so ive been doing real estate aerial work for about 8 months now and i feel like my pricing is all over the place. i started at $150 per shoot just to get clients and build a portfolio and now im trying to raise rates but i have no idea what the actual market looks like in my area. some agents act like $300 is insane and others dont even blink at it.

my current workflow is pretty straightforward - i show up, do a perimeter flight, get some elevated statics, maybe a slow push toward the front door, couple detail shots of the backyard or pool if there is one, and then i do a quick edit in lightroom and export same day or next morning. usually takes me 2-3 hours total including drive time.

the thing thats been bugging me is i have no idea if i should be charging per photo, per hour, per property square footage, or just a flat package rate. ive seen people online say wildly different things. one guy in a facebook group said he charges $800 minimum and has a waitlist, another said he does $125 and books 10 shoots a week. feels like there's no standard.

anyone who does commercial work regularly - what's your structure look like? and do you charge extra for rush delivery or is that just expected at this point?

the $125 guy doing 10 a week is probably burning himself out and not accounting for gear wear, insurance, or the fact that his rates are training the market to expect cheap work. not judging, i did the same thing when i started.

flat package pricing is where i landed after trying hourly and it just makes everything cleaner for the client and for you. i have a basic package and a premium one, basic gets them 10 edited aerials delivered next day, premium adds a Reels-ready video clip and same day turnaround. i'm in a mid-size market and i charge $275 and $425 respectively. agents who care about their listings dont haggle much, the ones who do are usually not worth the headache anyway.

rush delivery i absolutely charge extra for, like if they want photos before the listing goes live at noon and they called me at 8am that morning, thats a $75 add-on minimum. set that expectation early or they will assume it's included forever.

honestly the square footage thing never made sense to me from a workflow standpoint, like a 5000sqft house isnt necessarily harder to shoot than a 2000sqft one, it depends way more on lot layout, trees, wires, neighboring buildings etc. flat packages just seem cleaner to explain to a client who isnt really thinking about any of that stuff.

also side note - do you deliver raws or only edited? i've had agents ask for raws before and i wasnt sure how to handle it