so ive been flying for about two years now, got my part 107 last spring and ive been doing a handful of real estate shoots on weekends here and there. nothing crazy, maybe 2-3 gigs a month, but ive been thinking lately whether this could actually become a real income thing.

my day job is fine but its not like im in love with it and i keep hearing people say the drone industry is exploding but then when i look at what clients actually pay for real estate photography its kind of depressing honestly. like $150 for a full photo and video package? i cant imagine making rent off that unless i'm doing like 30 jobs a month.

i guess what im wondering is - are there people here actually doing this full time, and if so what kind of work is actually paying well? ive heard inspection work and mapping pays better but i have zero experience in that area. is it hard to break into without like a background in engineering or construction or whatever?

yeah real estate is kind of a race to the bottom at this point, you're right about that. the market got flooded with guys willing to shoot for $75 and it dragged everyone down. i still do some of it but its filler work between bigger contracts.

inspection work is where i've seen the most consistent money. i do cell tower and utility line inspections and the day rates are significantly better. the catch is you usually need to partner with companies that already have the contracts, and getting your foot in the door takes a while. i basically emailed like 40 companies before one gave me a trial gig. once you have a few under your belt though it snowballs a bit.

mapping and surveying is another good one but you really do need to know what you're doing with the software side, like pix4d or similar. its not just flying, the data processing is half the job and clients expect deliverables that actually mean something to them. if you have time to learn that stuff it opens a lot of doors.

im kind of in the same boat as you actually, just got my 107 a few months ago and trying to figure out where to even start. following this thread for sure.

one thing i did hear is that agricultural drones are supposed to be a big growth area, like crop spraying and field mapping for farmers. havent looked too deep into it but apparently some of the midwest operators are doing pretty well. probably way more specialized equipment involved though