$185 is what the seller sees, and the shoot is the small part of it. Forty-five minutes in a 1,500 square foot house, then an hour or more at the desk if he's blending flash and ambient exposures by hand rather than running a preset. Add half an hour of driving each way and one listing eats about three hours. Three of those is $555 in a day, four is a full day with nothing going wrong. That's the shape of the business. It works on volume inside a tight radius and it stops working the moment his appointments are 40 minutes apart.
The second revenue line you're looking for is add-ons. The base photo package is the door, and the margin sits in the 3D walkthrough, the drone stills, the twilight shot, the floor plan. Same drive, same setup, another $100 to $300 on the invoice.
No state licenses you to photograph houses, which is exactly why the field fills up. Two things do gate you. Flying a drone as part of a paid job is commercial operation and needs an FAA remote pilot certificate, and the airspace approval process changes, so confirm the current requirements with the FAA before you charge for aerials. And most brokerages want general liability insurance in hand before they'll put you on a vendor sheet, with drone coverage usually written as its own thing.
The cost that surprises new shooters is the reshoot. Trash cans left at the curb, a north-facing front at 4pm, an agent who decides afterward that she wants twilight. Write down what a return trip costs before you take your first booking, because otherwise you'll eat it.
