so ive been flying on the side for about two years now, mostly real estate stuff and a few construction gigs ive picked up through word of mouth. got my part 107 last spring and honestly the work has been pretty steady but im still doing my day job (warehouse supervisor) and trying to figure out if theres actually a path to doing this full time or if im just romanticizing it.

the real estate agents i shoot for seem happy and ive had a couple of them refer me to other people which is nice. but like i dont really know what a sustainable monthly income looks like or how people actually get to the point where theyre not constantly hustling for the next gig. do most full time drone pilots specialize in one thing or is it more like you just take whatever comes? would love to hear from anyone who made the leap and whether they regret it or not

made the jump about three years ago and honestly the first year was rough not gonna lie. the key thing nobody tells you is that the flying is like maybe 30% of the actual job, the rest is emails, invoices, editing, chasing clients, doing your own marketing ? all that stuff. i came from a video production background so the editing side wasnt new to me but the business side took a while to figure out.

real estate alone is tough to build a full income on because it tends to be lower margin and pretty seasonal depending on where you live. what actually stabilized things for me was picking up a couple of ongoing contracts, one with a solar company that does regular site inspections and one with a property management firm that wants quarterly footage of like six different locations. recurring work is the dream honestly. once you have even two or three clients who book you regularly it feels way less like treading water.

i still pick up random real estate stuff but its not the backbone anymore. if i were starting over id focus earlier on industries that have ongoing inspection or documentation needs rather than just chasing one-off shoots

watching this thread because im kind of in the same boat, just passed my 107 a few months ago. curious what rates you charge for real estate if you dont mind sharing, i feel like i have no idea if what im quoting is reasonable or if im underselling myself