so a local roofing company reached out and wants me to do inspections for them, theyre pitching it as insurance documentation mostly plus pre-bid surveys. sounds straightforward but im a little skeptical because theyve gone through two other drone guys in the past year and wont really say why. the job would be residential roofs mainly, some flat commercial stuff too.

my question is more about what deliverables actually make sense here. like do i just hand them jpegs or is there a proper workflow for this. i have a mini 4 pro and was thinking about picking up a used air 3 but honestly not sure if the camera difference matters much for roofing versus just getting good coverage angles. some of the houses they do are in pretty tight neighborhoods so there's that too.

also do i need anything special in terms of insurance or contract structure if im doing this for a business rather than just one-off real estate stuff. never done repeating commercial contracts before

the mini 4 pro is genuinely fine for residential roofing inspection, dont let anyone tell you otherwise. the thing clients care about is coverage and consistency not sensor size. what matters more is that you develop a repeatable pattern ? front, back, both sides at roughly 45 degrees, then a top-down nadir pass, and close-ups on any areas that look sus like flashing, ridge caps, pipe boots. if you can do that reliably every time they will keep you around.

for deliverables most roofing contractors actually just want organized folders of high res jpegs with maybe a short video walkthrough they can screen record on a call with the homeowner. ive done work for a few of them and none have ever asked for orthomosaics or point clouds, they dont know what those are and dont need them for what they do.

the insurance thing is worth looking into before you commit. hull insurance for your drone is one thing but if youre doing commercial inspections regularly most standard recreational or even prosumer policies wont cover you if something goes wrong on a job site. look into something like coverhound or Thimble for per-job liability, its actually not that expesnive and it would probably explain why they burned through two other guys if those guys werent properly covered and the roofing company found out.