3 LESSONS FROM OUR LAST RE SHOOT

Drone real estate photography is usually one of the first places new pilots go to develop skills and earn money in the process! We believe it’s a great route, but of course we’re biased… 2 of our mentors (George & Tabitha) began filming real estate with drones commercially over 5 years ago, it’s where we got our start! 

We decided on this last shoot to bring you guys along for the journey. We’ve boiled down our learnings from this latest shoot into 3 lessons below! We’ll also include some before & after images at the end.

STEP #1: Client Communication Is Key
You hear all the time that communication is key, but here are 2 reasons why it matters in real estate. 

1) You’ll save yourself time – Real estate agents can be particular in what they want, as they should be when they’re hiring an expert (you). Some can be very particular, but if communication is properly conducted, both sides will be on the same page. This goes for pricing before the shoot, what shots should be captured while on the property, and what the deliverables should look like after.

With this particular agent, I’ve made a mistake before by not communicating. I assumed an entire plot of land was being sold, so I did all my edits, annotations, and added the deliverables only to find out that the property had a small lot in the corner that wasn’t being sold. This required me to reopen and re-label every one of those 20 images. So, you can see how communication saves time! But it also…

2) Communication saves trouble – Let me give an example. During this past shoot, the homeowner asked if I could clean up some junk in the yard, as well as remove power poles in the images. Being that I know this is illegal for my client, I didn’t do it. But yes, removing power poles in images is an MLS violation that very likely will get the agent you’re working for fined HEAVILY.

Especially for newer drone pilots, it’s best to communicate with the agent who will likely be more familiar with MLS rules and regulations as you’re learning about the industry.

If your agent gets in trouble from your photos, it likely will impact their decision to work with you again! So save yourself time and trouble with communication.

STEP #2: USE A PHYSICAL PRE-FLIGHT CHECKLIST

Using a pre-flight checklist is critical to your success. Some people like to keep theirs digital, and this works too. I prefer to keep mine in physical form within the drone case.

Pre-flight will make sure you don’t forget any items before you leave for the site, and that your drone is loaded and safe before takeoff. Admittedly I’ve made the painful mistake before of driving out 45 minutes to a site only to find that I forgot an SD Card. Informing your clients you made that mistake isn’t very fun trust me! From that day I’ve included a pre-flight checklist in the drone case for all items I would need.

Before leaving for the shoot I almost forgot my trusty SD card again. I always do one final pass of the checklist before leaving the driveway, and that ensured I brought along this last item!

STEP #3: ALWAYS GO THE EXTRA MILE

You’ve probably heard this saying before, but let’s talk about how it applies to you in real estate, and why you should do it.

Going the extra mile doesn’t mean you just give a lot of free products, or service every time. Often adding more photos, or an additional service is the first thing that comes to mind, but the ways and means of going the extra mile are practically unlimited. 

Let me give you 2 real life examples! 

1) Hand Written Thank You Notes

An early mentor of ours hand writes personal thank you notes for each of his clients for every shoot. These notes usually contained just a few sentences to show he was grateful for their time and trust in him. He credited this practice for helping him retain his most profitable clients over the years! That type of gesture isn’t given often these days. Although very few may not appreciate it, most will and they will return in kind through many means. Let me give you an example from us!

2) Give Without Expecting Return

Every year our team donates the photos and videos to the St. Jude Dream Homes in Louisiana. We don’t ask for any money, or any favors in return. We do it every year because the St. Jude cause matters to us, and we love being around the people who build and design the dream homes. They’re some of the most selfless people we know! Although we don’t seek anything in return, our team has received countless calls for drone media collection, construction progress monitoring, and other drone services just from people seeing the work that we donate to St. Jude. 

On this job in particular, I decided to do a mapping mission at no cost to the agent. I had time to kill and wanted to show him the value of that service one time for free. While I was conducting the mapping mission, someone who had walked down the road a few times during my drone flights asked if mapping was a service I offer. I told him yes, we discussed the project, and now I’m preparing to do a mission next week. Had I not decided to go the extra mile, I likely wouldn’t have had that opportunity! 

DRONE BEFORE & AFTERS

Now that we’ve shared our lessons learned from this latest project, let us share some before and after examples!
Half and half of edited after on left vs. before image on right.
Half and half of edited after on left vs. before image on right.
Fully edited after image #3.
We hope you gained something from the lessons we learned on this latest shoot! Our team will be sharing a full job shadow video in a few days walking you through our process for capturing these images on site! If you’d like to learn how to do this, subscribe to our YT channel below:)

Join The Next Generation Of Pilots Today!

Sign up for free guides, training, and resources exclusive to our email list!