Table of Contents
- What Is a Real Estate Walk-Through Video?
- Does Video Help Sell Real Estate?
- How to Create a Real Estate Walk-Through Video (6 Tips)
- Make Your Video Simply The Best – Let PhotoUp Edit It!
Give your next listing a marketing boost with a real estate walk-through video!
Advances in technology have changed the real estate industry — especially real estate marketing. The internet is now the most popular search tool for potential home buyers, so professional photos and videos matter greatly.
Therefore, in today’s post, we are going to talk about how to create a real estate walk-through video tour.
What Is a Real Estate Walk-Through Video?
For example, did you know that real estate listings that include a video tour receive 403% more inquiries than listings without one?
That’s a lot of potential homebuyers!
Before we explain how to create a walk-through video tour, we need to talk about what is this powerful marketing tool for your listings. It’s essentially a tour of the home captured on video.
In other words, video walk-throughs are:
- Short videos of a listing — captured via mobile phone or another recording device
- Intended to focus on the layout of a home, providing additional context beyond what photos can showcase
- Also, they are easy and affordable to produce regardless of the price point of the listing
- And, they are extremely easy to share across multiple platforms gaining additional exposure for the home
The typical video walk-through is roughly up to 3 to 7 minutes in length and usually includes sound — be it narration, music, or both.
Therefore, a video walk-through is an effective way to provide buyers and other agents with an opportunity to quickly and easily see the best features of a listing and to help buyers to envision themselves living in the home.
So, now that we’ve explained what a video walk-through tour is, we need to ask, do they actually help sell listings?
Do Video Walk-Through Tours Help Sell Real Estate?
The answer is clear — yes!
Zillow data shows that listings featuring a video walk-through sold on average 14% faster than listings without one.
Time matters, today’s buyers want to check out a listing quickly.
When searching for homes, buyers are most interested in the bathrooms, kitchen area, and overall layout for accessibility.
A real estate walk-through video is the perfect way to show them these features, quickly.
And as the research shows, featuring a video that guides the buyer through the property, makes them more likely to check out the home in person.
Also, by posting your videos to YouTube, the second most popular search engine behind Google, your listing is likely to be seen by more buyers.
Finally, homeowners are more inclined to list their property with agents who offer real estate property videos than with agents who don’t.
So, why not invest in real estate walk-through videos to get the upper hand over other agents?
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Real Estate Video Editing
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How to Create a Real Estate Walk-Through Video (6 Tips)
Now, let’s talk about how to create an effective real estate walk-through video. We’re going to offer you the following 6 tips!
1. The Basics – The Necessary Gear
So, what video gear will you need for your video walk-through?
Here’s our suggestion:
- A DSLR camera
- Wide-angle zoom lens (16–35mm) / 17–40mm
- Tripod with a slider
- Second tripod head that sits on top of the slider
- And if you have a drone, use that too!
If you’re wondering whether you’ll need to worry about video lighting, don’t.
You won’t need them unless you’re filming at night. Natural light usually suffices for all your interior and exterior shots, so planning your shoot around the weather is key.
A partly cloudy day will likely look the best on camera. If it’s a dark and cloudy day, you might want to reschedule.
2. Avoid Using a Fisheye Lens
It can be tempting to want to use a wide-angle lens like a fisheye to make a small room look bigger than it is, but we recommend not doing so.
Fisheye lenses are too likely to distort a photo.
Instead, why not use the power of video to accurately represent the rooms in the house?
Rely on a lens with less distortion, like a 17–40mm or a 16–35mm for the bulk, if not all, of your shots.
3. Prepping the Property
Before you hit the record button for your real estate walk-through video, go through the entire house and look for anything that calls attention to itself.
Your goal is to hide distractions that might not look great on video.
Things to prepare before the shoot:
- Decluttering counters, tabletops, and all surfaces
- Hiding or removing pets
- Closing all cabinet and closet doors
- Smoothing wrinkles on bedspreads
- Removing personal items, such as pictures of homeowners
- Closing toilet seats and shower curtains
- Adjusting throw pillows, books, artwork, and window treatments
The more preparation ahead of time, the easier the shoot.
4. Planning the Shot List
Again, planning can make a world of difference.
Go into the shoot with a shot list in mind:
- You only need about 2–3 shots per bedroom and bathroom
- For key rooms like the kitchen, the living room, or the master suite, make sure to get enough shots and camera angles to paint a full picture for the viewer
- The exterior matters, especially the front of the home
At the same time, try to avoid overshooting. If you have a good shot, move on to the next on the list.
And if it doesn’t go right the first time, delete the initial clip and start over.
5. Shooting the Video
Shooting a real estate walk-through video is about dynamically shooting a still environment by introducing motion.
You want the experience to be smooth and steady, so you’ll need to rely on slides and glides.
Slides walk viewers through the scene by moving the camera from front to back. However, check that you can’t see the slider in the shot.
Slides are great for capturing an entire room and making wide shots more interesting:
- Position your slider just outside of a doorway to introduce the room
- Then, using sliding and panning, aim for a wrap-around effect
- If you don’t have a slider, slow pans and tilts can add some motion to an otherwise static shot, keeping the video moving along
- Pans and tilts also look great for detailed shots of a room, like hardwood floors, tile, or countertops
Since the subject is the room itself, you’ll want to keep everything in focus.
Use an aperture number at around f 4 or 5.6. Then, balance the lighting by adjusting the ISO and shutter speed.
6. If You Have a Drone, Use It!
If you have access to a drone for aerial shots of the house and the surrounding community — by all means, use it.
The key to excellent drone shots is subtle, gentle movement:
- You can use the drone like a slider, going from left to right, or moving slowly toward the house from the street as well
- Capture footage from both the front and back of the house. Then if it’s safe, take it out further to get a bird’s eye view of the property and beyond
Now that you’ve shot your footage, it’s time to edit your real estate walk-through video.
And in terms of editing, we’ve saved our best tip for last.
Get Your Time Back
Real Estate Video Editing
If you thought photo editing took time... we're here to help.
Make Your Video Simply the Best – Let PhotoUp Edit It!
For around just $30, PhotoUp can transform raw footage into a polished and persuasive real estate walk-through video.
PhotoUp’s expert walk-through video editing includes:
- Clip review, trimming, and arrangement
- Your business logo, an intro, and outro
- Custom titling
- And, commercially licensed music for a more enjoyable, finished video
You’ll get a high quality, professional-looking video in 2 simple steps:
1) Upload
Upload all your raw footage, logos, and/or custom audio files to Dropbox, Google Drive, or another delivery link and include that link in your order form.
2) Delivery
We usually deliver your edited video within 24-36 hours, if uploaded on weekdays and before 9:00 PM on a Friday, local time.
Your final video will be between 2-3 minutes in length, delivered in 1080p quality (+10 credits for 4K quality), and available via Dropbox.
And here at PhotoUp, we do more than edit videos…
….we’re a leading global real estate marketing company offering a full range of services, including:
- Photo editing
- Virtual staging
- Single property websites
- Real estate photographer websites
- Custom house portraits
- Virtual Assistants
- And more.
Here’s an example of our virtual staging for real estate:
Start working with PhotoUp today!
Sign up for a free account now, and let our affordable experts help you create fantastic real estate marketing materials that attract more buyers and help you to build your brand.
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading this post on learning how to create a real estate walk-through video.
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