When it comes to shooting high-quality video on a phone, it can be as easy as a quick swipe to video and go!

Well, not quite. Let’s face it; while shooting videos with a smart phone has improved dramatically in the last few years, it still doesn’t provide the highest quality film experience out of the box. While genuine, ‘real’, transparent video is great and highly desired by today’s target markets, there is still no reason to not provide the highest quality ‘real’ experience possible.

While no multifamily professional is likely trying to win a big movie award with what they capture on their smart phones, they are trying to capture a unique moment or experience to sell their prospective residents on a space. For the multifamily industry, video is one of the biggest and easiest ways to draw in qualified leads. We’ve written about it many times before. According to research from the Google/NAR study, “The Digital House Hunt,” 85 percent of potential buyers or renters want to work with an agent who uses video. In addition, real estate listings that include video get four times more inquiries than listings without video.

Hiring a professional video crew may not be in everyone’s budget, nor may it be the best choice for reaching your target audience. But, with a few small additions and accessories, any multifamily professional can produce a quality video that will resonate with potential buyers and renters.

Our choices for top add-ons to take your video from zero to hero: 

  1. Wide Angle Lens

The Ollclip wide angle lens is an easy to clip on and off wide angle lens providing the freedom to shoot wide and capture more at distance or up close and personal. When filming any real estate, truly capturing the space and showcasing the full dimensions / flow can be an extremely important factor for prospective renters and buyers. A simple, affordable wide angle lens like the Olloclip significantly opens up the viewing area and helps better capture the the space you are showcasing while minimizing panning as well. As an added bonus, you need nothing more than the lens itself…no additional apps, plugins, wiring or setup. 

  1. An Anti-shake Gimbal

Unless you have the smoothest gait and steadiest hands, the curse of a mobile video is the shake. While it has become more acceptable as mobile-shot video becomes more and more relevant, it does still minimize the professionalism of the video. People are incapable of being perfectly smooth and video will always pick that up. There are new, battery-operated anti-shake gimbals hitting the market all the time to help with just that. These mounts produce production-quality anti-shake and can rocket the quality of your videos to the next level. Our personal favorites are currently the Zhiyun-Tech Smooth-Q or FeiyuTech SPG Live. Both of these gimbals are battery-operated, offer multiple modes for landscape, portrait or lock-on filming, and joysticks for smooth, controlled pans. For just a bit over a hundred dollars, you can take your anti-shake to the next level and add that smooth, finishing touch to any property video. And potentially save prospective residents some motion sickness.

  1. A Microphone 

How many times has unclear, distant, muffled or windblown audio ruined a video? Too many to count. While built-in microphones on devices these days are pretty powerful, they do not capture in an array, nor do they offer any sort of wind protection from background noise or wind. When creating a video to showcase your property, the story being told is usually 50% of the information you are looking to portray through video. A decent microphone accessory for your phone can make all the difference between a low-quality feeling video and high-quality feeling video. The good news is that there are countless affordable options ranging from $12 on up. These microphones not only increase the quality of the voice being captured, but also eliminate background and wind noise. Clean, polished and professional is the name of the game and these microphones deliver on that. 

No matter how great the property you are showcasing, it can’t make up for a poor quality video. Video is powerful and is a proven tool for closing prospective residents. Make sure that you are putting your best foot forward when creating videos to showcase your space though. Any of the above accessories will deliver high-quality results for your videos. Combine them all though and you will be a video machine producing the highest quality of DIY video content. 

Have any tips, tricks or accessories that have worked well for you? We’d love to hear about it! Interested in any of the above accessories? Let us know. We’d be happy to help you get your accessories ordered. 

Until next time…keep it real!