Rates for Home Advertisements

[diuhhbolical]

I am starting to film short advertisements for homes that are for sale for real estate companies. I was looking for some advice on what you guys think is a reasonable asking price for producing one of these.

I plan on making them an entire tour of the house, views from the outside, and making the house look as desirable as possible, getting views most people would not see on a normal picture of a house. They are anywhere from 2-5 minutes.

I am using my DVX100A and a Turn-key ProAm Camera Crane Package. I guess what I want to know is, judging by the equipment I'm using and what I am making, what do you think would be a reasonable rate to charge per video?

I am looking for views from people who film and also people who own houses, thinking if you were to sell your house, what it would be worth to you?
Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Dylan

 

[JonathanLB]

We did virtual tours of assisted living communities, much like what you're talking about, pulled out dolly tracks, jib, lights, etc. We used a crew of 4, but that's mainly because we filmed 20 days in a row, I could do this stuff with a crew of 2 no problem; it's hard to setup that jib alone to be honest, the freakin' thing is a safety hazard. I got injured a few times, minor bruises, my DP got a major laceration on the last day from it. Doh.

We basically were in the range of $3,000 per tour, but that was with voiceover work, large transportation and lodging expenses, etc. So if it was in the local area, obviously it would have been well cheaper. For what you're doing, if you're going to edit too, and I assume maybe add some nice music at least (some sort of stock music), I still think you deserve $1,000 for that type of work but that's just me. I guess if you can film something in a day, a small house, spend no more than 3-4 hours, then edit together something nice with music that night, in another 3-4 hours perhaps, you could definitely charge $500-700 and probably be happy, I don't know, but I just wouldn't go too low because in my experience (as I was writing in the other thread) your clients will be a pain and that planned 8 hours is going to turn into, "Well that music is just... I don't know. Not quite right." "Is there any way you can fix that one shot? I feel like the window looks funny." "You know how my lawn is sort of yellowish / brown there? Can you fix that somehow? I was watching the behind-the-scenes of The Matrix and they were saying that..." I'm not joking I had stuff like that happen, almost exactly that in fact, where they were complaining that the grass was brown in a shot we took. I was like, uh, get better landscapers next time before we film?! Duh. That's why I'd tell you to overcharge, plus you have to take into account that you need to go find these clients and run your business.

That's why I say no less than $1,000 if it's just you. But... it depends what you'll take, some guys on Craigslist will sell themselves very cheap, music video for $200! I've seen it. That's just absurd to me, and their work is terrible, but whatever.