so ive been flying for about two years now, got my part 107 last spring and i do a lot of recreational stuff but lately ive been wondering if i could actually turn this into something. i shoot real estate on weekends sometimes for a friend who sells houses and she always says her listings look way better with aerials but she only pays me like $75 a shoot which i know is way too low but i was doing it more for practice anyway.

my question is basically - is freelancing actually viable or is it one of those things that sounds good until you realize everyone with a mavic thinks they can do it too. i live in a mid-sized city, not a huge market but not tiny either. ive seen some drone operators around here posting on instagram and they seem busy but you never really know whats going on behind the scenes you know.

any advice from people who actually do this for work would be really appreciated, not looking for the generic "follow your passion" stuff, more like real numbers and whether it was worth it for you

real talk - it is viable but it took me about 18 months before i was making anything consistent. the real estate market is honestly saturated in most places, $75 is low yeah but even $200-250 a shoot you're doing a lot of houses to make rent. where i started actually making decent money was pivoting to construction progress documentation and insurance inspections. less sexy than wedding or real estate work but the contracts are longer and clients actually come back reliably.

the instagram guys who look busy might just be good at instagram, i know a few locally who post constantly and are barely scraping by. the ones i know who actually do well full time tend to have 2-3 industries they serve, not just one. also if you're in a mid sized city check if theres any local film production companies or ad agencies, even small regional ones - they almost always need aerial at some point and don't always know where to go.

im kind of in the same boat as you so i dont have great advice but i did just land my first paid gig that wasnt through a friend and it came from just cold emailing a local marketing agency. literally just sent a few sample clips and my 107 cert info and one of them actually wrote back. so i guess networking works even when you feel dumb doing it