so a local real estate agent reached out to me after seeing some shots i posted and wants me to do photos and video for a listing. this is technically my first paid gig and honestly im kind of panicking a little because i dont want to undersell myself but also dont want to scare them off with a number that seems too high for someone with no portfolio of paid work.

ive been flying for about 14 months, i have a part 107 cert, i shoot on a mini 4 pro. my editing is decent i think. the property is a 4 bedroom house, probably a couple hours of flying and shooting, then editing time on top of that.

do you just... call a number and see what happens? i looked at some local competitors and their websites either dont list pricing or are vague about packages. one guy had "starting at $150" which feels low to me but maybe thats normal for this market idk. any advice from people who actually do this regularly would be really helpful

been doing real estate drone work for about 4 years now and honestly the $150 starting price thing is such a race to the bottom situation. for a residential listing with photos and edited video you should be somewhere in the $250-350 range minimum, and thats on the lower end depending on your market. big metros obviously can push higher.

one thing i wish someone had told me early on is to break out your deliverables clearly in whatever quote you send. like dont just say "photos and video" ? say 15-20 edited aerial stills plus a 60-90 second edited video with licensed music or whatever you plan to deliver. it anchors the value and also protects you from scope creep where they suddenly want 40 photos and a 3 minute walkthrough for the same price.

also factor in your travel time, the editing time is usually way longer than the shoot itself. a 2 hour shoot can turn into 4-5 hours of editing easy if you're doing color grading and a decent video cut. dont forget that part when you're building your number.

i was in basically the same spot last year lol. what i ended up doing was just picking a number that felt fair for my time and going for it. i think i charged $200 for my first one and the agent didnt even blink, which made me realize i probably could have asked for more. but it got me the testimonial and some portfolio shots so no regrets really.

just make sure you have some kind of simple contract even if its just an email confirmation of what you're delivering and when. learned that the hard way when a client wanted revisions that were basically a full re-edit