Dedicated drone pilot or the photographer who also offers aerial
Take a 3 acre lot with a house, a barn and a decent view to the west, a property large enough that aerial footage probably helps but not so large that the land alone is the story. This is exactly the size where the choice between a dedicated drone pilot and a photographer who adds aerial as a line item actually matters. A specialist whose whole business is drone work, who holds the FAA remote pilot certificate that commercial flying requires, carries insurance, and knows before quoting whether the property sits in airspace that needs authorization, tends to produce better footage on a schedule that holds. The tradeoff is a second invoice and a second person to coordinate, commonly quoted in the $250 to $500 range for aerial alone. A full service photographer who adds aerial to a package, often around $125 on top of interior photos, means one trip and one invoice, but the drone segment is usually the lowest priority of the shoot, and it often shows in the final footage. Buying a drone and getting certified is a real option for investors who shoot enough properties to justify it, and skipping aerial entirely makes sense for a plain suburban lot where it adds little. For a property in the middle, like a few acres with some visual interest beyond the house itself, the dedicated specialist is usually worth the second invoice.
For a 3 acre property with a house and a view, how would you get aerial?
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