What Do You Want to Know About Video and Real Estate?

Ron,

You make very good points. I think video can be used for a variety of things when it comes to real estate. There is more to marketing and covering real estate than just listings. This stuff that I do here is different from what I am going to do with listings.

I also agree with your point about the quality and tone of the videos. Good content trumps production value every single time. Giving people something meaningful that they can use or enjoy is the best way to utilize video. The best produced video clip in the world won't matter if the content is boring or of little value to the customer.

BTW-- I am horribly jealous of your location. Oh to be on the islands. . .

Video is a powerful medium to promote real estate. It's interesting to see what I'll call a parallel in real estate video to the pro video industry. With the advent of digital video formats and digital video editing tools, the amount of video content has increased substantially in the last ten years. Most of the pro formats, even HD, have some type of compression and yet the quality is acceptable because it is digital.

For realtors, when it comes to video tours, because of the cost prohibitive nature to use pro gear, properly light a home ( for interiors particularly), then edit and score if there is music, i believe sites like realestateshows.com, tourfactory.com, etc. provide realtors with a down and dirty cost effective alternative to video or fully stitched 360 degree virtual tours.

I also feel that raw video, similar to the reality TV that dominates the airwaves, kind of like what you do on this site, is a fresher approach that certainly appeals to the younger demographic of buyers.

Here on Kauai, where I live, after the Hurricane Iniki in '92, one real estate company seized the moment and put a 24 hr. real estate channel on the the burgeoning cable system. Now, some 14 yrs. later, that Coldwell Banker franchise has a competitive edge over every agency with full broadcast video of their properties 24 hrs. a day. The CB franchise uses professionals who shoot, produce and edit the videos, and create DVDs for higher end properties, 2 Million and up. Their priciest listing is $45 Million. However, with the proliferation of online video sites and communities, an individual can start to compete with his online presence. When travelers vacationing on Kauai start watching more video on their laptops than on the TV in their hotel room ( folks who blog here may do so already), then online video can start to compete at the highest end of the marketplace.

I've been to several seminars about the generational gap and how to best communicate with each generation of buyers. It's clear if I'm selling to the millenium generation, I need to be blogging, you tubing, twittering, facebooking, and basically socially networking in the the virtual spaces where this generation lives and thrives.

Hi!

I've been doing real estate video tours for the Southern California market since 2002. Given the market at that time, it was a tough sell, as properties were selling above asking with multiple offers before even being officially listed! As times are changing though, my clients are seeing the benefits of using video (including agent websites, MLS virtual tour links, and portable downloads) over the traditional fare of small newspaper ads, distorted 360 degree photos, and online "slideshows".

The toughest part of producing a custom tour for each property has been the price points. However, after five years of working with different properties and agents, I know we can get the price to a point where it is affordable for realtors and worth it for tour producers... I'm doing it now. It now becomes a matter of convincing real estate agents that this is a worthwhile marketing expense.

I look forward to your updates!

Daniel... I'm going to do a post with all of the video responses when this has gone a bit further. Will look forward to hearing the responses here as well.