Episode #004 transcript
This is an automated transcript from episode #004. Hopefully you can find it in your heart to forgive any mistakes made by a transcripting AI. Your kindness may be all that stands between life and enslavement when the machines inevitably rise.
PAUL:
Video tours have become a must have for real estate listings. In this episode, we’re going to discuss why a video is beneficial to realtors, sellers, and to buyers.
VAL:
And we’re going to talk about the advantages for realtors, buyers, and sellers.
PAUL:
That’s right. The use of video has exploded across the board for marketing in the last five years, not only in real estate, but pretty much any other segment you can think of it’s become the go to medium for marketing.
VAL:
Yes, because on social media video gets preferences. It gets pushed up in the top of the feed. So better than photo, better than just a little written, something. So video, if you can market anything, put it in video format, do still do the other formats, but have a video form of what you’re marketing.
PAUL:
That’s right. That’s right. Facebook will give a video preferential treatment in the feed.
VAL:
So then let’s talk about realtors using video and the advantage to a real estate agent
PAUL:
Video is a huge point of differentiation for realtors as popular as video is a disappointingly, small percentage of realtors use it consistently despite sellers and buyers saying that they want to see video.
VAL:
Yeah. So as soon as the realtor chooses to use video marketing consistently, it just puts them at the top notch for professionalism in there.
PAUL:
It just really separates them from everybody else. Yeah. One example that we’ve heard more than once is that one of our clients will go into a listing presentation where there may be competing with two or three other realtors. And the other realtors will say, well, I’ll put an ad in the paper or I’ll put a flyer with your listing, but when our realtor can come in and show a full marketing package, that includes video as a cornerstone, it’s a lock more times than not the seller will choose our client just based on the fact that they’re going to get a real estate video.
VAL:
Another thing about videos when realtors use videos is it really helps in saving their time.
PAUL:
That’s right. We’re in a market that is a little bit isolated from Vancouver. We’re about 40 minutes by ferry and for a realtor to have a viewing for an out of market buyer. It’s a big time commitment. And when you talk to the realtors here, they’ll tell you that more than half of the buyers come from off coast. So that’s a lot of time spent on showing property to buyers that maybe haven’t self qualified themselves before coming to a home.
VAL:
This eliminates a realtor from needing to meet a buyer at the ferry, driving them around town, and then showing them a few properties that they might, as soon as they step into the property on the line, decide, Nope, I didn’t want this. But if there was a very good video for them to review ahead of time, then they could have eliminated those properties or a certain amount of them.
PAUL:
That’s right. And our circumstance on the coasts is a little bit unique because of our physical location, but the same holds true for properties like recreation properties that maybe it’s a half hour an hour’s drive to go out of your market to go see this listing at, you know, the Lake or the nearest park or whatever it is. And it’s a big part of your day to run out there and show properties to people that aren’t serious about buying them the same is also true for tenanted properties. It can be difficult to schedule time without tenant to get in and show it. Especially if there’s repeated showings. It can justifiably upset the tenant and make viewings difficult. And a good video eliminates a lot of that. You’re only bringing serious buyers to
VAL:
There we go. So that covers a lot of the advantages for a realtor to use video. And now what are advantages for a seller to use video or have their realtor advertise their home with video
PAUL:
Sellers want realtors to use video because it’s a time saver for them as well. When we’re talking about repeated viewings, it means that the house always has to be kept in pristine condition and your house isn’t always in pristine condition. Life is busy. You have other things going on. You maybe don’t have time to fold the laundry or take the dishes out of the sink and put them into the dishwasher or pick up the kids toys out of the yard. But when you’re selling, you have to make that effort and it can be a huge time suck when you use a good video, you do that once you get ready for your videographer to come in and shoot the home. And then it’s not quite so important. Every potential buyer gets sent to the video first, where they see the home in its best possible light. And when they want to see the home in person, they’ve already taken a step towards buying the property and a realtor can qualify it now and let them know, Hey, you know, they’ve got kids. So there might be some picking up that needs to be done that they haven’t got to, but you’ve seen the video. So you know what the home looks like on its best day.
VAL:
It’s just a saves a lot of time for the seller saves a lot of hassle. And they do know now that like you said, only like qualified buyers will come through their property.
PAUL:
Another benefit to having a video for a seller is that it provides the realtor with additional free exposure that when the video is well done, the seller is proud of how the house looks in the video and they want to share it. So they share it with their network. They post it to their social accounts. They email it to their friends when they mentioned to somebody, Oh, by the way, you know, we’re selling our house and we’re moving. I got a new job. You should see how good the house turned out in the video. So it gets additional reach within that seller’s sphere of influence and their family and friends.
VAL:
And it’s a nice keepsake for the seller. It definitely is. They can have that video forever. That was their home once upon a time.
PAUL:
Yeah, exactly. So we’ve talked about the realtor, we’ve talked about the sellers, so why is it beneficial?
VAL:
All right. When I’m a buyer, I want to see a lot of properties. I want to filter them out real quick. I’m busy. And so if I can do that all online from my home wearing my PJ’s right on
PAUL:
That’s right. We’ve talked about it with realtors and sellers and buyers. It’s all the same. It’s all a huge time savings. We recognized that it’s a reoccurring theme. Like we’re living in 2020 at the time of this recording. And people expect to be able to see video and learn about a home while sitting on the couch, looking at their smartphone, with the advances in technology. There’s no reason that can’t happen.
VAL:
Exactly. And so the more information you can have in the video for that buyer, the better, and that is really respecting the buyer’s time when they can just go through that video and say, yup. And we’ve heard from our, um, real estate clients that they’ve had buyers look at a video like 10 times over. So especially when they get to the point that they’re really interested, they just look at it over and over again. And we’ve had realtors also say that buyers coming from off coast in our situation here is they’ve looked at the video and they they’ve told the real estate agent. If I come and I actually see this property in person, and it is what is in the video, we’re putting it off.
PAUL:
That’s right. Yes. We’ve. We’ve had our realtors tell us that buyers have put offers on homes, contingent to the home, matching the video in the property. When a video was done correctly. Something else that a buyer will really appreciate is that it answers questions about the home that they maybe don’t know how to ask. So it can be as simple as the floor plan. How does one room relate to another room? It can focus on things about the neighborhood. Are you close to schools to transit, to other amenities? And a lot of times these are things that maybe a buyer doesn’t think to ask until they actually physically see the property that they go in. They drive to the property and they realize, well, it’s further away from town than I thought, or it’s next to a business that I didn’t know that it was X to the video. Again, answers all of these questions in advance. Whether you take the time to shoot the videos yourself, or you hire a pro to do it, videos for your listings are a complete game changer for realtors. It’ll better leverage your time and it separates you from your competitors. And it is the must have piece of marketing that every agent should be using with every one of their listings.