Hello, I’m new to the group and have a general question. After rousing the Roof Report app and siting in on the webinar, it got me wondering what are roofing companies currently paying for this type of data? If I were to offer this as a service what should my price point be? I don’t want to come in to low and damage the drone serve provers market. Is anyone already offering this as a service? would you be willing to share what your fees are?
Thanks for any positive feedback anyone can provide.
I have covertly asked several of my peers and it becomes quite clear that we set our own rates. The industry is too new to have established rates so maybe we can establish one here? I have seen home roof “inspections” as low as $200 and as high as $500 and commercial as much as $3000 in the construction industry. Like any business you need to calculate ALL of your overhead and decide what percentage of return you are willing to live with. Now’s the time because there will be a day where we are going to have to bid on jobs… All that said, you have to have a goal so budget it and be fair. Price gougers are going to get filtered out of the market quickly.
- Cost of the deliverable (What’s the deliverable? I have been to several area drone meetings and noone has ever discussed the end product.)
- Cost of processing services (DroneDeploy)
- Drone refresh cost
- Travel factor (otherwise known as general conditions - this can’t be a line item on the bill or you can’t claim it for taxes purposes, but it should be part of your budget…)
- Your time (what do you want to make at the end of the day?)
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I too sat in on the Roof Report Webinar this past week and flew my first sample report today everything came out great as best as I can tell.
My question is besides pricing, what are the best use cases for this type of work beyond roof inspection companies? What other markets might i try to tap with this info?
Any assistance is greatly appreciated.
You could try actual roofing companies, real estate and insurance?
Thank You, I’ll do a little more exploring.
Wanted to explore this topic a little more, sorry to steal your thread 
Out of curiosity, how would one provide roof inspection services to a real estate agent, Obviously I can fly and find trouble areas but since i’m not a roofer nor am i credentialed, I can’t in good faith make recommendations. Maybe someone can help me understand this workflow a little better… Would i provide photos back to the agent and then let them follow up with a roofer if there are trouble spots?
I had a friend who’s an agent send over a few sample Roof Inspection reports done by actual roofers who climbed up on the roof and took photos and provided back a detailed report of the issues and they only charged 90-120 dollars to provide this service…
I guess i’m having a hard time seeing where we fit in.
Any and all assistance is greatly appreciated.
I don’t think it would be your job to recommend, just to provide data and visual analysis. Create the roof plan, annotate irregular areas, maybe some close-ups. All that said I didn’t necessarily mean roof inspections to real estate. I have several friends that take pretty pictures for several agents around town. As for the roofers being inexpensive, sometimes quantity in the name of the game.
The problem with this particular market is 95% of roofing companies I have spoken with use Eagle view for their roofing reports and to give their quotes to their clients, and they only pay $75 per report! I might charge that for going onsite and flying but then you have the expense of having the report ran which can be anywhere from $35 to $60. Roofing companies send someone out to see if there is damage, if so it is then reported to the insurance company, they send out an inspector to look at the roof as well and to say yes or no on repairs or replacement. Once the roofing company is notified they then use Eagle View to run a report and give an estimate! The only way to really do this and actually make money is to get in with insurance companies as a back up. After a bad storm when there is a lot of damage everywhere and a lack of inspectors they may call upon you and your services to help with doing damage assessments!
I have spent a lot of time researching this and this is what I have learned.
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I really see this as more of a service for commercial and industrial properties. Something with a large area that would require a JLG or similar lift to access. The three roof inspections that I have flown have all come from industrial facilities. I was on site for other drone work and managed to drive some interest. I pitched my ideas to both the maintenance manager and the safety manager. They were both interested in being able to get a good view of the roof without worrying about elevated work restrictions. Personally I would stay away from the residential market unless you have a lot of work lined up. Drones are great, but for small jobs it’s really hard to be cost competitive with a professional roofing company.
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I flew for Eagleview and half the time what they were paying wasn’t worth the gas I was spending. I agree with @dcnedvidek that we would be best served in environments more conducive to quantity and safety. I do inspections on the buildings we construct and have heard high praises from our superintendents on the level of detail they are receiving and from the laborers that don’t have to get up on the roof anymore. Inspectors want to get up there either way, but they do appreciate the content and have found it as a good tool to look before they go.
Well, i also considered hiring roofers near me and their services are pretty much comparable. They also prefer to offer commercial services also.
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Whether you do roof repair or replacement, report must be prepared by the roofing companies. They will report you to what extent your roof has been damaged and at what cost it will be repaired.