Just did my first paid real estate drone shoot

Joined
May 19, 2018
Messages
2
Reaction score
3
Age
27
I just did my first paid shoot shoot for a private party selling a house. He wanted 10 aerial shots and a short video of the drone zooming in on the front out of the house. I charged him $160. The shoot went very smooth and he gave me a $50 tip after.

Do you guys think that $160 was the right amount to charge for this work? It took me about 4 hours, with driving, shooting and editing the photographs and video.
 
I just did my first paid shoot shoot for a private party selling a house. He wanted 10 aerial shots and a short video of the drone zooming in on the front out of the house. I charged him $160. The shoot went very smooth and he gave me a $50 tip after.

Do you guys think that $160 was the right amount to charge for this work? It took me about 4 hours, with driving, shooting and editing the photographs and video.
$40 an hour isn't bad. plus tip!
 
IMHOI, I think it to be a little low. You should have been charging $50+ per hour, with your 107.
 
IMHOI, I think it to be a little low. You should have been charging $50+ per hour, with your 107.
Actually, that is a super low amount, not counting the tip, as that's not a fee.
But for a first gig, you can't really justify too much, and congrats on popping your cherry (sorry, couldn't help it).
The quality of your product will get better as you become comfortable with your flying techniques, process skills, , etc., then it will be easy to state your higher rates and be confident you will deliver.
My real estate rates are relatively low, as I've stated before, starting at $75/hour, the second I start my car, with one hour minimum travel, so that's $75 right out of the gate.
I stated on here before, it's also relative to the property. High dollar property = higher rates. Last big propery I did here was $600 for 3 photos and one minute video. Maybe 6 hours total from starting my car to last key stroke on my pc.
Once being a service tech for industrial equipment, I can accurately estimate travel, onsite and process times and quote it on paper before shooting.
It easily comes out to $75-$100+ per hour, and if their local, I have no problem making a trip to hand them a thumb drive in person at no cost (on paper).
But I've got several other services and aircraft and network with a fellow flyer that has a Matrice 600 with the Zenmuse Z30. That thing can zoom into the nuts and bolts of a tower from a long ways away, and he always needs a co-pilot. It's quite amazing.
I also offer higher risk services that go up to $350/hour per person, one hour min...per person, as the perps I'm photographing will easily cut out my tongue and shove it up my arse, if they could trace where I am.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BigAl07
Actually, that is a super low amount, not counting the tip, as that's not a fee.
But for a first gig, you can't really justify too much, and congrats on popping your cherry (sorry, couldn't help it).
The quality of your product will get better as you become comfortable with your flying techniques, process skills, , etc., then it will be easy to state your higher rates and be confident you will deliver.
My real estate rates are relatively low, as I've stated before, starting at $75/hour, the second I start my car, with one hour minimum travel, so that's $75 right out of the gate.
I stated on here before, it's also relative to the property. High dollar property = higher rates. Last big propery I did here was $600 for 3 photos and one minute video. Maybe 6 hours total from starting my car to last key stroke on my pc.
Once being a service tech for industrial equipment, I can accurately estimate travel, onsite and process times and quote it on paper before shooting.
It easily comes out to $75-$100+ per hour, and if their local, I have no problem making a trip to hand them a thumb drive in person at no cost (on paper).
But I've got several other services and aircraft and network with a fellow flyer that has a Matrice 600 with the Zenmuse Z30. That thing can zoom into the nuts and bolts of a tower from a long ways away, and he always needs a co-pilot. It's quite amazing.
I also offer higher risk services that go up to $350/hour per person, one hour min...per person, as the perps I'm photographing will easily cut out my tongue and shove it up my arse, if they could trace where I am.
I’m familiar with a Colombian bow-tie, not sure what the brutality your describing might be called....

The price you can get away with charging is limited by what your competitors rates are for similar services and the quality of deliverables. Minimum rates are prescribed by your personal circumstances. If the intent is to supplement a hobby rather than put food on the table it’s a much easier equation.
 
That's not too bad at all. Many will say you should be charging $400+ and I would say the same IF you had made a full video for the client. Seeing that you only took images and one piece of footage for the video, I think you got about the right amount with tip included. I would have suggested $200 for the images and single clip video so you came out ahead at $210 :sunglasses: ... Just food for thought, 4 hours is a lot of time... What took most of your time?
 
A bit too low but considering it was between home owner & pilot I still would have charged $100 more. If via real estate agent/office $200 more
 
A bit too low but considering it was between home owner & pilot I still would have charged $100 more. If via real estate agent/office $200 more
Out of curiousity why would you charge a realtor or real estate office more than a homeowner trying to sell the home themselves?

As a Realtor myself that makes no sense at all!

I sell about 100 homes a year so that means (prior to getting my own drone and lic) I was hiring a photographer /drone pilot at least 100 times a year for photo/video shoots... the homeowner is not going to call you again once his home sells so he’s 1 and done, not to mention if he’s selling the home himself he’s saving on real estate commissions so theoretically he should be willing to spend on the marketing as he’s not paying a realtor which normally covers all those costs... So again why charge them less vs a realtor who can keep you busy when chances are that home owner won’t be calling you a few days later for another shoot... the realtor will..

Just pointing out that taking care of realtors and brokers with a better price then you would give someone from the general public is a smart business move as your creating a relationship with someone who could keep you very very busy...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Hounddog
I’m a full time Realtor, but also a drone enthusiast and vlogger.

Prior to getting my own drones and lic. I was hiring my now friend Joey from Drone Home to do all my drone videos and on average I was paying around 150 for 25 hdr photos that included aerials... $350 if I wanted a 30-45 second video also (pricing was based on the amount of business I was giving him)... so considering it was your first paid gig I feel what you charged was very reasonable...

in the future tho as I mentioned above understand that “FSBO’s” (For Sale By Owners) are generally trying to sell the home themselves because they think they can do it themselves or most of the time to simply save on real estate commissions which is about 6% on average so 100k home is 6k in realtor commissions...

now granted a realtor does a lot more then just take photos and videos... however quality photos and videos are vital and typically cost around $600 in my market (for quality)....so basically what I’m saying is you could have prob charged him more if you wanted to.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Hounddog
Out of curiousity why would you charge a realtor or real estate office more than a homeowner trying to sell the home themselves?

As a Realtor myself that makes no sense at all!

I sell about 100 homes a year so that means (prior to getting my own drone and lic) I was hiring a photographer /drone pilot at least 100 times a year for photo/video shoots... the homeowner is not going to call you again once his home sells so he’s 1 and done, not to mention if he’s selling the home himself he’s saving on real estate commissions so theoretically he should be willing to spend on the marketing as he’s not paying a realtor which normally covers all those costs... So again why charge them less vs a realtor who can keep you busy when chances are that home owner won’t be calling you a few days later for another shoot... the realtor will..

Just pointing out that taking care of realtors and brokers with a better price then you would give someone from the general public is a smart business move as your creating a relationship with someone who could keep you very very busy...

I agree, charging the Realtor more makes no sense at all. I have the same price schedule for realtors as I do for individual home owners. Now I do charge more for commercial properties due to their special requirements (both aerial and from the ground) but even in that case, I would charge a commercial property owner the same price as a commercial property real estate agent.
 
A bit too low but considering it was between home owner & pilot I still would have charged $100 more. If via real estate agent/office $200 more

As others have stated this is a little bit backwards. Why not give your potential REPEAT customer a slight break in order to win them over and have them call you again and again.

If it's apples to apples the REA will get a better price than a home owner but if the homeowner is asking for something that takes less time and effort then they will get a better price but there's no reason to "gouge" the REA for the same package/product.
 
  • Like
Reactions: PhantomWetSuits

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,356
Members
104,934
Latest member
jody.paugh@fullerandsons.