so ive been flying on the side for about two years now, mostly real estate and some construction progress stuff for a contractor buddy of mine. passed my 107 last spring and lately ive been seriously thinking about whether i could make this my main income. right now im in IT and honestly just kind of burned out on it.

the real estate work has been decent, like i made probably $3800 last year from it which sounds good until you realize that barely covers my gear expenses lol. but i feel like if i was doing this full time i could hustle more and actually build something. i just dont really know anyone whos done the jump from side gig to full time and i dont want to quit my job and then realize six months later that the market is way too saturated or seasonal or whatever.

does anyone here actually fly commercially as their main job? curious what niches ended up being the most consistent for work, not just the highest paying one-off shoots

I made the jump about three years ago and honestly the first year was rough. Not gonna sugarcoat it. Real estate alone won't carry you unless you're in a really hot market and have locked down relationships with multiple agencies. What ended up stabilizing things for me was adding cell tower inspections to my services ? that work is less glamorous but the contracts are more predictable and the day rates are solid. The learning curve is steeper because you need to actually understand what youre looking at, but once youre in with a telecom contractor they tend to keep calling you back.

The seasonal thing is real too depending on where you live. I'm in the midwest and winters basically cut my real estate volume in half. So I started going after insurance inspections during slow season and that helped a lot. Main advice: don't quit the IT job until you have at least 3-4 consistent clients, not just occasional ones. Recurring clients are everything.

following this thread because im kind of in the same boat, except im way earlier in the process ? just studying for 107 now. curious what the real estate shoots actually pay per job if you dont mind sharing, like is it flat rate or do you charge by the hour