How to create a real estate video that helps sell your home

These days, video is a powerful tool when it comes to selling homes. But how can you make and market a real estate video by yourself?

These days, people love video. 4 times as many consumers would prefer to watch a video about a product than to read about it ( source ). And when it comes to selling your home online,video is a powerful marketing tool. Its sheer visual clout gives your property a chance to stand out from the static real estate ads.

But how do you go about creating and marketing your real estate video all by yourself?

Step 1: Borrow or invest in some simple equipment.

These days, you can buy an HD camera at a reasonable price. And if you don’t want to buy one, you’re likely to have a friend or relative you can borrow from. Other than your camera, all you need is a portable tripod (preferably one that rotates). You don’t have to spend the earth and moon, tripods cost upwards from $40.

Step 2: lights, camera, action.

Before shooting, you want to pick the best time of day for lighting. To really wow buyers, your lighting needs to match the ambience. Shooting during the brightest part of the day may cause problems with glare – especially if your property has large windows. Ideally, you want to film during ‘the golden hour’ in the morning just after the sun rises or late in the afternoon as the sun begins to set.

Pick the best corner of a room (often the doorway) and shoot as wide as possible. You want to create a sense of space. Vertical lines are far more pleasing to the eye than horizontal. For example, a bath has vertical lines while a shower has horizontal lines. If you take the shot from behind a shower, the lines can become an obstacle, failing to lead viewers into the room. You should also incorporate movement by slowly zooming your camera in or out. Or, if you have a tripod that rotates, move gently to the left or right when shooting.

Although most of your shots should be of your property, it’s a good idea to include a few of the surrounding area. Pick the strongest local selling points – Cafes? Shops? Schools? Beach? And use this angle to promote the lifestyle your location has to offer.

Step 3: edit and create a sequence.

When it comes to editing, it’s all about continuity and flow. You want to create a sequence that leads buyers through your home. There’s a good chance you already have video editing software installed on your computer (for example, iMovie for Macs). If not, there are plenty of incredible editing tools like Magisto available for instant download.

When planning your sequence, start with the best features of your home. Remember, viewers have short attention spans these days and may not stick around to watch the whole video. The idea is that you create a feel of inviting buyers into your home. If it has attractive curb appeal, begin with an exterior shot then lead viewers through the front door to the lounge, kitchen and bedrooms. Ideally, you want to end up with a finished product no longer than 3 minutes.

For the final touch and to enhance the mood of your real estate video, add some music – Audio Jungle offers royalty free and audio tracks from $1.

Step 4: prepare your real estate video.

Before you can take your video to market, you want to make sure it’s high quality. And the smaller the file size, the higher quality it will be. There’s a range of video compression tools you can use to reduce the size of your video file without compromising its quality.

Step 5: take to market.

Once your video is ready, you can begin your marketing campaign – and there are 2 places you need your video to be seen:

1. Real estate portals (especially the big ones, realestate.com.au and Domain)

2. Social media

Both realestate.com.au and Domain have a considerable amount of weight when it comes to selling property. 80% of Australians now research property online, and the bulk of these will use either of these two portals at some point. But here’s the thing, you can only advertise on them using a real estate agent or agent-assisted platform like PropertyNow (the beauty of PropertyNow is the huge savings in agent commissions).

Social media provides the perfect environment to get attention, stimulate sharing and give your property more marketing power. And these days, videos can be uploaded to most of the major social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. The thing about social media is you need a basic understanding of how each medium works to appeal to users effectively. So if you’re a social media novice and it’s all too overwhelming, keep it simple and stick with Facebook. Today, 16 million Australians use Facebook. Combine that impressive user base with some highly targeted filtering capabilities and you have access to some very suitable buyers. Facebook ads are quick to organise and cheap in comparison to many other forms of advertising.

When creating your Facebook post, include a compelling headline that captures the strongest selling feature of your home. List the main features in an appealing way – and don’t forget your call to action. Your goal is to get people to click through to your property listing. So, dangle a carrot in front of their eyes – what will make them want to explore further?

Whichever social media channels you use, be sure to include a link back to your property listing.

That’s our wrap up. Happy filming!