Crowdsourcing for apartment community pictures?

Has anybody tried crowdsourcing for apartment community photography? Clearly having a professional handle the job is ideal, but for those that are severely budget constricted, this might work!

Reach out to local colleges that offer photography courses/majors and offer them a project where anyone can come to the community and photograph the exterior, interiors, etc. Of those, you will pick the top X number of pictures and pay $X per picture.

We did a similar thing with our logo development, and ended up finding a graphic designer who has been with us ever since!

Excellent idea Brent and one I was recently thinking about myself as I was thinking about my 2012 budget.

There is a site, GURU.com, that can help with finding all types of services in all areas. I like your idea better, but I'm having a hard time finding the resources to get it done across my portfolio. I would have to start small, by applying the idea to my biggest region first.

You know, I wonder what would happen if you applied the same concept to your resident base.... Like, open it up to your residents to compete. Still seems like a lot to manage.

Interested in hearing more feedback. (Also interested in getting referral for photographers in Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Atlanta, Raleigh and Nashville if anyone has one)

Thanks for posting!

If you are looking for professionals, Mark Hiebert does all the photography for HAA, so you might want to check him out: www.hiebertphotography.com

As for the resident idea, I love it! The only problem is that the quality will probably go down a notch. On the flip side, however, I would be encouraging them to take pictures of themselves in the pictures, so it would be a different type of photo shoot altogether. I don't think it would be difficult at all - just name a date/time that they must be submitted to the community Facebook Page, and maybe allow other residents to vote on them.