What Real Estate Photography Actually Costs in Middle Tennessee
- ccoffey53
- Aug 6
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 11
Ask what a listing shoot costs around here and you'll mostly get a contact form. About half the photographers serving Middle Tennessee don't publish prices at all, and the ones who do bury them three pages deep. So here's the straight version, with real numbers, including ours.
I shoot real estate across Bedford County and Middle Tennessee, so I'll tell you both what the market charges and what we charge. If all you take from this is a better sense of what a fair quote looks like, that's fine too.
The market rates, honestly
Across the photographers currently serving Middle Tennessee, here's where pricing actually lands:
Service | Typical Middle TN range |
Standard listing shoot (25 to 35 photos) | $150 to $300, usually by square footage |
Drone / aerial add-on | around $150 |
Walkthrough video | $120 to $750 depending on length and editing |
Virtual staging | around $32 per image |
3D tour (Matterport-style) | around $230 |
Photos + drone + floor plan bundle | $375 to $480 |
Two things about those numbers.
First, the bundle range is remarkably consistent. Three different companies with three different brands land within about a hundred dollars of each other on the same package. That's what a real market rate looks like.
Second, most of those companies are based in Nashville or its ring. Which brings up the number they publish but don't advertise.
The travel fee is the number to watch
If a photographer is driving from Nashville to shoot your listing in Shelbyville, Wartrace, or Tullahoma, somebody pays for that drive. Published travel policies from Nashville-area photographers run about $45 once a property is past 25 miles, and some set minimum orders of $750 or more once you're past 50 miles.
Check the map: most of Bedford County sits right at that 50-mile line.
That means an agent out here choosing a Nashville shooter is either paying a real surcharge on every routine listing, or being quietly deprioritized when the schedule gets tight, because a $250 shoot with a two-hour round trip is the first thing that falls off a busy photographer's calendar.
We're based in Shelbyville. There is no travel fee anywhere in Bedford County, and none for Tullahoma, Manchester, Lewisburg, or Murfreesboro either, because there's no travel to charge for. That's not a discount. It's geography.
What we charge
Our pricing, published, because we think you shouldn't have to ask:
Package | What you get | Price |
Essentials | Up to 25 edited photos, homes under 2,000 sq ft, next-day delivery | $225 |
Signature | Up to 40 edited photos plus a full aerial drone set, any size home, next-day delivery | $395 |
Full Listing | Everything in Signature plus walkthrough video and floor plan | $550 |
Add-ons: virtual staging at $35 per image, twilight session $95, same-day rush delivery $75, extra aerial set for land and acreage $95.
Every package includes professional editing on every image, both full-resolution and web-sized files, full listing usage rights, and next-day delivery as the standard, not as an upsell.
Homes over 4,000 square feet or large acreage get a custom quote, and we'll tell you that before we book, not after.
Why drone matters more out here
In a subdivision, an aerial photo is a nice extra. In Bedford County, where a lot of what sells is five, ten, or forty acres, it's the difference between a buyer understanding the property and not.
A ground-level photo of acreage looks like a lawn. The aerial shows the parcel shape, the treeline, the outbuildings, the pond, and how the land actually sits. That's why our Signature package includes the drone set instead of treating it as a $150 add-on, and why every flight is conducted under an FAA Part 107 certificate with a registered aircraft.
How to compare quotes, whoever you hire
If you're getting quotes from anyone, us included, ask these four questions:
Is delivery time in writing? Next-day should be standard for photos. A listing that waits four days for images is a listing losing its first weekend.
Is there a travel fee to my area? Get it in the quote, not on the invoice.
Are both print and MLS-sized files included? Some shooters charge twice for the same shoot.
Who owns the images and for how long? You want listing and marketing rights without a re-license fee later.
A cheap shoot that arrives late, shot by someone rushing back to Nashville, is not a deal. Days on market cost more than photography does.
The short version
Around Middle Tennessee, a professional listing shoot runs $150 to $300, drone adds about $150, and the full package lands between $375 and $480. Our packages run $225 to $550, drone included from the mid tier up, with no travel fee anywhere in Bedford County and next-day delivery on everything.
If you've got a listing coming up in Shelbyville, Bedford County, or anywhere in Middle Tennessee, call Palmetto Properties at (931) 580-8899 and tell us the address and when you need it live.
Prices current as of August 2026 and subject to change. Market ranges reflect published rates from Middle Tennessee photography providers at time of writing.
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