More and more real estate pros are planning to use drones professionally to promote their business. It’s a great way to take photos or video of a property you’re trying to sell.
So offers drone manufacturing company Parrot a sneak peek at its upcoming MiniDrone, which can be controlled by a smartphone or tablet to shoot photos and video while flying up to 50 meters high. It is expected to be cheaper than the company’s upgraded $300 A.R. Drone. Also, global drone manufacturer DJI’s Phantom 2 Vision, going for about € 900,-, can shoot 14-megapixel images and record high-definition video.

It can be a very cost-effective way to get dramatic shots of property you have listed for sale, particularly for large, high-end homes. The drones will be particularly helpful for showing off big plots. It’s not easy to show what 10 hectares look like in a photo, but with a drone, you can get a feel for the topography and where the boundaries are on a property.

There is a caveat though. While the technology is obviously there, a lot still needs to be done on the regulatory side, because drones present certain safety and privacy issues. As for the safety issue: people operating drones have to know what they are doing and get enough training. Moreover some sort of system has to be built to help protect people nearby should something go wrong. On privacy, a regulatory system has to be in place to help reduce the chance of drones being used to take unauthorized photos and video.

Once that is all out of the way drones ofer great promise in real estate.