Drone technology is changing real estate more than you might think

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Published Date 8/21/2018

It’s not your little brother’s remote toy plane buzzing over your head anymore. It’s a drone, capturing photos for everything from online reviews to satellite measurements, to videotaping weddings these days. AI drone technology is disrupting the traditional way business is done — including commercial and residential building.

According to a recent article in BUILDER Magazine, the use of drones will only accelerate as more and more companies begin realizing what drones can do for them. Relaxed FAA regulation has already increased drone usage—but that’s just the beginning. By 2020, 1.6 million drones are expected to be flying per day.

Contractors spend a lot of time assessing homes for everything from storm and fire damage to project scope and topography. Currently, inspectors drive to a home, climb a ladder, talk to homeowners and then transcribe all that information for a proposal. Enter the whining little drone. Now our propelled friend can do all of that with a single flight while digitizing all the data for easy access, gaining even more insight without having to be there. Insurance companies that have started using drones have increased home inspections from four per day to 30 per day, according to the article.

And then there’s job site safety — a huge concern to contractors, since preventing injuries is vital for them. Random job site spot checks to make sure workers are following proper safety protocols have been the order of the day for decades. But what if video-equipped drones buzzed overhead to make those same spot checks? How many more violations could they catch and help the contractor correct? Drone usage for inspections like this can not only be done more frequently, but less expensively as well.

When you think of dropping building materials, you may not think of drones, but stay tuned. Getting materials to the job site can be a logistical and costly hurdle, especially when payloads have to be delivered to rooftops or other hard-to-reach areas. What if those same materials could be droned into place? Even though it sounds other-worldly, a number of companies, including Airbus and Uber, are already working on drones to deliver people. If that happens, heavy payloads can’t be far behind.

Aerial footage of a home’s transformation, even if its something as simple as a new roof, can be a great marketing tool. Video footage helps contractors and homebuilders remind customers how they construct and transform homes, but up to this point if you wanted it, getting a helicopter and a cameraman to do it was prohibitively costly. A drone flying regularly throughout the job lifecycle can tell a story that’s more complete and exciting, with the footage used on websites and social media to create buzz (no pun intended). Real estate agents are already using drones to sell homes. Savvy contractors can’t be that far behind.

Source: Builderonline.com, TBWS

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