Certain types of properties have always been a challenge for Realtors to photograph. It could be a complex residence, perhaps hidden by trees, or it could simply be so large the camera can't take it all in. Many of those problems are being solved with the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones.
"One example is a home that I shot in Abiquiu," said Joy Rudemyer. "It was situated in a valley surrounded on all sides by mountains, very beautiful, and from the air it becomes very clear just how secluded it is, so this may be the best initial way to entice a buyer who's looking for that. And there is no way to capture that setting from the ground."
Rudemyer, owner of Su Casa 3D Imaging, has been flying drones for more than two years now. Most of what she uses it for is taking photographs and videos of homes, ranches, and parcels of land that are on the market, and mostly in the Santa Fe area.
"What I love about this is basically the birds-eye perspective you have," she said. "It really pulls people in. It enables the viewer to have a better sense of how the home is located in relationship to the neighborhood. The colors of the New Mexico sky and landscapes are always changing and it's beautiful. These cameras are awesome with color. I enjoy everything about that, just being outside, and how the cloud drama can make a nice backdrop to properties."
Drones of various types can be bought from $15 to more than $20,000. The ones Rudemyer uses are in DJI's Phantom series, costing about $1,500. They're four-propellered crafts, about 15 inches wide, with a small but high-tech camera mounted on the underside.
You would think photographing a house from up in the air would be difficult in Santa Fe's winds, but Rudemyer said it's not. "I've flown in winds up to 15 miles per hour and the steadiness of the video is amazing, because of the gimbal [stabilizer]. You can see the drone being tossed about a little bit, but the clips you get are steady."
Her drone cameras have a fixed focal length. The more expensive models have zoom capability, but she said Realtors are usually not using drones for details, but for wide, expansive shots. "You can even alter color and saturation while it's in the air, but usually I'll do that later at home, because the battery only lasts about 22 minutes."
Many unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be controlled by a smartphone or tablet computer, and the user uses the device's viewing screen to find and photograph scenes. But Rudemyer's newest model came with a built-in monitor. "You're seeing what the camera is seeing and you can turn the view up or down and left or right."
DJI now offers special goggles (for another $350) that will connect wirelessley to its Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 drone. With that equipment, you can pilot the aircraft with movements of your head.
But what if you move your head the wrong way and the drone zooms into someone's herb garden? If you read up on UAVs, you will find practical advice about the sagacity of notifying neighbors before using a drone nearby — and about employing a professional instead of trying to maneuver UAVs yourself.
The fact is that drone pilots haven't needed to have an FAA pilot's license since August 2016, when the Federal Aviation Administration changed its rules. The real-estate industry responded quickly to that news.
In a CBS News story by Ilyce Glink a few months after the restrictions were loosened, Bill Brown, then president of the National Association of Realtors, said drones were "streamlining the buying and selling process by providing more visual information at a reasonable cost. Any opportunity you have to further educate the buyer to the property they're purchasing is a win-win for everybody."
He predicted that Realtors not offering potential buyers drone images of real-estate listings "will stand out negatively because everyone else will be doing it."
Kurt Lauer, construction manager for Prull Custom Homes, uses one of these high-tech aircraft for another reason: providing stunning progress reports for clients of the high-end Santa Fe builder.
A great example is the contemporary home built for John Rizzo and Anne Mansfield by Prull and architect Craig Hoopes. The horseshoe-shaped residence, which won the "Grand Hacienda" award in last year's Parade of Homes, is a real challenge for the ground-based photographer.
Lauer said he couldn't care less about drones before that project. "Then John Rizzo bought a drone," he recalled. "He toyed with it for about an hour then he handed it to me and said, 'Here you go.'
"He just thought it would be cool to get some aerial views of the project, then the more I started using it, it turned into a tool for me. Especially these modern homes are nearly impossible to photograph from the ground, because you're not getting the dimensional perspective. Now I've taken this on as my own little thing for my clients; they love it when I send them a few drone shots."
Lauer uses a similar UAV to that of Rudemyer, and revels in the fact that he can see everything on the remote's screen, even if it's a half-mile away. "It's an extremely handy little thing and it takes amazing pictures.
"My only complaint is that the battery life is short. The drone has a range of one mile, but you only have 15 minutes or so," he said, laughing. "It does have a feature that when the battery starts losing power, it knows how far away it is and it just turns around and heads back, and it lands within two feet of where it took off.
"It's a great tool to keep the clients involved on the progress of the house," he said. "You can even go up there and check the roof, to see if the roofer did what he said he did, and you don't even need a ladder."
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