I'm in Nova Scotia, in the process of getting my liability insurance to fly my Phantom commercially.  I already have a few real estate agents chomping at the bit to get aerial photographs for clients.  I have way more potential work lined up than I thought I would have.

My issue is I have NO idea what to charge or what's reasonable to charge for still photographs.  Any input or assistance would be helpful.

I've done some research and regular photographers are charging about 499 for a 50 picture photo shoot which works out to about $10 per image.

I also found some articles online that deal with drone photography and the articles quote prices of 200-250 for 10 still pictures.  I think charging 200 for 10 images and 5 dollars for each additional picture would be a good place to start.

In the states residential realtors are unlikely to spend big money - and $500 is big money......so I agree that prices have to be tailored based on what the market will bear. A lot depends on your schedule also - and the weather comes into play.

I think you could have a reasonable "on your schedule" rate that may give you a 2 week window so you can have proper conditions, lighting and travel.....while a "rush job" could carry a premium.

A lot depends on whether this is a total sideline as far as a few extra dollars - or, if you want to honestly pay your true overhead.

I was in the service trades for many years and there is a certain cost to just getting a person to show up at a house. This has to take into account at least some travel time, the cost of your car and wear and tear, the job, the communications before and after, etc.

A very good price would be $80 per hour (figuring internally) for your time. So, maybe a job is:
20 minutes - original phone calls, emails, etc. to get the job and process a down payment, etc.
30 minutes driving (one way) to the property
40 minutes of time at the property
(no charge for driving home because you may be driving to another job etc).
30 minutes of downloading and basic cropping and emailing photos.
Processing final payment or total payment.....definitely don't go sending bills for later payment because that will cost you big in time and money!

So, that's 2 hours+ - making that $199 special seem like a good basic price.

If you were going to make this more than a sideline - well, then you need to do a lot more calculations! You'd have to figure out - given the weather, etc. - how many actual hours you could get per year and work with that.

Many trades in this area charge around 30 / hr for their workers.  There are some trades that go higher than that by they are specialized and require either a physical work space (auto shop) or a lot of specialized tools (HVAC). I'm self employed now so I do understand the need to cover my overhead.  I would like to cover my hard costs if possible.   My bread & butter is from IT consulting and my primary bill rate is 60 / hr (it was twice that when I lived in the Boston area but the cost of living here is much lower and the economy is more depressed).

My main goal was to provide aerial photographs of people's houses.  Many of my older relatives have aerial photographs of their house on the wall and I wanted one of my house but there isn't anybody that does it on a regular basis any more.  That was my initial motivation for getting a quadcopter.  Once I told people what I was doing, I had about a dozen neighbors tell me they wanted one as well and based on some research I had done I'm charging $50 for that.

I talked with a cousin of mine that is a professional photographer in the area and explained to her what I wanted to do.  She thought that 200 for 10 still images was a reasonable price to charge.  I might be able to go higher but I could run the risk of pricing myself out of a very small market.

I decided to have a candid discussion with one of the realtors (who thankfully is a very good friend of an Aunt) to decide what a fair and reasonable price would be for this service and offer a discount for the first photo shoot for her assistance.

I'll keep the thread updated.