Probably Off-Topic for this forum, but wasn't sure where else to post it (I will let the, er, wisdom of the moderators decide :wink:)

Does anyone here have any experience in doing property videography for realtors? I'm curious to know what conventions there may be in this field, and how to learn more about getting into offering this kind of service.

Yes. Real estate work is a significant part of my work. Send me a PM. I'll share my experiences.

Yes. Real estate work is a significant part of my work. Send me a PM. I'll share my experiences.

Apparently PMs are disabled by the SysOp... I got the message "Your administrator has disabled private messaging."

I tried to send an email via your profile, but got the message "That user has specified that they do not wish to receive emails."

can you email me at: info _at_ arzher _dot_ com

Waldemar could you contact me also? I am very interested in learning more about Real Estate Videography.

thanks

Can y'all copy me on this information? I, too, would like to explore opportunities to expand my exposure/business. Thanks

Yes. Real estate work is a significant part of my work. Send me a PM. I'll share my experiences.


The point of this forum is to share information and experiances, how about posting some for all????

Mike

I had a company ask me to do this but I turned them down because I was moving. They wanted to pay me $50 per home, which would include photography AND video. The videos were relatively simple, just pans around the major rooms of the house and some wide shots of the outside and grounds. Pictures would have been standard realty shots.

Looking at my current situation (read: hate my job) I am strongly thinking of looking back at this again. For that type of money along with my other video projects, does this sound worth it? I estimate it would take maybe an hour or two per home. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Thanks for starting this thread Mike.

Perhaps we could coax my friend Mick to post his experiences here... Mick, ya reading this? ;-)

The videos were relatively simple, just pans around the major rooms of the house and some wide shots of the outside and grounds.

[snip]

I estimate it would take maybe an hour or two per home. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

I haven't seen many examples of realty videography, does that describe the basic conventions/expectations of a would-be client? Are manual tripod pans considered acceptable, or is a motor-driven (read: expensive) pan expected?

ditto what mike said. the point of the boards is to share this discussion.

i'm completing my first ever real estate job. i was hired originally by the corporate owner to do a short doc about our town, for a separate, non-sales project. then he pointed me towards a realtor, to do a "quick" video job on an expensive estate.

too much work for too little cash. and a "want-everything-pay-for-nothing" mentality. people who work on commissions are not willing to part with their commission, especially in advance of the sale.

i suppose i would do a real estate job again, but only for an hourly wage. i'd never bid one of those jobs again. what is supposed to only take xx hours takes at least twice as long...expect to either keep a tight lid on the hours or expect to spend more hours than they are willing to pay for....they expect videography to take the same amount of time as photography, and don't understand that it doesn't....

i am curious to see who is doing this successfully. how are you making this worth your time? i would like to learn from someone who has been through it more than once....

i'm completing my first ever real estate job. i was hired originally by the corporate owner to do a short doc about our town, for a separate, non-sales project. then he pointed me towards a realtor, to do a "quick" video job on an expensive estate.

too much work for too little cash. and a "want-everything-pay-for-nothing" mentality. people who work on commissions are not willing to part with their commission, especially in advance of the sale.

i suppose i would do a real estate job again, but only for an hourly wage. i'd never bid one of those jobs again. what is supposed to only take xx hours takes at least twice as long...expect to either keep a tight lid on the hours or expect to spend more hours than they are willing to pay for....they expect videography to take the same amount of time as photography, and don't understand that it doesn't....

What was the process for you? Did you go about it as Mike (Oveson -- too many Mike's in here already!) desrcibed? How large was the property? How long would you say you spent shooting the whole thing? Are you doing anything fancy with the editing, or just plain panning cuts with cross-fade transitions?

I haven't seen many examples of realty videography, does that describe the basic conventions/expectations of a would-be client? Are manual tripod pans considered acceptable, or is a motor-driven (read: expensive) pan expected?

Well, that's what this realty company wanted. They were a fairly large office, something like 80 realtors. Each individual realtor was to pay me the $50 per property that I did. The demo that they showed me from another website was very basic. Just some pans across the rooms, some outside shots, anything motion that helped sell the home (fountains, etc). The only difference I can tell between realty video and photo is that you don't have to move the video yourself. They have those VR type setups on most realty sites where you can pan around an image (usually a stitched image) of a room and get an idea of how the house is. But with video you just sit back and relax. If I were to do this I would just do the basic pans, maybe a rack focus here and there if I could find interesting things to focus on, things like that. Something that wouldn't take me more than an hour to film and less than 30 minutes to cut. The nice thing about it is that I would just ftp it straight to their site from home. The demo I saw seemed to have pans done by hand. Motor driven pans are easy too. You can get a Bescor motorized head for about $130. I actually have one that I thought I might use for this. It might be a bit fast though. It's been a while since I've used it.

I do agree with Meryem though, in that many realtors do not want to part with any of their commission. And if I may get on my soapbox for a moment, realtors are rather overpaid for what they do. Push a few forms around, make a few phone calls, make many thousand dollars per transaction. Sad. But, getting down off the soapbox, this could be a better time to get into this sort of work. The market appears to be slowing down again and people are going to have to work harder to sell their homes. In the past year it has been a seller's market. I have a friend that does real estate photography and half of the time the home is sold before he even gets a chance to shoot it. And this happens many times within 24 hours of the home going up for sale. It's just crazy. So, it's a risk. But the demand may go up as people have to do more to sell their places.

to answer your question, i expected it to be the basic thing. show some pretty scenics, pan across a few rooms. not a big deal at all. but the actual edited piece is better looking than the house itself....has some some compositing and effects. and the realtor wanted someone else's photographic stills included, so the whole thing had to be color-corrected to get different bits shot at different times to match. as i said, the only condition i would do this again would be hourly, no bid. if the situation was as mike oveson describes it, a few pans and a few scenics thrown together on a linear timeline, this would have been pretty easy. but even at $50 per house, it takes a minimum of an hour to shoot and i would say at least an hour and a half to capture and edit a 2-3 minute video. then there is compression and output. so suddenly your $50 is working out to be around $10-15 an hour at best....great if you're a kid looking for a little experience and going to school at the same time. a little better than work-study. but a complete rip-off if you have an established biz and it takes time away from making any actual money.....

If I were to do this I would just do the basic pans, maybe a rack focus here and there if I could find interesting things to focus on, things like that. Something that wouldn't take me more than an hour to film and less than 30 minutes to cut. The nice thing about it is that I would just ftp it straight to their site from home. The demo I saw seemed to have pans done by hand. Motor driven pans are easy too. You can get a Bescor motorized head for about $130. I actually have one that I thought I might use for this. It might be a bit fast though. It's been a while since I've used it.

That sounds pretty much how I pictured things... shoot some pans of the main rooms, and some shots of the outdoors, edit it down to a few clips with some quick X-fade transitions, render/compress to QuickTime, and fini!

Is there anything i am missing from this equation?

Clients? =)

My question now is how would you obtain clients? The way I got into a discussion over this with the realty firm I mentioned earlier was that I applied for a job with them as an executive secretary and somehow I got talking about video and such with their web designer. Next thing I knew they were asking me to do this for them. A real fluke event, I'd say.

So, how would you get clients? Just start calling realty companies and offering your services? There are a few established places out there that JUST do realty video. So what makes any of us special? Any thoughts?

http://www.wowvideotours.com/

Been doing real estate videos for about 3 years now. The hardest part is selling to the realtors, most who make good money but don't want to pay for anything.

A good place to start is with their customers. Show the customers what you can do and how it will help sell their home. The customer has a lot more pull with the realtor then we do. Most realtors have a hard time telling a seller that they won't spend $100 on a video when the seller is paying tens of thousands of dollars on commission.

You guys are spending too much time on the videos. I have the entire house filmed in 10-20 minutes, I shoot to a FS-4 so import time is minimal, and editing takes about 2 minutes, literally and then export about 3-4 minutes. Upload and link in the database maybe 5 minutes. So I have about 30 minutes into a video. I always shoot on Mondays for a real estate company here in town and this Monday there are 17 on the schedule. I do cut them a break for doing so many but regardless you can see it is worth my time.

Yea my videos might not win an award at a film festival but you have to remember who is watching the videos. To realtors and buyers and sellers they are the best thing ever, they don't notice the little things and don't care if the video is perfect.

The point of this forum is to share information and experiances, how about posting some for all????

Mike
A bit of a dely in responding. My apologies. The initial subject of this thread indicated off-topic. I was simply responding in kind by asking for a private message which, I gather, is not allowed.
In any case, anyone could have asked me for info via PM.

So, to make my thoughts on this subject public:

I do photography rather than video for real estate work primarily because the file sizes of the finished product need to be very small for quick download. Not being familiar with the real estate industry, I took my cues from what agents told me they wanted.

"VR tours", i.e., "Virtual Reality Tours", is the catch phrase most agents understand. These can be either video or still images stitched together. Small file size for downloading was the most important feature as many potential customers are still on dial-up internet access.

Apparently advertising of properties for sale can not be considered sales expenses that can be deducted from the sale price at closing as can site survey expenses and necessary repairs. Advertising expenses are taken directly from the real estate agent's business bank account. In my area a VR Tour is not considered unless the property has a sale price of $450,000 or more and is over 1700 sq. ft. $200 to $300 is about the most any agent is willing to pay for this service. With rare exception, all of my work must be secured with a valid credit card.

I prepare a collection of VR Tours and one slide show for every job. I am on site for two hours on average. If business is brisk, I will try to schedule to to three shoots in one day and allow the next two days to produce the tours. Here, time is money. My rates are split between on site shooting (more expensive) and editing, plus a mileage rate.

I do not offer web hosting. I simply drop the finished projects in a web based collection site that the web master for the particular agency can access and up load. I figure the web master has a better knowledge on how to integrate my work and I don't have to learn how to use another application! There is usually a phone conversation with the agent's web master to straghten out any incongruities relating to getting my work on a website.

Be prepared to be called for a job at the very last minute. Be flexible.

If your work is going to be displayed on a MLS® listing site, be forwarned that MLS does not allow any advertising of any kind. You can not, therefore, display any kind of copyright notice on your images. This restriction is blatantly illegal. You need to determine in initial consultation how to deal with the issue of copyright protection. The individual agent's website is not subject to this restriction.

Selling the idea of either video or photography for real estate is a difficult one, because agents usually are not willing to spend quality consultation time. That is why they are mere agents and not owners of agencies. There are also a number of internet companies that sell hosting services at rock bottom rates. For a low monthly fee they send you a VR Tour application. The agent takes his/her own digital photos (with crappy cameras), produces a tour of their very own (which stink 99% of the time), upload them, and contentedly cluck about the neat (lousy looking) thing they just produced.

Virtually all of my work constitutes luxury home sites in a sellers market. When the market shifts to buyers I believe I will see more creative opportunities. I have had the opportunity to see a few interesting videos that focused upon metropolitan apartment complexes and office buildings which were rather good. I feel there is quite a market out there if one is willing to analyze the need and be willing to produce formula based products.

There you have it. My thoughts on the real estate photo video market as of today.

That sounds pretty much how I pictured things... shoot some pans of the main rooms, and some shots of the outdoors, edit it down to a few clips with some quick X-fade transitions, render/compress to QuickTime, and fini!

Is there anything i am missing from this equation?


Perhaps. Potential buyers want to explore the property they are considering to buy on their terms. A video presentation is controlled by you. I have chosen to use still photography because, in the world of VR photography, the viewer is in control. They can revisite a particular place as often as they when they want.

I agree with Waldemar selling photo or video is difficult. Although Virtual Tours (spinning) are smaller in size I haven't talked with anyone who has preferred the virtual tour over a video tour. America is so used to watching TV a video tour online mirrors television and I find that a visitor may watch houses they are not even interested in because the get addicted to watching the tours. In one case this happened to sell a house, it was an odd house, shaped like a barn. The buyers said they would of never looked at the house in real life but happened to look at it online and loved it.

I don't want to talk bad about virtual tours and every market is different but the video tours really have more of a wow factor. That is the name of the game when you are a realtor. With a buyer's market it is all about differentation, this is what sells houses. Also if someone wants to watch a particular section of a house they can easily skip back to that section.

Again this is what has worked for me in the past 3 years (approaching 700 tours total), all markets are different.

Here is a good software I found may be usefull.

http://www.amarasoftware.com/virtual-tour-property.htm

One thing with Real Estate videography is that you could conclude the tours with some footage of the community. Once you have some b-roll of a community, you could use it over and over.

Another plus is the ability to add royalty-free music. I realize that bandwidth is a problem for some folks, but if you are talking luxury Real Estate, most buyers would have it.

Someone posted elsewhere about how Realtors are egomaniacs. I don't know if that is the case, but if it is, it seems that the key would be to interview them on camera talking about the house. They get an ego stroke, and the buyer gets valuable information that you don't get via pictures.

Finally, time spent seems the biggest factor for success. I would want to do a minimum of three homes on an outing. Perhaps I could work that into the deal, as time on the road is a big cost.

Thoughts?

We are doing a large project for a local builder in which we will be doing photo and video for each of the 12 model homes they offer. The footage is then cut with interviews of them talking about that model and what not to give clients a chance to get more familiar with the house before making such a big purchase and only seeing it on paper.

Most of the videography is done with a steadicam so we can walk through the house and give an idea of the space. We opted out of doing much tripod work as smaller details will be covered on the photo side.

Here is a one of the first ones we completed as a proofing copy to give you an idea:

http://smcouples.com/pinewood/minivenetian.mov

Considering the time invoved in putting together a full DVD of model walk throughs as well as a large collection of photography, it turned out to be a huge project- which is still in progress. The great part about this is how much work we get to do on one project and with the same format

Patrick
www.still-motion.ca

Dana, community footage is a great idea, you would have to be careful not to make it too long as you don't want the videos to be that long.

Patrick the video looks good, very cinematic, I personally like the style but I'm not sure if my mother or someone older would appreciate the cinematic feel. The only thing I would say about the video is I don't feel as though I saw the entire house. When you walk in from the front door it looks as though there is a room to the left but it is never shown in the video. Also some of the shots are shown quite a few times, maybe some close ups of features like crown molding, six panel doors, or whatever features the house has may give buyers a better feel for the quality of the homes, and maybe throw a few more outside shots in the video.

Real estate videos can be a lot of work like Patricks or not so much work (what out company perfers to do) it all comes down to what the agent wants to spend on the video. I still feel they are leeps and bounds above pictures and virtual tours.

I received this testamonial from a buyer today:

Happy Easter Todd,

I feel that the video is amazing because it is used to help us see the inside & outide features way better than a mere picture would. It honestly has made me consider a few houses that I would have otherwise dismissed. It gives me a better idea of the layout of the house (& yard) than just looking at the staistics (room/Yard sizes) would do.

I definately feel it is a huge asset to the company to be able to see this. I feel also it saves the realtor from showing houses that would in no way fit a persons needs for a specific layout ( i.e. open areas, arrangement of bathroom demensions, etc). Also huge is the kitchens, pictures don't really do justice to understanding how the layout works.

Anyway,
Hope that helps,
God Bless,
Anita


Can't really say much more then that.
-Todd

The point of this forum is to share information and experiances, how about posting some for all????

Mike

OK, Mike.

With respect to all, i had the impression the initial post was beyond the scope of this particular forum topic. Real Estate work is not event, nor is it wedding. That is whay I suggested the PM approach. I have to check the PM issue with my personal parameters within this site. I thought PM's were allowed.

In any case, video as a medium for selling real estate has quite a lot of opportunity and a lot of room for creativity ... provided you can do all you need to do at an attractive price. Anyone done legal work lately? Think attorneys are cheap? You don't know cheap until you have dealt with a real estate agent. So that has an immediate effect upon what you do creatively. In other words, define a production formula and stick to it. Allow 30% onsite time and the balance for editing. You can significantly shift this percentage balance once you learn the value of remotely fired flash and umbrellas...search "studio photography" for more info.

After that, biggest issue is exported file size on line. I recently picked up on a real estate video (which I watched on a whim) for a property in rural Maine. I picked it up on the IVRPA forum site ... http://ivrpa.org/forum/index.php .
Well done project. Started with an automobile driver's view of a country road accompanied by perky voice-over which dissolved into a front view of the property. A few pans (some kind of stabilizer used) and in the front door. A walkthrough of the home at widest angle setting (don't ever miss the master bedroom, bath, and kitchen!) followed by an overall impression of the home. A seven or so minute video at a downloaded frame size of 320x240. Total file size was 41 MB.

41MB!? Took me 25 min to download the video at a slow DSL connection. Took my agent way longer than tolerable with her T1 connection!

Nice work. Fun to do. A lot of work for a few hundred dollars. Video is the last media I would use for real estate sales.

Why?

Download file size is huge. Screen size is way too small. My VR Tours are minimally 640 x 480, and average 1.5 MB per tour. Fast loading is the key.

I exclusively use still cameras and Virtual Reality Panorama Stitching applications to make VR "movies", but that is only part of the picture. Simple slide shows at 640 x 480 have huge impact AND allow focus on details that VR apps can't do.

Brand identification with your client is very important. MLS doesn allow agent identification, but they don't make any reference to subltle references to agent logos. Great creative outlet, and intense satisfaction sidestepping absured MLS restrictions.

Output via QuickTime or Flash.

Leave the online interface of your work to your client's webmasters. Keeps brand identification consistent. One less thing for your to do.

Fees:

Hourly rate for on-site work.

Different hourly rate for editing and uploading.

ONsite. Get in and out as quickly as reasonable to maintain quality.

Editing. Devise a workflow and stick to it. Volume is key.

Special Features:

If you work on a Mac you can do damn near anything. The same may be true of PC's, but I am the last person to ask for an opinion. I own a PC. Hate it. Can't seem to do anything easily. Probably me, but honestly, I've got better tings to do with my time.

Starting your projects in PowerPoint or Apple's Keynote (way better for video) is a marvelous timesaver, because they both allow export to full quality video as well as other formats. Learn the apps, however, because you WILL find frustrating limitations! You will lose money on your first project, so take notes.

Export to CD, DVD, WEB, whatever! Just stay away from video!

OH YEAH, I ALMOST FORGOT. ALWAYS STAMP YOUR VIDEO EXPORT (VIRTUAL TOURS, TECHNICALLY SPEAKING, ARE MOVIES) WITH THE MLS NUMBER. IT EXPIRES WITHIN SIX MONTHS. Real Estate Agents think because they paid for one listing they can get your work re-listed for free. A new listing for the same property requires a new MLS number. Don't sell yourself short.

Patrick the video looks good, very cinematic, I personally like the style but I'm not sure if my mother or someone older would appreciate the cinematic feel. The only thing I would say about the video is I don't feel as though I saw the entire house. When you walk in from the front door it looks as though there is a room to the left but it is never shown in the video. Also some of the shots are shown quite a few times, maybe some close ups of features like crown molding, six panel doors, or whatever features the house has may give buyers a better feel for the quality of the homes, and maybe throw a few more outside shots in the video.
-Todd

I know what you mean about bringing in some other details as well as your other comments. The builder want this to entice and give them a sneak peak, but then they wanted their sales staff to do the rest. We will be doing some digital albums with more detail shots as well so they did not want them in the video. We did many different formats and ideas and in the end, this is the style they thought would work with everything else they have in place, so I just have 11 more to do now.

Patrick

http://www.wowvideotours.com/

Been doing real estate videos for about 3 years now. The hardest part is selling to the realtors, most who make good money but don't want to pay for anything.

A good place to start is with their customers. Show the customers what you can do and how it will help sell their home. The customer has a lot more pull with the realtor then we do. Most realtors have a hard time telling a seller that they won't spend $100 on a video when the seller is paying tens of thousands of dollars on commission.

Sorry, but I'm lost on how you start with the customers. Do you just call people who are selling their home via a realtor and pitch them the video, allowing them to go back to the realtor and request it from him?

Waldemor, that's a good point about the size of video. That makes me rethink audio; cutting audio would reduce the size *plus* it would take less time to produce *plus* music sucks on the web *plus* dealing with music copyrights is a hassle. I've sufficiently convinced myself.

I'm not convinced that video is a bad idea. My FX1 gives amazing footage in beautiful widescreen that I know would kick all over any still camera applications. The 'wow' factor of an Extreme Makeover walkthrough is powerful, and Realtors want to offer that.

I'm also thinking about offering still shots to accompany the video. That way I'm offering more to the client, and the web surfer will have something to look at if there is any significant load time. They can also take a closer look at certain parts of the house, which video would not allow.

Travis, it may be possible to find a list of For Sale By Owner homes to which you could make a pitch. I'm thinking, however, that Realty trade shows might be a better use of time. If I go into this, I don't want to mess around trying to find people who might want to sell their home. I want to find Realtors who will take me to several houses at a time and give them a consistant, nice product.

Travis, basically yes, you need the sellers to want a video. They are basically the only ones who can tell the realtor to do something. But your not going to have to do this for ever video, once it catches on it should be habit that the realtors call you to have a video done.

Dana from a business standpoint I would want to convince you not to do video (or anyone else) and not to use music because I know that is the way the market is going, and don't want anyone else offering what we offer. But if I were giving advise I would tell you that videos of homes work, and work great with music. The music is going to make a minimal difference. If you create a video watch it once with music and again on mute and see what is more pleasing to watch. Duty free music is fairly cheap and easy to come by. Plus does anyone really think that virtual tours are cutting edge, they are outdated and cheesy and don't give a buyer perspective of the property.

Video is the way the internet experience is moving towards, if not why would these huge network TV stations offer their episodes on the web for viewing. Also look at YouTube and my space both are filled with video and some of the top websites on the internet.

Thanks Todd...I'm a ways from Ohio! ;o)

I recently picked up on a real estate video (which I watched on a whim) for a property in rural Maine. I picked it up on the IVRPA forum site ... http://ivrpa.org/forum/index.php .
Well done project. Started with an automobile driver's view of a country road accompanied by perky voice-over which dissolved into a front view of the property. .


Waldemar....do you remember where on that site you found the video. Can't seem to find it myself....
Thanks
Mark

Waldemar....do you remember where on that site you found the video. Can't seem to find it myself....
Thanks
Mark

As I indicated this morning in a PM to you, no. But ... I was cleaning out my hard drive this afternoon and found this link:

http://www.rudymayer.com/featuredprop/WitchesSpring/video.html

Just checked it out. The link is still good.

That's really nice. The only thing I would do differently is get to the house quicker. People today don't have time for anything -- even flashy multi-media! Aack!

I have a friend that does real estate photography and half of the time the home is sold before he even gets a chance to shoot it. And this happens many times within 24 hours of the home going up for sale. It's just crazy. So, it's a risk. But the demand may go up as people have to do more to sell their places.

I found that problem too. Boise hit a huge real estate boom (now popped) and homes sold with out the need for video. sometimes with out the need for VR. Just some good photos and an MLS # was all it took to bring in the buyers.

jason

looked at it today....

Those of you doing the virtual video tours, who do you use for hosting? I'm assuming you host it yourself and provide the customer with a link. I would really like to get into this market to pick up extra week day work.

thanks

Those of you doing the virtual video tours, who do you use for hosting? I'm assuming you host it yourself and provide the customer with a link. I would really like to get into this market to pick up extra week day work.

thanks

I upload the tours to the agent's webmaster. Don't know enough about web site management to do it myself.

>Apparently advertising of properties for sale can not be considered sales expenses that can be deducted from the sale price at closing as can site survey expenses and necessary repairs. Advertising expenses are taken directly from the real estate agent's business bank account.

I've been thinking about this for some time, and can see where Realtors would be hesitant. What if the video *was* a survey expense. The surveyor could use the online clip as part of their report. Then the Realtor could also use the clip via email, a link to their web site, or a link to our web site.

Surveyers take pictures -- why not videography? Thoughts? How and to whom would I pitch this?

This would be SUCH a good excuse to get a vest stabilizer!

...so I talked to both a Realtor and Inspector about the idea, and it sounds like an inspector would have no use for the video. They chronicle problem areas, while advertising media would avoid problem areas.

Appraisors are ordered from the bank, so the house is already sold at that point. I can't think of any other angle to where the Realtor wouldn't have to incur the video walkthru fee. If I was a Realtor I'd pry be tight myself and not pay for a service that wasn't proven effective toward selling.

Is the best route, then to solicit the broker alone? Basically, who has the liquid dollars that would make this a viable solicitation?

Dana,
I think you first have to believe in the product before you are really going to be able to sell it. Maybe do some videos for free so you can get some testimonials from buyers, sellers and agents. I have many testimonials stating that the videos made the difference in either buying or selling a home. I also have many realtors that tell me it is the best marketing tool that have.

www.cowanrealtors.com

One of my bigger companies who does most of their homes, you will be able to see the power that the videos have when they are done in a large scale.

It is a hard thing to get into but keep trying I am approaching video 1200 soon and am having more people come to me and wanting the videos.

I'm currently shooting weddings/events exclusively, and know I would have a nice product, especial. I'm concerned about the summer down here in Phoenix. Anyone who has money heads north. Corporate work is year round, and Real Estate seems to be something I could tackle without having to buy additional equipment. It also seems to be something I could automate, so I won't have to re-invent the wheel.

I actually have been doing real estate tours for almost two years - I was one of the first in the country to do these types of things online.

For those who are inquiring about the validity of this business idea:

1) Realtors, as a group, are not the brightest bulbs. Generally, they don't 'get' technology, they aren't comfortable with technology, and they definitely don't get THIS technology (video tours). Most are lucky to understand and use email! About 15% of all realtors are actually good at what they do. Fortunately, with the market slowing down, a great deal of the 90% will be working at the mall sooner rather than later, much to the happiness of the remaining 10% who ARE good, and who DO understand marketing, technology and real estate. Don't get me wrong - that 10%? They are VERY good and earn every penny of their commission. Unfortunately, the bar to enter the real estate field is pretty much a pulse, and the $300 to get your license. Any knowledge of business, salesmanship or technology is NOT required.

2) Realtors are cheap. Understand, they have to fork up marketing money UP FRONT, with no guarantees the house will sell and they will see a paycheck. However, you have to spend money to make money. Those 90% referred to above don't get that concept. I can't tell you how many realtors don't even own a digital camera - they still use the Kodak 'office camera' from 1999 that writes to a floppy disk (fortunately their 7 year old computer still HAS a floppy drive!).

3) Photos sell homes. Virtual tours sell homes. It's a proven fact. There are statistics galore to prove this over and over - especially in this market of $3 a gallon gasoline and record numbers of properties on the market. Yet most realtors won't even put up the MAXIMUM number of photos allowed by their MLS - even though photos are FREE in this digital age. Again, they don't 'get it'. (part of it is a 'control' issue - they think that by withholding many photos, that a potential buyer will CALL them to see the property - or possibly another property. What they just don't understand is that consumers are ELIMINATING properties without photos and just skipping to the next.)

4) OK... so now you're thinking - "I'll go after those who have million dollar listings - THEY get it". Actually wrong! They get it the LEAST. Search in your area on million dollar homes and you will generally find 1) only a few photos when the MLS will allow 12 or 20 - they post 5. Virtually NONE have virtual tours of any kind. I did a survey recently in my area (New England), and literally NO HOMES over $1.5 million dollars had a virtual tour of any kind. None. Zero. Zippo.

So... that's been MY experience, and I have probably done more of these types of tours than anyone in the country. So, it's not impossible by any means (it's also not my sole livelihood!). It's a tough nut to crack these realtors.

http://www.NashuaVideoTours.com

Very well said Fred, one thing to remember is the 80 20 rule and it defiantly applies to realtors, 20% of the realtors do 80% of the business thus make 80% of the money.

Fred I noticed that on your website it says you take 45-90 minutes in a house and then another 6 hours editing, I really think that you could cut off a lot of this time by making the videos more simple and achieve just as good of video if not better. I am in a house 10-15 minutes tops, editing takes another 15 minutes per house (this is to edit, render the movie, upload and link into our database) Just something to think about.

I have also found that realtors are very superstitious, meaning if it worked for one house then they will do it again because they don't want to risk the chance of not selling because they didn't use a particular marketing technique.

One last thing to remember is it is going to take time, some of the companies I work for now took over a year to get. Yes I'm not lying I really worked over 1 year on several companies. I recently received a call back from two different companies I have been trying to get into since I started 3 years ago. It's been a long time coming but it is worth it.

I'm glad to hear there are others making it in the industry, I have been going at it for over 3 years and have done over 1200 videos, most of those have been done in the past year and a half (since I graduated from college) It’s going well enough that it is my full time employment and also I have another full time guy help me out.

Todd: It's really not 6 hours editing anymore - I've got it down to about 3 hours total. But my tours are quite different than yours - you're really not comparing apples to apples. It seems your tours are basically just room by room pans. I do that too, but also a steadicam walk thru. It also has narration, which adds quite a bit of time to write and edit. Then I compress and upload the video in QuickTime, Windows Media Video AND Flash. For example, your videos I cannot even watch. I'm on a Mac and they just come up with a blank screen. No explanation, no nothing. I had to watch it on Windows. I don't believe in putting up ANY barriers to viewing (such as needing IE and not able to use Firefox, etc). You shouldn't have to hunt down a plug in or use a particular browser to view a tour. People just won't do it. QuickTime is the superior web video delivery method, with .wmv second, so I compress to both formats as I think quality is imperative when selling houses in the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. Nothing compares to QT. However, QT and WMV only have about 65% penetration, so I also do Flash, which has a 97% penetration. So essentially, EVERYONE can see my videos, and they will see them in the best quality that their computer will allow without hunting down a plug in or having to be forced into using a particular browser like Internet Exploder. I also upload the videos to about 10 video websites as well, which takes quite a bit of time at an average of 40MB per file. My primary business is designing and marketing websites for realtors, so I'm very well known already in the business, so I fortunately haven't had to even advertise or promote myself, and I still do about 7-10 a week, which is plenty for me.... (I've got other work to do!)

I agree that your videos are different but all I am saying is I don't feel they need to be that fancy and you could still charge the same price, I charge just as much if not more then your prices and everyone is more then happy with the pans only.

Basically all I am saying as I videographer I look at your videos and say wow those are really nice, I can appreciate the work that goes into it, the steadcam work, voice overs etc, but as a realtor or just anyone looking for a house would I notice all those things, probably not. I feel strongly that it actually takes away form the house itself.

Again I'm not trying to be negative in any way because your videos look great, but if you could charge the same amount and get the same business but only spend 1/6 the time doing it, it might be something to think about.

From a videographer's standpoint your videos look better but from a business standpoint you have to think about what is going to give you the most for you money. We average around 25-35 houses a week and I typically only work 4 days a week.

We choose the wmv format because the computer world is ruled by windows machines and all windows machines have Windows Media Player preloaded, I too use a Mac (I have flip4mac installed and configured to play the videos) Generally those who do use mac will know how to play a wmv file (like yourself), I don't like quicktime or flash because it need to be downloaded and installed to play correctly. Something that is not difficult for you or I to do, but I always think "could my mother do that?" and the answer is no. Worst of all I always keep my email on the page so I can help those who are having problems.

You are lucky that you haven't had to advertise to get your business as realtors are a tough group to sell to. I started this when I was 21 so you can imagine no one wanted to listen to me a 21 year old kid who they though knew nothing. 3 year later and I have about 60 realtors who do videos, it is finally getting easer to gain some respect when I talk to new agents.

Congrats again and good luck in the future.

I wouldn't say they take away from the house. I don't know about voiceovers, but Steadicam work is what drops jaws on Extreme Home Makeover. I'm definately sold on the houses they show.

Time is money: a hard lesson I learned from my previous business as a portrait artist. The market could not support something that took me a week to do 'right'. If there is a market for the deluxe walk thru, then OO-RAH! It may also be possible to make more $ with less features/time involved by offering cheaper walk-thrus and doing more of them. It may be that Todd's market demands a cheaper walk-thru and Freds demands quality.

BTW Fred, I recently found that Windows Media Videos can now be seen on 83.7%, with Flash at 98.7% and Quicktime at 67.6%. I use WMV exclusively since I use Vegas. :o( http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer/

4) OK... so now you're thinking - "I'll go after those who have million dollar listings - THEY get it". Actually wrong! They get it the LEAST. Search in your area on million dollar homes and you will generally find 1) only a few photos when the MLS will allow 12 or 20 - they post 5. Virtually NONE have virtual tours of any kind. I did a survey recently in my area (New England), and literally NO HOMES over $1.5 million dollars had a virtual tour of any kind. None. Zero. Zippo.

Interesting finding. Does that mean that you target the sub-million$ sellers? Do you target Realtors directly? Brokers?

Well, I'm on a Mac. I have the latest and greatest of everything, including Flip4Mac. I can't view your videos. It's just a blank page. Additionally, I don't have Internet Explorer. It does not work using Safari, Camino, Firefox or Opera for the Mac. More and more people use Macs and basically they are unable to view anything. It's just a blank page.

(BTW, I can view most .wmv files - just watched one a second ago. Just not yours. You really should look into that as you're basically eliminating customers. And many people are using Macs these days - a realtor customer of mine just got his iMac today - switching over from Windoze. Maybe theyre not encoded properly?

Yeah I know, I know. I'm going to Flash ASAP.

BTW, Your work is STUNNING. It's very cool that you found a market where you can be an artist -- and you definately are.

Do you target Realtors directly? Billion+ Club Realtors? Brokers?

Dana: I target individual agents usually, but I have never advertised. I've had a lot of local and national publicity, plus I do real estate web design and marketing, so I already have dozens and dozens of clients. Plus, many realtors know of me even if they're not a client (yet!) because I do more real estate web marketing in this area than anyone. So I have a built in clientele which I was able to easily tap into. Plus, many agents find my tours on Realtor.com and on the MLS. They are also all over the web - several hundred have been uploaded to about 8-10 video sites. And they all link back to my site. That's generally how I get new customers. But most of my business is repeat business - agents that do it KNOW it works and keep doing it. Very few customers have only done one tour. And some do tours on every listing.

Dana: I had NO problem viewing YOUR .wmv files of a wedding video! It's just the videos on WowVideoTours.com that come up blank, which is why I think they're just not encoded correctly. I have no problem with .wmv except on that particular site. (although I still love QuickTime - there's really no comparison)