Redfin, one of the largest real estate brokerages in the United States, published a guide on September 22 telling home sellers how to prepare their property before a drone photo shoot. It does not argue over whether hiring a pilot is worthwhile: it takes the flight as a given and explains how to get the property ready. The piece closes with a 12-point list and leaves the last item in the seller’s hands: confirming that the operator holds an FAA Part 107 certificate before the shoot.
What a drone sees and a ground-level photo does not
From the sidewalk, a buyer sees the front door and the landscaping. At 150 or 200 feet up the balance changes completely: the roof becomes the largest surface in the frame and the recycling bin beside the garage ends up in the listing photo. That is why Redfin’s guide walks through surfaces a ground-level shoot never showed.
First the roof and gutters: leaves, pine needles, built-up debris, old tarps or unused satellite dishes that are plainly visible from the air. Then the top-down view of the driveway, the patio, the pool area and the side yards. And finally the branches. The advice here is blunt: do not prune the day before, because fresh cuts and piles of clippings photograph worse than the branch you wanted to remove.
The list the seller works through the night before
Redfin’s document groups the preparation into four blocks and recommends going through them the day before the shoot. The version a pilot can send a client in the booking confirmation, 48 hours ahead, would look like this:
- Roof and gutters: clear leaves, needles and debris; remove tarps, satellite dishes and anything stored on the roof.
- Driveway and street: move all vehicles off the driveway — and out of the street in front of the house if possible — hide the trash, recycling and yard-waste bins, and close the garage and gates.
- Yard, patio and pool: mow and edge the lawn, sweep, put away hoses, toys, tools, ladders and pool equipment; clean the pool, tidy the furniture and open only the umbrellas that are in good shape.
- The morning of the flight: turn off the sprinklers so the pavement is dry, let immediate neighbours know the approximate time and keep pets indoors during the flight.
Redfin adds a closing line the pilot signs: they are a Part 107 certified operator with liability insurance, and they handle airspace authorization, weather calls and all flight safety. If the weather does not cooperate, the shoot is rescheduled at no charge.
Part 107, insurance and portfolio: what the seller is going to check
The interesting twist is not the list itself but who signs it. Redfin asks the seller to confirm three things about the pilot: the FAA Part 107 certificate, the existence of liability insurance and a body of work. And it spells out what to look for in that portfolio: “recent real estate listing work, not just scenic clips or social-media reels.” Airspace authorization, weather and safety calls, it says, stay on the operator’s side.
The context explains why the seller is catching up. The National Association of Realtors’ 2025 Technology Survey, published on September 18, puts agents’ use of drone photography or video at 52%. Only e-signature (79%) and social media (75%) rank higher, and aerials now beat AI-generated listing text, which sits at 46%. At that level of adoption, the agent’s question stops being whether to add aerial shots and becomes which pilot on her list to book.
The gear: why 24 mm matters more than price
Ken Dono, known online as OriginaldoBo, shoots listings around Tampa Bay and Orlando through Apex Imaging Media. Billy Kyle, a longtime DroneXL contributor, covers Main Line properties and the Jersey Shore.
Both agree on one optical detail: the DJI Mavic 4 Pro is not the best tool for real estate. Its main camera is a 28 mm equivalent, against the 24 mm on the rest of DJI’s lineup, and those 4 mm are the difference between fitting the house and its lot into one frame or having to back the drone off the property to pull it off.
The drones they recommend are the ones with the 24 mm lens and a lower price: the Mini 4 Pro, the Mini 5 Pro and the Air 3S. The lesson is the same as in much of aerial photography: field of view weighs more than the sensor’s spec sheet. Anyone who wants to dig into how a drone behaves on real commissions has a good example in our Avata 360 test across five jobs.
Redfin does not get into whether aerial shots are worth what they cost; by now it takes that for granted. What it does make clear is that the process starts before takeoff. The pilot who keeps an agent’s business is not the one who shows up with the best camera, but the one who sends the list in advance, shows a portfolio of actual listings and has the certificate and insurance on hand when they are asked for.
