There are two of us, and that's the whole company.
Most days I'm the one shooting and Daniel handles the rest. Here's how two brothers from San Jose ended up doing listing media for the Bay Area.
I went into real estate because the marketing hadn't changed in a decade.
I've been making videos since middle school and taught myself most of it off YouTube. That turned into a film degree at San Jose State, then a few years of freelancing around the Bay. Half of that was other people's sets and the other half was cars.
I got into car culture in 2020 and shot a ton of it, both videos for social and event recaps at meets. It was the only way to use what I was learning outside of a film set. It's also where our event recap work started, and we still shoot those now and then.
Neither one was going to be the job though. Set days were either frantic or boring, and I didn't want to spend my twenties on other people's projects. The car work was never going to pay either. People who put their money into a car don't have much left for a video about it.
Somebody explained real estate photography to me at an event shoot in 2022, and what stuck with me was how far behind the marketing was. Every listing had the same just-listed graphic and the same slow corporate walkthrough, and it had been that way for years.
That looked like a gap I could do something with, so in December 2023 I dropped out of college and went at it for real. Most of what they were teaching me I'd already taught myself anyway.
A detailing shop called Dragon Auto reached out that same year wanting somebody to shoot videos for them. Over about a year and a half that turned into running all of their marketing, the content and the ads and the video. That's where I learned how content actually sells something instead of just looking good. Real estate was the part I had no background in, and I picked that up on the job. Most of what I think about now is getting eyes on the listing, and taking care of the agent from start to finish.
Daniel is the one who actually answers you.
He's my older brother and he's better with people than I am, which is why scheduling, delivery, questions and the inbox all run through him. If you've texted us and had an answer back in a few minutes, that was him.
Sales has been his whole career and he's got an MBA from Santa Clara behind it. What he's really good at is making people feel looked after, and that counts for a lot more after you've booked than before.
The two best clients we've ever had came from him, back when almost nobody was reading our Instagram posts. Both of them are still with us.
Why the company is called Second Chapter.
Chapter one of this industry was flat photos and a basic walkthrough video, and Second Chapter is what we think comes after that.
We sell packages the same way every other shop does, so the first difference is what comes out of them. This industry still shoots everything to look corporate and expensive, and that stopped working a while ago. We make the kind of thing somebody will sit through.
That on its own isn't enough though. There are a ton of good photographers around here, so the photos alone stopped setting anyone apart years ago. The second difference is what it's like to work with us.
Most listing media runs like a contractor call. You book it, somebody turns up, the files land, and that's the end of it. We'd rather work the way a creative agency does. You hear from us while it's happening, and after that I want to know if it did what you needed.
How we got here, in order.
- 2016
First real video, freshman year of high school.
- 2020
Freelancing starts, split between other people's sets and shooting cars.
- 2022
Somebody explains real estate photography to me at an event shoot.
- 2023
Second Chapter Media starts. Also the year I ran marketing for Dragon Auto and left college.
- 2024
Photography becomes the core of the business.
- 2025
Tried a social media arm for agents, but the budgets weren't there.
- 2026
Three years in, and the part we work on hardest now is what it's like to be our client.
A couple of things we actually believe.
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Attention is the thing you're really buying.
Anyone can hand you files, so what you're actually paying for is whether a buyer stops scrolling. That's also why I'll have notes if you hand me a script for your listing video. Agent-written scripts turn into feature lists, and a feature list won't hold anybody for thirty seconds.
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You're dealing with the people doing the work.
With two of us, nothing gets passed between a booker, a shooter and an editor who never speak to each other. You talk to the person who shot it, and the person who shot it already knows what you asked for.
Where this goes next.
We'll add people as we go, but the bar doesn't move. We want you to finish your first shoot with us wishing you'd found us a year ago, and to still feel looked after on the tenth one.
A few things people ask about us.
Why is the company called Second Chapter Media?
The first chapter of real estate media was flat photos and a basic walkthrough video, from nearly every company, for about a decade. Second Chapter is the version that comes after it. Real estate marketing runs years behind almost every other industry, and closing that gap is the whole reason we started.
Who runs Second Chapter Media?
Two brothers out of San Jose. Simon started the company in 2023 and is usually the one shooting. Daniel handles scheduling, delivery and client questions, so he's the one who answers when you text.
How did you get into real estate photography?
Ten years of video first, starting in high school, then a film degree at San Jose State and a couple of years freelancing on production sets around the Bay. Real estate came up at an event shoot in 2022. We launched in early 2023 doing video only and added photography, drone, 3D tours and floor plans within the year.
Now you know who's showing up.
You can book straight through the portal, or say hello first and we'll answer as ourselves. Both work.