General Service Delivery Guidelines
The Mediamax Help Desk is open to provide phone, email and chat assistance with new shoot orders, scheduling coordination and tech support Monday thru Friday from 8:30 a.m. til 5:30 p.m.
Our Help Desk does monitor emails and new photo shoot orders over weekends and holidays, responding as quickly as possible the morning of the next business day.
Our average turnaround to set a shoot appointment is 1 to 3 business days from the day an order is placed and paid for in our system.
If a home won't be ready for photos when an order is placed in our system then we'll schedule a shoot 1 to 3 business days from the day our client let's us know the home is ready.
It's always a good idea to get your shoot order placed 3 to 5 days before the day you'd like your listing to hit the market in the MLS.
No, our photographers are very experienced with accessing homes via lock box or coordinating shoots with homeowners so they are very capable of completing photo shoots without the listing agent or someone from their staff being present.
Photo shoot session times can vary greatly depending on the photography package quantity and other services included with your order. In general, below are estimated times by services ordered you and your sellers should plan for.
Approximate shoot times by photography package and other services:
- 15 to 40 HD Still Photography Package - 20 to 75 minutes
- Matterport 3D Tour - approximately 20 minutes per 1000 sq. ft.
- Aerial Photography -
We don't obligate our photographers to be available for weekend shoots and about 99% of our photo shoots happen Monday thru Friday. However, we do understand that real estate is a 'weekend business' so we will accomodate weekend shoot scheduling for situations when a home or commercial property is not available during the week.
Finished photos, videos, Matterport tours, floor plans and any other visual content associated with an order is delivered by 9 a.m. the day following the photo shoot.
Occasionally there can be content delivery technology glitches that delay delivery of content, but we're proud to say that we hit our '9 a.m. day after shoot' promised delivery time for the vast majority of orders.
Preparing Listings for Photo Shoots
Listing agents or their staff are expected to have their listing prepared, de-cluttered and looking exactly as it will be for buyer showings. With our COVID-19 photo shoot rules that took affect in April of 2020 it's not only recommended, but required that listing agents follow the rules below for every photo shoot.
- Mediamax photographers will ONLY photograph properties with nobody present during the shoot.
- Homeowners, family members, you and your team must leave the home during photo shoots.
- PLEASE treat the photo shoot like a buyer showing when you normally ask sellers and their family to leave.
- You or your sellers should prepare your listing at least 30+ minutes before the scheduled appointment by turning on all lights, adjust blinds and de-clutter in advance of our photographer arriving.
- Properties will be shot 'as is' at the scheduled appointment time.
- Our photographers will not touch anything inside homes.
- Our photographers will be sanitizing themselves and equipment before and after each shoot for the protection of homeowners.
Mediamax COVID-19 shoot rules became effective in April 2020, continue to be enforced indefinitely as we follow guidelines mandated by the Colorado Association of Realtors™
- We will ONLY photograph properties with nobody present during the shoot.
- Homeowners, family members, you and your team must leave the home during photo shoots.
- PLEASE treat the photo shoot like a buyer showing when you normally ask sellers and their family to leave.
- You or your sellers should prepare your listing at least 30+ minutes before the scheduled appointment by turning on all lights, adjust blinds and de-clutter in advance of our photographer arriving.
- Properties will be shot 'as is' at the scheduled appointment time.
- Our photographers will not touch anything inside homes.
- Our photographers will be sanitizing themselves and equipment before and after each shoot for the protection of homeowners.
Our photographers do their best to make sure the shoot happens at the scheduled appointment time as planned. However, photographers block out a limited amount of time depending on the photography package and other services ordered.
Photographers will exercise patience with you and your sellers, but depending on their schedule they can typically only allow about 20 minutes of wait time before the shoot will need to be re-scheduled.
As much as we like to avoid cancellation and re-scheduling charges, for most 'home not ready' instances photographers will need to submit a $35 cancellation and re-scheduling charge that will be processed on the credit card on file in a client's account.
Under normal circumstances our photographers are always willing to move small items that might distract from the photo composition of a room. However, with our COVID-19 rules photographers will not touch or move any homeowner personal items within a home.
So, listing agents MUST work with sellers to prepare their home in advance of shoot day and then arrive at the listing at least 30 minutes before the scheduled shoot appointment to make sure everything is look good before the photographer arrives.
Cancelling and Rescheduling Photo Shoots
We ask for at least 24 hour notice for confirmed shoot appointments to avoid needing to charge a cancellation fee. We charge $25 for cancellation requests received within 24 hours of confirmed shoot appointments.
Of course, our goal is to make every attempt to avoid charging a cancellation fee! After all, we're in the photography business and not the fee collection business.
However, confirmed shoot appointments take up income generating time on a photographers schedule and short notice cancellation can adversely affect a photographers schedule so we ask all our clients to be courteous and contact us via phone, email or text as quickly as possible more than 24 hours before an appointment to cancel or re-schedule a shoot.
Our local Colorado Help Desk is always the best contact to cancel or re-schedule a confirmed photo shoot. Use helpdesk@mediamaxphotography.com or call (303) 988-7497 to let us know about a cancellation or to reschedule your shoot.
Of course, you'll also have the email and mobile number for your photographer so we encourage you to also call your photographer directly via phone, text or email. This is especially true for very short notice appointment cancellation happening within hours of your shoot.
Image Delivery After Shoots
All finished photo, video, 3D Tour and floor plan files are conveniently delivered through the Mediamax Content Download Center. You'll receive a completion email the morning after your shoot with links to download all content associated with your listing shoot.
Below is an example of the shoot completion email you'll receive the morning following your shoot with links to view and download all your content.
Yes, Mediamax conveniently delivers all photo, video, 3D tour and floor plan files in one location in the Download Center associated with each single property website. Below are screenshots showing the Mediamax Download Center and all the content download options.
Absolutely! Notice on the download center screenshot below that photos can be downloaded in a variety of pre-set sizes, including images sizes optimized for our local MLS and there's even a image size customization tool.
First of all, make sure you download zipped folders to a location on your computer where they'll be easily found. It's typically best to have a pre-created 'Listing Photos' folder or just download the zip folder to your Desktop. Then follow the steps below to unzip the downloaded folder.
- Download the zipped folder to a location on your computer where the folder will be easily found. Most systems will automatically place all downloads in the DOWNLOAD folder, or you can choose to download to your Desktop or listing photos folder.
- RIGHT CLICK on the zippered folder and select 'Extract All'. A duplicate folder without the zipper emblem will be created in the same location as the zipped folder you downloaded. You can now delete the zippered folder.
- The un-zipped (uncompressed) folder of images will appear in the same folder as the zipped folder. All your print quality listing photos will be ready for use in marketing materials.
Property Sites and Virtual Tours
The definition of a 'Virtual Tour' has evolved over the many years since virtual tours were first introduced way back in about 1999. For many years a virtual tour was considered a 360 panoramic 'spinning picture' hosted within an online presentation along with still photos of a property.
As online technology and internet bandwidth improved these online presentations evolved into a 'Single Property Website' that includes a variety of media including photos, 360 panoramas, embedded 3D tours, videos, floor plans, brochures and listing agent contact info. The most common name for these presentations is a Single Property Site that can even include a custom 'street address domain' URL that completes the single property site concept.
Below is a Mediamax Single Property Site example.
We offer eight different design layout series with hundreds of color and functionality customization options. Below is an example of our default design. An easy to use design tool is available in your account dashboard to change design themes and customize your property sites.
Here's an example of our default Single Property Site design
Almost every data field available in your local MLS is available to include to help describe listing selling features. It's not required, but it's very helpful for the buyer experience and for Single Property Site SEO to fill in as much information and data about your listing as possible. Below are screenshots of the fields available.
As you dive deep into the Mediamax Single Property Design center, you'll quickly realize there are literally hundreds of design options to choose from.
To keep you choices simple, it's typically a good idea to choose one of our eight design themes and then select a color scheme if you'd like to add a personal or branded touch.
Here's what our Single Property Site design options pages looks like.
Listing Marketing Tool Kit
The Mediamax Total Listing Marketing Tool Kit is comprised of the valuable and easy to use tools listed below that are found in one convenient location within your client account.
- Long & Short, Branded & Unbranded Single Property Site links and the associated QR codes.
- Direct link to listing Photo and Video Download Center.
- Links and embed code to Special Content hosted on third party platforms and embedded within Single Property Sites.
- Flyers, Attachments and Printable Materials associated with each Single Property Website. This includes floor plans created for the listing, post cards and flyers.
- Social Media Tiles customizable digital flyers, post cards and image towners specifically designed for use on social media.
- Social Media Videos customizable teaser and full length video slide shows sized perfectly for use on social media.
Below are screenshots of each Marketing Tool Kit section.
Mediamax Social Media Tiles are customizable digital flyers, post cards and image towers specifically designed and sized for use on social media. Below are examples of the various available tiles.
Mediamax Social Media Videos are customizable teaser and full length video slide shows sized perfectly for use on social media. Below are examples of design options available to create, download and share on your social media channels.
The Mediamax Listing Marketing Tool Kit includes 10 different customizable single and double sided flyer templates. Below is a screenshot showing a collection of just a few of the available flyer designs. Many more layouts and design customizations are available.
About Mediamax Photographers
Mediamax photographers are all independent business owners contracted by Mediamax to fulfill specific tasks outlined in their contract in exchange for compensation. We seek out the best and brightest photographers and provide a partnership opportunity that allows them to balance personal photography work while benefiting from a steady stream of shoot assignments from Mediamax.
Yes, all Mediamax photographers are required to maintain business liability insurance in an amount no less than $1M of coverage with an up-to-date certificate of insurance on file with Mediamax.
Yes, all Mediamax contracted photographers delivering aerial photography or video services are required to pass a very stringent FAA test to acquire a remote drone pilot certification. Aerial specialists are required to re-take the certification test every two years as required by the FAA.
Absolutely! Mediamax only contracts with photographers that demonstrate a high level of photography knowledge and experience, preferably with a portfolio of work demonstrating a strong understanding of architectural or real estate photography.