FAA takes another shot at real estate drone use

The Federal Aviation Administration has launched a new safety public campaign on the use of drones, specifically mentioning those using it in the real estate industry as still on the “do not fly” list.

Drones have gotten a lot of attention in recent years as they’ve become more available and affordable online and in stores. Many in the real estate industry have sought to experiment with drones to capture aerial photos and videos of their for-sale listings.

However, the FAA has put the brakes on using drones for commercial purposes, except on a case-by-case basis, until it drafts safety guidelines on the use of small commercial drones.

Those guidelines have been delayed and now are not expected to be finalized until 2017, grounding commercial drones until then.

On its website, the FAA lists “professional real estate or wedding photography” as examples of what constitutes commercial or business drone use that is not permitted.

This is the second time that the FAA has called out real estate as a commercial sector not allowed to use drones. In June, the FAA released an interpretation of model aircraft use that stated “a realtor using a model aircraft to photograph a property that he (or she) is trying to sell and using the photos in the property’s real estate listing does not constitute hobby or recreational use. Also a person photographing a property or event and selling the photos to someone else” also does not constitute the hobby or recreation exemption of permitted drone usage.