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Real estate video tours - do they really work?

By Fred Light

Services for Real Estate Pros with | Nashua Video Tours

February 27, 2007 11:14 PM

At 11:30pm eastern time recently, I received a call from the west coast. As I was just about to go to bed, I let it go to voice mail.

The next day, I listened to the message, which was from someone in California. He was a bit confused as to who he was calling, and asked if I did Video Tours for real estate,etc. Since I am in the Boston area, California is a bit out of my range, so I was just going to ignore the call. But, I did decide to call him back and see what he wanted.

He had seen my website and samples of my real estate video tours, and and was relocating to the area and wanted to see video tours of homes in the area. I explained that I was not a REALTOR, only a provider of video tours. He kept reiterating that he wanted to watch video tours of homes before he and his wife came out since they don't have the option of traveling across the country multiple times to look at homes. I explained (again), that I was not a REALTOR. He asked me to refer him to someone who did Video Tours, and I told him that I could do that, however, they don't have video tours for every home for sale in the marketplace... just some of their listings. He insisted that he wanted someone who had video tours, so I told him that I did have one client who had done Video Tours for all of his listings for the past 12-14 months... but again... they are only for HIS listings... not all listings. He said that this was fine... and I gave him his number.

Less than an hour later, I spoke to this agent. He immediately received a call from this person. His wife is a prominent doctor in Boston, and they want to move somewhere north of Boston.... within 40 minutes to the city. Oh... price range?.... $2-2.5M.

He is most likely going to create videos for any homes this client is interested in, which will be posted on the web for the client to view. This way, when they DO come out, they will know exactly what they want to see, therefore not wasting their time. Oh, and this is the second million dollar buyer that he has received within the past 4 weeks due to Video Tours.

Another interesting (and somewhat pathetic) side note.... The agent was checking all homes in the area in the $1.5-10M range to see what was on the market that he could show him. Of the 40 or so properties currently listed, guess how many had a Virtual Tour?

NONE. Nada. Not one.

This is not Realtor.com, where you have to actually pay real money to have a virtual tour. This is the New Hampshire MLS. Even more ridiculous, the MLS allows up to 12 photos. Probably 75% of these listings had five photos or less. What are these REALTORS thinking? Are you on crack? Come on... a 2+ million dollar house... and you can't even put up the allowable 12 photographs???? Digital photographs are FREE. In case you've been on vacation for the past decade, there is no cost to develop photos any more, only the time to actually take the picture. And you can't even provide twelve lousy photos?????? If I was your seller I would fire you in a heartbeat. You're not doing your job. Sorry. To me, this is mind numbing, and just proves that the problem with many REALTORS is laziness... pure and simple.

The funniest thing is, when word gets out that an agent has a million dollar buyer (which is not that common these days), every agent with a million dollar listing in the area is on the phone begging for them to show their listing.

Again, I just don't get it.....

By the way, I was interviewed last week for a feature for NPR, which will be broadcast either this week or next... Subject? Real estate video tours for marketing real estate. I guess some people think it makes sense! I will post the audio of the interview once it's aired....

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Jacki & Jerry Shafer

The Shafer Real Estate Team, Keller Williams Louisville East - Crestwood, KY

The Shafer Team, Call 502-643-SOLD

Hi Fred:

I guess I'm a little confused over the terminology; people use the terms "virtual tour" and "visual tour" interchangeably.

When "virtual tours" first came out here in the Louisville, KY area, they were all done in as a 360. I personally don't like them. Unless the rooms are massive, I think they do a disservice.

What I'm wanting to learn more about is a true VIDEO tour. I saw a couple of your examples and was most impressed, but you are not IN our marketplace. How can we enlist YOUR help?

I'm ready to go out and buy the RIGHT equipment. Don't want to waste money on the wrong stuff.

Please write me back and/or feel free to call me.

Thanks!

Feb 02, 2008 11:22 PM

Fred Light

| Nashua Video Tours - Nashua, NH

Real Estate Video Tours for MA and NH

Jacki/ Jerry: I think VIRTUAL TOUR means one thing - you're touring a home 'virtually'... as opposed to 'in reality'. I think that could mean 360 degree tours, photos, video - anything that is not REAL.

But the terminology has been really muddied in the last year... people doing photo slideshows are calling it 'video', which it is not. Zooming in and out on photos is still a photo - it's not full motion video. That's why I always tell my clients to SHOW your sellers the video you will be producing - don't just 'say' you're doing a video tour, as most realtors say that - and in fact, they are doing a slideshow.

How can you enlist my help? Well, you can fly me down and put me up and I'll do some tours for you! LOL (actually, people do that - I just got back from several days on the cape doing tours). You can also check out WellcomeMat.com. They have a videographer directory and you can probably find someone in your area.

I get many calls and emails each week like yours, so I am also finishing up an instructional DVD on how to shoot real estate video tours. It should be available within the next few weeks at the latest, if you want to try and do them yourself.

Good luck!

Feb 03, 2008 01:24 AM

Obeoman Glade Jones

www.obeo.com - Salt Lake City, UT

Fred -

...this shows that the Real Estate consumer is king - and most listings for most Realtors cannot bear the expense of a video tour: the cost of the equipment and software is too high and the learning curve too steep.

And I don't think it's laziness on the part of Realtors that keep them from taking pictures - it's probably because they feel like they might not capture the listing quite right.

We invite all Realtors to bring their on line marketing needs to Obeo - we have a tour we can fit to their listing and their budget and provide them a unique website for each home, statisitics that show the tour is working and a website where one million buyers visit each month.

Steve

Feb 03, 2008 02:29 AM

eric manthey

Vid2r - Denver, CO

Steve,

Please spare us your desperate attempts to peddle your outdated technology. I myself find it very funny that you are one of the only people who constantly seeks and searches out every post about real estate video, and voices your VERY UNINFORMED, IGNORANT opinions.

Maybe you can find better things to do with your time, than waste it here.

Here's an idea: figure out what you will be doing for a career in 2 years when no one wants to buy your outdated technology anymore.

Feb 03, 2008 02:46 AM

Obeoman Glade Jones

www.obeo.com - Salt Lake City, UT

Eric,

How could anyone seek out every post on RE video and how could there only a "single person" commenting on the subject here at AR or in the greater bloggosphere. I have consistently stated RE video has a niche, and this blog post is a good example of how homes of a certain value, location or in a certain community may bear the cost of RE video.

Facts based in reality bring about great debate and the time spent debating facts is never wasted. Coming here keeps me informed and as anyone learns, they can't fairly be called lazy or ignorant.

For most homes in most places for most Realtors-the facts stand: RE video is too expensive, too time consuming and too steep a learning curve to do DIY.

The high price of the equipment used to create tours is too prohibitive for most Realtors: Camera: Sony HC3 High Definition Camcorder; Steadicam Merlin; Final Cut editing software; Sorenson Squeeze compressino software.

You may want take a look at what Greg Swann had to write about Obeo - and keep an eye on Obeo as we are providing Realtors the tools to make them experts in the home ownership cycle.

Steve

Feb 03, 2008 03:37 AM

Anonymous

I really don't believe that video is too expensive to do every home, video is just emerging into the real estate scene (and onto the internet) but once sellers demand a video for their listing, agents will have no choice to provide a video or they will simply not get any listings.

I know there are a lot of expenses as being a realtor, but most sellers do not realize this, what they do realize is how much they are paying their agent. A house at only $100,000 is paying $6000 to sell their home, it will not be long until this homeowner is asking why can't you spend $100-$300 on a video when I am paying $6000 to sell my home

Steve your company produces nice 360 tours, but it won't be long until sellers do not want these anymore. We are about the cheapest out there producing video tours, and even charge less then what you charge for a 360 tour. Most of our agents can get all of their homes filmed for about $100 or less per month.

Todd Kivimaki

Wow Video Tours

Feb 03, 2008 05:13 AM

#63

Anonymous

Todd Kivimaki

Wow Video Tours

Feb 03, 2008 05:14 AM

#64

Obeoman Glade Jones

www.obeo.com - Salt Lake City, UT

Todd,

Consumers-Sellers, Buyers and Realtors vote with their dollars, and they have voted for photographic virtual tours as the leading on line marketing tool for real estate. There are millions of them-perhaps billion(s)-showing listings on line world wide.

And one million visitors a month to Obeo see homes listed there for sale.

Most sellers want to pay their Realtor less, so how does video fit in that equation for the Realtor and the Seller?

You may have a decent $100 video tour-just asking-are your tours really $100 a month?

We host our tours at Obeo for a flat fee for one year with our marketing program. Value added in this market for Realtors on more time.

-but what is your stated marketing program, your exports/syndication on the web, and what is the statistical reporting you have that shows the Realtor and the Seller that the video is working?

Obeo is more than 360 tours - we are the company of choice for Realtors that know results come from quality content, statistical reporting and effective aggregation and distribution of their listings on the web.

We listen to what the RE consumers want and deliver - our traffic and market position show this.

That is a lot easier than trying to tell or assume what consumers don't want.

Steve

Feb 03, 2008 05:43 AM

Anonymous

Steve,

I can understand why you would argue Obeo to the very end, no one believes in it more then you the creator (and you should). Same with myself for our services, video is the natural progression, and there is not one advantage of an Obeo tour over a life-like video tour. Look at YouTube and other huge video sites, there are no 360tube's or ObeoTubes.com

Yes our tours are $100/month, in most cases less. We are turning more and more companies over to video tours. It is going to be a timely process but we are prepared to take the time because I along with many other people on this thread know video is the future of real estate marketing.

We have been doing video for as long as any else out there and probably do just as much or more videos. Steve you have the market right now and I applaud you for it. If you would be interested I would like to talk with you about how Obeo can incorporate Wow Video Tours system of only charging $100 a month and making a nice profit off of it, so you do not lose the market when everyone changes over to video tours.

-Todd

todd@wowvideotours.com

Feb 03, 2008 07:49 AM

#66

Obeoman Glade Jones

www.obeo.com - Salt Lake City, UT

Todd,

I really am enjoying the debate - this is what being in business is a large part of. Just so you know, I am not the creator of Obeo - you can learn more about Obeo at:

http://www.obeo.com/Public/CompanyInfo/Default.aspx

It seems logical that you are pointed at the very niche mentioned earlier-homes of a certain price or in a certain area might bear the cost of your video.

And so, it does not seem very likely that most homes sold by most Realtors in most markets can afford $1,200 dollars a year per listing - Please correct me if I am misunderstanding your pricing. In most markets you can get a ten or a dozen tours on line with Obeo for a year for your price of one tour.

Todd, the consumers have the market and they have chosen Obeo. They use us because we listen and deliver the products they want.

Thanks for the discussion, and your offer-right now we have a million (literally) visitors each month to take care of!

Steven Stearns

Obeo WI Consultant

Obeoman

Feb 03, 2008 08:11 AM

Anonymous

Melanie

Excuse me for getting in the middle of this kind of nasty debate, but what IS an OBEO? I've never even HEARD of that before. Is that a virtual tour? Musical instrument? You make it sound like it's common knowledge but I don't have a clue.

Feb 03, 2008 08:29 AM

#68

Anonymous

Todd Kivimaki

Steve,

What we offer is a membership of $100 per month, so $1200 per year unlimited video tours. We feel as though every realtor should be able to afford this. From what I see on your website the lowest you offer is $120 for only 4 scenes. Say and agent does 2 houses a month, Obeo is now over double the cost of our tour.

We show the entire home, in an easy to watch video, not just 4 scenes. Again I recognize you have the market but also how long have you been in the game? I have been doing this for 4 years and I was in college for 2 of those.

I actually find that it is easier to get your customers to switch to our services because they all prefer our tours, and we are also cheaper. When we are marketing to a new area I always look for Obeo and a couple of other names because our product is cheaper and better.

Steve can you honestly watch one of your tours then a video and say that your obeo tour does more for a listing? I know you are not going to publicly say that a video does more for a house, but you may be thinking it.

-Todd

Feb 03, 2008 08:43 AM

#69

Obeoman Glade Jones

www.obeo.com - Salt Lake City, UT

Todd,

Here's what gets me thinking:

-What is your stated marketing program?

-How do you measure the stickiness of your tours?

-How many unique hits does your website get in a month?

Just give me some numbers to chew on....

Thanks,

Steve

Feb 03, 2008 09:39 AM

Obeoman Glade Jones

www.obeo.com - Salt Lake City, UT

Melanie,

Thanks for asking!

Obeo is the on line marketing solutions company for Realtors. We provide full service web marketing, virtual tours, interactive floor plans, and our StyleDesigner that lets you redecorate on line!

We are in the USA and Cananda. OUR headquarters are in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Our website, www.obeo.com, gets 1 million unique visitors-home buyers-a month. We are the market leader.

You can call 1-800-729-6236 to find out more, or check out this link:

http://www.obeo.com/Public/CompanyInfo/Default.aspx

Best Regards,

Steve

Feb 03, 2008 09:47 AM

Anonymous

Todd Kivimaki

All of our packages for each office is a custom package but I have not quoted a company more then $100 per realtor. Typically this is a little less

People love the tours, We never just sign one company in an area. We will start with one but this spread because other agencies tell us they have to have our tours because everyone is demanding them

Houses receive anywhere from 75-500 views per month.

-Todd

Feb 03, 2008 09:52 AM

#72

Obeoman Glade Jones

www.obeo.com - Salt Lake City, UT

Todd,

75-500 views a month is a pretty wide range. Is a "house" a tour?

-How do you measure the stickiness of the tours-how long someone stays watching a tour?

-How many unique hits does your website get in a month?

-What is your syndication/export plan and where do the tours get distributed to on the web?

Steve

Feb 03, 2008 10:02 AM

Dave Jones

Dave Jones Realty, llc. - Prospect, CT

Broker/Owner - e-PRO Dave Jones Realty llc Prospec

Fred,

Not to get your topic back on track and away from all this bickering or anything......

BUT, what software are you using for the sample embedded in your post above? It says powered by welcome mat. I like the looks of it.

Feb 03, 2008 02:00 PM

Fred Light

| Nashua Video Tours - Nashua, NH

Real Estate Video Tours for MA and NH

Dave - it IS WellcomeMat!

Feb 03, 2008 10:08 PM

Anonymous

Deborah Holbrook, ERA American Realty of Northwest Florida, Inc.

Good thread. I appreciate your promotion of video and videographers in real estate marketing. After all, it is your livelihood. That certainly is going to affect your viewpoint.

As a real estate marketer of over 15 years, I would like to give you mine regarding video. In my opinion, nothing beats video. However, I think you are being unrealistic to think agents will jump on the bandwagon any time soon. I don't think most are being lazy. I think they are working under limitations that you may not realize. Many of these are set by their sellers. Yours is not the ONLY marketing expense they have. MLS syndication is not a cheap business anymore. Board fees keep going up. Plus, an agent is expected to carry corporate websites, personal websites, syndicated websites, the big 5 listing search sites, supra keys, podcasting and more. They have to aggressively prospect both electronically and with print mail. They deal with lead-router systems, instant-contact text message referrals, and more. When they post a Sunday Open House, it is no longer a matter of a simple ad in the classified. It is manual-submission to almost a dozen open house websites. For ONE open house. If they are a producer, they have to deal with tons of technology. They are not the uneducated idiots you think... just because they don't use video.

I am employed in marketing. I do not do sales. But, I am amazed at the real estate law agents have to constantly keep up with. They have keep every nuance of a listing legal. When putting that listing out to dozens of sites, they have to maintain all that data to make sure listings are accurate. Not all sites are a basic IDX feed out of MLS. A simple room dimension not changed on one site can cost an agent their license and a sizable legal fee. Even with E & O insurance. Their job involves a lot more than visuals.

We have taken the work away for our agents regarding visuals. Every listing with our company has to have at least 6 photos to be listed. Most have 20-40. We have a professional photographer that shoots the stills - and, yes, stitches the dreaded scrolling virtual tour. Every listing gets a visual tour of some type be it virtual panoramic, slide show, or video.

Even as a large company, we do not use much video. Why? It is not because we do not want to. Most of your videographers replying to this site are from large metro areas like New York, South Florida, California, etc. Videographers may be plenty and cheap there. But not here. Here in the panhandle of Florida, they are commercial videographers requiring custom fees and a length of time from a weak to a month to edit, slice and dice, and prepare the finished product. Artists? Maybe. But that doesn't work for real estate professionals or their sellers.

We have our sellers breathing down our necks within 36 hours if our visuals are not feeding properly to every one of the 30+ sites we feed to. One broken link and they are on the phone.

If videographers want their product to become a staple in listings they will need to come up with a competitive package. And I mean package. Don't just view the video as the product within itself. It is wrapped in a package of other needs. An agent or broker will pay more than they will for the "unlimited virtual tours for X amount per month" to get the better quality IF your product/service comes in reasonable as a percentage of the realized income off that listing. That is business 101.

Then you will need to make that product available within a very short time. You are competing against a product I can do myself for the agents within 5 minutes. We can make a small virtual tour even before that agent goes to their listing appointment. We can have our visuals ready for a basic package upload within 1 hour after they leave a listing appointment. Our professional photographer can get to that seller within 36 hours. She will have dozens of photos and stitched tours to us the next day. 48 hours and we can have a fully visual listing online. You are going to have to work close to that to win real estate pros away from your "hated virtual tour". Can you do that? If you can do video economically and uber-fast, I welcome your response. Contact broker at www.era-american.com.

Oh, by the way, another thing that will need to be part of that video package is fast download time. We have a "stereotypical household PC" in our office to test internet viewing and downloads. Fred, your videos may be great, but I haven't had one download yet. Most viewers will not wait 3-5 minutes per video download when shopping. We in graphics get accustomed to our super PC drives and wide-band connections. That is still not the typical for the average home buyer.

Just felt some of the posters here needed to see both sides of the coin.

Aug 25, 2008 11:44 AM

#76

Fred Light

| Nashua Video Tours - Nashua, NH

Real Estate Video Tours for MA and NH

Deborah:

I understand what you're saying - I've done internet marketing almost exclusively for realtors in the late '90s. so I'm also well aware of the demographic of my target audience.

Obviously, every marketplace is different. Broadband is required for video - it's not an option. And even the slowest broadband connection doesn't really do video that well.

I can't speak for other areas or other videographers, but I can tell you here in the Boston area, the majority of users have broadband. Actually, that's generally true throughout the country. But I'm sure if you go to northern Maine, you'll find that's not the case. Connection speed for most is not an issue. I have found however that realtors offices notoriously have the worst connections I've ever seen anywhere. One of my best clients is in an office (one of 35 that the company has - not a small company!) and their connection speed was slower than dialup! (I tested it). It took them four years to get it upgraded to something that was considered reasonable - unbelievable. Agents were working mostly from home because their productivity was affected as everything was pathetically slow. On a normal connection, it NEVER takes 3-5 minutes to download a video. I'm guessing you don't know how to watch video online - you only need to let it begin to download, then press play and you can begin watching. You don't have to wait for the entire thing to download! I watched one of my videos this morning at a Panera on a shared wireless connection... on my iPhone.... and it took about 40 minutes to get enough of a download for it to smoothly play.

My videos range in price from $139-$300; $400 for houses over 5,000 sq ft. I hardly think that's a large expense for a realtor listing a $400K++ house and the potential commission that comes from selling it Yes, I am fully aware of all of the expenses realtors have. They have expenses just as any other business person has. Realtors are in business for themselves. So am I. I have expenses as well I don't see how having business expenses is an issue. All businesses have a cost associated with doing business!

They are available on the web, on the MLS and on Realtor.com and uploaded to 10-12 video sites - all within 24 hours. At the very most 48 hours. I see agents all the time spending $300 and much more to place absolutely worthless ads in local newspapers and real estate magazines. Print is DEAD when it comes to real estate. Even the LA Times figured it out - they recently canned their real estate section. Realtors have limited funds for promotion - and the smart ones take those dollars and use them on the web where it's effective - not print. I see ads on shopping carts that cost FAR more than that. I can't imagine how you justify shopping cart marketing...! But there are tons of ads in the paper every single day that realtors are paying good money for.....

Video tours are not meant to be replacement for photos. They are designed as an additional tool for viewing the home after one has viewed still photos. It is (and will) replace the 360 degree spin around "funhouse" tour which is yesterday's technology, with nice distorted and blurry views of a home from spinning in a circle. I don't think you'll ever find a buyer who enjoys looking at property this way. Video WILL replace those types of tours. In fact, I've had three 360 degree tour companies call me just today inquiring about video - they are moving in that direction. One was in Florida as a matter of fact!

Video is not only a wise investment because it helps sell homes, because it makes it more convenient for sellers by not having wasted, unqualified showings, it also benefits and showcases the realtor. This is probably one of the BEST reasons to use video - it sets you apart from your competition, it wins you listings every single time, makes you stand out. It's a win-win all the way around. Probably 20% of my customers are sellers - THEY contact me. THEY pay me. And they give the video to their realtor to use - because they are completely dissatisfied with the marketing that their agent is doing for their property.

I receive about 10 calls a week from realtors and videographers wanting to get into real estate video, and the one thing I emphasize the most is that you will NEVER succeed as a videographer if you are charging $500++++ to do a video. It just won't fly - in any market. You need to determine a comfortable price point for your market, and develop a product that fits that price point. I will openly admit I cut corners in many ways - in editing, in filming, in equipment. My videos are not Hollywood blockbusters. They will never win an Emmy award. But they do succeed in the most important area - they are good enough. That's what people expect - good enough.

If videographers are going to get into this business, that's the hard pill they have to swallow. It's not about 'creating art', it's about creating a product at a reasonable cost that will help sell a house. Nothing more.

Those that do will be very busy. I can tell you that I have as much business as I can handle right now - I'm busy every single day. I've never been busier in my life as I have been the last 8 months. I have never marketed myself to any realtor or office - ever. Never done a mailing, never made a phone call - nothing. In fact, my telephone number is unlisted! All of my business is from my website and from referrals, and I get new customers every day that become regular customers - because video works! I have many customers that use video for ALL of their listings.

Have you looked in the videographer directory for real estate videographers in your area? I'm sure there are some that are reasonably priced and understand the turnaround times, etc.

Aug 25, 2008 01:21 PM