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Lamar H. Ellis, III, MAI, SRA, and Drone Expert

The Drones are Coming!

[fusion_dropcap boxed=”no” boxed_radius=”” class=”” id=”” color=””]O[/fusion_dropcap]n September 29^th, I had the pleasure of attending “Drone Technology and Its Impact on the Appraisal Industry” presented by Lamar H. Ellis, III, MAI, SRA.  Lamar has the UAS Remote Pilot Certification and has completed numerous photography assignments using drones – including some for Hollywood! His web site droneeducationservices.com is an excellent resource for news, opinions, information, and reviews on everything related to the Unmanned Aerial Industry.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a drone video is worth a million words. Check out this video demonstration by FlyWorx, a company that Lamar has worked with. https://www.youtube.com/user/FlyWorxATL

Drones – What We Learned

My takeaways from this class were numerous.

• Real estate appraisers have an opportunity to be leaders in adopting this new technology in the real estate industry.
• Drones can be used to inspect the roofs of subject properties. This includes drone videos that allow for a visual inspection, as well as thermal imaging.  For example, thermal imaging is a great way to find areas where water may be pooling under the roof.
• Tools are available to take both interior and exterior measurements from drone video.
• The best way to get started is for people to purchase inexpensive toy drones and experiment. I purchased a GoolRC T36 Mini RC Quadcopter Drone from Amazon during the class.
  • https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072J5FRJ7/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  • These drones allows you to learn the knack of manual control, and when it crashes and breaks, you will only be out $20. (Lamar says to just plan on crashing your drone at some point.)
• Video from drones consume massive amounts of storage – up to 1 terabyte for each assignment. A secure online portal for storing and making the video available to your customers will be necessary.
• If you have any interest in becoming a drone pilot, it’s a good idea to go ahead and get your certification. It will only cost you $150 for a two year license.  Now is a good time to get into the industry near the ground floor. Call 1-800-947-4228 to schedule an appointment with a Knowledge Testing Center. Free online resources for practice tests are available at Rupprecht Law, 3DR, and the FAA.

What’s Next for Drones

Lamar is developing a more advanced follow-up class. I plan to attend when it is available.  Hopefully, I will get pretty good and won’t have crashed too many drones by then.

Dan Craig, MAI

About the Author

Dan is COO at realquantum and the director of the Kansas City market for Keller, Craig and Associates.  Read Dan’s profile here.

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