How Drones Help the Real Estate Industry Across All Sectors

Construction and Real Estate Development—Building companies and developers can benefit from drones in a variety of ways: materials management (measuring supplies using drone imaging), inspecting worksite progress, mapping, surveying, and much more. Combined with the right software, drones are an incredible asset to construction and real estate development.

Inspectors—Inspectors can greatly benefit from real estate drone photography. Whether during the construction process or during the sale of a property, inspectors often need to assess roofs, electrical infrastructure, and other things that are difficult to see or reach from the ground, and a drone makes it safer, quicker, and easier to inspect these areas.

Home and Property Insurance—Insurance firms (or the independent adjusters that work for them) may hire drone pilots to inspect roofs and other hard-to-reach areas when managing claims. For example, if a severe storm damaged a roof, they might use a drone to accurately, quickly, and safely assess the damage.

Real Estate Agents—Drone images and videos are valuable as marketing material for real estate agents, particularly for high-value properties or luxury neighborhoods. Agents want high-quality images that show off the beauty and function of a property.

How You Can Meet the Demand for Real Estate Drone Photography

Are you a drone pilot? Here are some beginner’s tips for making your drone skills valuable to the real estate industry. When you know how to create valuable services and market them to the right people, you can be very successful!

First, figure out what services you want to offer. What are you interested in offering, and what does your skill set support? What hardware and software do you own, and what are you willing to invest in? You’ll want to define your ideal target customer (Insurance providers? Commercial property developers? Residential real estate agents?) And, how far are you willing to travel to offer your services?

Price your services appropriately for your area and service offerings. Do you have competition for your services, and what are they charging? What level of services are you planning to provide as far as quality and quantity? How much will it cost you to travel onsite, perform the service, and analyze data or edit photos afterwards? Will you need insurance coverage, and how much expertise do you have? When you answer these questions carefully and honestly, you can arrive at a fair price for your services.

Then, market your services to the right people. Once you know what you’re offering and how much you’re going to charge for it, you can create online listings, promote your services across social media, send out sales letters or flyers, and more. Choose a cost-effective marketing strategy that’s sure to reach the right audience—local real estate professionals who can afford and benefit from your drone photography services. Make sure to show potential customers how valuable your services are.