Next Door Photos
Real Estate Photography Capitalizing on Industry Shift Towards Virtual Tours
$508,754
Highlights
Our Team
NDP found that realtors waste too much time and money waiting for the photos they need to publish their listings. An enterprise platform and a local ownership model enables NDP to capture a listing within a day and deliver all media the next day--saving realtors time and money. All while creating jobs for those rescued or at risk.
The Story of Next Door Photos
Technology is completely disrupting the greater real estate industry--creating a much more efficient home buying and selling experience:
- Get pre-approved for a mortgage in 5 minutes or less with Rocket Mortgage
- Get an instant offer to purchase your home with a click of a button from Opendoor
- Quickly find your next home through a customized search on Zillow
Despite these advancements, it still takes realtors 5-7 days--on average, to schedule a shoot and receive completed media after the shoot. Realtors waste too much time and money waiting for the photos they need to publish their listings.
Introducing Next Door Photos
Co-founders Paul Vander Kuyl (an engineer) and Taylor Blom (a real estate photographer) created Next Door Photos (NDP) in October, 2015 to help realtors publish listings faster--saving them time and money. They created a unique business model where NDP (the parent company) partners with local owner/operators who provide real estate marketing services to their local communities. All powered by an enterprise platform with global editing operations. Listings are photographed next day and edited with a 12-hour turnaround.
Upending an Industry
This combination of an local owner powered by an enterprise platform started to gain traction quickly when the first 3 locations launched in the spring of 2016. By the end of 2017 the leadership team started to get built out team and they had launched into 12 markets. Local Owners were building relationships with realtors in their communities and partnerships with larger real estate companies (Redfin, Berkshire Hathaway of MI/IN) started to develop as the footprint grew.
The Right Place at the Right Time
As they continued to grow, the adoption rate of professional listing media continued to increase led by consumer demand. By the close of 2018 they were operating in 28 markets (including our launch into Canada) and grew a team of over 100 photographers (media pros) assisting Local Owners.
Bringing it All Together
By the end of 2019, they had proven out the scalable platform, Local Ownership model, and client acquisition strategy. They brought on 3 Regional Directors to assist the Director of Expansion in recruiting new Local Owners which will help the organization launch 40 locations in 2020 (and every year thereafter)