There's a serious race to the bottom happening in my area - seeing drone pilots bidding $50 for real estate shoots that should be $300+. It's killing the market for everyone.

I get that new pilots need to build portfolios, but this is getting ridiculous. A few of us established operators have been talking about setting some kind of minimum rate guidelines for our region.

What do you think? Is this something that could work, or am I just being unrealistic about market forces? How do other markets handle this problem?

I understand the frustration, but price fixing isn't the answer and could get you in legal trouble. Focus on educating clients about value instead. Quality work sells itself when clients understand what they're actually getting.

Honestly, those $50 pilots usually don't last long once they realize their actual costs. Between gear, insurance, travel costs, and time, they'll figure out they're working for free pretty quickly.

Maybe instead of minimum rates, we could work together on client education? Like a shared resource explaining why proper commercial drone work costs what it does - licensing, insurance, equipment, processing time, etc.