Let’s review the stats: 70% of home buyers use video to tour the inside of a home, 38% use video to understand specific features, and 52% of consumers say that watching videos makes them more confident in purchase decisions (Invodo).

Clearly, video is important. Currently for buyers, a well-made video is the next best thing to being at the property. For sellers, a well-made video demonstrates their marketing prowess and can help differentiate themselves/the space they represent.

Building a successful video tour is a challenge though and goes well beyond the lens. Whether you’re using a full DSLR camera or your smartphone, with a few tips and some practice, we’re confident that you can make video one of the most effective marketing tools that you have. Check out these “best practices” below and get to practicing!

  1. Use a wide-angle lens to be able to better capture a complete space.
  2. To minimize shakiness, walk slowly and smoothly, and hold your device with one or two hands as desired.
    • Additional “anti-shake” thought – some find it helpful to take off their shoes to make transitions from one surface to the next as smooth as possible.
  3. Don’t pan or zoom too much. Slowly pan the camera to reveal a space and try not to use zoom at all. Pan/zoom too fast and your viewers will get dizzy. And we don’t want any viewers getting sick because of you…
    • Bonus video: Mark Passerby does a great showcasing how to effectively pan a camera while filming.
  4. Open the blinds and turn on lights if possible to ensure proper lighting. Also avoid lens flare by trying to keep the light from pointing directly at the camera lens.
  5. Turn on the ceiling fans in a room on low if applicable. This gives some movement in the room and helps add additional dimension to the space.
  6. Make your videos less than 4 minutes, if uploading online. Studies show that the shorter the video is, the more it will be watched. Let’s face it; unless it’s a cute puppy or music video, people’s attention spans are only getting shorter these days.
  7. Upgrade to the latest mobile devices (iPhone 6, etc.) if you’re recording with a mobile device because of new built in anti-shake technology, and higher quality cameras and processing speeds.
  8. Practice! Map out the storyboard of how you’ll move through a property or what features you want to highlight. It’ll make things go much more smoothly.

Want to truly step up your game to become a video pro using nothing more than a smartphone or tablet? Here are some links to our favorite “add-ons” to help optimize video production on mobile devices and produce Spielberg-approved videos (potentially):

Lenses

Olloclip – This pocket-sized lens snaps onto your iPhone or Samsung Galaxy and works on both the front and back cameras making any shot much easier, crisper, and cleaner.

Audio

The Mighty Mic – The picture is what people see, but audio tells the story. This snap on boom mic improves the audio quality and helps eliminate wind noise or the noisy neighbors nearby.

Lighting

Pocket Spotlight – As mentioned above, lighting is important. This device is a snap on or handheld light for mobile video production. It’s the “next best thing to sun-controlling superpowers” (photojojo).

Anti-shake

Having a shaky video is clue #1 that it was recorded by an amateur or on mobile. Beat the shake and be a pro with any of these devices:

SlightShot – The affordable option for the basic anti-shake.

CamCaddie – Although it’s pricey, it’s compact and includes a variety of built in lenses as well.

ikan FLY-X3-PLUS – It’s the most expensive, but the most effective and still rather compact.


Feeling more confident in your video production skills? Well, get out there and go film some real estate videos now… I know you want to!

Until next time… keep it real!