so ive been flying for about two years now, got my part 107 last spring and i do real estate shoots on the side whenever i can but its still very much a side thing. my actual job is pretty boring and im starting to wonder if i could make the jump to doing drone work full time or at least closer to full time.

the real estate stuff has been decent but its also really inconsistent. some months ill get 4 or 5 jobs and then nothing for like 6 weeks. i know a few guys who claim to be doing this full time but honestly i dont know how much of that is real vs them just saying it. has anyone here actually built something sustainable doing aerial photography or videography, or is this one of those things where the market is just way too saturated now

also curious if theres other work beyond real estate that pays well — ive heard construction and infrastructure inspection is good but i really have no idea how you even get into that world or what kind of equipment they expect you to have

been freelancing for about four years now and yeah its definitely doable but the real estate market alone wont get you there, at least not in most areas. the guys i know who are actually making a living at this have diversified a lot — events, insurance inspections, construction progress stuff, some of them do cell tower inspections which pays really well but requires extra certs and honestly a decent amount of nerve.

the construction side you mentioned is probably your best bet for consistent work once you get a foot in the door. i got my first gig through a contact at a general contracting company, basically just offered to do a test shoot cheap so they could see what it looked like. after that they started calling me regularly. its slow to build but once you have a few contractors who trust you it starts to feel more stable than real estate ever did for me.

im kind of in the same boat as you so no huge advice but i did read somewhere that the inspection side of things is where the actual money is, like not just roof stuff but bridges, solar farms, that kind of thing. some of that requires you to have specific software skills too like being able to process the data not just collect it. pix4d and that kind of stuff. probably worth looking into if you havent already