Let's help each other stay safe & healthy this winter.

To our valued customers,

With the significant uptick in Covid-19 cases here in Washington, we feel it is important to update you on our everything we’re doing to keep you, your sellers, and our photographers safe.

Thanks to our comprehensive internal safety practices, no one at ImageArts has contracted Covid-19, though most of us have been impacted in other ways. I personally have several family members, friends, and clients who have been infected and most were quite ill for an extended period of time. And, tragically, just last week Molly and I lost a family member to Covid-19.

This is very personal to us. Our business is like an extended family, and we want to do everything we can to keep everyone safe and healthy.

To this end, we are closely monitoring MLS, government, and health official guidelines. The most recent information from the CDC indicates that the highest risk of infection is from airborne transmission, indoors, and while not wearing a mask. NWMLS rules allow for up to 5 people in the home for sale (including the agent) for showings, as long as “Strict social distancing protocols are followed.”

Applying these rules to our photography process means that, if an agent is in the home with our photographer/videographer, there should be a maximum of 3 other people in the home, all staying at least 6 feet apart, while wearing masks.

In order to minimize our time in your sellers’ homes and to keep everyone as safe as possible, our preference is to have the property to ourselves whenever feasible. Not only will this limit potential exposure to the virus for all involved, but it greatly expedites the photography/videography process.

We realize that, with many people working at home and/or virtual schooling during this time, it is not always possible to completely vacate the property. We would ask you to have sellers move to a different floor, garage, or – weather permitting – stepping outside while we work. If there is one room in particular that the sellers would prefer to occupy for the duration, we would be happy to photograph that room first, before moving on to the rest of the home. In this way we can reduce the risk for everyone on site.

We would also like to reiterate that having the property prepped and ready for us when we arrive is still very important, and greatly appreciated.

Increasingly, ImageArts has been called on to help agents whose non-IAP photographers have contracted Covid-19, leaving a property unready for listing at the last minute. It is our sincere goal to always be in a position to aid in such cases, by keeping our photographers healthy through the winter and beyond.

We are truly grateful for your help in these unprecedented times to do what we can to keep each other safe, and our respective businesses running smoothly.

Sincerely,

Scott Manthey, Founder | CEO

Real Estate Photography Deemed "Essential Business"

As we're sure you've heard by now, as of April 1, professional photography is now considered an essential component of real estate listings. We heard you are excited to get back to work, and we are open and ready to help, with a few adjustments to our normal routine.

In accordance with ongoing CDC guidelines, we have created a few temporary measures to ensure the health and safety of everyone involved while we navigate this unique situation. While typically we are flexible about homes not being photo-ready when we arrive, the present circumstance has unfortunately forced us to make the following adjustments to our procedures:

• Our photographers will be wearing protective gear, and will minimize personal contact with the property and other people. 

• For the sake of extreme caution, our photographers/videographers will need to be alone inside the home while they are shooting. We will appreciate anyone else on site remaining outside during the shoot. If your seller requires that you be present, please maintain at least 6-10 feet of distance at all times.

• Needless to say, our photographers/videographers are trying to spend as little time as possible inside the home, so please have it ready. They will not be able to assist as usual with moving or touching items inside the home. The property will need to be photographed as-is upon our arrival.

• All lights must be turned on, blinds and interior doors opened or closed as you see fit, and staging items should be arranged as you prefer before we arrive. Our goal to minimize exposure for everyone’s safety, so our normal process of assisting with staging and other preparations will be curtailed for the time being.

• For the safety of you, your sellers, and our team, these guidelines will be strictly enforced. If a home is not ready when our photographer/videographer arrives, and you would prefer we not shoot it as-is, we will need to reschedule your appointment and a $50 trip fee will be charged.

Additionally, we will continue to offer our DIY Program while the Stay at Home order is in place. We recognize that some sellers may not be comfortable with photographers in their homes, and we still want to help however we can. (Please see https://www.imageartsphoto.com/covid19/diy for details.)

Please note that, because of the suddenness of this unexpected change to our status as an "essential business," we are receiving a higher than usual volume of messages. We're grateful for your patience as we respond as quickly as possible.

As your partner in real estate marketing, we are ready to help you succeed in this challenging moment for the industry. We sincerely appreciate your understanding with regard to these temporary guidelines. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.

Stay safe and healthy,

The ImageArts Productions Team

IAP is now editing your DIY-photos and video!

To our valued real estate friends and partners,

Over the weekend, Governor Inslee issued revised guidelines to the real estate industry that allow for very limited listing and showing of homes (see NWMLS FAQ for more info).  ImageArts feels strongly that the "Stay Home, Stay Healthy" order from the Governor’s office is important in the fight against COVID-19, and we are complying with both the letter and spirit of the order. We will not be sending our photographers out on shoots during this critical time. 

That said, we wanted to get creative and find a way to help our agent partners and their sellers get the best possible images and video for any listings that may go live during this time. Effective immediately, and until the Stay at Home order is lifted, we will edit broker-supplied photos, whether they're taken with a smartphone or a DSLR.

The details of this program are:

• We will send you our simple guide to real estate photography/videography that will help you capture the best images/video possible.

• We will edit photos shot by you or your seller for $59 for up to 25 photos, or $2.75 an image, whichever is less.

• We can also edit and enhance videos shot on smartphones or cameras. Our expert team of video editors will color grade, stabilize, and edit your footage and create a final 2 minute version complete with music, starting at $125*.

• Photos and video can be sent via email or uploaded to any cloud service that can be shared, such as Dropbox or OneDrive.

• RAW photos are best, but we will work with your JPEG files, as well.

• Our highly skilled team of Production Artists will apply our Enhanced editing process to the images, including color correction, straightening, brightening, sharpening, enhancing windows, etc.

• Turnaround is 4pm next day after we receive the images or video. (Files must be supplied to us by 5pm to guarantee turnaround time.)

• Video Slideshows are also available to those who want a video to share online. Video Slideshows combine your images with a panning/zoom motion that mimics the feel of a video walk-through. $20 flat rate.

*Video editing prices will vary depending on the number of clips provided and complexity of the final video.

Just to set clear expectations, it is unlikely that the “DIY” photos and video, especially if shot on a smartphone, will end up looking like our usual high-quality HDR images and professionally shot/stabilized video, but we will do our very best to enhance them as much as possible. Results are greatly dependent on lighting conditions, the camera used (the new iPhone 11 and Samsung Galaxy S20 are producing nice results), the type of lens, and whether the images are delivered to us in RAW format.  We will do everything we can to make them look their best, whatever comes our way.

Once the Stay at Home order is lifted, we will discontinue this service so as to focus on what we expect to be a very high volume of images, once again captured by our in-house photographers.

We hope this helps support your efforts to keep the real estate market moving forward.

Stay safe and healthy.

Sincerely, 

The ImageArts Productions Team

Stay Home. Stay Healthy.

To our valued ImageArts customers:

As most of you have heard by now, last night Governor Inslee issued a “Stay home. Stay Healthy” order that took effect immediately but allows non-essential business 48 hours to shut down. ImageArts Productions will be complying with both the letter and the spirit of this order, effective at 11:59pm on Wednesday, March 24th.

This means that we will be safely shooting as many homes today and tomorrow as we can physically fit in, and then will be temporarily pausing all on-location operations to let the Governor’s "enhanced strategy" against COVID-19 do its job, so we can all get back to work. We feel strongly about doing our part to keep our community safe by #StayingHome, and look forward to working with you all again when these safety measures have been lifted.

If you have IAP services booked in the next two weeks, our customer service reps, Jess and Alaina, will be reaching out over the next few days to reschedule your appointments. Please be patient with us as we contact everyone as promptly as we can.

During this pause, IAP will remain open to assist with any questions or future scheduling requests you may have, as well as continuing to support our amazing team of production artists, photographers, and videographers however we can. We will also be working hard over these two weeks to ensure we hit the ground running as soon as the Governor announces that non-essential businesses may resume normal operations. We anticipate an especially high volume of real estate marketing needs at that time, and will be prepared to rise to that challenge for you. We do expect to book up quickly, so if you have listings on hold we encourage you to schedule your services with us well in advance, so we can reserve that time for you. Our scheduling team is standing by to help however they can.

We hope you all stay safe and healthy, and we look forward to working with you again very soon.

Scott Manthey, William Feemster, and the entire IAP Team.