ive been doing real estate aerials in my area for about two years and when i started i could get $175-200 for a standard exterior shoot no problem. lately ive been losing bids to guys doing it for $80-90 and i know some of them are flying without part 107 which is a whole other thing but still. my quality is genuinely better, i do color graded video, clean stills, fast 24 hour turnaround, all that. but agents just see the price difference and go with the cheaper option.

part of me wants to lower prices just to stay busy but then i feel like that just makes everything worse for everyone. been thinking about pivoting more toward construction progress stuff or maybe roofing inspections which seem less crowded around here. curious if anyone else has navigated this kind of shift or if lowering prices actually ever worked out long term

dont lower your prices, seriously. i made that mistake around year two and it just attracted worse clients and i was flying twice as much to make the same money. the real estate market at the low end is basically a race to the bottom and you wont win it against guys who dont care about quality or legality.

the construction and roofing pivot is actually really solid advice you're giving yourself. inspection work especially -- once you get a couple roofing companies or insurance adjusters as regular clients the volume is really consistent and they genuinely care about the quality of the data they're getting, not just whether it looks pretty. took me a bit to break in but now thats like 60% of my revenue and the margins are way better than real estate ever was.

the unlicensed guys thing is so frustrating, i feel that. around here i started putting "FAA Part 107 Certified" on all my marketing materials and even just in my email signature and it does seem to matter to some agents, mostly the ones at bigger brokerages who are actually worried about liability. not a silver bullet but it at least gives you something to point to when a client asks why you cost more than the other guy.