Anyone else shoot real estate?

bownut

bownut

Active member
I shoot footage of homes for sale in my area for video tours for a real estate company. I'm just wondering if there is anyone else out there doing the same. What gear do you use, suggestions, etc. I post the show to www.freedomrealtorsga.com/tvshow.asp if you want to take a look.
 
Hi,
I've got a couple of friends doing ithere in Tampa Bay , one pro , one noob. I don't know the specifics as far as their gear goes. But the pro tells me he gets approx. $500.00 a day for a shoot . And the noob is getting $50.00 a listing (and she must write the copy). It seems like it would , could be a cool way to make $$ while refining a work flow. Saw a minute or 2 of your show, way cool. What kind of $$ are you getting ,for what? And what gear are you using? Thanks
 
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I've heard of this and it's definitely something I want to get into. Once I've updated my demo reel, I plan on putting together a pitch to some of the local realtors.
 
its not very big in New Zealand, but one company has pwned us all and secured rights to certain companies
 
I occasionally do some pieces for home builders so they have video of the home in their portfolio. Indoors we generally just do stills as I can light the interior much better with flashes and make the place look alot nicer than I can with video. These guys like to show off their vaulted ceilings and the entire room so its hard getting enough lights in there and keeping them out of the shot for video. Exteriors we mix some time lapse with some walks around the property. We usually end up with a 2 minute tour of the home on video with or without voiceovers. Also have done some video portfolios that are a sampling of homes, these usually tend to be longer. When possible I shoot the house staged and with some family type folks in it. Makes it look a bit more like a real house that way. Usually depends on what the builders family is doing that day :)

Equipment wise I use a century .6 WA and a multi rig for the handheld stuff. Stills are shot on a nikon d70 with 1-4 sunpak 383's on optical slaves and a variety of stands bouncing light everywhere I can.

Just started doing this really as a builder friend requested it a couple of months ago. His builder friends saw his and now I've got a line. Works for me. I charge 300-500 per house depending on size and what they want. Portfolios just depend. If I already have enough footage/pics I'll just toss them together for a couple hundred dollars.

Havent gotten into the real estate game though - looks like fun. Locally we just got a channel that cycles stills with a VO and info on the house. For some reason I find it addicting to watch...
 
Figuring out the real estate industry.

Figuring out the real estate industry.

I was just poking around to see if anyone else was doing this. I started my own 30-minute show and pitched the video and still picture tours to agents around the area. That was BEFORE the cable company decided to compete and started their own round-the-clock real estate channels. I've found agents to be cheap and not interested in investing money into their listings. However, there are some who are the exception. I finally dropped the 30-minute show because I couldn't drum up enough business. I finally sold the concept to one real estate company and I produce their own show. It pays great.

When I was just doing houses without a show I charge almost $300 for the video shoot, voice over, editing, and uploading the tour online to Realtor.com (which is a whole different ball game), dumping it to DVD, and providing a copy online they could link to.

Now that I'm just producing a TV show, I charge per hour for my work, but it still comes to about $250 per house that I shoot video. For my one client, working less than four days a month, I bill anywhere from $1500-2000 a month. I do have expenses, like tapes, air time, etc.

If you want to get into this type of industry I suggest you do it on the cheap and go after a brokerage NOT agents. Even the brokers I work with admit that agents are like lemmings, they just do what everyone else is doing without giving it much thought. The brokers (the ones who run the companies) have a lot of foresight and tend to look to new ideas and technology. That is how I got my client. I'm a stay-at-home mom, so I work less than four days a month, two shooting, two editing.

I'm a one man band, that comes from my time slaving as a one-man-band TV reporter in TV news. I shoot on a DVX100B using only 63AMQ tapes. I also use a .6 wide-angle adapter. I don't light because I don't need to with the lighting from the windows and lights in the house. You'll see that sometimes I use auto iris when I should use manual. I have a bogen 501 head, which I HATE. I'm looking forward to a true fluid head. I can't remember what sticks I've got, but they are okay. I use wired mics because I haven't quite made the investment into wireless. I edit in Premier Pro 2.0.

I enjoy my work, especially since it doesn't consume my life. It is a nice way to make a little money on the side and pay for my equipment. The drawback is that you can do a long-form show for one real estate company, but probably won't be able to pick up another in the same are because it is a conflict of interest.
 
I do photography for prudential. I've offered video tours but it doens't seem that hot a request, though eventually I'll expect to do some.

As far as the photography goes, generally I bring my d70 and a vivitar 285 with slave, if it's a house that is gonna get pamphlets published I'll bring my full lighting setup.

Use available light. A 1/8th second shutter on a tripod looks infinitely better than a flash.
 
I do some photography

I do some photography

I do some photography on the video shoots I do somewhat to cover myself if the video turns out like absolute crap (only happened one time when I had a videographer who forgot to shoot a certain room) and also for the agents to use for flyers, ads, etc. I am the same when it comes to lighting. I use available light without a flash. It makes the room beautiful, bright, and sharp. However, I have trouble shooting toward windows, which I have to do frequently. What do you set your shutter speed to in that case? I use a Nikon D40, yes, I was probably the only idiot who bought the D40 right when it came out thinking it wouldn't be obsolete for a while.
 
Hey Bownut- That's awesome stuff. We do a lot of real estate tours here in San Jose, CA (about 7 per week right now for the past 4 years). However, we don't put it on the local access cable, we only link each video to the mls listing of the house or put it on Realtor.com. We charge anywhere between $300 to $1500 depending on a bunch of factors, including voiceover, appearances in the video, and the most important aspect, the cost of the house. The person who pays for the video is the agent, usually to market themselves to the buyer. I have about 10 recurring customers, and always customers who come back to me every now and then when they get a high end client.

We shoot using a DVX100 and a tripod, as well as an onboard light (Lightpanels.com), and a hard drive for initial aquisition (CitiDisk), using tape as a backup. We edit on FCP and have it down to a science where we can edit very quickly and turn it around.

I'm interested in what you use, I noticed some steadycam in there as well as possibly a jib? Looked nice! Would like to talk with you further if you want to exchange notes....
 
sheeep - I'm confused by your statement: As far as the photography goes, generally I bring my d70 and a vivitar 285 with slave, if it's a house that is gonna get pamphlets published I'll bring my full lighting setup.

Use available light. A 1/8th second shutter on a tripod looks infinitely better than a flash.

So you bring a flash or a full kit and then say available light looks infinitely better? Please expand on what you're saying here. Just curious and looking to learn more on my part. For me shooting slow shutter speed (on a tripod) just doesnt have the depth and highlighting I can create with a few speedlights and some creative placement.
 
Thank tbanucci. Seven a week! Woah! I do about four to seven a month. Yeah, I'd love to exchange notes with you.

The "steadicam" you saw was me holding my tripod by the stick in the middle. It weighs so much it works much like a very cheap steadicam. No jib, too much time and money.

What light are you using on board? I had one, but it was worthless because it wasn't bright at all.

I do my own voice overs to cut costs and to avoid having to use graphics to describe what is on-screen and to cut costs. Some of the virtual tours (the ones done using still photos don't match up, but you get what you pay for). I'll give you a good deal on VOs if you're interested.

The brokerage pays for most of the show, but if an individual agent wants their listing on the show they pay a one-time discounted fee. The listings run every other week or whenever there is an opening until the listing closes, sells, or is withdrawn. I charge the company per hour for my work and then time and materials when it comes to air time.

I upload all my tours to Google Video so they host the tours, and I don't have to worry about a Flash host and uploading in several different speeds. Another cost-saving measure, plus it is more exposure for the listing just in case someone does a search on Google.

Most tours are less than four minutes and take me about an hour or less to edit. I use a templated graphic for all the pertinent information like bedrooms, baths, sq. ft., price, etc. The still photo tours are much shorter, like 30 seconds and take me 30 minutes or less depending on how big the pictures are and how much I can animate them.

Like you I load my tours onto Realtor.com and the agent/brokerage website by linking it to the tour on Google Video (see it here www.freedomrealtorsga.com/tours/106satilla.html).

My shoots take about 45-1:30, depending on the size of the home. The agents appear on camera because it advertises them and their personality. I recommend using the agents on screen to introduce and summarize the properties. I do the VO in between, which they sometimes write, but I mostly take it from their description and my experience at the property, and MLS information. One of our agents got a client because someone liked her personality while she was on TV. It gives them celebrity status a little bit.

There is another brokerage in the area that does a TV show. I started their production for them, but when I had my first child I quit my job and stayed at home. His biggest drawback is that he doesn't put any of his tours or his show online. Most people watch the show over and over for the bloopers at the end. Oh well, at least we're building a brand in the meantime.
 
Hey Dan ... I'm in the Macon area. Noticed you're in Atlanta. The LTs are from Digital Juice. I created the house animation at the beginning in After Effects. That is as tricky as I can get. I don't have much time to play around with the software since I'm a stay-at-home mom. Thanks for the compliments.
 
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