so i finally got my part 107 about four months ago and ive been mostly just flying for fun and building my reel, nothing serious. but a local real estate agent reached out to me last week ? she saw some shots i posted and wants me to do a listing for her. like an actual paying job.

the property is a mid-size house, probably 2500 sq ft, nice neighborhood, she wants the usual stuff i assume ? some orbits, maybe a top-down, a reveal shot. probably 30-45 minutes of actual flying and then id have to edit everything too. she asked me what i charge and i completely froze and just said ill get back to her.

i honestly have no clue what the going rate is for something like this. i dont want to lowball myself into a weird spot but i also dont want to quote something insane and lose the client before i even start. anyone done real estate work before? what are you guys charging for a basic residential shoot?

oh man i remember this exact moment, it's nerve wracking. so for basic residential real estate the range is honestly all over the place depending on your market ? i've seen guys charge $150 and i've seen others get $400+ for the same type of job. i'm in a mid-size midwest city and i charge $275 for a standard resi package, that's around 20-25 edited photos and a 60-90 second video clip. takes me maybe an hour on site and another hour or so in post depending on how fussy the edit gets.

my advice honestly is dont go too low out of the gate because real estate agents talk to each other constantly and if you set a low anchor it follows you around. better to be slightly above what feels comfortable and negotiate down if you have to than start at the bottom. also make sure you're factoring in your drive time, the edit, any retouching ? not just the time you're boots on the ground with the mavic running.

yeah what they said. also just worth mentioning ? get something in writing before you show up, even just a simple email confirmation of what she wants and what you're charging. learned that one the slightly hard way when a client came back asking for like three extra deliverables that were definitely not part of what we discussed lol