Making real estate videos, dealing with audio back ground noise.
Unless you waste the audio of a real estate video with dead air silence or plan to slap on a music track filler only, your audio needs TLC attention.
The real estate listing video sound is 40% of your show and tell information transfer.
In fact bad audio can hurt the real estate video more than the less than stellar visual element.
Your property listing story telling has to have quality audio or hold it.
CUT!
Time to regroup and stop the lights, sound, camera, action until you address the real estate audio issues.
This simple blog post addresses background noise issues you will run into making your own real estate videos.
If the weather is wrong, the gale force wind is blowing patio chairs around, slamming doors and rattling window shutters. Hold it. Turn off the red blinking camera light that captures it all with a wide open lens and audio recording video channel.
Wind blown news reporters in rain slickers wearing hoods want that tree bending, hollering to be heard effect in their visuals and audio channel broadcast background.
When it's live and local, you have to work with what you have good or bad for just the right effect. To transport your real estate buyer from where they are to stop, look and listen to where I live, work, play.
With real estate listing videos, you don't want the neighbor deciding to fire up the lawnmower as you press record.
The whining puppy in a crate cage in the master bedroom. Three pitbull dogs of the owner or ones down the street that bark continuously.
Those sounds are not going to endear your video audience wannabee buyer.
The one sneaking a peek online at your just uploaded new property listing video. The one you sure would like to sell to buy the groceries and to pay for a kid or two's college education.
The dogs barking, heard through out your listing video inside or outside the property address make your buyer boldly check off the box "No Way".
This property listing video with continuous bark bark bark hi-jacking your marketing show and tell does not make the grade. Won't cause a revisit for serious consideration and extra viewing or two.
The buyer figures if you have dogs, there may be damage to the trim. Ooh ooh that smell like the Skynyrd song for hold your nose odors. The kind that make them think of "Animal House".
Your buyer seeks peace and quiet. Pleasant smells and sounds collected from the new video property listing address.
Not loud music, Rage Against The Machine, Nine Inch Nails, Slipknot no matter how popular. Anything with words is just going to distract or annoy too. You need the audio to tag team help, not hurt your video.
Turn off the news channel that may or might not be the flavor preferred by your audience real estate buyers.
The neighbor on the other side of your new house listing may just happen to pick right now as his best time to trim a few borderline shade tree limbs.
Wielding a loud, whining. blue smoke billowing chainsaw. Held high overhead as he works like a beaver on top of a very precarious ladder. The obnoxious, straining chain saw sounds creating the sawdust is not going to help your real estate video production. Get ready for ambulance sirens to follow on your video sound track.
I like to take the still photos inside and out first.
Using the time to mentally prepare and edit the story board of the video capture to follow. But wait, oh no. Just as you finish your image collecting, the neighbor on the other side of the listing fires up his lawnmower.
For the next hour and a half, that lawnmower is heard through the neighborhood.
Delaying your real estate video show and tell production. You could remove the sound and dub in a new audio track. Or use the exterior footage as a "B" roll for what you talk about inside where it is a tad more quiet and the wind is missing.
Using a shotgun directional mic to isolate the sound you want to capture from everything else you don't might work.
You want natural sound and not to use the audio bed for filler music only.
It all takes time to replace the sound if is is hurting the video. So you may wait. Wait some more. If you want birds singing, a tinkling softly moving in the breeze wind chime to be part of the backyard video pan experience.
You could reschedule the real estate video shoot. But then, oh no, now the weather forecast is not so peachy keen later the same day or tomorrow on a property revisit.
Bad weather or the wrong look means your real estate drone video and photo flight is scrubbed.
You are now wrestling a different kind of problem variable to create the best real estate video possible.
You could ask the neighbor, do you think I could have a few moments without the lawnmower drone in the background? And use the chance to ask him if he knows of anyone who he would like for a neighbor, to discuss the new listing while introducing yourself, the agent picked to do the property listing transfer.
Maybe the seller can approach who is next door mowing to stop the grass cutting exercise until you can collect the exterior video footage quick like a bunny.
Background distractions like a lawnmower or worse, a barking dog. Lots of dogs yelping on your real estate video.
The viewer of your YouTube video is going to be forced to endure those annoying sounds that don't help showcase the property listing.
Your video does not have to be fancy but you have to make sure the real estate video is helpful and memorable.
That is represents what is for sale and the area it is located. The success of your real estate production depends heavily on how you handle the video background noise correctly.
You don't know when emergency responders will siren by with flashing warning lights to clear the road ahead. Backing up garbage trucks with the beep beep beep or a train rumbling by, an airplane soaring over. Those are not the sounds you want included in your real estate listing presentation.
Telling the story of the new real estate listing.
Salt and peppered with just enough information seasoning. Interesting, helpful and to aid your buyer that differentiates this property from that one.
Your real estate video has to help the audience member quick and easy decide how this listing differs from the last as they move on to the next house / community tour video. If they can not, bounce or flit on your real estate video channel happens.
The buyer will find another real estate agent or broker that can serve up what they thought they would be receiving on your video channel.
So consider you are a one man or woman run and gun real estate video maker. The ink on your newest listing is drying while you plan how best to present or introduce the property to your real estate audience.
In any real estate video, it's all about how is this sight and sound presentation going to be useful to anyone in the YouTube audience?
Camera gear, how to use the equipment and editing software are all a big make or break for your real estate video channel's success. But the unknowns that come up to deal with at the property location. There's the challenge to expect and work around from your past real estate video experience.
The success of your real estate video and audio property production depends on lots of small factors.
Each combine to make or break the engagement success of your real estate video.
Often, no seller onboard during the real estate video shoot so it is quiet on the set works best.
Family members gone. For total property listing concentration. The driveway clear of cars too that when cluttered creates the look like a police station vehicle impound area. 
Nothing compares to having the property all to yourself to focus on what needs to be collected for the editing back at the real estate office.
Focusing on what to shoot for audio visuals is much easier when no conversations buzzing around you at the property listing address.
All of this saves you the army of one real estate production crew of me, myself, I valuable time.
No background conversations no matter how muffled or a chair pushed in or out, a door shutting, toilet flushing.
Just some of the garden variety audio obstacles to work around for the best possible real estate video.
Stay tuned as more real estate video posts are uploaded to tie in with the "YouTube Thursday" theme.
I'm Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
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