Real estate photography is one of the major applications of consumer drones. Drones can take videos and images of a property at some amazing angles. This drone imagery adds value to the property listings and attracts buyers by grabbing their attention. Aerial photography not only adds a wow factor but also conveys, some great suburb and neighborhood information in a simplistic way. Taking these types of shots was very expensive and was done by using helicopters or cranes. Drones provide an affordable solution for real estate photography and a business opportunity for drone operators and pilots. In this article I discuss few of the considerations for buying best drone for real estate photography business. Also few other things related to drone photography business.

Selecting the Best Drone for Real Estate:

Many drones available in the market can do the job for you and the one, which you should consider buying, really depends on many factors. Few of the important considerations are:

Types of the clients you are focusing on Quality of the videos (4K, 1080P ) Duration of the job. (Battery Life, extra on-aircraft batteries) Budget Required video format and storage capacity. (you might already have a video editing software! moreover, wish your drone format to be compatible) Licensing/No licensing requirements (may depend on the weight of the drone) The ability to get the liability insurance. You also need some safety features in your drone such as return to home and obstacle avoidance. Weather considerations, some batteries fail at cold temperatures!







Drone Real Estate Photography Pricing

I am not giving any legal advice but generally speaking, If you are working as a freelancer, you own the copyright of your videos and images. When it comes to pricing, you must keep in mind all the expenses and the value you are adding to someone’s business and of course the fact that you get the business. You can have various categories of pricing as you might have seen on stock websites such as Shutterstock, istockphoto or Dreamstime. These websites offer different types of licenses to videos and images. You can adopt a similar model for your real estate imagery services. For instance, you can provide one price where you give your copyrights for a period with attribution required and another price where you transfer full copyrights with no attribution required.

There is a software called fotoQuote which gives you a pricing estimate for photography assignments. (This is not an affiliate link and I am not associated with this software and never tried myself). The average pricing for drone real estate photography is $1000 to $1500 for a one-day session or $200/hr.

List of Drones for Real Estate Photography: (Starting from The Best)

You can use any of the following drones for your real estate photography business:

1. DJI Inspire 2

It is at the top of our list because the drone is designed for videography. It is a filmmaking drone capable of streaming live videos at 1080P with its HD video transmission system and can fly at 80kph. The drone has the weight of 3.44kg. It can operate in extreme weather conditions.

Key Features:

Main camera and a 2-axis stabilized fpv camera, both can stream video simultaneously. Excellent obstacle avoidance capability in forward and above direction. CineCore 2.0 Image Processing System Video Format: Cinema DNG, Apple ProRes 5.2K, H.265 and H.264 video codec Support, 4K videos at 100Mbps Still Image Formats: JPEG/DNG/JPEG+DNG 20.8 MP File System: FAT32/exFAT Universal File System

2. DJI Phantom 4 Pro

The camera of this drone is fantastic. It has F2.8 maximum aperture, large 1-inch sensor and a mechanical shutter. F2.8 is excellent enough for brighter video quality and a wider dynamic range.

Key Features:

4K 60fps recording can give you wonderful slow-motion videos. Still Image Format: Adobe DNG RAW 20 MP Very Bright Monitor which is useful in bright sunlight and you can compose the desired shots easily. Video Live Streaming at 720P 30fps Dual radio frequencies (2.4 and 5.8 GHz) and the drone automatically detects the interference and switches the frequency. Obstacle avoidance in 5 directions, forward, downward, both sides and rear direction

3. Yuneec Typhoon H

This drone is another aerial videography drone with a 360-degree unobstructed rotating 4K camera. This gives an edge on its competitors. Yuneec Typhoon H is a hex copter and not a quadcopter (6 props mean you must have some spare props all the time). It is a big drone with a large controller which can be an intimidating factor for the beginners but it is a fantastic drone. It has a retractable landing gear and a dual operator support. These features are also desirable for some applications. The obstacle avoidance system is not very good with no obstacle avoidance at above, back or bottom of the drone.

Key Features:

CGO3+4K UHD Camera, 3-axis, antivibration gimbal. Live footage HD 720P Panoramic photography function Sill Images 1.4 P Large 7-inch screen display.

Accessories for Drone Real Estate Photography:

There are few more things, you might need other than the drone for your real estate photography business. Some of those could be the following:

Video editing software Someone to assist you as a spotter or camera operator Extra Props and Batteries for the drone. Extra drone (some small size drone like DJI Mavic Pro!) Hand-held gimbals and camera mount for additional indoor views of the property. An extra remote-control unit.

Some Important Precautions for Real Estate Photography Using Drones:

Never invade someone’s privacy Get a correct drone pilot license if required by law. Never buy used batteries to save money. Moreover, you should also consider council laws and CBD restrictions. Stay on top of the technology and current trend, otherwise you could be wasting a lot of time and energy. Never fly without liability insurance. If you are renting drones, check the insurer instructions. You can get further information on this topic in the article “ Drone Insurance: What are the most Important Factors You Must Consider ”

There is no doubt that the drones have changed the real estate marketing in a big way and these dramatic aerial drone videos could soon be in high demand and may become a minimum requirement for any real estate listing. I see a huge business opportunity all across the globe.

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