so ive been doing real estate and construction drone work on the side for about 2 years now while keeping my day job and honestly the side income has been pretty decent. not life changing but like... enough that i keep thinking what if i just went all in on it. i have my part 107, decent gear (phantom 4 pro and a mini 3 for when i need to be more discreet), and a handful of clients who come back regularly.

the thing thats holding me back is i genuinely have no idea if the market is saturated or if there's still room for people to carve out a niche. i keep hearing conflicting stuff ? some guys say real estate is a race to the bottom price wise, other people say they're booked solid. i honestly cant tell whats true anymore.

anyone here actually quit their regular job to do this full time? how long did it take before it felt stable? im not asking for exact numbers just like... a general sense of whether it was worth the leap.

yeah i did it about three years ago and the honest answer is the first 8 months were kind of rough. not like financially catastrophic but definitely stressful in a way i wasnt fully prepared for. the real estate market in my area dried up a little and i had to pivot hard into construction progress documentation which ended up being way more stable anyway because you get recurring monthly work instead of one-offs.

the saturation thing is real but i think it depends heavily on where you are and more importantly how you present yourself. a lot of guys who "do drone work" have terrible edits and no real understanding of what the client actually needs. if you can show up professional, deliver fast, and communicate well you're already ahead of like half the competition. that sounds cheesy but its genuinely been my experience. i'd say go for it but maybe have 4-6 months expenses saved before you make the jump, gives you breathing room to be selective about clients instead of taking every low-ball job that comes your way.

following this thread because im in almost the exact same spot. doing weddings and some events stuff on weekends. curious what people think about whether its worth trying to specialize vs just taking whatever work you can get starting out