so ive been doing commercial work for about 8 months now and i keep running into the same situation where a client sees my reel, loves the work, then balks at the price like i just asked them to sign over their house. latest one was a real estate agency wanting aerial video and stills for 6 properties, full editing, same day turnaround, and they offered me $150 for the whole job. like... i dont even know where to start with that.

i know the whole "educate the client" thing but at some point youre spending more time justifying your rate than actually flying. do you guys just walk away from these? or is there a way to reframe the conversation that actually works? i priced it at $275 per property which i thought was already pretty reasonable given the market here and they acted like i was insane.

not trying to rant just genuinely curious how experienced pilots handle this because im starting to wonder if real estate is even worth it or if i should focus on construction or inspection work instead

real estate is a race to the bottom in most markets, honestly. theres always gonna be some guy with a mavic mini undercutting everyone and the agencies know it so they use it as leverage. ive been doing this for about 4 years and i basically stopped taking real estate clients unless they come referred from someone who already knows my rates and respects them.

construction and inspection is where the money actually is, especially if you can get on a retainer with a GC or a roofing company. they need consistent deliverables, they understand project costs, and they dont haggle the same way. your $275 per property rate isnt insane by the way, i charge more than that and i still get pushback sometimes. just gotta accept that some clients arent your clients.

im kind of in the same boat as you actually so ill be watching this thread. the same day turnaround thing is what gets me every time, people dont realize theres editing time involved on top of the flight itself. i started putting a rush fee in my contracts for anything under 48 hours and that helps filter out some of the chaos clients at least