Real Estate Video Marketing Ideas that Sell: A Guide for Realtors

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Video marketing works, and that’s why you see videos and ads everywhere – on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, you name it. A National Association of Realtors report shows over 44% of home buyers often start their search online, while 73% of sellers prefer listing their property with a realtor who uses video.

According to 2021 National Association of Realtors statistics, for sale by owner (FSBO) properties fail to utilize the power of proper real estate marketing, which results in lower average home sale prices (around $260,000) than agent-listed home sales($318,000). This is partly because many FSBO methods rely on yard signs, friends, relatives, or neighbors to advertise their homes. In addition, they tend to overlook video (4%) and virtual tours (3%) when promoting their homes for sale.

So if you have thought of a video marketing idea for your real estate business, a valuable tip for prospective buyers, or an exciting content piece your target audience would enjoy, go ahead and produce it.

Unfortunately, several issues prevent realtors from producing and using creative real estate videos in their promotion strategy. These include:

• Lack of budget
• Lack of expertise
• Not sure what to produce
• Lack of technical equipment or camera
• Not sure it will work
• Lack of desire to be on camera
• Not sure where to begin

Luckily, this video marketing guide for realtors will help you find custom marketing strategy ideas. It will also give you the knowledge, ability, and tools to create and execute a video marketing plan and produce actionable videos to help you grow your business.

Video marketing helps you stand out from other realtors and connect with potential home sellers and buyers. Ultimately, it helps you sell more properties. Photos are not enough anymore to showcase the various aspects of a home. They don’t convey light quality, the character of the property, or the neighborhood vibe. Thus, if your listing ticks all those boxes and more, you are better off showing them on video.

 Additionally, it is no longer enough to use billboards and mass media to promote your business and listings. The world moved online years ago, so you need to have a well-designed website and remain active on social media platforms to get a good return on your investment (ROI). 

Video is effective for real estate marketing because it helps realtors:

• Explain things clearly to target audiences. For example, it’s easier to show how spacious a house is in a video instead of photos.
• Book more meetings and get more leads. For example, target audiences have a 19% likelihood of opening initial emails with embedded video messages and a 96% likelihood of clicking on them.
• Videos are shareable across different platforms to reach more people. Additionally, you could add a custom introduction to give an old click a new feel.
• Drive deals forward and close them: Video helps resolve questions faster, allows agents to showcase more features, and cement a personal connection.

Video is helpful for various professionals within the real estate industry, including sell-side and buy-side agents, brokers, builders, architects, and inspectors.

Posting videos on different social media platforms casts a wide net, attracting prospects beginning their search. It also keeps your brand in users’ minds and allows you to market to a broad audience.

Most social media algorithms prioritize video when deciding what to recommend to users. For example, Facebook videos give marketers a 135% engagement advantage, while Instagram posts with videos earn 38% more engagement than images. Additionally, the organic traffic you generate back to your website is cost-effective.

Establish trust early when you send cold outreach or introduction videos. Video marketing is unusual for many realtors, making it likely to grab attention and allow you to build rapport. In addition, home sellers often do minimal research when looking for a real estate agent, and many will hire the first contact they meet.

As a fresh face in your target audiences’ inbox, you capture their attention with your video content. Additionally, if you pair it with recent analytical data, you gain a competitive edge in the market.

Use video to show certain appealing social aspects of your listings and the surrounding neighborhoods. For example, you can capture the daily bustle of a nearby food truck court, playground, school bus pickup points, commuters streaming out of a nearby subway, or the number of people stopping to look at a “coming soon” sign.

Neighborhood videos work well for residential properties because there are a lot of amenities you can showcase to appeal to customers.

Supplement your property photography with video tours to give potential buyers a feel for the home, the flow of the place, and its environment. For example, you could create personal or high-end virtual tours to display on your listing page.

 For a guided tour, use your phone camera and walk through the property as you explain the amenities most appealing to buyers, such as curb appeal or a large front and back yard. Guided video tours are a hit in markets populated by vacation or second homeowners. They create a real-time touchpoint that phone calls or emails cannot match. 

Have your clients praise your business and services using short testimonial videos on your website. You can ask them to film brief interviews during the high points of their buying journey, upon offer, closing, and six months later.

Your testimonial videos don’t need to have a high production value. Instead, you can use your smartphone and a body microphone to capture it. Then, save the video in a folder for later use. You can also cut the videos into a testimonial series centering on either the buying or selling process.

People buy from businesses they know, like, or trust. Hence, it’s a good idea to make short ‘‘get to know you’’ video clips to showcase your personality, value proposition, and services. You can place the video in your website’s ‘About Us’ section or your email signature. For the latter, ensure you put a thumbnail image to get clicks.

You can use free video editing software to add your name, contact information, and title to your clip to help seal the deal.

Email outreach and follow-ups are cold, but videos are hot. Most people perceive videos as high value because they seem to take more time to produce than writing an email or taking photos. Therefore, video marketing follow-ups can cement your relationship with current and potential customers while highlighting the benefits of your services or listings.

Make buying and selling homes easier by teaching people how sample deals should go down. Here, you have a lot of content ideas to try, for example, ‘’Home buying tips’’ for first-time home buyers. In your videos, include any helpful information people should know about buying or selling a home, such as how to price homes, get multiple rate quotes, correct credit report issues, or make an offer.

If you deal with commercial buyers, outline the financial benefits of an investment property and compare it to others in the market.

Training videos are helpful if you cannot do in-person sessions with other brokers. For example, you could record videos if you train amateur brokers in a different geographical location. The videos could be part of an online course or one-off content.

Sellers can record videos before, during, and after meeting with clients to show the sales aspect of the job. They can also talk through their strategy or explain common setbacks they face and how to overcome them.

Video marketing can showcase your company culture and attract interested future agents. For example, a ‘’day in the life’’ series can make the job seem relatable. You can also interview top-performing agents for insights into what they like or dislike about the job.

Salespeople often face situations where prospects get the contract and go dark without getting a chance to close them. If you don’t review contracts with buyers in person, it leaves the opportunity for a sticker shocker or other misunderstandings.

Therefore, recording a video where you walk through contracts and explain the essential clauses is critical. Prospects will appreciate it, increasing your odds of a response.

Live video sessions on social platforms are a great way to promote properties and investment strategies for commercial realtors with niche clients. Use sites with live features, including YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. Remember to give viewers a chance to ask questions and send everyone in your network a notification when you broadcast.

These videos are perfect for properties located in bustling cities. Time-lapse videos convey powerful imagery to showcase the property’s plush, location, interiors, and surroundings.

Drone video shots and overhead views are perfect for listings with breathtaking surroundings and quaint neighborhoods. Drone videos and photos are now more affordable than five years before, making them accessible for most properties. Aerial shots are impressive, lend an air of glamor, and add value for realtors.

Your real estate video marketing needs to be high quality and have the right content to sell your services. The following tips can help:

Smartphones can give you some impressive video quality if you use videography apps such as ProCamera and Level to help adjust your lighting, positioning, and editing. However, you need the right equipment – for example, a DSLR camera or a mirrorless equivalent and editing tools – if you want high-definition real estate videos and photos to attract commercial clients.

A professional mid-range starter kit for agents include:

• DSLR camera
• Lens
• Camera stand
• Extra battery
• Real estate video editing software
• Slide rail

Aim to spend half of your time in pre-production planning for the shoot, 20% filming, and the other 30% editing. Planning includes staging the home, adjusting the lighting, creating the content and lines, testing the microphones, and thinking about your distribution method. A smooth pre-production process makes everything else go faster.

The point of making real estate videos is to showcase your personality and that of the property. Therefore, it is advisable to have a script and message ready but explain things in your words for a natural look and feel.

People appreciate reliability and gravitate towards those they feel can understand their needs and wants. Therefore, try to be as relatable to your audience as possible by dressing accordingly. For example, a three-piece suit may come off as too professional for some residential buyers, while shorts and flip-flops can appear unprofessional for commercial clients.

Animated thumbnail GIFs pointing or waving to something on the background or screen earn more clicks. You can also use an enticing play button on your messages to get more people to watch the videos without forcing content on them.

Always do it yourself until you cannot. Today, more and more businesses use ultra-manicured video marketing to appeal to target audiences. In addition, intense competition necessitates professionally-produced video content, especially for high-end commercial properties where buyers expect perfection.

Now that you know the essence of real estate video marketing, it’s time to incorporate videos into your marketing strategy. Use the above 14 ideas and tips for making videos that sell to create customized videos tailored to your target audience.

If you want to save 100 plus hours by outsourcing your video editing, VidChops can help. Our subscription video editing service can help you create high-quality videos to grow your business while saving you time and money spent on freelancer or in-house editors.

  All you need to do is upload your raw video footage and complete a form then we will deliver the finished edit in two business days or less. 

Learn more about Vidchops here.