Did you know that drones are increasingly finding jobs in real estate and construction-related trades?
It’s true! Drones can now perform a number of once-dangerous tasks for human operators and are making construction jobs safer and commercial real estate transactions more efficient.
The Emergence of the Drone in Commercial Real Estate
A lot of agents are already using drones to help create live fly-bys of their commercial real estate properties and land for sale in order to give a buyer a more life-like feel for the area before they ever step foot on the property. That practice has become increasingly common, especially where a large parcel of land is involved, but there’s a lot more that drones are doing these days.
Since they’re often outfitted with cameras that can do more than simply take full color photos, drones are being employed for tasks like:
- Overhead surveying. When a commercial real estate developer is looking at a piece of land to turn into homes, offices or retail spaces, what’s on the ground matters as much as the price of the land.After all, hidden defects like buried foundations from former buildings can cost a lot to remove, adding even more to the price of the property before ground is even broken. The right drone software can even calculate lengths, heights and volumes based on a terrain fly-by, helping potential developers estimate the cost of engineering and fill-in work that may be required.
- Property inspection. Although many residential property inspectors have been hesitant to adopt drones to help them better visualize roofs and second story flashing, for example, there are commercial drones capable of doing this very thing.Instead of sending people up on the roof of your commercial building to look for visible defects, a drone can often take their place, making commercial real estate inspections safer. Drones can also see problems with brickwork or other high up exterior defects that an inspector would be unable to reach to assess.
- Indoor and outdoor security. Did you ever wish your building had a larger security force or that there was a way to monitor your up and coming project without hiring 24 hour help? Well, as it turns out, there’s a drone for that.Because modern drones are capable of flying along very specific flight paths and are very small, they can do silent sentry duty on your commercial property while you’re at home or simply away from the job. With an eye in the sky, you can compare footage day by day, see around corners cameras can’t reach or simply expand your jobsite security.
Commercial real estate is poised and ready for an influx of drones. From site surveying to surveillance and even monitoring for needed maintenance, there are a plethora of jobs that drones can do in the real estate world.