Three Must-Have Videos for Your Real Estate Business

Virtually every business around today has a web presence. Or, put another way, every business that wants to grow and thrive has a website. If it's important for any business, then it's vital for real estate professionals. With today's advancements, your clients can get their first look—even a virtual walk-through—of the homes you've listed (and, hopefully, homes you'd like to help them buy).

As helpful as that is, though, there are several essential ingredients that will help your website help you. And, no, one of them is not a mortgage calculator—although that is a great tool to provide your prospective clients!

The magic ingredients are videos, and there are three that are key to helping you gain clients—and sales! The magic of video is that it attracts and holds the interest of your website visitors, and helps you build a rapport that just isn't the same if they're only reading your written communications.

There are three videos that are essential to establishing your brand, expertise and qualifications—and at the same time will give the potential client the information they want and need to move forward with you and one or more of the homes you have listed. Those include market videos, listing videos and advice videos.

Market videos give the prospective homebuyer a feel for the area

Market videos give the prospective homebuyer a feel for the area they're looking to relocate to. Be as comprehensive as possible without getting overly detailed. You want to give them a favorable impression of the community without lulling them to sleep with statistics. Think of what you would want to know about an area you were looking to move into, and then show them. Are the neighborhoods full of quiet, tree-lined streets?

Are there nice parks nearby? Is there public transportation accessible? Are there shopping opportunities close by? What is the climate like? The more information and "feel" for the community you can convey to your viewer, the better.

There's a lot of more specific information you can share, but would probably prove to make your market videos too long. Be general if you can, and leave specific information such as tax rates and cost of living to another format. Remember to shoot for around 90 seconds when you shoot your video.

Listing videos give buyers a feel for the home

Where market videos help give your client a feel for their area of interest, listing videos get them acquainted the individual listing.

An effective listing video helps the prospective buyer experience the home by involving more of the senses. There's an emotional connection that's made more easily through video than simply reading about the home or even viewing photos.

Be sure to incorporate your branding into your market and listing videos. Done well, these will establish your credibility and experience as an agent—and make the prospective buyer comfortable with you.

While your marketing videos are more evergreen in nature, your listing videos will be ever-changing. As you list and sell homes, you'll add and delete them from your website. This is your first opportunity to show your listings to prospective buyers in a fraction of the time it would take in person. It doesn't have to be—and, in fact, isn't—designed to lead directly to a sale. And rarely will it. Think of your listing videos as movie trailers: show them enough that they're enticed to come see the whole thing!

Advice videos give your buyers quality answers to common questions

The third type of video that you should include on your website is advice videos. Advice videos offer the prospective buyer high-quality answers to common questions they may have about the process of buying and selling a home, making improvements to the property they already own.

For example, one video can be devoted to providing information for first-time buyers. Another could be geared toward sellers looking to make their home as attractive as possible to potential buyers. Another might give offer tips on planning a move from out of state.

There are lots of possibilities here that can help establish you as an authority on all things real estate.

To view the original article, visit the VScreen blog.