Photographer wants $150 extra for the drone on a small lot, is that just for one shot?

Question

Getting my first rental listed and the photographer's quote is $325 for the interior and exterior package, then a $150 line for drone. The house is a 1950s three bedroom on about a seventh of an acre. It does sit right against a small city park, which the agent thinks is the selling point.

What confuses me is what the $150 buys. When I asked, the answer was "aerials," which could mean one photo or fifty. Everything I've read says drone is for acreage and waterfront, so on a lot this size I can't tell if I'm paying for a genuine marketing piece or a line item that gets added to every quote. There's also a small airport maybe four miles away and I have no idea whether that matters.

Rena Guide · Accepted Answer

Ask for the deliverable count in writing before you approve it. A $150 drone add-on in most markets means something like 5 to 10 edited aerial stills, and sometimes a short clip of 20 to 60 seconds. Some operators include a video, plenty don't, and the word "aerials" on a quote doesn't settle it. Get the number of images and whether video is included, and ask to see aerials they've shot on a lot the size of yours rather than on an estate.

The fee also covers something you can't buy separately. Flying a drone for a paid job requires an FAA remote pilot certificate under the rule known as Part 107, so part of what you're paying for is a pilot who's allowed to charge for the flight and carries insurance on it. Your airport four miles away is exactly why that matters. Controlled airspace around airports requires authorization before flying, and a certified pilot requests it through the FAA's system, often getting an answer in minutes, sometimes not at all for a particular spot. If the shoot can't be authorized, you want the quote to say what happens to the $150.

On whether it's worth it here, the acreage rule of thumb misses your case. The park is the argument. One frame from 80 feet showing your back fence line against open green space communicates that better than any ground photo, and buyers scrolling on a phone see it in the first three images. That's a different reason to buy aerials than showing off 40 acres. Rules on flying over neighboring property and people vary by state and by local ordinance, so let the pilot handle where he launches from.

stephen_ok9 · Answer

The airspace answer above is the part I'd nail down. I looked at a small multifamily near a regional field where the whole block sat in a zone with a very low altitude ceiling, and the aerials that came back were shot from about 100 feet and looked like a tall ladder photo. Technically aerials. Not worth $150.

samantha_ruiz · Answer

Ask for the park in one frame and the street approach in another and skip the video. On a house at your size and price the video gets maybe eight seconds of watch time and the stills do all the work in the gallery.

chriswalton8 · Answer

Worth asking whether the $150 is the photographer's own drone or a sub he calls. If it's a sub, the photographer is marking it up and you might find the pilot's own rate is $200 for a fuller package including a clip, which is better value than $150 for five frames. Not always, but I'd ask.

Photographer wants $150 extra for the drone on a small lot, is that just for one shot?

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