It’s a question we have seen passing by in many a forum online “How much should I charge for a virtual tour“.
It’s a difficult question because everyone’s situation is different.
In this article we will try to help you decide what the best strategy is for you when it comes to deciding your prices.
Of course, this is not an “industry standard” but it will help you make decisions and ensure you charge your clients an honest price that does not break the bank!
What would you like to earn?
This sounds a bit egocentric – but you really do have to start with this question! Because, based on your answer we’re already halfway there!
If you want to earn 2000€ per month (after costs and taxes) and you think you can realistically get 10 clients per month. Then the easy answer is: You should charge 200€ per virtual tour as a minimum.
Of course it is never straightforward like this, but it’s a start.
We want to charge a minimum of 200€ to 10 clients per month.
Also don’t forget your taxes (ahh yes, let’s not forget the taxes! ) so you may need to add 20% income tax to your 2000€ income making it 2400€ per month.
So now you need to charge 240€ per virtual tour. (+ sales tax – we’ll get to that later)
What is your hourly rate?
Again, it’s all up to you! What do you think you are worth? If the local plumber is charging 20€ per hour, what is stopping you from doing the same?
Is the “going rate” for local photographers 15€ per hour – then charge the same!
It also depends on your experience – have you been doing this work for a while and you’re really really good at it? Then you should charge more! Maybe even 30€ or 40€ per hour!
Are you new to the industry and you don’t have much experience yet? perhaps start off with 10€ per hour and work your way up?
For now, let’s say we’re experienced and we’re charging 30€ per hour
How much time does it take?
You now have to find out the time it takes for you to make a virtual tour. From start to finish.
So from the drive to your shoot, to the time it takes to actually shoot, then to drive back, and to do the post production & editing of your images, then creating the actual virtual tour. How many hours does this take to do?
Let’s say that you need to shoot a property with 2 bedrooms. You calculate you need 2 minutes per image using the Ricoh Theta camera. You need 15 images, so this is 30 minutes.
It takes you 15 minutes to drive to and from the property to your office – total: 30 Minutes
Furthermore, the camera is fantastic and needs practically no time in post production. You spend 30 minutes editing the images.
Lastly, you are using a magnificent virtual tour software like My360 and you build your tour in just 30 minutes.
Total time spend on this tour: 2 Hours
You already said your hourly rate is 30€ so this means you have to charge 60€ for just your time.
What equipment do you have?
This one is always dealbreaker – because you could have the Ricoh theta SC2 that you bought for 350€ or you have a super fancy manual DSLR camera with all the gadgets that cost you at least 4000€ over the years!
The price of your virtual tour should reflect the quality of your virtual tour equipment.
If you’re lucky enough to have both the high spec and instant 360 camera options available, we suggest you offer your client both options each at their own price.
Your camera should be depreciated over 5 years. This means, you should divide the cost of your equipment over the next 5 years and charge your clients accordingly.
This way, you could (potentially) buy a new camera every 5 years!
Let’s for arguments sake say that you have a Ricoh theta Z1 camera that cost you 1000€
You divide that over 5 years – that’s 200€ per year. Divide that over 12 months – this is 16€ per month.
Why do we need to know how much this is per month? We’ll get to that in a minute.
Other costs
Apart from the camera, you may need other equipment like a laptop, a tripod, extra lenses etc.
All these costs need to be added up and divided by approx. 5 years to calculate the monthly cost.
Let’s say you have a laptop that cost 1500€, a tripod for 100€ and extra lenses and other equipment for another 100€
You should also keep in mind the cost of:
- internet (e.g. 30€ per month)
- electricity (e.g. 50€ per month)
- petrol (e.g. 5€ per shoot)
- insurance (e.g. 20€ per month)
- virtual tour software (e.g.32€ per month)
So we’re looking at around 160€ per month in equipment depreciation and other monthly recurring cost.
You need to divide this amount over your clients later.
So how much should you charge?
Now here comes the calculation, based on the examples we have shown above. Remember, your situation may be different.
So here you see, if you wanted to charge an honest price for the time you spent on the client and covering all your costs, you should charge 82,50€ for this virtual tour.
BUT in order to charge this amount and to get to the 2400€ you wish to earn per month, you need to sell at least 29 virtual tours per month.
Is this viable for you? If so – then you have a VERY competitive price to offer your clients and you will have a lot of work with these prices.
The truth of the matter is – you probably wont get to 29 clients per month (unless you follow the “My360 Sellers Guide” of course!)
So in this case, the suggestion would be to charge 240€ per basic tour to your client – or to ensure your clients have bigger houses with more images so you can charge more hours and this way get to your target faster.
Whatever you do, make sure you set yourself reasonable targets and work towards this target each month.
And don’t forget to add your sales tax to your final amount. So if you decide on a sales price of 240€ – you need to add the sales tax to that. So if in your country the sales tax is 21% then your total what you charge your client should be 290€ based on 10 clients per month.
Now when business is good, and you think you will sell to more clients each month – then re-calculate using the above method to get to your final price.
I hope this article was helpful for you, click here for more tips and ideas on how much to charge for your virtual tours.
