How to Shoot An Amazing Real Estate Video

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Real estate videos are very specific projects and can have a huge impact on the target audience. Here are the must-take steps to creating cinematic real estate videos that really sell residential or commercial property.

Real estate is a visual industry, so images and video are vital to sales. This includes everything from home sales, high-end office, or lavish holiday leasings. Images are important to websites that display homes for sale, hotels, and commercial listings. Often, real estate agents find themselves requiring to showcase bigger residential or commercial properties in larger methods. This is where real estate video has actually seen substantial development.

We’ll cover some fundamental guidelines of real estate video production and the three common types of real estate videos. By the end, you will have a solid understanding of what it takes to make a must-see real estate video that’ll amaze buyers.

The Basics of Real Estate Video

A typical real estate residential or commercial property video will aim to be under three minutes. There’s rarely a point in a longer video as many buyers just skim through listings till they find something that catches their attention. If the listing is a multi-million dollar property that has plenty to show off, the video can be longer. That said, it’s best to keep it under eight minutes. A real estate video over 10 minutes is a waste of time and financial investment.

Now that the video’s timeframe is in place, be sure to use that time to only highlight key features and amenities. It makes more sense to mention fixtures in the description than to show them in the video. Why not throw in a quick voiceover that talks about some of the tiny details like the floors and windows to make the best use of the time available?

real estate video interior shot

Make sure you’re shooting wide-frame as often as possible. Decor and furniture shots waste time, as they don’t come with the listing. Instead your viewers should be able to see the entire room and furnish it in their imaginations. Giving a feel for the space, not the material items already inside, is the whole goal here.

While the property is the main focal point in your video, include some quick shots of the neighborhood and nearby stores or restaurants. That way you’re creating an incentive to live or work in that area. But don’t go overboard with everything outside of the property. Your goal is to sell the real estate in the video. Keep your focus there.

real estate video shot of room and exterior

The hardest part of cinematic listing videos has to be is lighting. This consists of natural lighting, built-in property components, and lighting sets. To really WOW the viewer, the lighting needs to match the atmosphere. Shooting video during the middle of the day in a house with big windows is a massive headache.

The whole trick to lighting is the time of day and correct color temperature you’re shooting at. The golden hour is the best time to shoot residential or commercial property, since this enables buyers to see inside and outside of the windows at the same time. Otherwise, you will have blown out windows meaning they will be show an intense white light.

When a space doesn’t have enough light, use a lighting kit to fill the room. You don’t need a big, expensive kit. Just focus on ensuring the lighting is complementary to the room. For example bedroom should have a warm inviting feel, not be harshly lit to look cold and sterile.

real estate video shoot

With inside in the property now covered, what about outside? Again, it’s best to shoot wide. However, it’s important to take in the condition of neighboring properties as they will be in shots also. Setting the camera up on a tripod will give stable, sharp, shots. You can also shoot at a low angle to create an impressive look to almost any property.

Drone videos are all the rage now and you may be tempted to capture impressive aerials. Be aware that drones should only be used if you have an FAA Section 333 exemption or a remote pilot certificate to use it under Part 107. Your work on these videos is classified as commercial work.

While speaking of legalities, make sure you have licenses for your music! Don’t spend all that time making an amazing real estate video for it to be pulled for copyright violation.

The Three Common Real Estate Videos

There are three different types of real estate videos which you’ll commonly find online – each will tie into the listing’s value, so the more pricey the real estate, the more luxurious the video should be. Median real estate videos will use either a slide show or virtual tour, where high-end homes and vistas will often use a documentary-style approach.

That’s a rule of thumb at least. You can make a documentary-style video for a mid-priced home or commercial property, but a real estate agent who does so is reducing their return on investment. The reason the documentary video is used on expensive homes is because of an assumed larger budget to sell the home.

Either way, real estate videos should focus on two primary goals. They should showcase the listing, helping to turn a sale quickly. They also should contain a call-to-action to market the real estate agent to potential buyers. If the video listing sells immediately, the real estate agent can still potentially get more clients that are looking for similar listings. The call-to-action can be as simple as listing the real estate agent at the end of the video or throughout the video on lower thirds.

1. Slide Show

The slide show is the easiest and most popular style of real estate video. In fact, the bulk of these videos only use photos. Considering that they are so easy, you’ll have to make your slide show real estate videos stick out. Include movement graphics and music to make the video pop.

If you do not have much experience, Easy Web Video’s Create Video feature will take your images and apply them to one of over 40 different templates. You can even use our stock library of images and music to enhance your creation.

2. Virtual Tour

The virtual tour showcases a whole listing, space by space. This can be made with photographs and/or video. It can likewise be performed in 360 degrees, which enables clients to experience the property themselves.

In the below video, the call-to-action shows up in the beginning with a contact and phone number. Then the real estate video jumps into a great quick introduction of the home. You will then see that a majority of the video is shot wide-angle, while close ups just highlight some detail, like the granite counter.

There’s likewise lots of movement in the video. This keeps the shots from appearing too static. If you aren’t going to be moving in the video, then you probably should take pictures instead. The video ends with a 2nd call-to-action to check out the website and notes the agent’s contact information. All of this is carried out in under three minutes. It’s an outstanding example of what a real estate video ought to be.

Virtual tours are offer the best return on investment of real estate videos. They’re more work than a slide show, but much cheaper than a documentary-style real estate video.

3. The “Documentary” Video

The documentary-style real estate video is best for luxury properties. It doesn’t work as well for smaller homes, because it requires a lot of filmed material. It also has a very high production cost. That said, these videos are the most likely to go viral.

In the video below, we are offered a complete trip of the house and surrounding area, all while following a extremely charming and amusing host. The video spoofs lots of home and garden cable television programs, however does so while still focusing on offering the house. The script was expertly written, blending necessary information, humor, and some fun notes.

This video does break the formerly discussed 3 minute guideline, however the listing had so much to see that the length is warranted. There are numerous wide interior shots on a camera slider, close-up shots of the stunning wood floorings, and lots of great footage of the close-by beach and retail outlets.

In contrast, one of the most popular real estate videos ever is the tour of Michael Jordan’s home. His property was up for auction, and the following video was developed to drum up interest. The video is a whopping 9 minutes in length. But the property of the basketball legend has more to offer than your normal home for sale.

The video still follows the same real estate video guidelines. It opens with a call-to-action, mentioning the auction company, auction date, and contact information. It uses wide or super-wide angle shots predominantly. A host and listing agent take you on a tour of the listing. This video does feature furniture also, but all of the furnishing came with the purchase of the property.

Instead of neighborhood external shots, the video focusses on Jordan’s career, but you may not have similar footage for your video. The call-to-action is repeated in the outro section along with adding information regarding the sale of the property. So you can see, even a property as amazing as Michael Jordan’s uses the same video techniques as those we’ve talked about.

So hopefully, you now have all the insights you need to create your own amazing real estates videos. We hope to see yours on Easy Web Video.

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