Comprehensive Guide to Drone Real Estate Photography Pricing
Drone real estate photography pricing can be slightly different depending on where you are offering your drone services. The good news is that drone real estate photography is in high demand and you can easily charge a premium to fly, even just for 20-30 minutes.
If you don’t have a drone yet, check out the 7 Best Drones for Real Estate Photography. If you already own one and are just looking to figure out how much you can charge, read on!
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Drone Real Estate Photography Pricing
Drone real estate photography pricing is a key to making more money per job as a real estate photographer. Drone photos are a very popular add-on services and are quickly becoming an industry standard offering.
Locking in the correct drone real estate photography pricing will help increase your overall invoice total and have your clients ordering drone photos from every shoot where aerial views make sense.
General Drone Real Estate Photography Pricing
In general, you can charge anywhere between $100 – $200 for a simple 20-30 minute flight that delivers roughly 5-8 photos. These general numbers are backed up by sites like Thumbtack and ZipRecruiter, although they are obviously not as specific to the real estate market as we’d like.
You can use this range as a good starting point, but to really lock down the best competitive drone real estate photography pricing, you’ll have to do a bit of market research.
Another thing to think about is pricing drone photos differently depending on what other services your client ordered. To better explain this, I’ll just share my own drone real estate photography pricing as an example:
If a client wants to purchase drone photos only, the price that I charge is going to be a minimum of $150. However, if they choose to purchase drone real estate photography as an add-on service with my normal photography package, then I’ll only charge $80.
This is effective for a few reasons:
- If I’m going to a job that only wants drone photos, I know that I’ll be making $150 for what is likely to be only 20 minutes of on-site work.
- If my client is hiring me for photography purposes, the $80 price tag in comparison to $150 is very enticing to them and they are likely to purchase drone services because they feel as though they are getting a great deal.
In the end, I’m spending 20 minutes total to make $150, or adding 20 extra minutes on to an already scheduled shoot to make an extra $80. This strategy has worked very well for me thus far and I have no plans on changing my drone real estate photography pricing.
Drone Pricing for Your Market
It seems obvious, but the market price that can be charged for drone real estate photography is going to be much higher in cities like San Fransisco than it is in cities like Syracuse, New York.
You want to make sure to not charge so much that nobody will hire you, but also to charge enough that you’re not taking money out of your own pocket. To figure out this sweet spot in pricing, a little bit of market research will be needed.
You can conduct this market research by weighing your skill level as a photographer vs the competition in your market, and by finding out the relative going rate for services in your market.
For a much more in-depth read on how to research your market effectively, check out our article Real Estate Photography Pricing: Know Your Value
Prices by City Size
After you’ve did a bit of market research, you should have a good idea of your markets drone real estate photography pricing range. Below you’ll find a good idea of what your market size can handle in regards to drone photography prices.
Small City: 50k - 100k People
~$100 for 30 minutes of flight with 5 photos delivered
Medium City: 100k - 400k People
~$150 for 30 minutes of flight with 5 photos delivered
Large City: 400k - 1m People
~$175 for 30 minuyes of flight with 5 photos delivered
Mega City: 1m+ People
~$200 for 30 minutes of flight with 5 photos delivered
One note about this “Mega City” pricing; depending on your skill level and who you are working with, you could charge up to $250 and possibly higher. Always think about the project you are working on and what their budget might be.
Are you going to photograph a new high-rise apartment building in New York City or Los Angeles? It’s likely that you can charge a bit more than you would for a standard residential type property.
Drone Real Estate Photography Pricing Packages
Using packages to price your drone real estate photography is a great way to get more business and charge a bit more overall. Assuming you also offer non-drone real estate photography, packaging them together is an easy way to charge more and offer your client a discount at the same time.
Package Examples
- Create a smaller package offering 3 drone photos on the lower end of the pricing spectrum.
- Have a middle package that offers 5 – 8 drone photos or even some video for your standard rate.
- Finally, put together a package that offers “full drone photography coverage” where you fly for 30+ minutes and deliver 10+ photos and video if you’d like. This package will allow you to charge premium pricing.
The best part about packaging your drone photography services is that it gives your customers/clients options. If someone only wants 3 photos, they won’t want to pay for 30 full minutes of flight time. Likewise, if someone wants full drone coverage, they’ll likely be willing to pay a bit more.
Recommendations on Drone Real Estate Photography Pricing
The best thing you can do in order to accurately put together your drone real estate photography pricing is to figure out the going rate for your market. The numbers above are generally correct and a good starting point, but you can fine tune them with more knowledge.
Going back to the example of my own drone real estate photography pricing, lowering my price to $80 when it’s purchased as an add-on has made it extremely common for my clients to purchase drone services.
I was able to come to this $80 amount by figuring out the highest price I could charge where my clients would still consider it a great deal. That number will likely be different in most markets depending on all of the factors discussed in this article.
Additional Resources
If you’re just getting started in real estate photography, check out our Beginners Guide. It’s full of helpful articles and tips that will guide you in the right direction as you begin your real estate photography journey.
You can check out our Gear section as well to see reviews and recommendations on the latest real estate photography gear.
If you’re more interested in other resources that can help your real estate photography business, check out our Business Resources page.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do drones charge for real estate photography?
Generally, a full drone photography session will cost anywhere between $100 – $250 dollars. A lot of the cost depends on your market and whether you want photos, video, or both.
How much do people charge for drone shots?
Typically drone photos are charged for both the amount of images delivered as well as flight time. Costs can run anywhere between $100 – $250 for one drone photography session.
How much does a drone photographer get paid?
Generally speaking, the average yearly income for a full-time drone photographer is around $50,000 US Dollars.
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