so ive been doing real estate drone work for about 8 months now and honestly the pricing thing is still killing me. i started out at like $150 per shoot just to get some clients and portfolio stuff going which i knew was low but whatever, needed the work.

now im trying to raise my rates and every time i quote something closer to $300-350 for a basic exterior package the agents either ghost me or say they have someone who does it for $100. and like, i know those guys exist, the guy flying a mini 3 with no insurance and probably no part 107, but how do you compete with that and also not race to the bottom yourself

do you bundle stills and video together or keep them separate? ive been keeping them separate thinking it makes each thing seem more valuable but maybe thats wrong. also how long does everyone spend on editing, im doing probably 2-3 hours per shoot for the video which feels like a lot but i dont know what normal is

the separating stills and video thing is actually smart imo, keeps the entry price lower and lets agents add on what they need. but yeah $300-350 for real estate is totally reasonable once you factor in your Part 107 cert, insurance, equipment, editing time... the agents who balk at that are usually not your clients anyway. the ones who only want the cheapest option will find the cheapest option no matter what you do.

what helped me was adding a line item for licensing fees in my quotes, even just explicitly writing it out makes clients realize theres actual professional stuff happening. also started targeting higher-end listings, luxury properties, the agents working those have budgets and they know cheap photos cost them money. took a while to get in with those people but worth it.

2-3 hours editing for video sounds about right depending on length and how much color work youre doing. i was at like 3.5 hours when i started, now closer to 90 min for a standard reel. gets faster.

honestly the $100 guys weed themselves out pretty quick. ive had agents come back to me after going cheap and saying the footage was unusable or the guy never delivered files or whatever. so sometimes you just wait it out lol

i do bundled packages and it works for me but i know people who swear by a la carte so i think it depends on your market tbh