Real Estate Video Marketing

Video Marketing for Real Estate

Digging into video marketing and how to make great videos for real estate marketing. Hint – it’s more than just listings and tours.

Real Estate Video Marketing Podcast Transcript

Adam Small: Hello and welcome to the Real Estate marketing Podcast by Agent Sauce. I’m Adam Small, and with me as always is Doug Karr, of DK New Media. How are you doing?
Douglas Karr: How are you, sir?
Adam Small: Dg good today, how about you?
Douglas Karr: Fantastic.
Adam Small: Great. So today I figured we would talk about video marketing. Video marketing. Nothing like doing an audio podcast and talk about video marketing, I thought.
Douglas Karr: Exactly.
Adam Small: Yeah, makes sense right?
Douglas Karr: I was built for podcasting myself.
Adam Small: Got a face made for radio.
Douglas Karr: That’s the one.
Adam Small: Exactly. You know video marketing is really catching on. There’s a lot going on with video, marketing wise. It’s gotten a lot easier these days to do, and with channels like YouTube out there, venues like YouTube I should say, you know where there’s just millions and millions of people going to it every single day, there’s just a huge opportunity in video marketing, I think for real estate agents.
Douglas Karr: Okay, absolutely. I think so too.
Adam Small: So, I figure we just kind of cover some tips and tricks. Good things to do with video marketing, and step outside the norm. You know a lot of real estate agents, when they think video marketing, their first thought is, oh make a listing video where you walk through the house. But I think that they’re a lot more things that can be done with video marketing, for real estate than just walking through a house and showing the house on your video camera.
Douglas Karr: Yeah, I think so, too. I think video marketing, like everything else social and even voice like a podcast, is all about introducing the human side of somebody, and so video is, you’re seeing the person, and you’re gonna instantly getting a feeling of whether you want to work with them or not. And so, you wanna impress them from that standpoint. You don’t wanna be either too goofy or too professional or …
Adam Small: Too serious, or just bland, right?
Douglas Karr: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Adam Small: You know like you are most of the time.
Douglas Karr: Wow. Why I’m not on video, listeners.
Adam Small: That’s true, that’s true. No, but seriously you’re right. It’s a great opportunity. You give somebody an insight into who you are as a person. You know, they get a feel for you and your personality and that sort of thing. Because so much of what we do is in fact visual in nature. So, I think to kick off the ideas, I think that one of them would be for real estate agents to use video when they’re out doing a review of a place. If they’re doing a local review of a restaurant or a park, or a venue of some sort. I think video would be a great add on to that, so that when they go home and they write their blog post about it, they can actually include the video in the blog post, as well as put it out on channels like YouTube, that sort of thing. So, could be a great tool for helping people establish themselves as that local expert.
Douglas Karr: Exactly, yeah.
Adam Small: Not only from a venue perspective, but even around neighborhoods and that sort of thing, so.
Douglas Karr: Yeah, because that’s why I think when homeowners, you know you can go and look at the house, you’re gonna go do a tour of the house, everything else, and it’s not that it’s bad to have a video tour of the house either, but like you said, some of the questions that people are gonna have is, how is the school district, what churches are nearby, what restaurants are nearby?
Adam Small: Stores, amenities, and that sort of thing.
Douglas Karr: So if you can show that expertise, that yeah this is in the such and such neighborhood, I’ve got three houses over here that are for sale, and you’re gonna wanna stop by this brew house, or something like that.
Adam Small: Exactly, exactly. So what about you, what’s another way that agents could use video marketing?
Douglas Karr: Well, I think again, it’s all about the personality of the person and whether you want to work with them or not. And so the ones that I tend to like, is that where you can make that known to the viewer. And so it might be an interview with a homeowner or something, or a new buyer. You know, “Congratulations, and what was it like working we me?” And get a-
Adam Small: So testimonial type stuff, but not really testimonial per se.
Douglas Karr: Yeah, but interview.
Adam Small: But interview based.
Douglas Karr: Interview style, so was I too pushy, was I too … So get people to trust you is what you want. And you’re gonna see that sincerity come through on either the buyer or the seller’s side. They’re gonna say, “no man, you know one thing I love that you did was X, Y, and Z,” and now you’re gonna be, someone is gonna sit across from that video screen and go, “Man, I like this person, I wanna work with this person.”
Adam Small: Right, right. What about maybe interviewing local business owners and stuff like that, too?
Douglas Karr: Yeah, like you said before, understanding the local scene, I think is really critical. The other one too is, I think a lot of real estate agents have expertise with certain groups. Sometimes it’s businesses that’s bringing executives, moving executives into town.
Adam Small: Relocation stuff is one.
Douglas Karr: Yeah, relocation or …
Adam Small: First time home buyers is another.
Douglas Karr: First time home buyers.
Adam Small: And then another one I see a lot is HUD, which is Housing and Urban Development and homes.
Douglas Karr: And so doing some videos about that, I think is really important.
Adam Small: So videos showcasing your technical expertise in those niche areas is what you’re talking about there, right?
Douglas Karr: Yeah, absolutely.
Adam Small: Cool, very cool. So, probably one of the biggest challenges for real estate agents and one of their biggest fears, Is making a video that looks bad. So what does it take to really make a video?
Douglas Karr: Well now it is from a video standpoint, the actually visual standpoint, phones are just is amazing. Whether you have a two year old Android or iPhone, it’s-
Adam Small: It really doesn’t matter does it, because they are just as good as anything else out there.
Douglas Karr: Yeah, it’s gonna do amazing video marketing. The one problem that I continue to see with people, is audio though. And so a couple of things. One thing I see is people will stand with a wall right behind them. And so they don’t get any depth of field, to-
Adam Small: For the video marketing itself.
Douglas Karr: Yeah, people are focused on the wall and not on the person. So, stand up, we have a wall that’s probably like eight feet away from us right now. So, if we’re doing a … are we doing a video?
Adam Small: We’re not doing a video at the moment. I probably should have started the video but I decided at the last minute that I was gonna run out of space on my phone.
Douglas Karr: But if we were doing a video right now, that would be great, because the background is far away, so people are focused on us.
Adam Small: Right, we’re the center of attention.
Douglas Karr: Exactly, then the second thing which is the biggest is audio. And that’s, I tend to see people, they go, “I’m gonna go to a quiet place.” So they go to a small room like a bathroom, or a small bedroom …
Adam Small: And it becomes an echo chamber.
Douglas Karr: And it echos and it’s terrible to listen to. You have to turn it off. And so my second thing is, to spend 20 bucks or 50 bucks and get a good Laval ear mic. You can get them wired, and they’ll plug right into your phone, and that’s gonna cut down the echos just a ton, rather than using the mic on top of your camera. Then you can set up a tripod, a little bit of a ways away, you can have your Laval ear mic, and if you’re in an open room, you’re not gonna get as much reverberation. Go to a living room with sofas and things like that, that are real, a lot of surfaces and a lot of surface areas to bounce the sound waves off of.
Adam Small: Another thing you can do with that, Laval ear mics are great. You can also buy mini shotgun mics that’ll go right on top of your camera, or on top of your phone I mean to say.
Douglas Karr: But you gotta be careful with shotgun mics on reverberation.
Adam Small: You do have to be careful with that, but most of those are directional, so if you point it right at you, you’re gonna end up with a much better quality of audio than you would if you’re just using your phone microphone.
Douglas Karr: I would not just use a just use a phone mic, yeah.
Adam Small: So you’ve got maybe a 50 dollar investment at most, if you wanted to step out there and use an external microphone, a lot of them are 20 bucks.
Douglas Karr: Yeah, I’d say the cheapest Lavalier wired mic that you can find is still gonna be better than the mic that you’re gonna use on your phone.
Adam Small: Right, so an investment, 20 to 50 dollars and you’re gonna end up with really good audio. And it’s funny, we know it’s video marketing, I understand it’s video, but one of the key components of that video and one of the most important things is in fact the quality of that audio. You can have poor video, it can be over washed, washed out from color, and all that stuff. But if you have good audio, people are still gonna watch it and listen to it.
Douglas Karr: I totally agree.
Adam Small: So, wanna make sure that you have good audio quality there.
Douglas Karr: Yes, and stay out of the wind.
Adam Small: Yes, stay out of the wind.
Douglas Karr: We don’t wanna hear wind in your microphone.
Adam Small: That’s for sure.
Douglas Karr: Unless it’s like someone tripping down the stairs or something, then it’s a funny thing.
Adam Small: What’s the legal disclaimer on that, what do we say, we’re not responsible for you tripping and falling downstairs. So post it to YouTube though, everybody will get a good laugh. All right, Doug, so that’s kind of the low end, easy stuff as so far as equipment goes, and you can always step up into the higher end stuff with the DSLR and wireless Lavalier mics, and all that.
Douglas Karr: Yep, you can spend a fortune.
Adam Small: You absolutely can, but you don’t need to. Any other tips, tricks, ideas, for video marketing?
Douglas Karr: Well I would say if you’re gonna do a live video marketing, please think about what you’re gonna say, and say it concisely. Say it with as few words as possible. I tend to see people meander when they get on, “Hey guys, hey, I just, you know one of the things that was on my mind today, was … no, just get straight to the point. Just-
Adam Small: Right, so you’re talking about Facebook Live or YouTube live, or if you’re live streaming.
Douglas Karr: Yeah, people aren’t gonna hang around. So capture them, say, you know I would say start the video and say, “Hey everybody, thanks for joining, my client had a question about X, and I wanted to answer that today. Here’s the answer. Thanks everybody, see you next week. Please subscribe.” And that’s it.
Adam Small: Right, and getting short and too the point and convey that message.
Douglas Karr: Don’t repeat it, yeah.
Adam Small: Because what happens is, you get nervous when you’re live and that sort of thing, and you end up repeating it quite a bit if you’re not careful. So preparation is what you’re saying.
Douglas Karr: That’s exactly it. Preparation, and then execution. And the reason why that’s so important is, sure on your first video you might get 83 people watching it or whatever, but nobody’s gonna subscribe. And then when people see your videos playing, “They’re gonna go, oh I remember that last video where he just talked forever, and they’re not gonna watch it, and that’s what happens, and so you’ve gotta have that brevity and that excitement, and then just punch it home. Get on, get off, and move on.
Adam Small: Right, right, so short and sweet, right? Nothing more, nothing extraneous, nothing more than you absolutely need.
Douglas Karr: Yeah.
Adam Small: Great, very good, very good. From my perspective, I think another area where agents could of more with video marketing would be that technical stuff you were just talking about. You know, my client had a question about X, right? And really that could be a whole series of videos, because it’s just ask the realtor the question, you know kind of ask the realtor sort of thing. And they do it, and they say it, and they get that answer out there, and then they end the video, right? And so the value in that is that, you’re establishing a lot of technical expertise. A lot of, “Hey, not only do I know my area, but I also know my industry. I know that if you’re buying a home in South Carolina, you’re probably gonna need an attorney involved in the transfer of those deeds. If you’re out in Hawaii, there’s special rules and regulations around owning property, if you’re not actually a native Hawaiian,” and that sort of thing.
So putting those out there will help define you as a resource to go to, and somebody says, “Hey, I got a real question about this,” because maybe you’ve got wetlands or you’ve got protected lands, or whatever it may be. So I think that, that’s another great opportunity where it’s just a short question, a short answer, you know three or four minutes long, and you just put that into your library. Put that up on your site, and let people come and see it whenever they’re asking, looking for that answer.
All right Doug, any other suggestions?
Douglas Karr: I think the only other one, and you just brought it to mind with that was, against showing your expertise is, how do you sell a home and maximize the value? And I know a lot of real estate agents, they know about like bringing in temporary furniture, what’s that called?
Adam Small: Staging.
Douglas Karr: Staging. You know, doing things to the outside of the house, colors of paint.
Adam Small: Curb appeal.
Douglas Karr: You know that there’s really inexpensive ways to increase the value of your home. And so stuff like that is gonna be really, I live in a house built in the 1970s. So, I would want a real estate agent to say, “You know what, we could really maximize the price of your home, but you should put in flower gardens, this, that, and the other thing, and that is the cheapest way you could increase the value.” And so tips like that, again the listener or the watcher is gonna go, “Wow, that’s exactly the problem I was worried about, I don’t have the money to go get new brick work on my house.”
Adam Small: Right, but I can still make the curb appeal a lot better just by throwing that garden in there, or whatever it may be. That flower bed.
Douglas Karr: Yeah, and so I think things like that, and those tips don’t hurt a real estate agent, right?
Adam Small: Right.
Douglas Karr: They’re just gonna make you look better as a real estate agent.
Adam Small: It’s gonna make them a resource, a valued resource, so and that’s actually a really good point. I remember when I was selling my first home, now this was in the 2008 time period, right? So nothing was selling at that point, because everything was tanking. It sat on the market for about a year, maybe even a year and a half. Empty. And I was talking to the real estate agent, I was like, “Dude, you gotta help me out here, I gotta get rid of this thing, because I’ve been paying for it and living somewhere else.” And finally he says, “Well, maybe if you painted the outside of it, that might work.”
And I shouldn’t put it all on him, I don’t mean to, because I think he actually suggested that pretty early on and I was resistant to it. So finally I broke down, and I went and actually painted it myself, and sanded it and painted it, and it took me a weekend to get it all done. And then two weeks later, we had an offer on the place. And it was just one of those things where the listener has to be accepting of it too, because that is their area of expertise and knowledge.
Douglas Karr: That would be a great story for that real estate agent. Let me tell you a story about a guy in the middle of … he was really resistant to painting it. And it sat on the market for a year and a half, we painted it, two weeks later it was sold. Man that’s an amazing video right there.
Adam Small: Exactly, and that’s actually another genre video marketing they could use, is not only the tops and tricks or whatever, but also the-
Douglas Karr: Case studies?
Adam Small: Case study, exactly. So yeah, I was really glad to get rid of it, and I kicked myself for not painting it much earlier. That’s for sure, you know so all right, great. Well, from my perspective, I don’t have anything else to add. I think this has been a great discussion on photography for real estate, or video marketing for real estate. How about you, Doug, any final thoughts?
Douglas Karr: No I think you nailed it. The great thing is, it’s affordable. That’s the great thing. You don’t have to pay to put them on YouTube. You don’t have to pay to put them on Facebook. You don’t have to … You have a video camera right in your hand right now.
Adam Small: At all times, anymore right?
Douglas Karr: Yeah, so everything that you need, you basically have to do this, so go watch some tips on YouTube, and you’ll be great at it.
Adam Small: Yeah, exactly so, hey thanks for listening, we appreciate it. If you like what you hear, don’t forget to subscribe to us or like us. If you wanna learn more, you can check us out at agentsauce.com. Thanks and have a great day.