ProxyPics

ProxyPics review:

If you have a smart phone with a camera and you’re over the age of 18, you can sign up to take photos for ProxyPics. ProxyPics works with appraisers and property managers to get visual updates on real estate.

The site pays freelancers between $10 and $125 per job. The cheaper jobs involve taking a photo or two from the street outside of a property. The more lucrative work involves setting up an appointment with the homeowner or property manager and taking inside shots.

The site has few requirements for freelancers taking its pictures, but it does require that those who take inside photos undergo a background check. The freelancer pays for the background check, but at ProxyPics preferential rate of $3. There are also guidelines for what should be in the shot or shots the freelancer takes.

How it works

Once you download the app and sign up, ProxyPics will notify you when there are assignments in your area. You set your geographic range. You can choose to only work within a few miles of home or open up your geographic range to get more assignments. If you give the site permission, it will also send you assignments when you travel to other cities based on your GPS data.

Each assignment comes with details and a rate of pay. You can accept or pass. If you do accept, you’re supposed to complete the assignment within three to six hours.

Jobs normally require between 10 to 30 minutes of photo taking, plus drive time. Naturally, pay attention to your distance to the assignment. Between drive time and the cost of gas, you could earn almost nothing on the shorter/simpler assignments, which typically pay just $20.

Payments are made through Stripe within a few days of completing an assignment.

Complaints and concerns:

The only complaints we’ve seen about this site are that it doesn’t have enough assignments to keep willing freelancers busy and that its Android app is buggy. Some have also noted that available assignments may not make sense because of how distant they can be from the freelancer.

Recommendations:

As long as you’re discriminating about the jobs you accept through this app, we see little reason not to sign up. If you like taking property photos, also consider signing up for Ivueit, which offers similar work.

What their users say (from Glassdoor):

Pay is quite quick. Once pictures are approved pay is transferred. They notify you in the app. Rejoice.

From the Apple App Store:

Anyone with camera skills can download this app and make some easy money. If you are in a larger city, the opportunities will be greater than if you live in a more suburban or rural environment. One benefit of the obscurity of this app is that the small number of users provides you with certain leverage to get more money per gig in cases where the job is more out of the way that normal. A vast majority of the jobs are pretty easy. And ProxyPics provides well-crafted infographics/guidelines for each type of assignment found within the app.

Sadly there aren’t many assignment yet where I live tho they are expanding. I’ve read there should be more coming.

My first expectation was at least one property per week. I downloaded this app over two months ago and have only seen three request. Each request was of the front property requesting an image outside a vehicle and horizontal. The cost alone traveling to the location defeats the purpose.