As the Internet continues to play a larger role in our lives, consumer behavior constantly changes, too. And if this is the case, so too must the real estate market.
Around 88% of potential home buyers now rely on the Internet to search for a new home. This means that photos play an essential role in marketing a property, and video is also becoming increasingly popular.
Does video help sell real estate? Below, we take a closer look at the role of videos in real estate marketing.
Does Video Help Sell Real Estate?
Whether you’re selling your home or helping others sell theirs, you may be wondering how important videos are and whether they’re worth paying for.
To help you out, let’s discuss how a video can help sell your home. We’ll also share with you how long a video should be, where to post it, and how much it costs.
Real Estate Videography
Real estate videography is quickly becoming a big business, and it’s no surprise when you learn that listings with video generate four times more leads.
Real estate videos are particularly helpful when showcasing a remote property, as a video can help qualify more serious buyers. It saves you or the broker time in trekking out to the farm, ranch, or remote property in question to show someone around.
More than that, videos are also extremely helpful in selling other types of property based on the fact that people are just so busy these days. It offers a much better insight into the property listed, which means the people who visit are much more likely to end up buying it.
The majority of real estate videos used to help sell properties are overviews or walk-throughs of the property itself. Some will also utilize drone footage to offer a larger perspective on the property and the surrounding area.
Property Overviews and Walk-Throughs
A video allows the prospective buyer to get to know the property layout and get a feel for the dimensions, much better than with pictures and floorplans.
The footage may begin outside the property to show the exterior and then walk through the house, offering an in-depth guided tour. Some real estate agents will back the video footage with music, while others will tell you about the property as they walk through it.
They may even add a touch of dramatic flair by filming a short fictional video. A fictional narrative may offer an insight into what it might be like to live there, and a clever piece will still show you the majority of the home.
Drone Footage
Drone footage can also be effectively used to show the location of adjoining land and buildings, as well as the location of neighboring properties. It can also help showcase good neighborhoods by highlighting the locality of schools, shops, parks, and other amenities.
Plus, drone footage can be used to show the viewer how close their potential new home is to the nearby countryside, forests, and bodies of water.
Business Marketing Videos
So many people rely on video these days that many real estate firms will also produce videos to introduce themselves and their methods. Also, communicating customer testimonials from buyers and sellers can help brokers win more listings and, therefore, sell more property.
Real Estate Videos for Marketing a Property
Using real estate videos for marketing a property is becoming increasingly important, as 73% of homeowners say they are more likely to visit a realtor with videos.
How Long Are Real Estate Videos?
Generally-speaking, a real estate video should be between two and six minutes long. You want it to be short enough to hold the viewer’s interest but still showcase all of the main selling points of a property.
If you plan on showing your video on several different platforms (see below), it may even be wise to have your videographer edit one shorter and one longer video. Offering the viewer a choice to watch a shorter video could capture their interest enough to make them watch a longer, more detailed video.
Where Can I Post Real Estate Videos?
The most obvious place to post your videos is on your website. If you don’t have your own website yet, check out this easy-to-use website builder. More than anything, a website really is an essential marketing tool for realtors. And Propopen.com has got all the tips and tricks to help you land more sales.
You can also post your videos on other websites that carry your property listing. Some sites will allow you to upload your video directly, while others will only let you link to your video. This means you’ll have to upload it to a video-sharing site, such as YouTube or Vimeo. These are just two of many sites that allow you to share videos for free.
Another important place to post your real estate videos is on social media sites, like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. This allows your social audience to share your posts with family and friends looking for property in the area.
Again, you may find that shorter videos work better on social media. You can always provide links to a longer video if you have one made.
What Do Real Estate Videos Cost?
The cost of a real estate video will vary massively. It’s dependent on many factors, such as length, quality, and video production costs.
A heavily-edited, six-minute video that includes drone footage, for example, will cost a lot more than a two-minute walk-through. Also, a company with more experience and a better reputation will charge a lot more than others.
Broadly speaking, a budget of around $2,500 per minute should be expected. Most videographers will bill you based on an hourly rate for filming ($100+ per hour) and editing ($50+ per hour). Then, you’ll need to account for additional expenses, such as travel, acting and voiceover work, music licensing, video revisions, and so forth.
Using Real Estate Videos for Marketing
Having looked at the role of video in selling property, it’s easy to see just how useful it can be to the seller. But does video help sell real estate?
Real estate videos offer prospective buyers a more immersive buying experience than ever before. They allow you to qualify extremely high-quality leads and help generate this high level of interest from prospective buyers both near and far.
As more and more real estate agents showcase properties using professional photos and videos, more prospective buyers come to expect it, too.
Buyers are more likely to look at listings that include video, and we all know that you need to attract prospective buyers to sell properties. Of course, producing a video does increase your upfront marketing costs, but it can save you a lot of time by weeding out time-wasters.