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One of the economic phenomena witnessed during the Great Recession was the rise of “reluctant landlords” who were unable to sell their middle- to high-end residences, and resorted to leasing them out instead. High-end properties can be difficult to rent at a profit, since they are generally bought/mortgaged at retail, homebuyer-level prices, leaving many landlords and property managers with higher-end rental properties wondering how to set themselves apart from the competition.
Competing on price and amenities are conventional ways of getting out ahead of the competition, but for those interested in a higher-tech advantage, use of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or “drone” as they are more widely known, has proven an innovative approach for early adapters.
Some Realtors have been using drones now for a number of years to sell high-end real estate in the U.S. and Canada. Consider luxury real estate agency Halstead Properties, who turned to a drone after more than a dozen showings of their $6.1 million dollar single-family home failed to produce a buyer. According to Matthew Leone, the director of web marketing (and “chief drone master”) for Halstead, “We’re not selling $150,000 homes with this technology. Multimillion-dollar homes demand Madison Avenue marketing and advertising, not Main Street.”
Nor is Halstead alone. Other Realtors, like Scott Gerami of Naperville, IL, have even begun using drones to get out in front of their competitors with more standard, mid-level listings. Gerami believes aerial photography is a great way to showcase community features like pools and clubhouses, and highlight the close proximity of amenities like schools and parks, as a strategy to set his listings apart.
Gerami built his own drone for outdoor, exterior views but says he is working on improvements to it for interior views as well. “I’ve been using still shots of my aerial photography and incorporating them into my MLS listings. It’s an eye-catcher. A buyer may be looking at 100 home listings and say ‘Whoa!’ when they see mine. It’s a differentiator.”
Gerami has a point, as both renters and buyers are intrigued and visually stimulated by the pictures they see on the internet listings. Real estate and rental listings with fewer pictures or no pictures at all get significantly fewer hits than those with lots of pictures. Listings with video or virtual tours get even more traffic.
Landlords and property managers who engage drones in their efforts to capture the essence of a property could find their homes renting faster and potentially for more money. High resolution, in-the-moment footage could go a long way towards finding the perfect renter for that hard-to-rent property; pictures can be worth a lot more than a mere thousand words.
And the uses of drones do not stop at listing photos. Consider the need for a landlord or property manager to routinely check on a vacant property, for example. It becomes extremely time-consuming to have to physically drive to a property each time a quick inspection is needed to ensure security or to verify that the lawn has indeed been cut. An even more futuristic possibility is highlighted in an article by Ashley Halligan, who suggests “Imagine a drone flying to a property that has an electronic lockbox and letting a workman in. If it were solar-powered, it could rest outside and ensure the property was properly locked and return the key to the lockbox.
The possibilities are endless for landlords and property managers to use their creativity with this new technology, as it becomes increasingly popular and affordable. There will be plenty of time however, to brainstorm ideas while awaiting the highly-anticipated FAA’s new guidelines regarding UAV’s.
According to the FAA website, “small unmanned aircraft (sUAS) are likely to grow most quickly in civil and commercial operations because of their versatility and relatively low initial cost and operating expenses. The FAA is working on a proposed rule governing the use of a wide range of small civil unmanned aircraft systems
If you’re wondering how much one of these UAV’s will cost you, according to Eric Cheng, an aerial photographer who regularly flies drones and receives weekly calls from Realtors for his service, a camera capable drone can be purchased for roughly $500.
Regardless of your opinion, it appears the small, unmanned aircraft just may be here to stay.
What’s your take on using drones to enhance your rental or real estate business? Do you think using drones will have much of an impact on the residential rental business?
