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Other than real estate photography, what can I offer?

fishfryfred

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I recently received my part 107 certification, and am preparing to offer services as a aerial real estate photographer. However, what other services should I consider offering? I don't want to do weddings or anything like that, but I do see some of you do commercial inspections and things like that. What does that entail? I would love to learn more about the services you all are offering.
 
First of all real estate is a waste of time, there are plenty of threads on this forum that supports that. In my opinion Construction is one of the best. There are many threads on this forum about starting a drone based business.
Also, look at whatever you are doing for a living, is there potential opportunities in you professional field.
 
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Inspection requires a specific skill set and usually specific sensors (more than a Mavic/Phantom usually but not always) BUT... fortunately it can be obtained but usually through a dedicated school program. @Florida Drone Supply has an excellent program (it's not cheap but it's a solid program) that can get you started in the right direction.

I've got several friends in the "Inspection" side of the industry who do very well but they travel a lot and spend a lot of time away from home.

You'll want to figure out what your interests are and what skills you have to bring to the table. Once you know what you can do you can better define what services you can offer. Remember NICHES make RICHES and Real Estate is not a niche.... it's almost an Anti-Niche LOL.
 
Contact companies that put solar panels at home. For both marketing pics and vids, and inspection. You said you didn't want to do weddings, What about filming sports events. As noted above commercial real-estate pays better than residential. As noted above if you want to get into Power grid, Insurance, inspection you need to take a course in this fields. Last note if you got into this because you are a creative photographer film maker, you can try local TV for both News Gathering and TV commercials, Auto dealers have gone "drone crazy" in their ads, to shoot for them you can approach the dealer directly.
 
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I recently received my part 107 certification, and am preparing to offer services as a aerial real estate photographer. However, what other services should I consider offering? I don't want to do weddings or anything like that, but I do see some of you do commercial inspections and things like that. What does that entail? I would love to learn more about the services you all are offering.
Also note that to use the word "survey" or "inspection" you need to be professionally qualified/certified in those areas and have significant PL insurance. To "inspect" or "survey" anything, without that specific professional designation will quickly get you into a whole legal minefield.

The other piece of advice, don't give up the day job. Unless you happen to have very good connections, you'll make very little money from real estate videography/photography.
 
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Survey and Inspection, are broad terms, depends on how you sell it!
Possibly. My point is that one should not refer to anything as a "survey" or "inspection" unless one is a professionally certified "surveyor" or "inspector". Of course one can choose to do so, but don't come complaining here when there's a lawsuit. There are plenty of threads on this in this forum.
 
Many people misrepresent themselves, I can use my drone to "inspect" a roof, and have done so, never indicating I was a home inspector. I have surveyed a property, again never stating I was a certified surveyor, language is everything, never lead a customer or should I say mislead, into thinking your something you're not!
 
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Many people misrepresent themselves, I can use my drone to "inspect" a roof, and have done so, never indicating I was a home inspector. I have surveyed a property, again never stating I was a certified surveyor, language is everything, never lead a customer or should I say mislead, into thinking your something you're not!


Depending on the state you operate in.... in NC if you use the term inspect/survey you had better have the credentials and initials to back it up. SC is the same way as one of our industry leaders went through that hassle in SC down in the lowcountry area back in IIRC ~2019. Merely using those terms can indeed get you reported to the official agencies for those disciplines and like it or not they do have the power to enforce their "policies".
 
The way I started was using the drone in my home inspection business. I used the drone to assist in roof inspections. However a roof inspection requires more than just the exterior inspection, it also requires interior/Attic inspection, and yes you must be qualified to do those inspections.
When asked by realtors to also do a aerial video or photos along with the home inspection I would normally quote them $100.00 minimum and guess what, nine times out of ten they declined. The average home inspection in our area is between $350.00 and $500.00 depending on the size of the home. Inspections take an average of 1 to 2 hours and thirty minutes to create the report.
On home inspections the client is paying for the inspection, not the realtor. Getting money out of realtor is like trying to suck blood out of a turnup.
 
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