so ive been flying for about two years now, mostly just for fun but ive gotten pretty decent with my mini 4 pro and people keep telling me i should charge for this stuff. a friend who does real estate photography asked if id be interested in doing aerial shots for her listings and it got me thinking seriously about whether this could actually be a side income or even eventually a full thing.

i already have my part 107 from last year so that part is sorted, but i honestly dont know where to start with pricing or how to find more clients besides just word of mouth. like do people actually make decent money doing this or is it one of those things that sounds good but the market is totally saturated. ive seen some posts here about it but theyre a few years old and the market seems like it changes fast.

anyone whos actually done real estate aerial work want to share how it went? did you stick with it or move on to something else?

real estate was my entry point too and honestly its a decent starting place but you're right that its pretty crowded now in most metro areas. the money per job isn't huge — i was doing single property shoots for around $150-200 when i started and that sounds okay until you factor in drive time, editing, the occasional reschedule because clouds.

what actually made it work for me was bundling with ground photography. i linked up with a photographer friend and we'd pitch packages together — realtors love having one person to call for everything. eventually i branched into construction progress stuff and that pays way better and is more consistent since you're going back to the same site every few weeks. so yeah there's money there but real estate alone is tough to build a real living on unless you're in a busy market and really hustle the networking side.

im kind of in the same boat as you actually so following this thread. i got my 107 last spring and have done maybe 3 paid shoots so far, all through people i know. been trying to figure out if its worth putting together a proper portfolio site or if instagram is enough to get found by clients. feels like everyone has a drone now so hard to know how to stand out