FPV drones are becoming a new advancement in real estate. Every industry sees technological advances over time, and the real estate industry is no different. Even the invention of the internet has forever changed the way people search for homes! Within the last decade, virtual tours have been a fast-growing innovation in the industry. The last year alone has seen an increase in how many people put an offer on homes sight unseen. Virtual tours can be an excellent tool to market your listings better. More and more real estate professionals are turning to FaceTime, Zoom, 3D Tours, and more recently, drone tours as virtual tour options.

Drones can aid with aerial photography and video listings. Nowadays, they can even fly indoors. Many real estate agents are turning to drones to enhance their listings. The National Association of REALTORS even has a reference page on drones for real estate professionals to learn more about the technology.

However, not just any drone can fly inside of a home. Flying a drone indoors that’s not meant to be flown indoors can and likely will be hazardous. Smaller, custom-built drones are the best way to fly inside a home safely. Specifically, an FPV drone flown by a seasoned pilot can excel at creating captivating virtual tours for prospective buyers.

What Are FPV Drones?

The term “FPV” isn’t a brand or a model, but it refers to the method of flying. Traditional drones have the pilot control the aircraft from a ground perspective. FPV drones differ because they are piloted from the drone’s point of view (first-person view). Both methods use a remote control (RC) to man the aircraft, and both forms can have the live video feed transmitted to another device. However, for FPV, video goggles are a piece of specialized equipment. You can genuinely get the first-person perspective from video goggles compared to a monitor. When a pilot is flying through a home, the goggles give a more immersive experience.

PICTURE: Cameron Goldberg, Lead Pilot of Indoor Drone Tours holding a custom FPV drone.

Both traditional drones and FPV drones are used for similar applications (aerial photography, aerial video, etc.). However, there are two specific applications where FPV shines: racing and freestyle.

FPV racing involves flying the drone at fast speeds and flying through gates on a setup course. FPV freestyle involves flying through a park or abandoned building, having fun, creating a cool video, etc. These types of drones are physically smaller and lighter than traditional drones. This makes it easier for FPV drones to navigate tight spaces, make quick turns, and in general, make more precise movements.

The physical features of FPV drones, combined with the specialized goggles, make flying through a home possible and safe compared to traditional drones.

FPV Drones in Real Estate

FPV drones certainly have their place in niche flyer communities, but drones can also fly in other professional industries. Businesses can create engaging content to promote a venue or specific location. Drone fly-throughs are a fantastic way to promote your business!

VIDEO: A drone video produced by @jaybyrdfilms takes viewers through a Bryant Lake Bowl & Theater, all in one take. This is a recent FPV choreographed video of a bowling alley that went viral across the world. (NOTE: Indoor Drone Tours was not affiliated with this video in any way.)

With luxury homes, presenting the space in its best light is incredibly important. Since buyers of luxury homes often shop remote and look online first, high-quality photos and video are relied upon to make an excellent first impression.

Even non-luxury homes can significantly benefit from FPV flythrough videos. In Chicago, a realtor was able to sell a $600K home sight-unseen, all thanks to a drone tour.

For many residential homes, FPV drones create captivating views from the first-person perspective. The result: potential buyers can feel like they’re walking through a home without being there. They start at the front door and ‘fly’ through the entire layout of a home. FPV drone tours give a better understanding of the floorplan, which can’t be done with pictures alone.

VIDEO: Ilya Akhmerov, walks through the process of flying through a home in real-time.

FPV in Commercial Real Estate

So, FPV drones can fly through tight spaces and navigate inside hallways. Why use FPV drones when marketing commercial real estate spaces?

Many commercial listings use photos and still images in their marketing. The square footage of many commercial spaces makes it difficult for traditional virtual tours. For 3D tours, where you have to pinch and click the screen to navigate an area, there’s too much ground to cover in commercial spaces. In a 2 million sq ft warehouse, how many times would you have to click and drag to tour the entire building?

By flying an FPV drone in a commercial space, you can effectively cover an entire room, warehouse, apartment building, etc. in minutes.

VIDEO: FPV Drones can soar over desks and large office spaces with ease, touring an entire office within minutes.

“It shows a really unique perspective of a space,” Pendilton Whaley, Drone Pilot for Indoor Drone Tours said, “You can’t orbit around a chandelier and fly up escalators to 20 ft to show the height of a space. You can’t do that with much else than a small FPV drone.”

Learn more about our commercial real estate virtual tour services!

Why Use Drones To Market Listings?

To put it simply, investing in FPV technology in real estate can have a big payoff:

#1 Create memorable virtual tours

FPV drones can offer a cinematic experience to the viewer. The more engaging a video, the more strongly a potential buyer might feel towards a property. Drone tours can undoubtedly help a listing stand out among the competition.

#2 Showcase more property features

An FPV flythrough of a home is a great way to understand the home’s floorplan better. You can also use drones to soar over the backyard, showcasing pools, landscaping, etc.

#3 Provide more information

Potential buyers ultimately favor listings that have more information. Indoor virtual tours via drone can be an excellent complement to photography listings. When you watch a drone tour, you’re ultimately walking through the home without physically being there.

#4 Best aerial photos

In the past, small aircraft or helicopters were the primary way people took aerial photos and videos. Hiring a professional drone service is far cheaper and much easier to schedule than a helicopter flight. Don’t stop at aerial images of the home– You can also utilize drones to get shots of the neighborhood or other points of interest around a listing.

FPV drones’ popularity is growing, and many people outside of the FPV community are taking note. It’s not just drone enthusiasts anymore. Drones are becoming more commonplace within the real estate industry. Don’t be surprised if the words “FPV Drones” and “Drone Tours” start to become standard terms when marketing real estate.

Learn more about our FPV drone services.