But Caution Must Be Exercised During Use

The path for Realtors to follow to use drones as part of their work is easier than ever before, said the first Realtor to obtain a Section 333 exemption for that purpose, but they must be careful in how they use them.

Doug Trudeau, of Tierra Antigua Realty in Tucson, Arizona, appeared on a panel at a National Association of Realtors conference in Washington on Friday and explained how he obtained the first real estate exemption for drone use from the Federal Aviation Administration.
 
Trudeau had been using video in his real estate work, and when drones became readily available, he started using one until he learned he wasn’t supposed to.
 
“What I went with it for was to enhance what I was already doing. I wasn’t starting something new,” he said.
 
Once the FAA announced the Section 333 exemption process, he went down that path, although it took him 177 days instead of the goal of 120. Since he obtained his exemption, the FAA has made the process much easier and faster, he said.
 
“They are great, hardworking people. The problem is they are underfunded and understaffed. … The FAA today has made it a lot easier for you than it was for me a year ago,” he said.
 
Trudeau said he was also able to obtain $500,000 in insurance for his vehicle, although he said even that may not be enough — if a drone crashed into a forest and its lithium-ion batteries started a fire, the amount of damage could exceed that.
 
Jim Williams, the outgoing head of the FAA’s UAS Integration Office, also appeared on the panel and said the agency has significantly sped up its exemption process, now processing 20 to 40 each week, although there is still a backlog. As of Friday, he said the agency had approved 311 exemptions out of more than 1,200 proposed.

He repeated the FAA’s recent stance that it’s not interested in pursuing enforcement action against people who might use the video or still photography products from an authorized flight, but would instead go after the person actually operating the drone.
 
Asked if a Realtor could fly a drone as a hobbyist and then use photos from that flight later to help sell a house, he said yes.
 
“It’s a little nuanced, but I don’t think the FAA is going to get too concerned about that,” he said.
 
However, he cautioned against knowingly hiring a UAS operator who is unauthorized to fly, as state and local liability laws could still come into play even if the FAA doesn’t get involved.
 
Trudeau offered some functional advice for budding drone Realtors. The “sweet spot” for elevation, he said, is only in the 20- to 30-foot altitude range. Viewers also don’t want to see endless video panoramas of houses, so forget the five-minute video and do a 90-second one, of which 10 to 20 seconds might be from the air, “because people want to see the house.”

(Image provided by AUVSI. Doug Trudeau discusses his experience with using drones for real estate)

FMI: www.auvsi.org