How AI Is Transforming the Real Estate Photography Business

Marlon Mora (00:00)
Don’t be afraid of doing free work for the first time. That will get you into the door, that’ll get your step inside of the door, right? And after that keep building, right? So every single thing that I have done, it was like that. It was somebody who gave a shot to me and then I was like, “Yeah, hey, listen, I’m learning. This is something new. If you give me a shot, you know, like pay me a little bit to begin with, give me a good review, and then build from there.”

Issa Hanna (02:01)
Welcome back to another episode of the Real Estate Pros show. I’m your host, Issa Hanna, and today I have the Hat Fella, Marlon Mora, with me. Marlon, welcome to the show.

Marlon Mora (02:09)
Thank you, thank you. Thank you for having me.

Issa Hanna (02:11)
I’m super excited to have you. You have a great eye for real estate photography. You’ve also been able to build a brand around it and a business that’s doing 170 shoots per month, which is major, major, major work, especially for a real estate photographer. As a former agent, I’ve dealt with many. You might be one of the biggest I’ve ever talked to. So with that, can you run down

what you’re focused on in your business nowadays and then what a day-to-day looks like in your world.

Marlon Mora (02:39)
Yeah, definitely. So right now we’re very focusing in keep growing and both both in the team scenario. So training our photographers and making sure that our photographers always their photos look the same, the same with the back end part. But keeping that relationship with our agents is very important. So like for be

both and my wife, especially my wife that she does a lot of the the relationship part of it, just being sure that we can be there for her agents as well as much as we can.

Issa Hanna (03:08)
Definitely. As an agent, I love to be able to call one of my people in my network and have access to them and them care about the relationship. I don’t wanna call a photographer once I just signed a listing agreement and he doesn’t get back to me for three days. I need now, so I can definitely relate to that. I can definitely see already why you and your wife your wife have been able to scale your business in seven years so large. But

you brought up your wife. Me and my wife, we run our rental portfolio together. There’s some ups, there’s some downs in the you know, when you’re doing business with your wife, but it’s definitely great. So can you tell me some of the good things about you and your wife being able to be in this business and and make a living together?

Marlon Mora (03:49)
Definitely, yeah. It was interesting because my wife was in the title world before. So it ended up working out because she knew a lot about real estate. And then when she came in, she was about two years since she came full time. She has always been helping me on the side, like any weekends and time that she had off, she always helped me. So she already knew a lot how to do the business part.

But it’s been great. Definitely it’s it’s it’s difficult because the business is always there, right? So it’s it’s difficult to turn it off or to just like knowing when is time to stop and when it’s not, right? But the biggest part the same is been great because you can grow so much faster because there’s two people working towards one mutual goal.

And in these seven years in I always said that it the past two and a half has been exponential compared to before when I was by myself. And before I was doing a little bit of other stuff as well, but like this past two and a half years we concentrated just on one thing and it it is tremendous the growth that we’ve probably like three exit, four exits since then.

Issa Hanna (05:51)
Definitely. I mean, you got a whole nother basically you in the business doing as much as she can to get that business up and running because ultimately it’s it’s both your it’s both your futures and then how great. She doesn’t have to go to a job anymore. She does come from the title world, title agents, title people. They know closing docs better than Realtors, they know closing docs even better than some loan officers. So

she knows the lingo. She knows how to look at the papers. It’s definitely a great dynamic to bring into your business. I’m seeing why you guys have been able to grow so much, man. And it’s truly inspiring. I love that. I wanted

Marlon Mora (06:28)
Thank you. Thank you.

Issa Hanna (06:29)
to ask you now, how you get started? When did the light bulb go off in your head, Marlon? You say, what, I’m gonna get into real estate photography.

Marlon Mora (06:35)
So it was very, very interesting. I went to Full Sail University. I got my master’s degree in Full Sail. And my goal and my dream was to be a movie director. And after looking into moving to LA or New York, it was extremely expensive. And most of them it’s you’re probably gonna end up living in your car for a little bit. And I was like, “Yeah, that’s not for me.”

And my family Costa Rica, I’m originally from Costa Rica, they do real estate. So they’re like, “Why don’t you give her a shot to real estate?” Funny part, they are not they’re real estate investors, they don’t do that, like they’re not agents. So I went, got my license, I tried it, and to be honest with you, it was not for me. I admire you guys because it takes it’s a skill.

But the funny part is I did a couple of videos to advertise myself and advertise open houses. At that point, I was just trying to hustle. And somebody came and asked me, “How much do you charge for that for a video like that?” And that’s where that light moment came to be. And that was twenty eighteen. And at that point I was doing that. I was trying to be a Realtor, but I had to have a job. So I was working for the City of Deltona at the time.

And that’s when I started the real estate photography company. And so yeah, that’s how I ended up. And then on 2020, I was like, “I’m gonna go full in.” And that was February of 2020 that I put my two weeks and a month later everything was shut down. Crazy experience, but I couldn’t I want to change it for the world.

Issa Hanna (08:12)
Definitely. I mean, you survived COVID, like many great businessmen do. You’ve overcame it and now you’re here living the American dream. Built a business from the ground up. As a son of immigrants, I admire the work ethic and I know how hard it is to come from a whole different country somewhere else, learn a different language, and learn it just different customs and how to move in a different country and be able to grow that.

That is the epitome of the American dream right there, you guys. So I do wanna congratulate you on that. Truly inspiring, like I said. And let’s shift focus now and let’s look into the future, right? I’m gonna look up the Hat Fella in five years. Where am I gonna see you?

Marlon Mora (09:31)
Definitely, definitely. So I want to our goal is to keep growing a real estate photography business, but at the same time be able to give AI solutions and help help other real estate photographers especially help them grow because we were able to do it and I see it all the time where I’m like I see myself a few years back in all of these people because just how you said gets to a point where

currently the industry is very there’s a lot of just little guys and just very few big companies, maybe there’s like three that they’re national, and after that it might be regional or just one guy doing everything, right? So that conglomeration of it is about to happen in real estate photography. So how can we be the ones helping

especially with the AI solutions on it for for the real type photographers. Real estate photographers.

Issa Hanna (10:25)
Definitely, man. And you’ve embraced AI. You’ve been in it, knee deep in it for years, and now people are coming to you in your own field asking you, “Hey Marlon, how do I do this?” Can you shed more light on on when you saw that you had to embrace it and get that into your business?

Marlon Mora (10:40)
Definitely, yeah. So about a year and a half ago, I started looking a little bit more into this whole AI thing and I was very interested on it and it started by I was okay, I’m gonna start creating my own dashboards and creating our own backend systems, especially because real estate photography they have a very good delivery or intake, but nothing

in the operations side. So at first it was like, okay, I’ll create my own operation software and dashboard. So we went and did that. And that’s where it all started. And then with agent tech with AI agents, it took off it took over in my life. About maybe November of last year, I could see the trend and I could see how agents were going to be the next new thing.

And I started teaching myself on how to how to do agents. And at that point it was very difficult, extremely difficult. And then in this past like man, from January to now, the whole game has got changed so much. And it has been made it easy for almost everyone as well. So the past the past year or half a year has been creating agents to put to do the work.

Right. So my goal is to have the first AI native real estate photography company in the sense that it’s AI agents with humans working together. I don’t want to leave that human to human touch because that’s going to be very, very valuable in the future. So if you call, there’s still gonna be a person answering it. But as soon as that is hang up, let the agent do the rest of the work.

But that human to human is still very important. But yeah, so like anything from booking all the way to to this point, even uploading photos. I use Claude to upload my photos. Whenever I have to take photos, I have a skill for that. Where I just go and it so pretty much does been the past half, the past half a year. But a year in total, let’s say, learning it from

from the scratch because you need to it’s a lot to learn, let’s put it that way.

Issa Hanna (12:53)
Definitely a lot to learn. You can go down many, many rabbit holes. But I always say, for the creative people and even for people that are not creative, AI is a creativity calculator. How a calculator can crunch your numbers, AI, anything you can do, think of up here, now you have a way to get it done through AI. So you do need to embrace it. It is the future. If you don’t, you’re gonna be left in the dust. So

once again, a great businessman is always forward thinking, always sees things on the horizon. And you’ve definitely seen, which, it’s not no big secret. Everybody sees it on the horizon, but a lot of people are intimidated. You said, “No, I’m gonna grab it full on, I’m gonna learn it, and I’m gonna embrace this to make my business better.” That’s what great business people do.

We touched on this, you touched on this a little bit, many, many times in your answers. And I want to pick your brain for our younger viewers about it. Building business relationships, the human connection, growing your networks, very important in our business. If you had to give somebody one piece of advice that was just starting out, what piece of advice would that be?

Marlon Mora (13:54)
Don’t be afraid of doing free work for the first time. Like that will get you into the door, that’ll get your step inside of the door, right? And after that keep building, right? So every single thing that I have done, it was somebody who gave a shot to me and then I was like, “Yeah, like hey, listen, I’m learning. This is something new. If you give me a shot,

pay me a little bit to begin with, give me a good review, and then build from there.”

A lot of the time people want to get paid right away, right? It is it instead of just being, “Hey, I need that portfolio or I need that good review, I need that ref referral,” because people if you do good work for somebody and they’re going to know somebody else who needs that as well, and any type of services that you do or any type of business.

And I still do that to this day, with the AI, with the AI new industry, right? And I did it with with photos as well. I did it with photos, I did it with videos, and not be afraid of going and asking. You’re gonna get a lot of no’s, right? But it’s just one one no away from a yes, right? So like just keep going and trying and

not to be afraid of going and talking to people as well. I feel that a lot of young people are trying to get away from from that. I build my business with going to networking events, just network hustling networking events, networking event after networking event, and where people is like, “How do you do it? You’re everywhere.” It’s like, no, you just

go and do as many as you can in one day. Even if you have to travel an hour, an hour and a half, it’s it’s all right. That’s that that’s that’s part of the job as well. So and then the best part is because there’s not that many people doing it, you’re going to excel, you’re going to be different. There’s not that many young people doing networking events. And in top of it, that’s the reason why in top of doing that, think about marketing and branding on your clothing as well.

That’s why I’m the Hat Fella and I always wear big hats because people remember me. “I have seen you, I remember you. You’re the guy with the hat,” you’re right. And then that’s a good conversation starter, right? So then it’s is that it’s going to events, make sure that you’re always it doesn’t have to be exactly what I’m wearing, right? But find something that you like and use that. I use that to your advantage and brand it yourself differently.

I heard this from somebody and it’s true. If you go to an to professional events, everybody’s wearing a black suit or a blue suit. Great. They’re differently. If you wear a pink suit, they’re gonna remember you. If they’re gonna wear a red suit, they’re going to remember you. Little things that make such a big impact. And it’s just a conversation starter.

So then after that you can get and tell your your your brand. I get asked so many times, “So do you guys make hats?” “No, we don’t, but I can help you with your real estate photography,” right? Yeah. And not be afraid of after doing that, when you meet the person, be okay doing some free work to get your door in, and after that capitalize on your those relationships.

Issa Hanna (17:01)
Amazing advice. In other words, you guys stick out, do great work, integrity. Let them remember you, and then when they do give you that shot, go all out and impress them. And they’ll forever remember your name. They’ll ever for remember the Hat Fella, right? And every time you think of a real estate photographer, you’re gonna pick up that phone, you’re gonna call him because

Marlon impressed you at the event. And then the referral base, another thing you touched on, we say this a lot in the show, guys. Referrals are everything in our business, right? So it’s not that one paycheck. That one person can give you 10 if you treat them the right way and if you cultivate it, it’s just like a plant, watering that plant. So you can’t be people are gonna sniff the BS. Pardon my French. So

don’t, don’t come at them with that. Come at them authentically and always find a way to stick out. Amazing advice, Marlon. Amazing. I want to give you the floor now. People in Central Florida, Realtors in Central Florida, homeowners, if they want the best photography service in the business, where could they reach you?

Marlon Mora (18:01)
Yeah, they can reach me at either you can look me up online at Hat Fella and that is hatfella.com or in any of the social media as well, just Hat Fella, or you can reach us at (407) 748-2773

Issa Hanna (18:17)
Definitely. Marlon, man, it was such a great experience to interview you. I want to invite you back on the show here in about a year or so just to check your progress. Truly inspiring how you’ve built a business. Like I said, came from a different country, worked hard, branded yourself the right way, did the right work, built it up to over a hundred and seventy shoots a month. I mean

truly, truly inspiring. And I just wanna invite you on a year just to talk to you one more time and see where you’re at if you’ll have a

Marlon Mora (18:46)
Awesome. That’ll be that’ll be amazing. That’ll be great. Thank you.

Issa Hanna (18:49)
No problem and I really enjoyed our conversation. And then two of the viewers at home. If you enjoyed my conversation with Marlon and want to see more like it, make sure to hit like and subscribe. I talk to people every day that could bring us different knowledge on every aspect of the real estate industry. Until next time. The Real Estate Pros are out.