Real Estate Videos that Sell your Home.

Real Estate videos are arguably the most important marketing tool you or your realtor can leverage to help sell real estate.

Selling anything now-a-day requires good video. We’re going to spend some time on this, it’s that important for you.

If you’re selling real estate, which is the biggest sale of your life, you NEED to know the following information. Not because you’ll be doing the videos yourself, but rather so you can vet a good Realtor and see if they’re providing quality work for their clients.

Before we touch on what makes good video to sell real estate, we need to look at what makes bad video. After learning a few of these things, you’ll be able to spot Realtors who might cut corners marketing your home.

What makes BAD real estate video?

Unstable Video

Now-a-day the use of two devices called Gimbals or Cranes should allow for buttery smooth video. When you see camera work that is handheld or shaking it’s a sign that your realtor or the people they hired, are doing very amateur videography. Too much or too obvious shake or jerking, takes away from the shot.

On the contrary, there is an argument for having some camera shake. TV shows like ‘The Office’ use intentional camera shake to make you feel as if you’re there. Typically, this is camera shake that you might not notice or realize, and it doesn’t take away from the shot.

Auto White Balance & No Exposure Lock

This issue is commonly found in two of the most hired video production companies that realtors hire in Michigan. Be aware of these, and after learning what this is you won’t be able to unsee it when viewing real estate videos.

Auto White Balance

First, you’ll see the colors shifting. What should be a white wall will become warmer or colder and back again. This is an auto white balance setting and professionals DO NOT use auto white balance. The goal is to set what the cameras sensor understands as “white” from the beginning of filming, so all rooms are colored correct.

No Exposure Lock

Second issue you’ll see is the exposure shifting. This is noticeable in the amount of brightness or darkness in the shot you’re watching. For example, moving from a bright area to a darker area. This will create light shifting while the sensor adjusts to the amount of light as the camera is moving. The exposure should be locked to prevent this, as it’s distracting for a viewer. You’ll notice this problem the most with real estate videos that are straight walk-through videos of the house.

Misplaced or Mistimed Cutting

This one is much more obvious than any other issue when watching real estate videos. It’s obvious because it’s awkward and unnatural. It’s almost impossible to not notice it. Often times this is because the shot sequence wasn’t thought-out for the editing of the video. Other times this happens because the number of shots gathered during filming wasn’t enough to piece together.

Cutting is the way film helps tell a story, take you on a journey, and understand the world around you. If this is off, you’ll know and so will everyone else.

Using No Copywrite Music or a Bad Microphone

Sound is more important than what is filmed. Reread that twice.

This one is the most annoying, without a doubt. No Copywrite music is music that is copywrite free and everyone can use it – and they do, which is the problem. It’s also super generic and repetitive.
Similarly problematic is using a bad Microphone, which will be grainy, have an echo, or sound scratchy… and sometimes, all of the above. If you’re going to speak in the video, make it sound professional or it will destroy great footage.

If you’re posting on Tik Tok or Instagram, these platforms allow you to select music everyone knows and loves. The only downside with social media music is that it often doesn’t line up to how the video is edited, and something just feels off. You also can’t use that video on other platforms because of copywrite violations.

The solution here is for the Realtor or the person they hire to have a catalog of music that is licensed to them. Here at Michigan Realty, we have over 25,000 songs by real artists from all over the world that are licensed to us specifically for our clients. We have multiple different genres from hip hop to jazz to country and even ambient or cinematic scores. Having music licensed to us allows us to use the artists music on any platform without the fear of lawsuits and copyright strikes.

What it looks like when it’s done right?

When you correct all of the errors in-camera and get the right shots this is how you make a $300,000 home in Royal Oak, Michigan, look like a million bucks.

What makes good Real Estate videos?

So now, you understand some of the technical limitations that you’ll see in low quality video production. In this section, you will learn some of the elements that make great real estate videos beyond the technical. Counter intuitively, you can actually make some of the previously mentioned technical mistakes and still have a great real estate video. The next few ideas will help you make great real estate videos even if you struggle from a technical standpoint.

Story

Once upon a time, you started making great real estate videos. You can have all of the technical mistakes but if the story is good, you’ll get people watching. In real estate, not telling a story is one of the most common methods to make great video that does NOT get used.

You’ll almost always see real estate videos show the house, the rooms, the garage and the yard. You’ll see the physical features and the benefits of a particular house. Without a story, that’s boring.

Here’s what a real estate video with a story looks like: A man is walking his dog. This dog pulls and runs away from the man. The dog is excited to be free and says, “Yes! I’m free, now I need to find my own place.” The dog finds your home for sale. Opening your house up with the dogs’ nose, you follow the dog through the house and listen to the furry guy comment. “Oh, I could lay on this tile floor in the hot summer.”

That is a great story, and even if the video production isn’t the best, you can offset that with a great narrative and storyline. So, get writing.

Attention Grab

Have you ever shared a boring video? Never. You share videos that are entertaining, funny, interesting, educational, but most importantly attention grabbing. Like in the story with the Dog, you have people’s attention, but you don’t need to tell story to grab attention.

You can grab attention with something as simple as misspelling a word or mispronouncing a word as your walking through a house, or making the words you’re reading smaller – like this.

This works by breaking up the viewers conscious expectation of what something is supposed to be forcing them to subconsciously pay closer attention. It also “encourages” people to correct you in the comment section of the video which helps tell the platform where your video is posted to share this video with more people because of the increased engagement rate.

While misspelling or mispronunciation is just one way to garnish attention, there are millions of ways in the same way there are millions of stories to tell.

Create Debate

This is less about creating tense contention and more about creating a great video focused on the general comments and feedback from the viewer. In many ways similar to how mispronouncing impulses the viewer into commenting to correct you.

You can create a good debate with your listing videos really ease. Simply ask a question, “What color should the front door be here?” And you’ll get people commenting and debating. If you want to take this real estate video to another level you can.

I want you to imagine that you have a home with a red front door. You stand next to the front door. As you stand next to the front door, you can ask people if they like the red front door or if they like it better green, blue or yellow. As you say each color the door changes to that color.

But how can show people a green, blue, or yellow front door if the door is Red?

When editing the video you can change the color-channels of the video, and doing this saves you from having to actually change the front door. Changing color-channels tells the editing software that “Red” is actually green or blue or any other color you want. Real estate video making magic!

Lights, Camera, Action

Hopefully this article has provided you with some knowledge about what makes a great real estate video for your listings. Now more than ever, video is a critical element to marketing your home. Now if your realtor isn’t using it correctly or not using it at all, you won’t be able to get the top dollar that you desire. If you’re a homeowner, a realtor or a video producer and want to find ways that MichiganRealty.org can help improve your video production game, feel free to reach out!

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