Wow. The following video (or ‘living property brochure’) is an amazing production. I constantly strive for a panacea in real estate marketing but rarely do I come across anything nearly this beautiful, this engaging. We live in a world where homes are consistently marketed with less than a dozen photos, so to see a video of this quality is, amongst many other things, inspiring. After watching it who wouldn’t want to live in this house?
Yes I know this isn’t your run of the mill, $200k, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home but Adel Wong, Michael Thompson and Mark Attarha I am still in awe of your creative marketing. “Thank you” for showing the way, “thank you” for proving there’s always ways to do things better.
Experience the lifestyle:
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Hopefully this style of marketing will set the standard for high end real estate. I would assume that the owner of the property funded this marketing investment as the production crew took several days to put this together. I think you are looking at a 3 to 5k investment to do something of this quality. Worth every penny if you are trying to sell a multi-million dollar property. Hopefully this will be a game changer in marketing.
Wow! This is definitely top shelf – but I suspect Ron’s assessment of 3-5k may be a bit low. What a great marketing piece – I lost an hour checking out the property and artist’s website.
While I don’t think my videos would achieve this level of perfection, I now have a higher bar…
For a home like this it should be expected, a video like this. I don’t see why many of the ideas can’t be translated to lower priced homes.
The real fruit from the tree I get from it is that they invested in it and by doing so are helping forge others toward a better experience. What they has been thought of since the net started but then it was just too advanced a concept. NOW, there are plenty of things like this that should be the norm (for this pricepoint of property) and NO ONE does it or does it consistently. When you do a search for high end homes and some dont have a virtual tour or the one they have are photos stitched together for $40 you see the state of the real estate market on the internet.
What Stephen is showcasing here is one of the things that is on his mind. Its also on the mind others that have been around since the beginning; the internet is not being utilized like it should be for the real estate shopping experience and everyone should give praise and encourage those that push outside the box like they did. Some of us see this and take a fulfilling breath and say “ah finally” and hope it provokes more thought and change. If you think the real estate shopping experience on the internet is good then you will be awed as by the end of this year the internet real estate marketing industry has a pleasant surprise for you. To stephen showcasing this and the team that had the foresight to have the video made? GREAT JOB!
Note to self: dont rush and post without proofreading.
Hmm, definitely well produced but I find that kind of thing extremely annoying when I am looking for properties. Who has that kind of time to waste watching someone’s self-important ego trip? What I want when I am looking for properties are the pertinent facts and info and good quality photos so I can decide if this is a property that might fit my needs or a client’s needs and if I actually want to make an appointment to see it. This video and the more typical virtual tour waste my time, and don’t get me started on the idiotic music that accompanies most of them (although not this one).
Our creative strategy prior to producing this video was to show this as a “day in the life” of the home. Traditional residential real estate advertising does not work any longer. I believe there is an emotional quality to homes and it is our challenge to bring this out in whatever media we choose to use. In this case, Quentin Bacon our videographer spent several days (and nights) at the property to capture the feeling of what “Casa Estrella” is all about. Quentin nailed it. The cost to produce this video was approximately $10K. Based on over 6,000 hits and the reaction we are getting from the video, it is well worth the cost. For those of you who still believe in typical property virtual tours, I think you are behind the times. All the credit for this production should go to Quentin Bacon. He deserves it!
Webnoob, you’re right on target. There’s so many better ways to market homes than what the industry does, but not many people are doing it. The industry is behind the times when it comes to marketing, and both sellers and buyers aren’t being provided with what they need.
This was a fantastic and well thought out video, but who’s going to see it? If you can’t put it out to thousands of agents a month, then it has no value.
And Sprung, you’re thinking like an agent. At least the video personalizes the home, and you’re getting that by reading a listing description on the mls or any companies web site. Today’s buyers want a lot more than what Realtors want to provide, so start giving them what they want and not what you think they should have.
Start hanging out at an Apple store and you’ll see what you can accomplish if you open your mind and want to learn where the future is now.
The production and quality of this video is really superb – it is really, really fantastic. Having people in the video is very innovative and help make an emotional connection to the home. I do think it would be more effective (not better) if the running time was reduced and some of the more artsy shots were edited out. By focusing a *little more* on the home’s amenities and less on the emotion could help bring out the essence of the home a bit better.
Having said that, this video is truly a work of art. The homeowner and broker should be very proud of it. It’s quite extraordinary.
Beautifully done…though a bit long.
A bit long but very well done. What matters most though is did the property sell and was it because of this video?
Sorry to burst the love bubble but……….
$10,000 is a very steep price to pay for one video. Unless the commission to be made is going to be $50,000 +, and even that is high at 20%, and it sells quickly before your listing contract runs out, the cost is too high to offer it across the board to all sellers. Bottom line, sellers will love this at first but results are what matter and if you don’t sell the house, I suspect they will hire someone else regardless of what you already spent on marketing.
Imagine doing this for 30 listings? That’s $300,000 in video costs before adding in any other marketing or business costs and before the properties are sold. YIKES!
Why are there not more videos like this? Not because the technology is not available or the ideas are not out there but because these video producers who only spend three days of work on this stuff overcharge for their services. 3 , 8 hour days =$10,000? $416 per hour! Can you say ridiculous. The best attorneys in the country might make that much.
The only way this goes main stream is if the cost to produce go way down to about a quarter of what this one cost. If I can get a one minute HD TV quality commercial produced for $500 why should I pay $10,000 or 20 x’s that for a 4 minute video? And that is the other thing $10,000 for the video then you still have to pay money for TV time or at least spend time to market the video online. Go ahead and call your local cable company and ask them how much they want to run a 4 minute video? Don’t bother I already know, it would be double the initial production cost every month it runs in order to get proper exposure! Minimally your looking at $5K per month if you cut the video down to a minute.
I certainly hope you sell it but be careful of promising such a production for all your listings cause at that cost it will eat you alive and I suspect put you out of business before long. Yes, clients and potential clients will love it but what matters most is ROI and your bottom line!!!
Good luck and keep us posted on the end result please.
Thoughts from the producer of the Casa Estrella video and website:
Property videos and the degree of their production will evolve, hopefully based on individual property needs.
The creative goal here was not to create a video tour, but a lifestyle commercial. We chose this because this particular property offers so many unique experiences; the standard approach couldn’t communicate it. Incorporating people was a natural choice to help motivate the camera in its storytelling.
The Living Images serve the more traditional needs of a virtual tour by offering the ability to see and in this case hear ambient sound from the property.
This was the first large scale production for a property of this nature, we learned a lot. There’s certainly a number of areas I’d like to improve on.
The video did not cost 10k. 10k was the cost of a comprehensive marketing service that included ALL the media, the website, social media, DVD distribution, e-vite campaign… It’s very involved and ongoing.
Yes, the anatomy of the properties sale will serve as the final arbiter on the ROI. I think the exposure it has received thus far has greatly increased that opportunity. Video play count is now approaching 8,000. (Vimeo & Tube) It’s been posted on blogs around the world. The story was picked up by our A-list news paper which led to our highest website visit to date. Certainly, analytics can be misleading, they don’t guarantee interest or intent, but the first step is exposure. I don’t think a virtual tour or regular property video would have generated this.
QUESTION:
For more traditional properties, what would their videos look and sound like?
How would you use them?
See the updated Living Property Brochure at: http://www.thelivingpropertybrochure.com
Note: Information herein has been openly discussed/disclosed by the Broker.
Thanks for all the generous feedback!
This is an amazing “life-style” video. These guys are on the right track.
I think adding people (models) is the way houses should or could be sold…but its so rare you see anyone in the typical home advertising….and let’s face it, MLS and the internet is just one giant advertising vehicle.
You see models on TV all the time selling products – why not use them on our ads for houses???
Peggy West
Houston, TX
Very nicely done. No this is not practical for all, most, or even a few homes in most agent’s inventory. But this property in this price range needs to be set apart. And a feature/benefit video is not going to do it, neither is the listing data a few nicely done photos. The buyers of this house are a different breed. They need the emotional buy in. This does that.
The key is distribution. These buyers are not going to be searching online for properties. They don’t have the time. Co-Marketing with complimentary products and services is key. Look at where this buyer spends most of their time. What other products do they consume. That is where the video and the marketing efforts need to be. Buyers in this area want exclusive private treatment.
Well done, Bravo!
It’s been a long while since someone has written on this post. I wanted to commend the team that put this together.
I produce my own videos, mostly on 3BD, 2BA ranches in Springfield IL. Some thing I’m going to take away from this video is the importance of putting the potential buyer “in the house.” I love the people enjoying the space, the girl and mom cooking… it’s very compelling.
I’m looking forward to my next shoot. Thanks.
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