Unless you’re already a real estate agent, you might feel a little uncomfortable giving house tours, let alone doing it on camera. This is a common phenomenon and a normal concern for someone who is in the process of promoting a property. With the coronavirus chaos we’ve endured, this year has been an adjustment period for everyone, affecting so many industries in countless ways. The real estate industry is no different in that aspect, causing major decreases in open houses and walk-throughs; buyer experiences that can often make or break a sale. Livestream tours are an excellent way to combat this threat to your property’s exposure as well as generally beneficial for it’s position on the market.
Filming a walk through house tour supplies your audience with a better understanding of the property’s layout, prior to an in-person tour. Additionally, this is an excellent way to minimize the traffic within the home which may pose the threat of spreading COVID-19. As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, you can use different media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to promote and produce livestreams gives your audience an opportunity to interact with you directly during the tour by enabling them asking questions or making comments throughout. If you haven’t already read these blogs, make sure you check them out to learn about all of the ways they can be utilized for real estate promotion.
Prior to giving the tour, there are a couple of steps that you’ll need to take to ensure success of your livestream. Along with cleaning and staging your property for the market, you’ll want to promote the tour through your different accounts. Publicizing the day and time of the tour helps to make your audience aware of the livestream, giving more people an opportunity to tune in. This step is important in maximizing your amount of viewers for the tour. It’s my suggestion that you announce the tour publicly through multiple media channels a couple of days in advance then post reminders each day leading up to it. Get people excited by encouraging them to join in and ask questions about what parts of the property they want to see. Another step that you can take to improve your livestream is to use stabilizing tools while filming; these are great to reduce shakiness and help to create a clear video.
If this is a new experience, you may be asking yourself where to begin. Well, curb appeal is super important to buyers, so a good place to start any live stream or video house tour is outside. This is an awesome time to talk about the area and some aspects of the community before entering the home. Including aspects unique to the community that could be appealing to buyers, for example, swimming pools, a nearby school, popular downtown scene, local shopping or restaurants, etc. are all great topics to add. Buyers aren’t only shopping for a house, they want to find a place where they can build a life, for many people the area can be a deciding factor for them.
Once you enter the property and begin to walk through the different rooms, be sure to keep a positive and energetic tone as you describe the features within the home. A good way to structure a video tour is to enter and introduce the room, briefly describe and speak about the space, then finish by showing a pan of the room. Although the focus will mostly be on the structure of the room, simple tricks such as opening the curtains or turning on a ceiling fan, can add movement and light to the space, creating a more appealing space. If you’re showing less desirable aspects of the property, offer ideas to show the versatility of the space. For instance, while displaying a small bedroom, be excited about the possibility of the space being used for a nursery, vanity room, or office space. By doing this, people are able to envision more potential within the room. Focus on not what you are using it for, but rather on what potential buyers can transform it into.
Livestreaming is a super helpful tool when promoting your listing, giving you the opportunity to elaborate on your property, interact with potential buyers, and get them excited about the space. I hope that you found this blog to be helpful. Have you ever livestreamed a house tour? Which rooms or features do you think are most important to include? Be sure to leave a comment below to let me know what you thought about this post along with giving me ideas of what you want me to cover in future blogs. If you believe that these tips are useful, don’t forget to like this post and please share it to your friends and followers. By subscribing to my “Media Promotion Within Real Estate, A ‘How To’ Blog” you’ll get notifications when I upload any new tips and tricks of how to better your position on the market.
Resources:
G. (2020, September 21). Real Estate Agent’s Ultimate Live Streaming Guide In 2019. Retrieved January 03, 2021, from https://www.becomealocalleader.com/lead-generation/real-estate-agents-ultimate-live-streaming-guide/
The 15 Best Real Estate Video Tips. (n.d.). Retrieved January 03, 2021, from https://truefocusmedia.com/the-15-best-real-estate-video-tips/