I’ve been having a great discussion with Sylvia Sam (Sutton REALTOR®) about the marketing value of online video tours for a real estate listing.
Here are the two sides of the discussion:
- me: Make video tours. They show a home / listing much better than photos or a virtual tour.
- Sylvia: (paraphrased) Video tours create a security risk to the consumer and should not be used. What if the video tours are used to case out a home for a robbery?
To catch you up on the discussion so far:
- I made this comment about the minimal acceptable quality for an online listing:
- A video walk through – HD quality, plays right off the website.
- 10 to 20 photos, high quality. Not pics of random things. Limited view of the seller’s clutter.
- Information: bedrooms, bathrooms, property taxes and amenities. (that’s enough)
- User friendly / focused website.
- Sylvia made this comment from her extensive experience on a police board
- videos and floor plans make it easier for a criminal to case and rob the place
- a responsible REALTOR® should never put their clients at risk
So what do you think? Discuss in the comments.
Image courtesy of ibcbulk from flickr.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Sylvia,
I want to comment on this point you made:
“Why do people like to look at virtual tours and video’s of the home? Voyeurs? What is the point of over exposing the house? Real buyers can get a sense of the home from good photos that show features of the house and if interested will go see the property.”
The key here is that you won’t know what kind of profile the online viewer is: criminal, curious or client. The value is that for maybe a thousand curious, you have 10 interested people who could turn into a client. You might also have 1 criminal. I don’t know how to quantify that.
I think this goes back to answering your question about casting the net further. Using the Internet for marketing means you can get lots of traffic fast and for free.
It comes down to this. More gates, limiting access to information, is anti-networking on the Internet. The value is not the people that you can reach directly but the people who are curious can reach directly.
As I write this comment, there have been 18 clicks by people viewing this post. (http://bit.ly/info/lsLUn – proof). While none of may ever post their opinion, they might share this with somebody they know.
If this was a listing and you posted a video one of the *just curious* people might forward it off to somebody else. That secondary connection might be your client. That’s the power of the network, especially the Internet. It takes minutes.
So you trade control of the information for a bigger network.
Have you booked an appointment solely based on the virtual tour/floor plan?
No. Because there is rarely even a floor plan or a virtual tour on a listing. Currently, people are just happy there’s more than one photo. That’s the standard level of online listing information on the web in Canada.
However floor plans, virtual tours, videos, photos do one thing. They help me filter through what I want and what I don’t want.
Isn’t that a major benefit for the buyer, the seller and the representing agents? Enabling buyers to short list based on lots of information and then taking them to feel the energy of the place?
FYI: I spent 3 weeks looking at properties with a realtor. I hated pretty much all of them. We only had time to see 14 places in 3 weekends.
13 of those places I knew it wasn’t right in < 2 minutes. But I spent an 3 weekend afternoons on it. Why, when I could have done it all online?
you could not have done it on line. The marketing look and the real home are often quite different. You have to be in the home to feel the potential.
Maybe you and your Realtor are not on the same page. Get some serious communications going .. Wants vs Needs vs dreams
No more conversation about your looking for a home. Anything can be construed as “intrusion” in your current relationship with your Realtor.
Floor plans and virtual tours that connect rooms so you can figure out most of the floor plan, are in my opinion, not working for the safety and security of the home owner.
Here is an example of what a video should be — all about the home, still photos panned in & out, and “news broadcast approach”. They use professionals in this one.
I like the framing around the webcast too.
http://realtytimes.com/WhyBuy/309TigitsiWay_WB
Thus far, I have not found a Canadian source.
Maybe I need to take photography lessons & video lessons & acting lessons & voice lessons & ….
I’m a condo Realtor and the buildings are secured so video is never an issue.
@SlyviaSam
I like that example. I think something like that done by the realtor would be good for homes that can be accessed easily from people. I was thinking about this for the past couple of days and I do agree that privacy is a huge thing.
I think the use of video / floor plans really depends on the situation of the seller. If they are still living there and if their security / privacy can be compromised by the tour then it shouldn’t be done.
However, in cases like Mike’s they really have some fantastic value. Perhaps videos will be a standard way of selling condos… :)
This is one of those issues where we’ll have to wait and see how people begin using the technology. The technology itself is very valuable, it’s how people use it that may or may not cause issues.
Slyvia? You see thru me already!