What Do Commercial Real Estate Brokers Want From Photographers?

You are building a CRE photography offer and wondering what brokers will pay for. Premade social posts feel easy to add. Veterans point somewhere else: the assets that help lease or sell large space.

Put energy into floor plans, aerial shots, and walkthrough video before social content. That is the differentiator thread shooters name for commercial work—especially when brokers already ignore Instagram or staff it in-house.

Core CRE media priorities

Floor plans

Commercial conversations need layout clarity. Plans support leasing, stacking, and tenant imagination in ways a pretty lobby still alone cannot. If you are not offering plans yet, that gap often matters more than missing a “new listing” graphic.

Aerials

Context sells commercial: parking, access, neighboring uses, site scale. Aerials are a familiar line item brokers understand how to use in decks and proposals.

Video walkthroughs for large spaces

Big footprints are hard to feel from stills alone. Walkthrough video helps remote decision makers grasp flow and volume. It is closer to how CRE evaluates space than a Facebook square.

Where social posts fit

Optional, after the core media is strong—and only if brokers prove they post. Otherwise you are designing assets for a channel they do not live on. Save the social product for residential cross-over or the rare CRE rainmaker who asks.

Winning the few who buy

Many brokers buy little until they find the few who will. Be excellent and methodical on the deliverables that show up in OM packages and broker emails. Extras come later.

Quick reference

• CRE priorities: floor plans, aerials, large-space walkthrough video.

• Social templates are secondary for most commercial brokers.

• In-house marketing often owns Instagram already.

• Build core documentation before bonus graphics.

• Earn trust with usable deal media; then test extras.

Commercial clients hire you to make space understandable. Lead with plans, air, and motion—and let premade posts stay a maybe, not the pitch.