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Drone's for Residential Listings

2,206 Views | 16 Replies | Last: 6 yr ago by Gramercy Riffs
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AG
Curious what kind of use people see out in the residential real estate market. I've noticed drone shots on mostly higher end listings.

I was able to use a few myself to list our house up in Denton. If you click on the link the 1st, 2nd and last photos were ones I shot with a Mavic Pro. With a few large trees blocking the house, the professional photographer had an impossible task of getting a shot of the front from ground level. Elevating I was able to get a decent angle as well as showcase the yard and pool.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2605-Valencia-Ln-Denton-TX-76210/55167025_zpid

Don't know if it helped, but we got 2 above asking offers within about 24hrs of listing on Saturday morning. The competition all had ground shots only.

As a side note, what do people charge for taking drone footage of a house?
plowboy1065
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S
Drone use for larger lots/acreage certainly have their place. When I see a listing that has drone shots of house in a neighborhood where the lots are small and rooftops close I just ask myself why
Tonyperkis
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AG
I like seeing drone photos to get a feel for a neighborhood. Been looking at vacation rentals and it's really helpful to see walk-ability of a property.
Gramercy Riffs
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AG
Premium said:

Curious what kind of use people see out in the residential real estate market. I've noticed drone shots on mostly higher end listings.

I was able to use a few myself to list our house up in Denton. If you click on the link the 1st, 2nd and last photos were ones I shot with a Mavic Pro. With a few large trees blocking the house, the professional photographer had an impossible task of getting a shot of the front from ground level. Elevating I was able to get a decent angle as well as showcase the yard and pool.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2605-Valencia-Ln-Denton-TX-76210/55167025_zpid

Don't know if it helped, but we got 2 above asking offers within about 24hrs of listing on Saturday morning. The competition all had ground shots only.

As a side note, what do people charge for taking drone footage of a house?
In my opinion (which on this particular topic is shared by quite a few RE photographers), drone shots should be used for large estates to show the layout, coastal neighborhoods to show proximity to the water (and should really be limited to the first four or five streets, certainly the first row), or for tricky front elevation shots. The vast majority of homes don't need them. Top-down views of the roof are especially unnecessary.

With that said, I like the way you utilized the drone for your listing because it's not overdone. I disagree that the photographer had an impossible task of getting a shot from the front. That's where pole aerials come into play. That situation is an easy one to overcome - he/she simply didn't get it done. A 12-16' painters pole would have taken a great shot of your house from that angle. But I like what you did there. Regardless of the tool used, getting the camera up off the ground was the way to go.

I also like the shots you included that show the layout of the backyard, most notably the size and shape of the deck and pool. Again, you didn't put it up in the clouds and shoot straight down on the chimney, which would have caused a lot of eye rolls. Really nice job there.

Like you, I don't know if those shots directly influenced the offers. It's safe to say that they didn't hurt.

As for rates, it varies (market, photographer, number, type, use of video yes/no, etc.). Some charge a flat fee, some by number of images, some by the hour. One of my clients offered to pay for the drone in exchange for free aerials of his apartment communities. That's a little different - I've got a retainer-like agreement with that particular set of properties, so they're sort of paying for it either way.

One example of a rate structure that I've seen people use, and the one I'd personally use for my clients, is a $100 fee for drone usage and $25 for each image. Three shots would be $175. Depending on the client/property, that might be close to the price of just the interior images already, so drone work is obviously more expensive. Of course, there's also additional expenses involved for the photographer as well, from the drone itself to the insurance, training, license, maintenance, and the pain in the butt of bringing additional equipment to an already large pile of gear.


* If it means anything, I like the quality of your drone shots more than quite a few of the "pro" images.
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AG
Thanks for the compliments. I used the DJI Mavic Pro which is very portable when it comes to drones but it has a 4K video camera. I took a lot of video and then used Adobe Premier to take snap shots of the favorite angles.

There are other higher quality ways to get pics (mine aren't the highest res but pretty good) but this was extemely easy for a novice such as myself to do. The thing practically flies itself!
Diggity
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AG
I like the drone shots better than the interior shots. They look a bit amorphous to me. What kind of lens was used?
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Diggity said:

I like the drone shots better than the interior shots. They look a bit amorphous to me. What kind of lens was used?


Inside lens? Not sure. It was Shoot to Sell up in the DFW area taking pics.
Gramercy Riffs
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AG
Re: the interior shots... "I'm in a hurry and I've probably got a few other homes to hit after this one, so I'll just shoot my brackets for HDR. I'll also not bother to change lenses at all today because I need to get on the road."

That's why you get gritty, muddy interiors and distorted furniture and clocks. Your shots are much more natural than the others. Those three images are a nice boost to the listing.
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AG
You guys are right. Not being a camera guy I was kind of fooled by the quality. I thought they were really good until you got me to look at the details. What I generally liked were the angles they got to show the different spaces - the quality and grainyness on the other hand is notable in some of the pics.

ETA: they were rushed because our first camera hire fell through and this particular photographer got a last minute booking they didn't see on their calendar. I'm sure they "fit us in" and were in a hurry to get home for dinner since it was 5PM or after.
Diggity
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AG
it's a nice property though. Glad you got it sold!
Premier4K
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College Station Drone Real Estate Marketing





I've found a ton of uses for the drone in real estate marketing around town here. It's portability and ease of use allow me to get agents a great product and stay within a reasonable price.
Diggity
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AG
Subtle
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AG
So the shoot to sell person found out about how quickly the house sold through the person who staged the house - they were both bragging about their services which is expected but annoying.

Anyway, now that it closed and funded within 10 days of listing, the final offer was $336 which was $11 above asking. I was told that was the most any house had sold for in the neighborhood and it's not the biggest in sq ft by any means. Had the realtor and a few others in real estate tell us they thought we listed too high but we listed and still got above it by quite a bit.

Honestly though, I think it was a good buy - no other house had the pool, large yard and completely updated house.
Gramercy Riffs
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Quote:

So the shoot to sell person found out about how quickly the house sold through the person who staged the house - they were both bragging about their services which is expected but annoying.
The staging was good. The photographer got the job done. There's a big gap in talent between the two of them though.
88jrt06
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AG
I'm thinking a .410.
Fighting chance and all.
(Just for rural)
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AG
Gramercy Riffs said:

Quote:

So the shoot to sell person found out about how quickly the house sold through the person who staged the house - they were both bragging about their services which is expected but annoying.
The staging was good. The photographer got the job done. There's a big gap in talent between the two of them though.



The staging was good. Sister in law did the staging and was also the realtor. She got her boyfriend to do all of the construction/repair/remodel.
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AG
What kind of camera / lens would I need to get similar pictures? I realize it's a skill but if I wanted to at least have the right equipment where would I start?

I have a few rentals and a few beach houses and would use it for that as well as any personal / family use.

I also have Photoshop with Creative Cloud - don't know how to use it best either but I can experiment.
Gramercy Riffs
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AG
Similar pictures to what? You don't want similar pictures to what the Shoot2Sell guy provided. In the end, it would still be cheaper and easier to hire someone.... just not that guy.

You need a wide lens to shoot interiors. 24mm is the sweet spot, so use that as a target and adjust based on what kind of camera you have. For instance, I started with a camera with a 1.6x crop factor, so I used an 11-16mm lens and tried to stay close to 15, which would be the equivalent of 24 on that camera. Quite a few people start with similar cameras and use a 10-22mm lens.

You'll also need a good tripod. Something sturdy with a little weight to it. Interior images often require blending multiple exposures, and you don't want the camera to move between shots.

A wide lens and a tripod gets you started, but different properties may require additional equipment. You'll need to light interiors in order to get the proper exposure for the windows and bulbs, and that means one or multiple flashes. Studio lights are used more traditionally for architectural photography, but real estate jobs can be done with speedlights, which are cheaper, easier to use, and easier to carry and set up. You can avoid the lighting issue by relying on HDR processing, but 99.9% of the time you'll wind up with the dull, muddy images that we don't want.

Technique is more important than your equipment. It takes a lot of practice. And while Photoshop is certainly handy when it comes to editing RE photos, I'd pick up Lightroom for basic processing. You can get a photographer's package through Creative Cloud that includes PS and LR for pretty cheap.

Or you could just hire someone (I'm not fishing for business - there's plenty of options for you in your area). Check out their online portfolios and go from there. Easier, faster, and cheaper than doing it yourself. Just my opinion. Good luck!

Edit to add: Looking back through the listing, they're not as terrible as I may have implied. It's just a shooting style that is a bit of a pet peeve with a lot of pros because it's the quick/easy way to do it. It's become quite common, so I guess agents and sellers are ok with it. You can learn that technique overnight, so if you like the way those look, you can just go with the camera, wide lens, and tripod. You'll still need to learn about composition, which is a problem with a lot of those from the listing.
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