so ive been flying for about two years now, mostly recreational stuff, got my part 107 last spring and i kind of assumed that would open doors but honestly its been way harder than i expected to actually find paying work. i live in a medium sized city, not huge but not tiny either, and theres already a handful of established guys doing real estate and construction stuff locally.

i did one job for a friend who needed some footage of his property listing and he paid me like 150 bucks which felt good at the time but i have no idea how to actually build on that. i've looked at drone pilot directories and upwork and some other platforms but the rates people are willing to pay on those sites are kind of depressing. is it all just networking at this point or am i missing something obvious

honestly the directory sites and upwork are kind of a race to the bottom in my experience, you end up competing with people undercutting each other and nobody wins. what actually worked for me was just walking into local real estate offices and introducing myself, like physically showing up with a card and a sample reel on my phone. sounds old fashioned but i got two recurring clients that way who now call me every time they have a listing that needs aerial. the established guys you're worried about are probably too busy to take every small job anyway so there's room if you position yourself right.

im kind of in the same boat as you actually, part 107 in hand and wondering what comes next lol. one thing i heard is that construction and infrastructure inspection work pays way better than real estate but you need more specialized skills like knowing how to do proper orthomosaics or thermal imaging stuff. havent gone down that road yet but it seems like where the money actually is if you're willing to put in the time to learn the software side of things