Real Estate Filming...

ronedee

ronedee

Active member
Hey Guys! Are any of you shooting Real Estate?

I was mobbed w/ RE people wanting Vid services!! I've never done it before and would love to explore the market...Especially now!!

I don't know what to a$k, what the norm is for the shoot, and edit. And what format they usually want, and where they would want it placed, i.e. in their hands, their website or mine?

Any leg up would be greatly appreciated! I was pummeled w/ questions today and haven't got the answers. Thanks, Ron
 
I was part of a group for about .03 seconds that did this called golookinside or something like that. They went belly up without me getting any work... but, it seemed that they would charge about $300/property. The had a generic template that they followed for every property tour, that they tweaked slightly per property. Real down and dirty, McDonald's type stuff. Each video was about 2-3 minutes. Agent would introduce themselves (either on camera or VO), and then voice over the tour of the property. Throw in a few basic graphics and titles, and generic music bed underneath. About two hours work per video not including drive time.

Google "video property tours" or something like that and see what's out there.
 
Hey Ronedee,
My company Awakened Films also does business as Cinematic Walk Throughs. By virtue of our product, we cater to high end real estate - $1.5mil and above.

My experience is that realtors generally want something for nothing, as they do not get paid until the property sells and any money out is purely speculative. That makes this type of work trickey to make good money.

You have two choices, go after the cheesey 'virtual 360 degree slr stitched together' video market at $75 to $99 per video or do something higher end with more class and charge $300-$1000.

I chose the higher road. We bring in lights, shoot in HD, use a doorway dolly & classy music. In NJ, the MLS will not allow any videos that are 'branded'. No logos, agents pictures or phone numbers. There is also a process to become 'verified' as a virtual tour provider, call your local MLS to get the details. In my case, we are verified as an undbranded tour provider and host the video on our web server, supplying virtual tour web links links to the agents. Also, depending on the package purchased, they may also get a number of DVDs. Realtor.com and a few other realestate sites require that the video be uploaded to their server from a web compatible file. You can create packages based on what kind of work the realtor wants.

Shoot me an e-mail if you have any other questions - jason@awakenedfilms.com.

You can see one of our sample tours at http://cinematicwalkthroughs.com/sample.html


Jason
 
AwakenedFilms said:
Hey Ronedee,
My company Awakened Films also does business as Cinematic Walk Throughs. By virtue of our product, we cater to high end real estate - $1.5mil and above.

My experience is that realtors generally want something for nothing, as they do not get paid until the property sells and any money out is purely speculative. That makes this type of work trickey to make good money.

You have two choices, go after the cheesey 'virtual 360 degree slr stitched together' video market at $75 to $99 per video or do something higher end with more class and charge $300-$1000.

I chose the higher road. We bring in lights, shoot in HD, use a doorway dolly & classy music. In NJ, the MLS will not allow any videos that are 'branded'. No logos, agents pictures or phone numbers. There is also a process to become 'verified' as a virtual tour provider, call your local MLS to get the details. In my case, we are verified as an undbranded tour provider and host the video on our web server, supplying virtual tour web links links to the agents. Also, depending on the package purchased, they may also get a number of DVDs. Realtor.com and a few other realestate sites require that the video be uploaded to their server from a web compatible file. You can create packages based on what kind of work the realtor wants.

Shoot me an e-mail if you have any other questions - jason@awakenedfilms.com.

You can see one of our sample tours at http://cinematicwalkthroughs.com/sample.html


Jason
Click to expand...
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WoW! Thanks Jason!!

You gave me something to start with! It looks pretty lucrative at this point. I couldn't believe the responses I got from a few inquiries, and business cards I left.

Thanks again! Maybe we can network some deals seeing were only a state or 2 away! Thanks again! Ron:thumbup:
 
Jason, good use of the dolly.

Ron, we have just added real estate tours as the market is slow in general, but due to interest rates and govt incentive here in Australia a lot of properties are changing hands.

Its something I dont want to spend a great deal of time on though, so I created an easy to follow shoot, edit, colour, voice over formula, that any moderately experienced camera op can follow, which means I can source the jobs out if and as needed. I wont go on about how we exactly do that here.

In the end it works to about - on location for max two hours, and can cut and grade and add voiceover in about two hours also. But we wont be using Dollies / lights etc except under special arrangement. We do offer it, but its more the high end stuff. Also ready to go if heli needed as well for the big ticket jobs. But more aiming the mid, high turnover market at present.

I made 3 simple price tiers. Looks like Im getting some solid interest considering I just rolled it - I was a part owner in a company that does this exclusively, but for various reasons got out.

Anyway theres a sample with the rest of the sales spiel on my web site - view here http://www.scarlet-films.com/SDC/Real%20Estate%20Video.html.
 
I have a company here in Maine called Maine Video Tours. I have been shooting residential and commercial real estate for about 4 or 5 years now. I started out just using a camera with a wide angle lens, and a good tripod, but recently spent the money on a Steadicam Pilot to do the walkthroughs.

The difference between a Virtual Tour (360 degree panaramic image) and a Video Tour is of course full motion video, but the difference between what most people are shooting with video (Ex. Coldwell Banker) and what we provide, is a MOVING camera. When you move a camera through space, the change in perspective of objects within that space is called a parallax shift. It's the only way people are going to be able to gage the depth and space of a room and therefor make them feel like they are actually walking through the property. Take a look at a sample Video Tour I have on my website and see for yourself:

http://www.mainevideotours.com/tours/residentialsample.html

I charge by the square footage of the property and take into consideration my time and the cost of the equipment I am using. Like Jason had mentioned, you need to target Realtors/Brokers that have the money allocated for marketing the property and that tends to be homes $500,000+. It's a tough sell right now, even for high-end homes, but I am confident that it will only be a matter of time before consumers demand this kind of marketing in the real estate industry. Your best bet is vacation rentals and commercial rental properties. The Video Tour becomes an investment for the owner at that point.
 
Great Stuff Guys! This is FANTASTIC!! I can't believe the wealth of information, and good people here. I am happy, and proud to be a DVXuser member!

I am overwhelmed. Thanks to all of you, very much! Ron
 
Just in a days work Ron... just in a days work.


If you can believe it or not these guys are like this pretty much ALL of the time! :beer:


I, on the other hand, am just a giant Douche Nozzle but that helps keep the whole thing balanced and all of us out of a never ending group hug! :thumbsup:
 
Jason,

I spent a lot of time searching the web for an flv player that suited my needs. Bandwidth detection was one of the necessities I required for the type of videos I deliver. The player is by a group called Rich Media Project and can be seen at www.rich-media-project.com.

The way bandwidth detection works with this player is by downloading a small .swf file located on your web server and then analyzing the rate of download. It then loads a low, medium, or high quality video file that I have uploaded on my server. Glad you guys liked it!
 
Digital:

Thanks very much for that information. I've been looking for a good player, so hopefully this might be something that will serve the purpose I intend to use it for well.

Thanks, much.

later,
Jason
 
DigitalCapture,

Nice job on the video.

I also think the camera you are using is doing a great job with auto exposure as the windows did not cause it to clamp down the iris.

Unless you are controlling the iris with a remote, which would be grand.

Thanks for sharing!
 
Bassman2003,

Thanks for the kind comments on the Video Tour. I will be the first to tell you that I am not the best Steadicam Op in the world, but I am certainly improving with every shoot. I can personally say that having a full size Steadicam rig makes a world of difference as compared with a hand-held stabilizer, or no-name brand. It's also very important to understand how to balance the rig, both statically and dynamically.

I specifically chose the HMC150 for my real estate videography service due to the fact that it has the widest lens available in a prosumer camera and for the DRS function.
 
I've been doing RE Video Tours since 2003. You can check out my site as well for samples/prices to get an idea of what to do. I do this on the side of my regular video production co and it makes a good amount of money each year, but will not make you rich (yet)...... I start at $300 per video, but most of them come out to be about $700. Almost no one buys the $300 package, which is good because it's only part of my marketing to bring customers in, and it doesn't make us any profits.

http://www.lastcuthomes.com

The market is tough to make successful and us video tour guys need to make this a more common thing, as compared to the virtual tours. Try to stick together and help others out when they ask for advice on anything related to this subject.

On that note, I've done some HD video tours and I can't say it was worth it. You might as well take a DVX100 and do it in 16x9 mode, since this is going on the web in a fast streaming player anyway. Try to make your biz as efficient as possible and make sure the time spent is worth the money you are getting.

Jason from Awakened Films- what kind of dolly are you using and is your sample a direct sample of your videos, or a "best of" compilation? Seems like setting up the dolly that much would take a ton of time, no?

Ted
 
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