This morning I thought I would see what the competition when it comes to listing videos for homes that are for sale in Lynnwood and the surrounding areas. Now I don't normally spend a lot of time on YouTube, but I have to say that I was really shocked at what I found.
Of course there were lots of listing videos for homes in the Lynnwood, WA area. Lots of them were really old, so I sorted them by newest first and started taking a look. My first surprise was the VERY low number of views these videos have. Are agents just sending photos off to a service and never promoting their own videos? Seems like a waste to me! But that is the only way I can see that a video has been up on YouTube for a week and I am the first person to view it!
So a piece of advice to my fellow real estate agents and brokers out there. If you do a video of a listing, promote it! Spread the word of it far and wide on your other social media outlets. At the very least send it to your sellers and let them know you are making an effort!
The next thing that bothered me was that of the dozen or so videos I viewed, all of them were just a compilation of still shots with some artistic panning. Some went as far as to put some descriptive text. But still, they are pretty lifeless. Is everyone afraid to be in their own listing videos?
Plus, do you think a generic video is going to help get you clients? I don't love being in front of the camera, but it is something I am getting over because people want to see who is doing the talking!
This brings me to my last point and that is the use of computer generated voiceovers in videos. Someday they will make a voiceover program that doesn't sound like Steven Hawking, but for now, either have a real person talking in your videos or skip it! Listening to the mechanical woman describe your listing is painful and makes me turn it off as fast as I can.
We are just really getting going on the video thing, and I know a lot of other agents are in the same boat, but why spend money to produce the same train-wreck videos that no one will watch that everyone else is doing? Be yourself and be in your videos. They will be much more fun to watch and may actually get you some business down the road!
