We’ve discussed real estate photography and Instagram for real estate agents, but what about real estate videos? With smartphones now being an indispensable part of our everyday lives, property agents have to keep up with the latest technology and trends to effectively market their property listings. This, of course, includes sharing photos and videos online to attract potential buyers.

It has been found that

96% of consumers find videos helpful when making purchase decisions online;
52% of consumers say that watching videos makes them more confident in purchase decisions;
76% of marketers plan to add video to their sites, making it a higher priority than Facebook, Twitter and blog integration.

So, how do you go about making sure you produce good quality videos that will be seen by your target audience? Here are 15 important tips to help you make a real estate video:

1. A “video tour” is not the same thing as a photo slideshow. As people are exposed to more and more infotainment (information + entertainment) videos on social media, they will come to expect a video, not just still images with background music.

2. When taking a real estate video, make sure you use a tripod, or at the very least, a smartphone or camera with image stabilization function. A shaky video will not only make the viewer lose interest, it could also hinder your marketing efforts, as a poorly-shot video will lower the perceived value of the property.

3. Practice is key. Everyone starts out as a beginner, so the more ~~real estate~~ videos you film and create, the better you’ll get at it.

4. Start your video with a self-introduction. This is how you build name and face recognition, and helps you establish yourself as the go-to agent for your platform and property listings.

5. When shooting videos indoors, switch on ceiling fans at the lowest speed. This adds some movement in the room and your video.

6. Use a wide angle lens to capture more of the indoor space. (See how to use wide angle lens to take good real estate photos indoors.)

7. When shooting a video, don’t pan around too quickly or zoom too much. Slowly turn to reveal the space and try not to use the zoom at all; feel free to move forwards to focus on a certain part or feature instead.

8. Let there be light! When shooting indoors, open the curtains and let natural light in. Switch on indoor lights if natural sunlight isn’t enough. Outdoor videos will also look better on clear, sunny days.

9. Remember: keep it short and simple (K.I.S.S)! The attention span of your average viewer is getting shorter. Make your video interesting with appropriate music and keep it between 1 – 3 minutes.

10. Put the project and/or street name in the video title. This will help your SEO (search engine optimisation) and allow people to easily find your video (especially in YouTube).

11. Add your contact information in the first part of the description.

12. Upload the video to YouTube and Facebook. Google owns YouTube, so you have the #1 and #2 largest online search engines to draw viewers to your video. Facebook, on the other hand, has over one billion users – ’nuff said.

13. Add your name and phone number (and maybe email) in the video so a potential buyer knows how to contact you. Place it a corner throughout the video as a reminder and to deter others from stealing your video.

14. Put text in the video indicating the number of rooms and other important information that you wish to convey to the viewer (but don’t cram too much text).

15. Go local – or hyperlocal, in marketing lingo. Besides property listing videos, you can create short, community-based videos that highlight the benefits of living in a specific city or town, unique places, amenities and other reasons to buy a property there. See our sample video below: