Back in the summer of 2014, serial entrepreneur Craig Levine was needing a break. Selling real estate since 1994, his real estate business with RE/MAX Greater Atlanta was doing well. The property preservation business he started back in 2008 to service foreclosed homes, Georgia Loss Mitigation Services, was also chugging along. Levine (pronounced La-Veen) decided to head down to the panhandle and spend a long weekend in Panama City Beach.
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Laying on his towel and soaking up some sun, Craig saw a drone flying about fifty feet up in the air and cruising along the white pristine sands. Back in 2014, drones were a novelty and it was incredibly rare to spot one out in public. His father was a dentist but was crafty and built and flew model airplanes as a hobby, sometimes allowing Craig to fly them, so he was intrigued. He walked up to the owner and started chatting about the brand and model and what its attributes were. It was, then, instantly apparent, how Craig could utilize drones in his business.
He came back to Atlanta and purchased a DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus, the most technologically advanced drone offered for sale at the time. Immediately, he took to the skies and started becoming proficient at maneuvering the drone and optimizing the camera settings. The drone could take high resolution photos and could also shoot HD video. It wasn’t long before Levine was taking pictures and creating marketing videos for his own listings with the drone. In 2014 there weren’t many homes in the multiple listing services with aerial photos, nor were there many YouTube videos showing properties from the vantage points that only a drone could afford.
Pretty soon, Craig was getting calls from homeowners wanting to get these unique aerial shots but even more unexpected, he started receiving calls from other real estate agents. They wanted to know if Levine could shoot their own listings for them. Due to the growing interest, Georgia Drone Services was formed and began to flourish.
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Craig had grown up in New York state, about 30 minutes from the city, in an upper middle-class neighborhood with an array of home styles in varying price ranges. Each evening, after dinner, Craig’s parents would drive around the surrounding neighborhoods with Craig, in tow, admiring the nice homes. One of his father’s many hobbies was photography and he bought Craig the first digital camera to hit the market, the Minolta Maxxum. As the family drove around, Craig would snap off photos of the homes and blow up and frame his favorites. It was during this time in his life that he would grow an affinity for real estate and photography.
Over the years since the inception of Georgia Drone Services, Craig has worked with hundreds of real estate agents. Barbara Roberts, the #1 agent for sales in the Maximum One Realty Paulding office says, “Once I decided to release my photography to a professional such as Georgia Drone Services I realized the difference that Craig brought to the property. Not only did he see the surrounding area but he truly captured the beauty of the home and its purpose in the lot and neighborhood. I have had nothing but positive results from all the work on these photos for my listings.” Rose Humphrey, the marketing director for Smith Douglas Homes, goes on to say, “Professional photography is immensly important for us as a new home builder. A new home purchase is often the largest investment someone will make, ever! We use the photography on our website, social media, onsite sales centers and more. It’s imperative for us to showcase our homes and communities in the best possible way and Georgia Drone Services has helped us do that.”
As more and more projects in metro Atlanta were being proposed and launched, Craig decided to expand his business into commercial, office, retail and multi-family properties. David Farmer, the Creative Manager for TourIt Media, one of the media and architectural firms that Craig shoots for regularly, needed footage of the Galleria office complex near Cumberland mall. They hired Craig to orchestrate some really cool shots of the property. David mentions, “As a company specializing in commercial real estate marketing videos, aerial videography is at the core of our product. We utilize footage of both existing properties, as well as blank land projects where we use our 3D animation capabilities to show future possibilities. We found Craig on Google and can easily recommend Georgia Drone Services. We’re very happy with them as one of our preferred vendors.”
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Seeing the need and benefits to documenting all stages of a construction project, Craig started to seek out builders, developers and contractors to monitor their construction progress. When asked what benefits he gains from utilizing aerial photography and how his company employs it, Kiewit’s Project Manager, Brent Madden states, “Aerial photography has made a huge impact on how we document and communicate progress. A few good drone photos tells the story much faster than shuffling through a few hundred taken from the ground. It builds trust with our clients, makes identifying issues more efficient, and allows us to showcase our efforts in a very cool way.” Craig spent 18 months shooting photos of their bridge project in southwest Atlanta from the same angles so that the company and the city of Atlanta (who was their client) could gauge how the project was coming along.
Lately, it seems, builders and developers are hiring Georgia Drone Services to shoot their projects from start to finish. Jim Chapman, past president of the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association and President of Jim Chapman Communities, uses Craig to shoot just about all of his projects on a monthly basis. When asked why he uses Georgia Drone Services, Jim replies, “These guys are the best in the business at what they do. I know that I can give them a community or a project and that they will provide me quality photos and video clips that I can take back to key personnel and investors to make critical decisions with. I can access and share this archived information with anyone I choose 24 hours a day. At the end of the project, I’ve got some memorabilia and my marketing staff has great material to work with. I would highly recommend Craig and Georgia Drone Services to anyone starting a project in Georgia.”
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When asked if he continues to enjoy shooting properties in Georgia, Craig smiles and reveals, “I’m a lucky guy. I get to fly a really fun drone around to shoot pictures and video of real estate, which is my passion, and I get paid for it. Don’t tell anyone but I’d probably do it for free.”
For more information about Georgia Drone Services and how they can be of assistance on your project, call Craig at 678-898-4001 or email Craig@GeorgiaDroneServices.com
