so ive been flying for about 3 years now, got my part 107 last year and ive been picking up small gigs on the side mostly real estate and some construction progress stuff. its been going okay but nothing crazy. my day job is fine but honestly i dread going in every morning and every time im out flying i just feel like this is what i should be doing.

the thing is i dont really know anyone who does this full time and i cant tell if the people online saying they make good money are actually doing it or just selling courses about doing it. like is there a real market out there or is it getting too saturated at this point. i have a mavic 3 pro and just picked up an M30 through work so i have decent gear. would probably need to get into more specialized stuff eventually but just trying to figure out if the leap is even worth considering before i go down that research rabbit hole.

honestly it depends a lot on what market you're in and how aggressive you're willing to be about selling yourself. i went full time about two years ago and the first six months were genuinely rough, like questioning everything rough. but the real estate and construction lane you're already in is actually solid if you can lock in a few consistent clients rather than chasing one-off jobs. that consistency is everything when you dont have a salary to fall back on.

the course-seller thing you mentioned is real and its annoying because it muddies the water for people trying to figure out whats actually possible. but there are legit operators making good livings, theyre just usually too busy working to be posting about it constantly. the ones yelling about six figures on youtube are mostly selling the dream not living it. if you can stack real estate with some inspection or insurance work you have a much more durable business than just doing weddings or whatever.

not full time myself but i know a guy locally who does it and he said the biggest thing was niching down hard. he basically only does cell tower and rooftop inspection stuff now and stays booked. said general real estate photography was fine to get started but the margins got squeezed as more people jumped in. might be worth thinking about where you want to specialize before you make the jump.