Video or VR? What works for Estate Agents?

Simon Thomas • January 10, 2023

"A video tour of a property will reach a wider audience"

As an estate agent, you have a variety of tools at your disposal for marketing and promoting properties to potential buyers. One of the most popular options is video, which allows you to give viewers a virtual tour of the property whenever & wherever they are. But what about virtual reality (VR)? While VR can be a powerful tool for certain types of marketing, there are several reasons why video is generally a better option for promoting residential property.


First and foremost, video is easier for most people to view than VR content, which requires specialised equipment such as a VR headset to appreciate properly. Video is also more widely compatible with a variety of platforms, and can be easily shared on social media, websites, and email, while VR content is generally more limited in terms of compatibility (how often have you seen VR on Facebook or Twitter - the people who know most about engaging consumers?) This all means that a video tour of a property will reach a wider audience than a VR tour.


One of the key benefits of video for estate agents is the ability to cost effectively outsource production to a professional company. This allows you to create and maintain a professional image for your business, whilst also be a more time-efficient option. Producing a video tour can be a time-consuming process if you are not familiar with filming & production techniques. By outsourcing to a professional company, you can save time and focus on key aspects of your business (like winning instructions & selling homes!) while the experts handle the video production.


Overall, video is a powerful and cost-effective tool for estate agents looking to promote residential property. By outsourcing recording to a professional company, you can ensure that your video tours are high quality, consistent with your brand, and time-efficient. So if you're looking to take your real estate marketing to the next level, video is the obvious tool to build into your strategy.


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Why The Pace Of Your Property Videos Is Important

By Simon Thomas • March 17, 2021
If you've read part 1 of this blog you'll be aware that the people who know most about consumer engagement (social media companies like Facebook & Twitter) are increasing their use of video because they've found it's what we like to watch and engage with, and what your local market prefers. So you should be using video to market your properties, but what should you consider when filming your own, or looking for a supplier to produce video tours that buyers will watch? As in part 1, we keep coming back to engagement - will potential buyers watch (enough of) your video? Too slow/long and viewers will very quickly switch off (we’re much less patient than we used to be). On the other hand, your video has got to show enough of the property so that they have a good ‘feel’ for it, and can decide whether they want to move on to the next stage & arrange to visit the property with you. Spending more time focusing on important areas whilst moving more quickly in the hall or going up the stairs etc. is generally a good rule. The next point to consider is more complex. You want the video to be ‘easy’ for the viewer to watch. You might ask how hard can watching a video tour really be? But if you feel like you’re about to walk into walls whilst swinging left & right, and permanently looking at the floor, as is the case with many DIY property videos, you’ll see what we mean. Filming watchable property videos is a skill that must be developed over time. How will you know if viewers are finding your videos engaging? The best way to check is looking at the average viewing time for each video … how long are people watching for? It’s easy to find this on hosting platforms like Vimeo & YouTube, but what sort of figure should you expect? Around 75% is a good target - much less than that is a sign that viewers are switching off too early. Assuming that you’re distributing your videos via the right channels … your website / property platforms / to your matched applicants list etc. you should really be getting close to this figure. (It’s worth uploading video tours to social channels too, but those aren’t targeted views, so don’t expect the same average watch time). It is possible for estate agents to film video tours to a standard that viewers will watch, but for many it’s a skill that takes too long to master in the first place, and too much out of your day to film/edit/distribute etc, when you should be winning instructions & selling homes.
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