Real estate & property
Listing photos, video tours, and aerial lot shots — any drone work that helps sell or market a property.
The short version: if you fly a drone for any business or commercial purpose, you need it. If you fly purely for fun under the recreational rules, you don't. Here's how to tell which side you're on.
You need a Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate to operate a small drone (under 55 lb) for any commercial or business purpose — any flight for compensation, or in furtherance of a business, even if no money changes hands directly. Posting drone footage that promotes your business counts. Getting paid to shoot a wedding counts. Mapping a job site for your employer counts.
You do not need Part 107 to fly purely recreationally — strictly for personal enjoyment — under the Exception for Recreational Flyers. That path requires passing the free TRUST safety test and following the recreational rules, but not a Part 107 certificate.
⚠ Watch the gray areas
"I only posted it on my business page" or "I didn't charge for it, but it helped my company" still generally count as commercial. When in doubt, the FAA treats flights that further a business as Part 107 operations.
Any drone flight that touches a business or a paycheck lands here.
Listing photos, video tours, and aerial lot shots — any drone work that helps sell or market a property.
Progress documentation, site surveys, volume measurements, and as-built mapping.
Towers, rooftops, bridges, solar, and infrastructure — closer and safer than sending a person.
Crop-health scouting, stand counts, and field mapping for precision ag.
Photogrammetry, orthomosaics, and mapping deliverables for engineering and land teams.
Cinematography and aerial footage produced for clients, broadcast, or paid content.
Search-and-rescue support, scene documentation, and situational awareness for agencies.
Roof and property claims inspected from the air instead of on a ladder.
Power-line, pipeline, wind, and solar inspection across large sites.
High-school and career-tech programs preparing students for drone-industry careers.
Yes. The minimum age to be issued a Remote Pilot Certificate is 16 — but there's no minimum age to study or sit the knowledge test. A student can prep and pass the exam, then be certificated the moment they turn 16. That's why a growing number of high schools run Part 107 as a junior- or senior-year credential students graduate with.
It's a real, FAA-issued, résumé-ready certification — not a participation badge — and it opens paid work in real estate, inspection, mapping, agriculture, and film. Here's the step-by-step to earn it, or see the classroom curriculum built to get students there and free practice on the hardest exam topics.
Earning Part 107 is five straightforward steps — and the only hard one is the exam. DroneReady gets you ready for it.
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