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8 Comments on Video Tours - Help or Hurt Your Listings?
As long as the home has been staged and looks good I believe a virtual tour to be essential, plus our clients really like to see us marketing their property as much as we can.
I've only tried video once and I soon realized I need a lot more light and someone with a better speaking voice. Aside from that I've received zero comments on my site about it but two emails from people saying they liked it even though it wasn't perfect. My seller loved it! Video gives a clearer picture of the rooms sizes and the feel of the house. Photos look great but are limited on conveying the feel of the house. Bottom line---it's more exposure.
What type of camera works best for video tours? I have the option on my Blackberry and on my digital camera, but the quality is not as good as I feel a video tour should present. We do have a video camera we bought for filming the kids, but again, I haven't gotten into it because I feel most homes around here have rooms that are too small or too cluttered to show in a video to potential buyers. We've had much success with our property websites and photos and haven't noticed a need or demand for video.
Sincerely,
Kathleen
Kathleen, I feel that small rooms do not show well in a video tour.
Videos on your site are good for showing some things but not all homes need one.
Video is transparency at it's best. Buyers get to see EVERYTHING, not just the rooms or angles a photographer chooses to photograph.
Buyers LOVE that, as they eliminate properties based on what they see online. It results in fewer unqualified showings (sellers love THAT) and when you DO get showings, buyers are extremely serious and probably have watched the video more than once.
If you don't believe in transparency, and you think it's best to only show the 'good' parts of the house so people will make an appointment with you, than you probably won't like video tours.
Well Fred, we all can see that you are selling a service or product, but I have to disagree with you. They do not always bring qualified buyers, nothing can guarantee that and they probably don't always attract really interested buyers. A video can be very deceiving as well as only "good photos". You can't see everything from on-line, sorry to say. It's very important for buyers to be able to see something in person to get a real feel for what is there. PLUS, the video tour and photos are only as good as the person making them and the equipment used. I have seen way too many POOR videos and photos that have shown beautiful homes to be anything but. If anything, unqualified agents are out there steering away buyers with poor quality equipment and poor selections of what tools they display to market their homes. Most sellers like to see activity, get feedback and see you working hard. I doubt that most appreciate scaring away a buyer because you provided too much about the house in a poor way and now they won't give it a chance. Same thing goes for putting room dimensions on MLS sheets, most buyers don't have any concept of size. I get requests all the time for a CMA on a home telling me they have 200 SQFT up to 20,000 SQFT when they really have somewhere near 2000 SQFT. People look at the numbers on paper and say "nope, rooms are too small" and they move on, they could have looked at the room in person and thought "this room is a good size or is as big as we need".
Video tours are definately not for every house and agents that can't take photos or make tours should hire someone for the job instead of posting bad images that truly lose buyers.
Sincerely,
Kathleen
Kathleen... First of all, I'm not selling anything. I work in a small market here, and to be honest, have more work than I can handle. So I'm not 'pushing' anything.
I absolutely agree - realtors should NOT do video tours themselves NOR should most take photographs themselves, because most do a less than adequate job. In fact, most presentations online are abysmal, and if I were the seller I would fire my agent in a heartbeat based on most of what I see.
Most people will never by a home without visiting, although I have personal experience with several who have bought ONLINE - sight unseen. The idea of good quality photos and videos is to GET them to see the house in person. But if the presentation online is poor, they will SKIP that listing, not call the agent in the hopes that maybe reality will be better! The goal is to interest them enough with a good quality presentation so that they WILL call for a personal showing.
Sellers do like to see activity, but getting unqualified showings month after month gets a bit tedious when you have to clean up each time after 3 kids and two dogs, leave the house, etc.... only to have someone open the front door and say "this isn't quite what I thought it was". That gets old pretty quickly....
There are many really, really BAD video presentations out there - no question. There are even more really, really bad photos and so called "virtual tours" that make me cringe. Bottom line is 90% of realtors have no clue how to properly market a home - many have never had to actually DO any marketing. Sales just fell in their lap. Most realtors don't even know how to take good photographs - there is evidence of that all over the MLS.
By leaving certain photos out and 'leaving it to their imagination' is NOT always a good thing. If I see photos of a large home and there is no photo of the kitchen, my 'imagination' immediately tells me the kitchen is a dog... dirty, dated... there is something WRONG. That's my assumption. And that's the assumption of buyers. Transparency is the name of the game in online real estate in 2008. Those who don't understand this concept will be hurt I think in the long run.
However, regardless of the presentation online, BUYERS are eliminating properties based on what THEY see online -whether you think it's right or wrong. Gas is $4+ per gallon and they are no longer just driving aimlessly around looking at properties that do not interest them. Attendance at open houses is minimal - and in some areas non existent. This is how most buyers are starting their search - again, regardless of what agents believe is 'right'.
If agents are not representing 'beautiful homes' in the proper way, they should not be selling real estate or they should hire people that are qualified to show the home in the proper light - which is the minimum that you owe to your seller.
Video tours don't 'lose buyers'. Agents making poor choices 'lose buyers'.