GeoCalendar
Agents book against a listing date
A listing has a day it goes live, and the photographs have to exist before it. So an agent who needs a shoot wants a time now, from their phone, between showings. If booking you means a call and a wait for a reply, the agent books whoever answers first.
Your side of it is different. Each agent sees one listing. You see four of them tomorrow, in four suburbs, and the order they were booked in has nothing to do with where they are. Daylight is the working day, and every half hour between listings comes out of it.
What a shoot across the metro costs
Say an agent needs a listing shot by Friday, and you have two openings. The IRS business mileage rate is 76 cents a mile. The drive times are illustrations.
| Opening | Extra driving | Extra miles | Vehicle cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday at noon, between two listings on the far side of the metro | 1 hr 5 min | 38 mi | $28.88 |
| Thursday at 10:30, after a listing in the same suburb | 10 min | 5 mi | $3.80 |
Fifty-five minutes is most of the shoot of a small home, or an evening of editing started an hour sooner.
What happens when an agent books
The agent enters the listing’s address, picks a package, and sees first the times that sit beside your other shoots that day. If the suggested times do not work for the seller, every other open time is under more options. The booking lands on your calendar with the drive to it, and the agent gets a confirmation, a reminder the day before, and a link to move the shoot themselves if the house is not ready.
Setting it up for listing shoots
- Use a custom event type with a service for each package: photos of a condo at an hour, a house at 90 minutes, photos with a floor plan and video at two hours or more. Each can show its price.
- Ask on the booking form for the square footage, the lockbox code or who will let you in, and whether the home is occupied.
- Set the service area to the metro you cover. Limited by drive time, the same figure also caps the drive between two shoots.
- Leave approval off, so the agent has a confirmed time at once.
- Set your weekly hours to the daylight you shoot in, and change them with the season.
When the house is not ready, or the sky is not
Sellers run late and weather turns. The agent can move a booking from the confirmation email, to any time the booking page still offers, without calling you. When the forecast rules out a whole day, a date override closes it on the booking page without touching your weekly hours.
What it does not do
GeoCalendar does not deliver photos, host galleries, take payment or send invoices, and it cannot hold a twilight shoot to the hour around sunset: an event type follows your weekly hours, so book those by hand. It books the shoot and places it in the day.
Common questions
Can an agent’s assistant or a brokerage book for the agent?
Yes. Anyone with your link can book. Add a question to the form for the listing agent’s name and phone number.
Can a package’s length depend on the size of the home?
Yes. A custom event type holds several services, each with its own title, price, description and length of up to three hours, and the person booking picks one.
What happens when an agent reschedules?
They choose a new time from the confirmation email. The shoot moves on your calendar and you both get an email. Online changes stop at the event type’s minimum notice, so nothing moves at the last minute without a call.