system, learning the TourBuilder system will be very simple and very easy. And-
- So if you’re doing Matterport, in fact, apply to [www.LCPmedia.com/TourBuilderX], you don’t have to have a 360 camera on the day that you apply, just the willingness to purchase the camera if you get an order from LCP Media.
And if I’m hearing correctly, LCP Media is particularly interested in real estate photographers that are doing 3D or 360 capture. And so Matterport Service Providers are perfect because we already know the process of capturing and moving the camera every six or eight feet; starting at the front door. There’s a logical process to follow.
That it’s just switching out which camera you’re using. And if you’re willing to buy a [www.WGAN.info/RicohTHETAZ1], then if you’re a Matterport Service Provider and you’re not using a [www.WGAN.info/RicohTHETAZ1] or an [www.WGAN.info/ Insta360X3], just apply anyway.
Get the gig and then decide you’re going to buy the camera. And just for clarification, are we talking about going out and shooting one apartment, or are we talking about potentially hundreds of apartments?
- Hundreds, hundreds of apartments. So one other thing I do want to mention is even if you don’t have a camera, I do recommend signing up because in many instances, if, for example, we have a gap in our coverage and we need someone and you are interested and you’re professional and you’re willing to learn how to use the system, there are instances where we’ve sent out a camera.
Depending on the job, depending on the size, depending on the frequency of that job, we may send you the camera and let you hold onto it.
So there are scenarios like that. Now, we will prioritize folks that have the equipment. It makes it easier for us, of course.
However, again, I do recommend anyone that is interested and willing to sign up because there’s always a path to get the camera in your hands. That definitely should not be a deterrent here, at any means.
And, again, we are talking about multiple or hundreds of shoots, potentially, because the way the system was designed, TourBuilder, and I will dive into an example in a bit here, the way it was designed, it’s meant to capture every single unit in an apartment complex. So if you think about a multi-family building, especially the ones that we work with, we’re talking about properties that have anywhere from 150 to 400 units.
And in many cases, the objective of the owners here or the managers is they want to capture every single unit in this building. And what that does for them is it builds a catalog of every single available unit. And so when they have prospects coming to multi-family www.Apartments.com or www.Zillow.com and looking for something that’s available, prospects nowadays want to see the exact unit that’s for lease or for rent, right?
And so in most cases, we have jobs where we will send you out and you will be capturing the units as they become available at these properties. So you’re going out, shooting maybe four to five units every single time you’re out there. And you might be going out there, this could be an ongoing job for a year, two.
Most properties will never, will not turn over every single unit for at least two years, meaning a lot of these jobs can become permanent for, well, permanent for at least for a long time, for multi-family a year to two in scale, so.
- So we’ve kind of moved from shooting virtual tours of the modeled units to literally every unit so that the prospective renter can see exactly what the view from the bedroom is, for example.
- Yes, 100%. Yeah, the market has definitely shifted in the last 18 months.
Prospects or people that want to rent when they go to places like www.Zillow.com or www.Apartments.com, the stat is like 85% of visitors that shop on these ILSs,
- - Internet Listing Services -- want to see unit-level data. Meaning if you’re going to convince me to come to look at this unit, I want to know as much information as I can about this specific unit.
And that’s really where TourBuilder comes in, because we provide a unit-level capture solution. So you’re going out there, you’re mapping that exact unit. That unit then becomes available online for prospects to see not only today, but for the next, let’s call it two to three years, while that content is still valid.
Because the other piece to this whole thing is real estate is constantly changing hands. Model units are being updated. So this is sort of a never ending, I’m not going to say never-ending cycle, but the lifecycle on most real estate photography is about two years.
And after two years, it has to be reshot because there was some sort of update: they painted it, they updated the kitchen, the bathrooms, whatever it is. So a lot of these jobs, like I said, can be long term.
- Wojciech, you’ve been talking about multi-family homes, [multi-Family] or rental units, apartment buildings, down to the individual unit level. Are you seeing that in hotels and resorts at this point?
- So I can’t really, I guess, speak to that as well as I can to multi-family because my expertise is mostly on the multi-family, senior living side. But I can’t imagine multi-family in the last couple years, there definitely has been a shift.
Due to COVID, multi-family good or bad, most people are starting their shopping experience online. And with technologies like TourBuilder, we are now giving people the opportunity to see the exact space, the exact unit, whether it’s a hotel room, apartment, whatever it is.
And as long as that technology continues to evolve, people want to consume it, they’re going to want to see it.
And they will gravitate towards websites or companies that have that type of content, which is why what we all do here within this 360 community and virtual tour community is extremely important. And this market is only going to continue to grow.
- The title for today’s show -- USA Real Estate Photographers Wanted for Large-Scale 360 Virtual Tour Projects for LCP Media
-- Does LCP Media have specific markets today where you need real estate photographers to do TourBuilder Go today?
So we are looking for people that do know how to shoot still photos, HDR still photos, to be able to send us those bracketed images so we can HDR the images and deliver those to the customer. But the main difference between TourBuilder Pro and TourBuilder Go is the style, the way you’re capturing the 360s. One requires the DSLR with a fisheye lens; that’s TourBuilder Pro. TourBuilder Go is shot with an app and paired with a one-shot 360 camera.
Wojciech Kalembasa Co-Founder and Chief Executive OfficerLCP
Mediawww.LCPmedia.com | www.LCPmedia.com/TourBuilderX
Or, is our discussion today about building out a LCP Media network of photographers so that if and when those opportunities come in, you’ve already vetted, you know that you have a photographer, that market, and you’re ready to go day one?
- Sure, yeah, it’s a great question. So I guess the first thing that I would say is I think anyone that’s been in this business knows that it’s a bit cyclical.
And we are now, at least in different parts of the country, depending on the time of year, the summer is coming to an end, so our busy season starts to kind of technically start tapering down a bit now.
And what we realized this year is that we have a lot of different gaps across the entire nation. So there isn’t one single market because we do operate across the entire US. I will say West Coast, East Coast, we have gaps.
And really pretty much every state, every major city, we could use more folks that are trained using TourBuilder and equipped with the correct equipment to go out and deploy and shoot these jobs. So do we have jobs available today? Yes, we do, 100%.
- And I could also imagine that someone watching the show today could say, “Well, I’ll just wait until LCP Media posts in the We Get Around Network Forum, a help wanted post for my specific market.”
I mean, I’m thinking, well, you’ve kind of missed an opportunity because if you’re in a market where you registered today and you vet the photographer and you’re all set, ready to go, then you literally have no need to post a help wanted notice in a specific market.
So if I’m a photographer that waits for that post, then it’s likely that there’s going to be multiple photographers from my market
to apply.
So it is like -- you really do want to listen closely to say, go apply now, go raise your hand, express interest today, even before your market has been identified as we need someone today? Because as soon as you post in the We Get Around Network Forum, multiple people may respond to that. And why create competition for yourself? Just apply.
- Absolutely, 100%. And, look, and we’re not talking about hours and hours of commitment to sign up today. By expressing interest, you’ll be contacted by our team. We’ll probably ask you to join us for a, call it, 30 to 40 minute demo.
We’d like to learn more about you, your experience, and we’ll get you access to the TourBuilder Go app, which then you, at your own leisure, can take your time, learn. We do have an online knowledge base with videos and training material. But, again, if you’re part of the Matterport group or you’ve shot 360s before for multi-family you’ll pick this up in 15 minutes. This isn’t a really big thing.
And then, Dan, to your point, signing up early and getting on our list gets you priority, 100%. Because by the time -- if we’re in a market and we’re posting a job available on WGAN, at that point, we probably have seven, eight, nine people applying for that job. And so your chances of getting that job decrease significantly, right?
So sign up, just getting signed up today, getting on our radar, making sure we approve you and put you in whatever area you’re in greatly increases your chances of getting the job. Plus, I do want to say that we do have coverage across the US, right?
So we do have folks in every single major market today, but we have gaps. So we have markets where we fill, literally, a photographer’s time, full time. They literally do nothing else but shoot for LCP Media because we have so many jobs for them in that market.
By adding an extra person or two in that market, helps us alleviate that person and kind of spreads the jobs out amongst more shooters, and allows us to also internally expand and plan. Because if we know that we’re short in a market, we’re not focusing in that market. So apply today.
- And, if you’re in an international market?
- International markets are interesting. So right now, we absolutely are expanding into Canada. So if you’re tuning in from Canada, please apply. There’s insane growth in Canada. We will absolutely need coverage there come 2024.
So, Dan, I’m glad you mentioned that. So, Canada, 100%. The UK is also a big market for us that continues to grow.
So if you’re in the UK, please apply. Europe and Asia-Pac, a little bit different. I would say still apply, just to get on our radar, get access to TourBuilder, because, ultimately, at the end of the day, next year, we will be releasing TourBuilder Go to the community or to really anyone that wants to use the platform to generate 360s. So think of it as another option to Matterport; just giving you an extra tool in your tool belt, giving you the ability to generate more revenue on your own.
So, again, even if you’re in a market where we’re not sending you out for jobs, by signing up, you will get priority to getting access in testing TourBuilder once it’s released, giving you that ability to use that in the future.
- Awesome. You have some things you want to show us. You want to go ahead and share your screen? And while Wojciech is calling up his screen, a reminder to go to:
www.LCPmedia.com/TourBuilderX
www.LCPmedia.com/TourBuilderX
and express interest. It’s not a long form, it’s a short form. There’s not a lot of questions. Just, yeah.
- Just some basics. We just need your name, email and your location. All right, perfect. All right, so we’ve been talking a lot about TourBuilder Pro and TourBuilder Go.
So I did want to spend just a few minutes talking about TourBuilder Go, giving you kind of a sneak peek into the application, how it works, because I really do want to point out and stress that it is a super-easy system to use.
So, again, if you have any experience shooting 360s, picking up TourBuilder Go is not going to be a problem for you. Again, if you are ready to sign up, you can go to:
www.LCPmedia.com/TourBuilderX
So let’s talk about the system itself, right? So we’ve been talking about one-shot cameras. Again, the [www.WGAN.info/ RicohTHETAZ1] is our preferred camera at the moment, but we do support a variety of 360 one-shot cameras.
But this is what we call our TourBuilder Kit. This is what we would recommend that our [TourBuilder Go Pros] carry.
I’m sorry, TourBuilder Go Pros carry. So it would be some sort of 360 one-shot camera. So let’s call it a [www.WGAN.info/ RicohTHETAZ1], a tripod, a battery pack, because we all probably know that these batteries don’t last very long.
So on longer shoots, having a battery pack is absolutely helpful. Phone mount and, well, the hard case is kind of optional. Now, we have these kits. We’ve actually sourced them through our relationship with Ricoh THETA.
So we actually have these and sell them. Definitely don’t have to buy them from us, but we do pack these up and sell them at a $1,500 price point.
Now, that’s a bit cheaper than what you would get in the open market, but you can absolutely go to Amazon or use your own equipment. But this is the kit that we use and recommend, and these are the pieces.
So connecting. Once you download the TourBuilder Go app on your iOS or Android device, connecting it to the one-shot camera is just as simple as connecting any one-shot camera to any app. Just scan the QR code and you connect the camera to the app itself.
So I think that’s pretty self-explanatory. We won’t dive in too deep there. But what does the app look like? It’s very simple. So first is your login page. That’s where you’ll use your credentials to get in. Soon as you enter the TourBuilder Go app, it will ask you what type of content will you be capturing today? So in this case, it gives you three options.
You’re either capturing 360 tour, still photos and video. Now, I didn’t mention this before, but the app also allows you to capture stills and videos. You are just using your cellphone to capture that content.
Once you select the type of content you’re capturing, it’ll ask you to select a property. Now, if you’re getting a job from LCP Media directly, you’ll be given a special account where the properties that are assigned to you will be listed here.
So you would choose the property from the list that you’re capturing that day. From there, you are choosing the unit that you’re going to capture.
So pretty simple, pretty self-explanatory. Once you kind of go through those few prompts, then you’re ready to start shooting.
On your cellphone, which is attached to your tripod, using that cellphone holder, you’ll have a little preview image, and all you have to do is press the little capture button. The timer is something that you can adjust.
So we are looking for people that do know how to shoot still photos, HDR still photos, to be able to send us those bracketed images so we can HDR the images and deliver those to the customer. But the main difference between TourBuilder Pro and TourBuilder Go is the style, the way you’re capturing the 360s. One requires the DSLR with a fisheye lens; that’s TourBuilder Pro. TourBuilder Go is shot with an app and paired with a one-shot 360 camera.
Wojciech Kalembasa Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer LCP Media
www.LCPmedia.com | www.LCPmedia.com/TourBuilderX
So you can get anywhere from, I think, five seconds, up to 60 seconds, to get out of the way. As we all know, it is a 360 image, so you do have to get out of that way once you hit the take photo button.
But once you take your photo, you’re able to preview the 360 and you’re able to also label the area where that 360 was taken. So you’ll have some options that show up. So it’ll be things like the family room, the dining room, the basement, whatever it is.
We’ve built in those options to make it nice and simple. And while you’re capturing, you’ll see three little icons up top.
The first one will be the 360 scene. So that’ll allow you to capture the 360s, and you would capture those consecutively, just like you capture any 360 tour, kind of spacing out your shots three to five feet apart, creating a nice, fluid walkthrough.
Now, depending on the job and the requests that you get from us, we may ask you to also capture still photos, which, at that point, depending on the job, you’re either capturing them with your DSLR or you’re using the TourBuilder Go app.
So if you’re using the TourBuilder Go app, you literally just take the cellphone off the cellphone holder, you switch over to the photos section and you start snapping away. Same exact thing applies to video.
If we ask you to take a quick video, you’re pulling off the camera and using your cellphone to just capture the footage. One of the things we do like to talk about is how fast it is to capture these 360s, So main difference between us and let’s say, call it a Matterport-style capture, is scanning a space could take a minute or two, whereas here, you’re capturing a 360 and it’s just a matter of seconds.
So you could literally be in and out, once you plan out your shots, call it within 10 minutes. I’ve seen people scan two bedroom,
one-bedroom units in under 10 minutes.
So it’s a very fast process. So when we do send you out there, you’re given direction, you know exactly what you’re there to shoot or capture. It could be one unit, two units or several units. And the process is meant to be very quick and easy so you can get through the job pretty quickly.
- Do I need to fluff pillows, turn on lights?
- Absolutely not. So that’s actually a great point. Let me see. I did want to showcase -- Dan, can you see my prep guide? [Yes] Perfect. So one of the things we get asked quite a bit is, “Do I have to prep the property? Do I have to stage it?”
And the answer is no.
The way we work with our customers is we share this “Photo and Video Shoot Prep Guide” with each one of our customers, and we make sure that they understand what they need to do to prepare their property before you show up to do the actual photo shoot. Now, we do ask you to use your best judgment.
Obviously, if there’s something in the way or if a chair is not tucked in or a toilet seat is not down, we do ask that you just kind of fix those things. But we’re only asking you to do minor, little details. In general, the property should be prepped and photo shoot ready when you arrive. ...
So after you capture your unit, within the app, you will see a preview of the virtual tour itself. You’ll be able to see a preview of all the content that you’ve captured.
So if you’re looking at my screen, you’re seeing that there’s 20 360s, 15 stills and four videos. So it’ll give you a preview of everything that you’ve shot, and you’re able to filter through, go through it, make sure you’re happy with what you captured. And, ultimately, at the end of the day, all you have to do is click publish. Now, when you do publish, you’re either publishing onsite.
If the wifi is strong, which, in most cases, it will not be, then you have the ability to just go home, and once you’re at home, connected to your wifi and you have internet, publish it there, and then it’ll be much faster and easier.
All the content that you’re capturing, those 360s, the stills, everything ends up being stored on your cellphone, which allows you to upload it later on.
And then, once your tour is submitted and published, you’ll actually be able to go in through the app and preview the tour; see what it looks like. But ultimately, we will be giving you feedback directly once we receive your content.
- So for clarification, as a photographer, I don’t need to do any post-production. I’m done once I’ve uploaded the content to LCP Media?
- Yes, 100%. Yep. There is no post-production necessary when shooting with, well, really when shooting for any of our jobs because our internal team handles all post-production.
And the reason we do that, we do get asked a lot about, from different Pros that like to get into the editing side of things, because we are shooting large-scale portfolios, we have to make sure that we are delivering a consistent look and feel across their entire portfolio, which is why all the photos do have to make their way to our centralized team, which handles all the editing, post-production and delivery of tours.
So all you have to do is go onsite, capture the content, and then deliver it to us.
So what does a typical job look like? In most cases, we are asking you to go out and capture some sort of multi-family property or real estate, residential type of property. Jobs, on average, and, again, we’ve captured 12,000 of these jobs in the last 12 years, so these are kind of averages across the board, but a typical job will take anywhere from two to four hours. Average pay is from $75 to $100 an hour.
That’s how it’s broken down. When we reach out to you for the job itself, we will give you the exact amount that we will pay for the job. We will describe the job to you so you will know exactly where the job’s located, what you’re capturing while onsite and how long we expect it to take and what your pay is.
So we always try to be 100% transparent with our teams so that they understand exactly what they’re getting themselves into. And then we do factor travel into that as well. So you are getting paid to get out there and then get back home.
That’s the average pay. And then we do process payment as soon as the assets are received by us and approved. By the time we receive the assets, usually 24 hours later, we have approved the assets.
Once it’s approved, you will receive payment. So we pay very quickly. We have a pretty good reputation in terms of offering fair compensation and paying quickly, which I know is very important to a lot of folks.
So we make sure we do that on time. If we expect you to be on time, we want to be on time with our payments as well.
And at the end of the day, deliverables that we are typically looking for is a virtual tour, and that’s whether it’s TourBuilder Pro or TourBuilder Go, and then still photos.
That’s the typical request that you would get from us. And, I guess, one more time, if you’re ready to sign up, just go to: www.LCPmedia.com/TourBuilderX
- So for clarification, on that signup, it is really just asking: name, company. There are less than 10 fields to fill out, including either, “I have a Ricoh THETA Z1” ... “I’m planning to buy a Ricoh THETA Z1” ... “I don’t have a Ricoh THETA Z1, but I’ll get one, or I have another 360 camera.”
So it’s a relatively short process, which is really just to enable LCP Media to begin the conversation with the photographer.
- Exactly. Yeah. Well, yes, 100%. We’re asking for some basic info to get in touch with you so we can start the process.
- Okay, so I think I would add a couple things, Wojciech.
We did another WGAN-TV Live at 5 with you back in July of 2022, and you actually did a full-blown demo of how to shoot TourBuilder Go. So if any of our viewers really just like, well, can I see a little bit more on that topic, you could go to, see that show at:
www.WGAN.info/LCPmediaOnWGAN
www.WGAN.info/LCPmediaOnWGAN
www.WGAN.info/LCPmediaOnWGAN
Second is LCP Media has posted many, many help wanted notices in the We Get Around Network Forum.
Two of them that are really noteworthy are posts about, on a national level, for TourBuilder Pro, and on a national level, TourBuilder Go.
And there’s a lot of details in there. So if you’re thinking, well, what gear do I need to have for TourBuilder Pro?
You mentioned DSLR. Is a mirrorless camera okay? Do I need to have a 1-inch sensor? You can see those details if you go to:
www.WGAN.info/LCPmediaHelpWanted
www.WGAN.info/LCPmediaHelpWanted www.WGAN.info/LCPmediaHelpWanted
So we are looking for people that do know how to shoot still photos, HDR still photos, to be able to send us those bracketed images so we can HDR the images and deliver those to the customer. But the main difference between TourBuilder Pro and TourBuilder Go is the style, the way you’re capturing the 360s. One requires the DSLR with a fisheye lens; that’s TourBuilder Pro. TourBuilder Go is shot with an app and paired with a one-shot 360 camera.
Wojciech Kalembasa Co-Founder and Chief Executive OfficerLCP
Mediawww.LCPmedia.com | www.LCPmedia.com/TourBuilderX
So you can see the existing help wanted posts for specific markets, but most importantly, I want to send you there so you can see very detailed specs on kinds of equipment, kinds of experience, even a greater detail than Wojciech has gone into.
So look for those national help wanted posts --
[www.WGAN.info/LCPmediaHelpWanted]
[www.WGAN.info/LCPmediaHelpWanted]
- - specifically for the two brands, TourBuilder Pro and TourBuilder Go. Wojciech, if it’s so easy to shoot a TourBuilder Go tour using an Android or iPhone smartphone paired with the TourBuilder Go app paired with a 360 camera, why not just send the TourBuilder Go Kit to the property managers and have them shoot the tours?
- Yeah, it’s a great question, and a lot of our customers actually do shoot their own tours, but it really is a matter of having the onsite people available, having someone with some sort of experience.
And it really depends on the need. The jobs that we’re talking about today are customers that specifically don’t have the ability to use their onsite teams because the ones that do, sure, they’ll buy the TourBuilder Go Kit, they’ll capture it themselves.
But there’s an entire market that is massive that does not want to shoot this stuff themselves. And they’re looking for a professional that has the eye, has the experience to do it for them. Also, the one thing, the big difference is also the capture of the still photos.
Because capturing the 360 virtual tours is just one part of most of the requests that we receive.
Most of these customers are also asking for high-quality still photos, which is why we’re looking for Pros that have experienced not only in the 360 capture space, but also shooting real estate with a DSLR and shooting specifically still photos.
So it really just depends on the job and it depends on the customer and what they’re looking for.
- I could imagine that our viewers -- real estate photographers that are shooting 3D/360 tours -- would look at the workflow for TourBuilder Go and go, “Okay, well, that was super-simple,” but at the same time, if you probably sent out the TourBuilder Go Kit to the property managers, and a salesperson was asked to go do what you just described -- I guess I’m trying to say is sometimes we take our skills for granted.
That we have a tremendous amount of knowledge that we just, we can do that and it’s easy, and it’s not rocket scientist stuff, but to somebody at a property manager level, it is rocket scientist stuff. And they just, they’re totally going to be challenged doing the 360s or the photos or the video.
And, therefore, there’s this insatiable demand for LCP Media to be able to source independent contractors, real estate photographers, to shoot this content. Am I making that up or does that sound like?
- No, it’s 100% true. The other piece to this and why I love working with folks from all over the country is that you all have skills that maybe, again, like Dan, like you said, you kind of take for granted, right?
The cool thing is once you apply and we start having conversations with you about TourBuilder Go, then we start opening up things like: “Do you do video?” “Have you done drone work?” “What else have you done?”
And we start uncovering different talents and different experiences people have that allows us to put them up in a different category when it comes to the types of content that you’d be doing. So today, again, we’re talking specifically about our need for 360 capture, but that absolutely can evolve to so many more things that our customers buy from us on a daily basis.
But, again, back to your point, Dan, the skills that we all have are highly sought after. Demand is high.
And, sure, part of the market, generations are getting more techie, younger, I don’t know how to describe it, but people are more hands-on, right? So you will always have that part of the market that wants to just try things themselves and do it themselves, but a big part of real estate still feels more comfortable having a professional go out there and do it for them.
They want someone that has the experience, that’s done it before, that’s not doing it for the first time, which is why the skills that this community has are super-important.
- Are you looking for real estate photographers for eight-hour days, 10-hour days? Or truly, I’m a busy real estate photographer, I have gaps in my schedule, I’m interested in filling my gaps.
My mornings tend to be slow. Is there an opportunity to fill gaps versus, “oh, I got to commit to the next five days of doing TourBuilder Go shooting?”
- Sure. Yeah. So there’s a variety of jobs that we have, and they can be, like I think I mentioned before, anywhere from a couple hour job to half-day job.
Now, we also have full-time, full-day jobs, like where if we’re working with a brand new development, we might have the need to scan or capture 50 or 100 units, or maybe it’s 200, and that could be a four or five-day-long job. But the beauty of working with us is that we’re very upfront, right?
We will reach out to you, we will describe the job, and you will have the ability to accept it or not. So if you can’t take on a four or five-day job, we absolutely respect that and we will push that to somebody else. If you’re only looking to fill a couple hours of the day, we can work with you that way as well.
One of the things we do ask is that you share your calendars with us. Once you’re approved and within our database of approved creators, our operations team will have access to your calendar.
And depending on the type of availability that you want to give us, you can tell us, “Hey, I’m only available Mondays and Fridays from this time to this time,” and we will work around that schedule to get you slotted into jobs that we have available.
So we’re very flexible from that standpoint. So if you’re sitting there thinking, “well, I only have my mornings open twice a week, maybe this doesn’t make sense” ... I think you should still sign up. We absolutely have jobs where we’ll get a job once a week and
it’ll be in that timeframe, that you can actually dedicate, so.
- On the scheduling, so I could imagine what you’re asking, “share your Google Calendar with us.” We’re not looking at, oh, you’re having a date with your wife, Ann.
No, we just want to know you’re not available from 11 am to 3 pm on that day, but we see that you have availability in the morning and you have availability in the afternoon. So that means you might reach out knowing what the schedule looks like.
- Yeah, so part of working with LCP Media, we’re a pretty big operation and so we have lots of jobs coming in, and one of the nice things, to make it easy on both us and the shooter, is if you do share that calendar with us, that gives us the flexibility to be able to book you quickly and get you those jobs. Now, if we book you and you can’t make the job, you’ll still receive an email and a request.
You can always respond, saying, “Hey, actually, I can’t do this because of so-and-so reason.” And that’ll be fine.
We’ll just move the job to somebody else. And when it comes to the calendars, we will show you how to share your calendar with us, where we don’t see any of your private stuff on your calendar. So all you have to really do is share with us the time slots that you have available so that we know that we can book you that time or that day.
- So I’m a photographer. Maybe I’m a Matterport Service Provider, maybe I’m using some other virtual tour platform. I have a trusted relationship with a property management company. They’ve been asking me to shoot. But, all of a sudden, I realize, “wow, they’re in many other markets and maybe Matterport is not the right solution for them.” Is there a way for me to come back to LCP Media and say, “Hey, I think I’m over my head.
I have a trusted relationship, but I couldn’t possibly do 37 states, I couldn’t do 12 different apartment buildings. I’m not sure that -- I know they want a ton of tours, but I don’t think Matterport is exactly the right solution for them.”
Do I reach out to LCP Media and say, “Hey, is there a way to partner here? I have a trusted relationship.”
- Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we’ve been in the market for a very long time, so hopefully our reputation, it kind of speaks for itself. Absolutely, if you have a job like that, we’d be more than happy to talk to you about it.
So we are looking for people that do know how to shoot still photos, HDR still photos, to be able to send us those bracketed images so we can HDR the images and deliver those to the customer. But the main difference between TourBuilder Pro and TourBuilder Go is the style, the way you’re capturing the 360s. One requires the DSLR with a fisheye lens; that’s TourBuilder Pro. TourBuilder Go is shot with an app and paired with a one-shot 360 camera.
Wojciech Kalembasa Co-Founder and Chief Executive OfficerLCP
Media
www.LCPmedia.com | www.LCPmedia.com/TourBuilderX
We’re not here to try to take business away from anybody. We’re here to sort of uplift everyone together, if we can. And so if you do find yourself in a situation like, Dan, like you described, please reach out to us, let us know. I mean, we will happily get on a call with you and discuss the job or the opportunity that you have, and see where we can partner and how we can work together on it.
- Wojciech, I have one last question for you, but before I ask that question, I want to ask a pre-question. Is there a question that I haven’t asked you? Is there a topic that we should discuss that we haven’t discussed?
- No, I think we covered everything. I mean, the message here today is if you are looking to make some extra money, fill your gaps, if you have them, and work with a great company, we urge you to go to our website and sign up.
- So my final question is, okay, I’ve watched the whole show, but I really don’t want to apply unless there’s a real gig and that it’s been posted in the We Get Around Network Forum.
So please tell me why I shouldn’t, I know you’ve said it, but make your case again of why not wait or, badly said, why should I apply today?
- Well, because we are constantly getting new jobs in different markets across the nation every single day, and we don’t always have time to post, let’s say, that job in every single forum. So I’d love to say that we post every single availability on WGAN, but we don’t because we just don’t have the ability to.
So what we end up doing is emailing the LCP Media network of photographers and content creators that we currently have, and usually one of those folks will respond.
So we have our approved base. We have another base that has expressed interest to some level, some degree. Maybe I haven’t
gone through the full vetting process.
But we kind of start there, and usually we will find someone before we have to start reaching out to different third-party channels. It’s just kind of the way it works, right? So by the time I’m posting to WGAN, most likely, they’ve reached out, they’ve kind of exhausted their other options. So the chances of you getting that job decrease significantly if you wait until we post something on these forums.
This is why I urge folks to sign up: www.LCPMedia.com/TourBuilderX The other piece to this is once you’re signed up and approved, you will have access to any early release of TourBuilder that becomes available to the public. And if anything, as professionals in this market, I think, information is always key.
Staying on top of what’s happening in the industry and getting early access is important. So I urge people to sign up: www.LCPMedia.com/TourBuilderX
Get on our radar, communicate with us. Even if you just want to say hi and talk about different things, we’re happy to do it with you.
Please, just apply [www.LCPMedia.com/TourBuilderX] we know you’re out there, we know that you’re shooting and we know that, to some level, you might be interested.
So when we do get that next job, the first place we fire off an email and a message is our network that has reached out to us. So hopefully that makes my case.
- Apply: at www.LCPmedia.com/TourBuilderX www.LCPmedia.com/TourBuilderX Wojciech, thanks for being on the show today.
- My pleasure, thanks for having me again.
- We’ve been visiting with LCP Media co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Wojciech Kalembasa.
For Wojciech, I’m Dan Smigrod, Founder of the We Get Around Network Forum, and you’ve been watching WGAN-TV Live at 5.
