so ive been doing real estate drone work for about 8 months now and i still feel like im just guessing at pricing every time a new client comes in. started at $150 a shoot just to get experience and build a portfolio and honestly i think i shot myself in the foot because now a few agents expect that rate forever and get weird when i mention raising it.

right now im charging $200-250 for a standard exterior package, maybe 10-15 edited stills and a short video walkthrough thing. takes me probably 3-4 hours total when you factor in drive time, the shoot itself, culling, editing, uploading to their delivery platform. feels low but i dont know what the market actually is in my area. im in a mid-size midwest city, not a major metro.

also do you guys itemize things like rush fees or do you just bake everything into a flat rate? had a realtor last week call me tuesday and want photos by wednesday morning for a listing going live and i just... did it. for the same rate. which felt bad.

the tuesday to wednesday turnaround thing is where people get you if you let them. i learned that the hard way too. now i have a written rush fee, anything under 48 hours notice is an extra $75, under 24 is $100. most serious agents dont blink at it because they know last minute is on them. the ones who complain about it are usually the ones who are also going to be a pain about everything else anyway so losing them isnt a loss.

on the pricing side, $200-250 for that scope sounds light to me but it really does depend on your market. i'd spend an hour just looking at what other photographers in your city are charging for real estate, not just drone guys, and position yourself relative to that. you're a specialty on top of what they do so you should be priced accordingly. also stop discounting for repeat clients unless they're giving you serious volume, like multiple listings a week. loyalty is nice but your time costs the same every shoot.

honestly same boat here, i raised my prices like twice and felt guilty both times which is so dumb in retrospect. one thing that helped me was just framing it as packages on a simple PDF i send over instead of quoting verbally. something about seeing it written down makes it feel more official and clients treat it that way too. less negotiating happening when it looks like a real rate card i guess.