Real estate videos work harder than you think.
Yes, they add helpful information to listings. And there’s no doubt they’re great for marketing properties on social media, one of the top sources of real estate leads.
But they’re also powerful brand-building tools, for companies and individual realtors.
What’s more, nearly 40% of buyers use video sites as part of their property search. Yet agents use videos to promote only 12% of listings.
Key Takeaways
- Real estate videos span everything from 15-second clips to hour-long tours.
- Many realtors use video for brand-building in addition to promoting properties.
- Good gear, a tight script, and performance tracking are the keys to high-quality videos.
What Are Real Estate Videos?
Real estate videos showcase properties available for rent or sale. Realtors use them on social media, video sites like YouTube, real estate websites, and in ads.
Are they effective? In a word, yes. And they represent a big opportunity.
According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 52% of realtors cite social media, where video is often the primary content format, as their top lead-gen channel.
NAR research also shows that 38% of buyers use online video sites in their property searches, but realtors only use video to market 12% of homes.
How to Create Real Estate Videos in 5 Steps
In many cases, you can create high-quality videos even if you’re not a pro. If you are a pro looking to expand your skill set, a little understanding will go a long way.
1. Pick the Type of Video
The type of video you’re creating will determine the budget, production values, and whether or not you need to enlist a professional videographer.
Real estate videos fall into five categories:
- Social media snapshot: Short, entertaining social media clips that tend to focus on the best features of higher-end property.
- No-frills property listing: Feature-driven, basic tours usually included on non-luxury property listings. Often, they don’t include music or furniture.
- Luxury tour: Medium-length videos (one to five minutes) focused on luxury properties.
- Luxury guided tour: Like luxury tours but with a voiceover or on-camera appearance from the realtor.
- Deep dive: Longer videos (20+ mins) that go into depth about all of a property’s features.
2. Get the Gear
For a no-frills walkthrough for a listing page, you can use your smartphone. I’ve got some quick tips for ensuring quality production.
In all other cases, you’ll need some professional gear. But that doesn’t mean spending an arm and a leg.
Real estate video pro Taylor Brown recommends the following basic setup:
- 4K hybrid camera body
- 16mm to 35mm lens for wide and narrow shots
- Circular polarizer filter to reduce glare
- Variable ND filter to control brightness
- Drone for aerial shots (with batteries)
- Memory cards
- Gimbal to stabilize the camera
- Tripod
- Gimbal for stabilization
- Wireless lavalier mic
When it comes to editing, it’s hard to beat Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro. Canva also offers easy-to-use video templates for making intros and outros look professional. AudioJungle has a wide selection of stock music tracks.
3. Prepare for the Shoot
Before you hit record, make sure the house or apartment is ready for your HD lens. Also make sure to thoroughly research the property so you don’t miss any important features.
Here’s a pre-shoot checklist:
- List standout features: List any unusual, rare, or expensive features that make the property particularly appealing.
- Clean and furnish the rooms: Videos of furnished houses perform better than unfurnished, especially for luxury properties.
- Know what to avoid: Avoid lengthy periods in the halls, poorly decorated functional rooms (like the utility closet), and near windows with noisy backgrounds or unattractive views.
- Improve unattractive areas: Some areas may need additional lighting or careful placement of furniture.
4. Nail the Script
Great real estate videos typically follow a three-act story structure, according to research by Vimeo:
- Act one: Give a clear, frontal view of the property. You can also include clips of the neighborhood.
- Act two: Show the main rooms—living areas, kitchen, bedrooms—before moving on to the smaller functional rooms. Save the garden until last. If you’re providing a voiceover, you can follow a linear downstairs-upstairs tour.
- Act three: End the video with an exterior view of the property. If you’re using drone footage, place it here.
5. Measure Results
I recommend measuring real estate video across three areas: engagement, brand, and conversions. This will provide a solid foundation for testing and refining.
Always optimize for engagement. If you’re using videos on listings, conversions are your priority. If you’re using video to raise your profile, brand-specific metrics take precedence.
Here’s what to measure:
- Engagement: Video engagement levels tell you if people are actually watching and sharing your video. Direct engagement metrics like view-through rate (VTR) and number of shares work well.
- Conversions: If you’re showing videos on listings or as ads to a well-defined audience, conversions matter most. Click-through rate and viewings scheduled are good metrics.
- Brand building: For brand building, you’ll want to see increasing brand mentions, share of voice, and branded search volume. Brand equity is one of my favorite concepts that incorporates a range of quantitative and qualitative measures.
Bonus Tip: Promote the Video!
After you’ve put the finishing touches on your video, set up your tracking tools, and hit publish, there’s one more step.
You’ve got to promote it!
Do the following to maximize your video’s reach:
- Send it to your email list
- Push it to everyone on your push notification list
- Respond to comments
- Ask your network for reshares
- SEO optimize the description
- Include a clear CTA to the listing
10 Killer Examples of Real Estate Videos
Theory is one thing. But learning from standout practical examples can take your videos from good to great.
Let’s look at some real estate videos that set the bar for quality.
The Social Media Snapshot
These videos are designed for easy consumption on social media. They’re short and punchy with excellent production quality.
Example 1: Daniel Daggers from DDRE Global
What it gets right: It’s entertaining, comprehensive, and packs a large dose of personality. It’s perfect for casual Instagram scrolling.
Example 2: The Chad Carroll Group
What it gets right: The car rolling into the drive tells a story and emphasizes the lifestyle aspect of the property. The video also highlights the beauty of the surrounding area.
The No-Frills Property Listing
The aim of no-frills videos is to communicate information about a property. They’re included on listing or development overview pages.
Example 3: CODE Student Accommodation
What it gets right: The video exhaustively describes all of the features of the accommodation, like fully fitted kitchens and leather sofas. It’s perfectly aligned with its target market.
Example 4: My Agent Real Estate
What it gets right: It’s a friendly, detailed tour with quality visuals and audio. It doesn’t attempt to be overly glamorous or use gimmicky production techniques where it’s not appropriate to do so. At the end of the video, the estate agent provides a contact number.
The Luxury Tour
Luxury tours are all about going deeper than social media snapshots. They’re very good at generating impressions and have a lot of potential to go viral. They don’t include a voiceover or on-screen realtor.
Example 5: Douglas Elliman Real Estate
What it gets right: It has excellent production value and skillfully uses drone footage and nighttime shots.
Example 6: DDRE Global
What it gets right: The music is strongly aligned with the style of the property. The video also includes multiple shots of the view, a sought-after feature in London.
The Luxury Guided Tour
The guided tour is like the luxury tour in that it tends to focus on higher-value properties. The difference is that it involves a voiceover or appearance from a realtor.
Example 7: Cindy Raney & Team
What it gets right: It manages to give a comprehensive overview of the property and paint a picture of the associated lifestyle in a consumable Instagram format.
Example 8: SERHANT. Signature
What it gets right: The realtors provide a full tour that does justice to the property without making the video overlong. The background music is a nice addition.
The Deep Dive
The deep dive is a longer video, usually above twenty minutes, in which a realtor gives a highly detailed overview of the property. They’re useful for both promotion and providing additional information on a listing.
Example 9: Barry Cohen Homes
What it gets right: The realtor injects a lot of personality, humor, and suspense into the video to keep viewers engaged over its 20-minute duration. Including the architect is a nice touch.
Example 10: Nava Realty Group
What it gets right: The video shows what’s possible without fancy production techniques, voiceover music, drone footage, and so on. It is essentially a walkaround with one realtor and a camera, yet it still works very well.
Conclusion
Real estate videos are booming because of their versatility.
Do they increase conversions on listings? No doubt about it.
Promote properties to new audiences? 100%.
Grow personal and agency brands? They’re one of the best tools out there.
However, the key to success lies in defining your goals. Every video you produce should be tied to a specific purpose.
A snapshot of a multi-million dollar mansion designed for Instagram will be completely different from a walkthrough of a one-bedroom condo.
Unless it’s in Monaco with a sea view, of course.
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