so this has been bugging me for a while and i finally decided to just ask because im sure im not the only one dealing with this. had a real estate agent reach out last week, wanted aerial shots of a property, i gave her my standard rate which honestly isnt even that high compared to what i see other pilots charging, and she came back with "well i found someone on thumbtack who'll do it for $75" and just kind of waited for me to respond.

like i get it, there are people out there undercutting everyone but i dont know how to handle that conversation without either caving and feeling resentful or just losing the job entirely. i ended up going down a bit which felt bad but i needed the work that week. how do you all deal with this? do you just hold firm and let them walk? do you have some kind of script you use? genuinely curious how experienced pilots navigate this because i feel like i'm constantly underselling myself

ugh yeah this is basically a rite of passage with real estate clients honestly. what i do now is i just let them go to the $75 guy. sounds harsh but hear me out ? about 30% of the time they come back after they see what they actually get for that price, blurry shots taken from one altitude, no editing, jpegs delivered over wetransfer with zero communication. and when they come back i dont drop my rate, i just say "happy to help, here's my rate" and that's it.

the clients who argue on price before you've even started are almost always the ones who will nitpick the deliverables, ask for 4 rounds of revisions, and leave a vague 3-star review. not worth it. took me an embarrassingly long time to figure that out. that said if it's genuinely slow season and you need cash, no shame in being flexible, just dont make it a habit with the same client or they'll expect it every time

im kind of in the same boat as you so i dont have a perfect answer but one thing i started doing is putting together a little one-pager that explains whats actually included ? the insurance, the part 107, the editing time, the backup flight planning, all of it. not because clients will read every word but it kind of shifts the conversation from "why is your price high" to "oh there's actually a lot going on here." whether it works long term i honestly dont know im still figuring out the business side of all this