okay so maybe the title is a little dramatic but seriously its been frustrating. i studied for weeks, passed the 107 first try, bought a mavic 3 pro, been practicing constantly, my footage looks pretty good i think. made a little portfolio website and posted some stuff on instagram. got a few likes, zero inquiries. sent some cold emails to a handful of real estate agents in my area and heard back from exactly one of them who said they already have someone.

i dont know if its my market, my portfolio, my pricing (which i honestly dont even know if its right), or just that theres too many people doing this now. im in a mid size city, not tiny but not a huge metro either. starting to wonder if the whole drone freelance thing is just way more saturated than people make it out to be or if im missing something obvious

dont give up yet, six months isnt that long especially if youre not going super hard on the outreach. the cold email thing rarely works tbh, at least not with generic emails - agents get pitched constantly. what worked way better for me was just showing up. like going to local realtor meetups or even just walking into smaller boutique agencies and talking to an actual person. sounds old fashioned but people hire people they've met, not randos from the internet. also is your portfolio showing the kind of work they'd actually need or is it more like artsy cinematic stuff? because agents just want clean, bright, well-composed shots that make a house look good, pretty simple stuff

honestly the saturation thing is real in some niches but its not the whole story. real estate is tough because every Tom Dick and Harry with a mavic thinks they can do it. but have you looked at anything else? i started picking up work doing aerial stuff for local events and one small video production company who needed b-roll for a documentary thing. not huge money but it got my name out and now that production company calls me maybe once a month. also check if theres any agriculture stuff near you, farmers using drones for field scouting is growing and most of them have no idea how to find someone to help them