so ive been doing real estate aerials for about a year and a half now and the scope creep thing is driving me crazy. i quote a job, show up, do my thing, and then the realtor is like oh can you just do a quick pass over the backyard pool, or can you hover near the front door while i walk out so we can get that shot for instagram. like these arent small asks, that takes time and battery and sometimes repositioning everything.

i started doing a base package thing where i include a set number of deliverables and anything extra is billed at like an hourly addon rate but clients dont really understand it and i end up feeling awkward bringing it up on site. does anyone have a clean way to handle this in the contract upfront so it doesnt become a weird conversation mid-shoot? or do you just eat the extra time and bake it into a higher base rate

yeah this is basically the defining challenge of real estate drone work honestly. what i did after getting burned a few times is put a really specific deliverables list in the quote email itself, like i will provide X exterior flyover clips, Y static hover shots, Z photos edited and delivered within 48 hours. then at the bottom i have a line that says additional shots or on-site time beyond the scheduled 45 minutes is billed at $X per 15 min increment. i send that before every job and just reference it casually if someone starts asking for extras. something like hey i can absolutely do that, just want to flag that falls outside the package so ill add a small charge to the invoice. most realtors are fine with it once its in writing because they submitted it to their broker or whatever. the ones who push back on that are usually the ones who would have been nightmare clients anyway so its almost a filter.

im dealing with same thing lol. i just started adding a buffer shot or two into every job so when they ask i can say yeah i already got something like that and show them on the remote and half the time they're happy. doesnt always work but it saves me from having to refly half the property