How to Become a Zillow Certified Photographer

How to Become a Zillow Certified Photographer

By Sean Boyle (7 minute read)

Welcome back to another Momentum 360 weekly blog! In this one, we’ll be showing you how to become a Zillow certified photographer!

In just 7 steps, transform your photography business so you can pick up more gigs, have a bigger impact, and ultimately earn more money and become a larger photographer authority in your area!

If you have any questions about this process, simply email us at sean@needmomentum.com or call us at 215-607-6482, we’ll be happy to help answer any questions you have!

If you don’t feel like reading the entire blog, please watch the YouTube video below, where we discuss everything in a quick 8 minute video:

Fill Out Zillow Application Form

The first step to becoming a Zillow Certified Photographer is filling out their application form by going to this link. You’ll need to fill out your contact information, as well as a few small details, then you submit the form! Easy enough right? We think so too.

Once submitted, Zillow will send you an email via their support email to follow up with next steps. You’re on your way to becoming certified with the biggest real estate listing company in the world!

Receive Follow Up Email via Zillow Support

Next, you’ll receive an email from your new Zillow account representative! They will outline all of the next steps in this email. However, to minimize the time of you getting your certification, you can simply read this blog or watch our quick video on how to do this!

Your Zillow rep will be very accommodating and helpful, answering any questions you might have during this process. I know I had a few when I first started. You can also find a lot of other resources too on Zillow’s website, and they’ll also include multiple links and videos in the initial email they sent to you about becoming a Zillow certified photographer.

Complete 15 Minute Module

Once you receive the email from your Zillow support rep, the next step to getting your Zillow certified photographer badge is completing a quick 15 minute module! This module, which can be found in your email from Zillow with a link, outlines how the program works. In the module, you can find:

• Success stories from previous Zillow certified photographers
• The different types of ways to capture content (360 Camera vs iPhone)
• Discounts for Ricoh Theta cameras!
• Helpful tips on how to use the Zillow app
• Other resources that you might need along the way

Overall, it’s a really helpful module, I’m actually glad I took the time to watch the videos and read through everything. Once you complete the module, you’ll be shown a big “Thank You!” in the middle of the screen, indicating that you’ve finished the module. Zillow also has your name and email address from entering it before the module started, so now they know that you’ve completed the module and you’re ready for the next step.

Download Zillow App

After you complete the module, you want to go to the app store on your phone and download the Zillow 3D Home app, this is where the magic happens! I have an iPhone and used the Apple App Store, but you can also use this on an android phone and on their app store as well.

This is where you’ll be able to manage, publish, archive all of the 360 tours that you complete with Zillow. Think of this as the Matterport Capture app, but for Zillow. It’s a pretty easy app to follow, thus the almost 3,000 5-star reviews on the Apple app store!

Capture & Publish 5 Zillow Virtual Tours

Now the fun begins! You will be required to capture and publish 5 Zillow 360 virtual tours. I had a question that I asked my Zillow rep before I started; “Do I have to shoot and upload virtual tours for active listings? Or can I simply shoot listings that I’ve already done in the past that are off market?”

They responded saying yes! Which means there is even less time for you to wait for another listing to pop up, when you can simply scan your own house, maybe a rental property like I’m doing, etc, it’s a lot easier than I previously thought when I started!

Whether you have an iPhone or 360 camera, you’ll be able to create 360 tours. I simply used my iPhone to do all of my 5 tours. As you can see from the image below, here’s an example of a virtual tour that I created of one of my rental properties:

I created 360’s of the living room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom, just to give the person an idea of what this condo looks like. So, all you need to do is create 4 more and then you’re that much closer to getting your certification with Zillow. Once you finish capturing and posting 5 Zillow 360 tours to the app, it’s time to email your representative the good news!

Email Zillow Support to Confirm Published Virtual Tours

Once you email your Zillow rep, they will begin checking your work and making sure that you followed all of the steps. If you didn’t complete the module, make sure to do that and complete all other steps you might have missed along the way. It’s really important to check all the boxes so you can earn your certification badge that much faster!

Earn Certification Badge!

After your Zillow rep checks that you’ve completed all of the necessary steps, they will email you your new Zillow Certified Photographer badge, congratulations!! This is a huge step in growing your business, and you should be very proud of yourself.

This badge is best placed in your email signature, social media, website, etc to let people know you’re officially certified and partnered with Zillow!

Now that you’re partnered with Zillow, it’s important to continue to reach out to them about leads and learning how you can earn inbound gigs through Zillow, instead of having you constantly reach out to everyone under the sun.

We hoped this was helpful, we only wish to continue to inspire the next generation of 360 photographers to not only create quality work, but to uphold the level of professionalism and purpose that comes with being a 360 photographer. We’re glad we were able to show you how to become a Zillow certified photographer!

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email us at sean@needmomentum.com or call us at 215-607-6482. We work around the clock 24/7/365, so feel free to contact us whatever time of day, we’ll be happy to answer any of your questions. Momentum 360 also has a partnership program as well, where we partner with top 360 photographers across the country, giving them resources, guidance, and more importantly, gigs!

Momentum 360 is a virtual tour company that provides virtual tours, photography, videography, virtual staging and 3d rendering in all 50 states and 15 countries!