You Can't See the Water From the Front Step. That's Why We Fly.
Standing in the driveway at 615 Waverly Drive, you see a townhome. Brick and vertical cedar, a shared drive, mature trees along the street. It's well kept and it looks like most of the other units built in Northeast Elgin around 1990.
Two hundred feet up, you see something else entirely. Open water three blocks away. A tree canopy dense enough that the streets nearly disappear underneath it. A layout of curved roads and green space that tells you what kind of neighborhood this is before anyone reads a description.
None of that is visible from the front step. That gap is the entire case for putting drone in a listing package.
The test for whether a drone shot is worth taking
We use one question: is there something true about this property that a person standing in the driveway cannot see?
At 615 Waverly, three things qualify. The water. The canopy. The street layout.
If the answer is no — if the aerial just shows the same roofline from higher up — then it's filler. A drone shot that repeats what the exterior photo already said isn't adding information, it's adding a photo. Those are different things, and buyers can tell.
This distinction matters because aerials still get treated as a luxury upgrade. They're not. On the right property they carry more decision-making weight than any interior frame in the set.
Why this matters more on ordinary listings
Buyers rank the quality of the neighborhood above price and above square footage. That's from NAR's own data, and it's held steady for years.
Which means on a property where the interior is solid but not remarkable, the neighborhood isn't a supporting detail — it's the strongest thing you have to sell. And it's the one thing a standard interior-only photo set completely omits.
Unit C is a good example. The kitchen has been updated with granite counters, stainless appliances and hardwood floors. The dining area opens through a slider onto a deck surrounded by trees. It's a comfortable, well-maintained home.
It's also broadly comparable to other units in the area on paper. What isn't comparable is what's around it, and that only shows up from the air.
What was delivered
This was our Plus package:
A full set of MLS-ready photos, six drone photos, a floor plan, a property walkthrough video for the listing itself, and a basic cinematic video built for social. Photos delivered within 24 to 48 hours, video within 48 to 72.
The walkthrough and the cinematic video do different jobs and that's on purpose. The walkthrough is for the MLS — steady, complete, oriented toward a buyer who's already interested and wants to understand the layout. The cinematic cut is for the feed, where nobody has committed to anything yet and the first two seconds decide everything.
Listed by Leticia Jasso.
Real estate photography in Elgin and the Fox Valley
Northeast Elgin's housing stock runs heavily to late-1980s and early-1990s construction, much of it townhomes and attached single-family on winding streets with mature landscaping. Cook County on the east side, Kane on the west, with I-90 access north and Metra service into the city.
For sellers, the practical challenge is that a lot of the inventory reads similarly in a listing description. Beds, baths, square footage and year built land in a narrow band across the whole area. Photography — and specifically what you choose to photograph — is where one listing separates from the eleven others a buyer is looking at that afternoon.
Frequently asked questions
How much does real estate photography cost in Chicagoland? Our Base package starts at $200 and includes 25 MLS photos, 6 drone photos and a floor plan. The Plus package at $300 adds a property walkthrough and basic cinematic video. Our Pro package at $450 includes a full cinematic video.
How long does a real estate photo shoot take? Most shoots run one to two hours on site, depending on square footage and whether video and drone coverage are included.
How fast do you deliver photos and video? Standard turnaround is 24 to 48 hours for photos and 48 to 72 hours for video.
What areas do you serve? We work throughout Chicagoland, including Elgin, South Elgin, Bartlett, Streamwood, Schaumburg, Arlington Heights, Roselle and the surrounding northwest suburbs and Fox Valley.
Book a shoot in Elgin
If your next listing has more going for it outside the walls than inside them, that's a marketing decision — not a problem. We can build the set around it.
See packages and book a shoot →
Related: Buyers Rank the Neighborhood Above Price. Your Listing Video Never Shows It. — the full argument, with the numbers behind it.