HOW TO SHOWCASE YOUR PROPERTY USING VIDEO DURING CORONAVIRUS.
Is your property on the market and poised for viewings?
With a pinch of creativity and the help of modern technology you can produce the perfect virtual viewing.
Video walkthroughs, 3D imaging and drone footage are just some of the ways tech savvy agents are advertising properties. Now that virtual viewings are actively encouraged u it is the perfect time for you to experiment with using video footage to show off your property.
Where can I start?
First and foremost, speak with your agent and find out what experience they have with video advertising. You may find that they have plenty of experience in this area and can help you produce your property video from start to finish.
If not, you can come up with a plan on how to get the ball rolling with your property.
Property video checklist
To help you shoot the perfect property video here’s a checklist to help you get the most out of your video to market your property.
1. PREPARATION
Imagine that your preparing for an actual face-to-face viewing, your property will be clean, decluttered, and well lit. Make the beds, use fresh linen if possible and open all the curtains and blinds.
Think about each space and how it looks to potential buyers. Declutter but do not remove everything, you want it to look like a home to help potential buyers picture themselves moving in.
Don’t forget about the outdoor spaces, mow the lawn, arrange the flowerpots, sweep the pathways and neatly arrange any outdoor furniture.
2. PLAN YOUR ROUTE
From a health and safety point of view this makes sense, plan where you’re going to walk and ensure there’s nothing blocking your path.
From a filming point of view you don’t necessarily need to show every room of the house, you can skip a box room for example, and there’s no need to film every bathroom if you have more than two.
You want to focus on the best parts of your property and by skipping the odd room you will get a bit more time to do that.
3. CONCENTRATE ON FEATURES
After planning your route to focus on the best spaces in your property, go one further and give time to the strongest features within those spaces:
Does your kitchen have an island?
Is there a nice view from your kitchen window?
How about the bedroom, is there a view there?
Do you have a generous sized en-suite?
Does the family bathroom have a stylish freestanding bath?
Remember to give time to the outside as well, both front and back. If your property has some serious curb appeal, make sure you get the most out of it. Same goes for the rear of the property, do you have a nice deck? Is it drenched in sunshine at a certain point of the day? Or do you have any interesting plants or trees that will perk the interest of someone looking to move in?
With the restricted movement measures in place, interest in outdoor space has skyrocketed with online house hunters singling out properties with gardens almost double the amount they were before lockdown. Giving a good account of your garden could make a big difference in the interest in your property right now.
4. GET THE CAMERA RIGHT
These days the camera on your smartphone or tablet are more than capable of capturing high-quality video footage. The added bonus of these devices is that they’re small and easy to manoeuvre.
You may be tempted to pick up something more professional, like a digital SLR camera, but for this purpose it’s really not necessary and the increase in video quality brings with it new challenges around the data size of the files, unless you’re a professional they are usually just too big to send and edit.
Make sure you use the right camera on your phone or tablet, there’s normally a forward facing one for selfies and video calls and a more powerful one on the back of the device – this is the one we want for your property video.
Another important point is to record your video with your camera in landscape, or in other words hold your camera horizontally. This gives your camera the widest angle to fit in as much of the rooms as possible.
Finally, when you are shooting the video try to keep the camera at eye level, hold it out in front of you and aim to keep it at the same height for the whole recording. This will mimic physically walking around your property for the viewer and will also look more professional.
5. LIGHTING AND SOUND
This is important, especially when conducting a digital viewing. Your house could normally be bright and airy, but a dark video will send alarm bells to potential buyers.
Wait for a nice sunny day before you record your video and before filming turn on all the lights and make sure all the curtains and blinds are open.
Film the outside and inside in separate parts so that your camera automatically adjusts to the light before you hit record. Stepping inside from a bright sunny day even into the lightest property will take the camera by surprise.
Also think about the sound, if there is a road near to the property close the windows facing it. It’s not to hide it, but on a video the sound could easily be exaggerated or misinterpreted.
6. NO COMMENTARY
Another consideration with the sound is commentary. Our advice is to leave this to your agent as they may want to add a voiceover. Furthermore, if you make a mistake while recording you will have to go back to the start and record all over again.
7. PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
You have tidied up your property, decluttered, made the beds, planned your route, sorted out the ambience and have your camera or tablet ready to go. Don’t just record and hit send, practice first.
Record your videos as you planned and then watch them back. Think about how the video looks, are you walking too fast? Is it too light or too dark? Did you spend enough time in a particular room? Or too much time in another?
Have another try and look back at your video again, have you fixed the issues from before? Try and perfect the video before you send it to your agent.
Once this has been carried we will then upload this to our Youtube Channel and share across all of our social media platforms.