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HomeJab is a listing photography and visual marketing booking site for agents and creative professionals.
Platforms: Browser-based; mobile
Ideal for: All agents, teams and brokers; photographers
Top Selling Points:
- Rapid turnaround
- A la carte service selection
- Transparent pricing
- Homeowner notifications
- Branded and unbranded content
Top Concern:
As with most solutions in this category, my primary concern is how it handles service as it grows. HomeJab, so far, is doing a good job of it.
What You Should Know
HomeJab is a creative services booking solution for the real estate industry started by a home builder wanting a better way to market his properties. Agents use HomeJab to book photographers, videographers and aerial imaging. Users can select a wide range of editing services, number of photos, need-by dates and pay directly from the site. HomeJab has also been one of the longest-standing solutions in this space.
HomeJab’s founder, Joe Jesuele, had a small home-building business. He handled all of his own listing marketing, using video and aerial footage well before it became common in the industry. He noticed along the way that many of his colleagues could use marketing assistance, too. And here we are.
I find companies like HomeJab to be perfect examples of how the internet can improve business, and there are several of them out there. Unlike a tunnel built by Elon Musk’s Boring Company, companies like Jesuele’s truly provide a fast, efficient shortcut between two entities.
After registering, the scheduling process steps agents through ordering photography, video, floorplans and a number of related visual assets common to property marketing.
Photos can be ordered as a single exposure or as HDR — high dynamic range — an image format that, among other benefits, eliminates exterior glare from interior perspectives. You can also add on edits to the sky to replace hanging stratus clouds with fluffy and fun altocumulus or decide you want it to look like dusk.
Pictures can be ordered in groups of 15, 30 or 50, and notes can be given to the photographer on “must-have” shots and location specifics, such as whether a dog might be there. Your seller is also notified on all the details.
HomeJab uses a shark-tank like lead model, meaning the first local photographer to claim the lead gets the business.
I asked HomeJab about photographer payment because I’m an advocate for artists.
As is common with such booking services, they’re not paying vendors full market rates. But when scaled, it makes sense. The artist is getting a ready-to-go lead and not having to do any editing or post-production; thus, I find it quite reasonable. It’s also a valuable way for real estate photographers to continue building a portfolio of local homes. HomeJab has more than 1,200 photographers in its national network, so clearly all parties remain satisfied.
Jesuele decided to include property pages for his company’s clients. All orders come with a landing page that nicely displays all the images from each project, any video that was ordered, floorplans and 3D tours, too. This is a very valuable bit of extra content that should be leveraged through social, email and however else agents execute digital marketing.
Agents have a back-end interface for staying up to date on orders, which are almost always turned around in a day, another very nice benefit of companies in HomeJab’s ilk.
It shows previous jobs, order history and allows for the management of payment options. It’s also where images will be downloaded; they’re branded for the agent’s direct use and publication and non-branded for multiple listing services.
HomeJab’s expanded beyond real estate, too, serving as the primary photography booking site for a major US-based restaurant chain. It’s also started to put its project data to use by producing industry reports, such as this one, that found most homes are captured on Wednesdays.
There’s little not to like with HomeJab. It’s a dependable, well-designed and effective entry in the creative services booking category.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.