Hired a drone for listing photos, got a roof line item on the invoice

Small mixed use building, two commercial bays and four units above, in a town of about 9,000. I wanted aerial for the listing package because the ground shots make the block look worse than it is and from 200 feet you can see the park across the street.

Quote was $450 for the shoot, edited 90 second video, 20 stills, one revision. Fine. Invoice came back at $675 with a second line, roof condition imagery, $225.

My first reaction was that I'd been added to. I called him. He said while he was up he ran a separate low pass over the roof because he always does on flat roofs, and he had 40 close range stills of two spots where the membrane was lifting at a seam and standing water around a drain that clearly hadn't moved in a while. He said he doesn't include those in a marketing package because he isn't an inspector and won't put opinions in writing about condition, but he'll hand you the images and you can send them to somebody who is.

I told him to send the images and I'd pay the 225. Sent them to a roofer who came out, agreed with the pictures, and quoted the seam and drain work at just under $8,000 against what a full tear off would have been. The listing went out three weeks later with the repair receipt in the package.

What I keep chewing on is the pricing. He got $225 for maybe eight extra minutes of flight time and no report, and it was worth several times that to me. That's a better business than the video. The video is what people call him about. The roof pass is where the money is and he almost seems embarrassed to charge for it.