Part 107 is the FAA rule set that covers commercial drone flying in the US, and the certificate a pilot earns under it is called a remote pilot certificate. Anyone flying a drone for a business purpose, including shooting a listing they'll be paid for, needs it. That's why you see it named on invoices: the vendor is telling you they're allowed to charge for the flight. Requirements and testing details change, so confirm current rules with the FAA or the pilot's own documentation rather than an invoice line.
On your ledger question, the aerial footage is a marketing expense. An appraiser develops an opinion of value from sales of comparable properties and from the physical characteristics of the subject, and a nicely graded 60 second flyover isn't one of those inputs. The appraiser may well use aerial imagery, and often does on rural or large parcels, but they'll pull it from mapping sources or take their own photos, and it's there to document things like site shape, access and what surrounds the parcel.
Where aerials do touch your side is on the collateral, not the value conclusion. Drone work has grown well past marketing into roof and structure inspection, land mapping and construction progress documentation, and lenders and insurers do commission it. If your file involves 200 acres with a creek through it or a partially built project, a dated set of aerials tells you something about the collateral that a drive by can't. That's a different engagement from the marketing shoot, with a different deliverable.
