How Drones Are Changing the Home Inspection Industry
Learn how drones are benefiting homeowners and insurance companies when it comes to underwriting and claims for home insurance and more
Home inspections have been around for a long time. They’re vital to ensuring a homeowner’s property is sound and address any issues that an owner may need to repair or update. Home inspectors are well-trained professionals looking at a multitude of real estate elements. Roofing, chimneys, air vents, gutters, windows, siding, basements, foundations, plumbing, electrical wiring/mechanisms, mold/mildew, pools, and everything in between; there are many things for a home inspector to thoroughly evaluate. These inspections take time (2-3 hours on average) and sometimes there’s risk involved such as climbing a fully extended ladder to inspect a roof. Most inspectors are well-seasoned in dealing with risks like these but that doesn’t remove the risk.
When home inspectors are conducting inspections, they’re typically using their phone or digital camera to capture data along with pen and paper to record their findings. These tools have their time and place in the process but drones greatly help in many areas such as efficiency, cost savings, reduced risk, more detailed data collection, streamlining insurance claims and potentially enhancing customer experience.
Efficiency & Accuracy
First, let’s tackle how drones make the home inspection process more efficient and accurate. Outside of the front, side, and back elevations (ground to roof), inspections that include hard-to-reach areas like rooftops, chimneys, gutters, and other parts can be difficult and time-consuming to assess. Drones, however, can significantly help inspectors in their efficiency. Compared to traditional methods such as carrying a ladder from a truck to climb a roof, drones can be quickly launched into the air and capture high-definition pictures and video. Implementing drones also introduces systematic workflows to capture consistent data. This in turn increases the accuracy of home inspections and the reliability of the data collected. Taking into consideration the average time it takes a drone to inspect the exterior of a home (15-20 minutes) and you have increased your efficiency and accuracy. Comparatively, with the use of traditional inspection methods, the exterior inspection can take up to an hour. Imagine an inspector having to climb a steep-grade rooftop while in addition having to inspect all other aspects of the home. A drone can significantly cut down the time it takes to conduct these inspections to a fraction of the time.
Reduced Risk for Inspectors
In the United States, there is an average of 20,000 work-related ladders injuries a year with a large portion coming from the installation, maintenance and repair industries. Traditional home inspections often involve inspectors climbing ladders and accessing hazardous areas. Risk assessments should be taken seriously by inspectors and the companies that employ them. However, drones can eliminate the many risks and physically demanding tasks that inspectors face by remotely piloting drones.
Comprehensive Data Collection
As drone technology has only evolved more and more through the recent decade, various sensors and specialized cameras such as LiDAR scanners, thermal and tele cameras allow comprehensive data to be captured beyond normal photos and video. Thermal cameras can identify heat leaks and insulation problems, while LiDAR can generate detailed 3D models of structures. For example, Rock Robotic’s R3 Pro LiDAR scanner can capture data to under 2cm of accuracy. LiDAR is essentially useful for inspecting vegetation and underbush as millions of lasers pierce through canopies. Additionally, tele-cameras on some drones offer the ability to zoom in close to questionable areas without having to fly in close proximity. Using these capabilities together or separately will allow you to gain insightful data that paints a better picture of the inspection.
Cost Savings
Speaking from personal experience as a commercial pilot in the industry, the average time it takes for a drone to complete a full exterior inspection is about 15-20 minutes. Depending on the home, the drone inspection can take a bit longer but compared to traditional workflows, using drones takes a fraction of the time. By speeding up the inspection process and reducing the need for multiple site visits, drones lead the way in saving money for both inspectors and homeowners. Lastly, with drone technology, issues can be detected earlier which can prevent costly repairs down the line for homeowners.
Streamlined Insurance Claims
In the insurance industry, drones can be used to assess property damage quickly after natural disasters or accidents. With this data, insurers can process claims more efficiently by gathering visual evidence of damage. All in all, this expediates the claims process for policyholders which obviously benefits them as well. Companies like Bees360 Inc allow drone pilots to seamlessly upload data on-site to the insurance companies for faster evaluation. Additionally, the obtained visual evidence makes it easier for homeowners to understand the inspection report and build trust in the process.
Drone Selection for Home Inspections
There are many great options to consider when purchasing a drone for home inspections. What’s great about this industry is you can start out with a more affordable drone and slowly build up to drones with thermal imaging or LiDAR. For those affordable drones, the DJI MINI 2, 3 or 3 Pro are excellent options and are all under $1,000. Even the newly released MINI 2 SE (which is priced at $339 on DJI’s website) would be a good drone for first-time pilots. All these drones are considered “micro-drones” which means they weigh sub-250g, making them extremely lightweight and portable. The drawback with these drones is their limitations in windy conditions, obstacle avoidance (excluding the Mini 3 Pro), reduced flight time, and advanced imaging such as a thermal camera. If you’re looking to capture beyond standard aerial images, check out the DJI Mavic 3T or Autel Robotics EVO II Dual 640T for thermal imaging. If you are wanting detailed LiDAR scans, I highly recommend Rock Robotic’s R3 Pro scanner. This is the best scanner on the market while remaining “affordable” compared to other scanners. However, you’ll need a larger drone to carry this payload. Some of the best drones for this are the DJI M300 or M350.
Lastly, you could settle in the middle between the micro-drones and the big workhorse drones by selecting one of the DJI Air series. These models include the Air 2S and the Air 3. The Air 3 is DJI’s newest drone to hit the market and offers beautiful 48MP photos, 4K footage and 45 min flight. However, I’d say the Air drones are overall more suited for professional cinematography/photography. The one big advantage of the Air 3 is its zoom capabilities with its dual-camera setup of a wide-angle and medium-angle lens. The wide-angle provides 3x-9x zoom and the medium-angle 1x-3x. So, the Air 3 could be viable option for home inspections, but I’d say you’re buying a beefed-up mini drone with zoom capabilities, better wind resistance and longer flight time.
DJI AIR 2S
It really comes down to your needs as a business. Can you conduct all your inspections with a mini drone or do you need something more complex offerings like LiDAR to your clients? If you’re focusing on normal residential houses, I’d recommend the DJI Mini 3 Pro over of all the other minis because you can opt to purchase extended flight time of 45 minutes and get 360-degree obstacle avoidance. The other minis generally top out at 25-35 minutes. If you’re looking to pull massive inspections of commercial property and luxury homes, then consider the Mavic series or even the Matrice series couples with a LiDAR scanner.
Located in Broward County
Serving South Florida
© Pixelhaze 2024. A Hostinger Website Builder Template by Pixelhaze Studio
Monitor. Showcase. Impress.