How To Make a Real Estate Video That Shines (and Sells)

Today’s real estate market is full of fast-paced buyers and ever changing tech, which means marketing your property with video is a must. In this guide, we’ll break down everything we’ve learned about shooting real estate videos, so you can get your house sold in no time.

The gear

Today’s real estate market is full of fast-paced buyers and ever changing tech, which means marketing your property with video is a must. In this guide, we’ll break down everything we’ve learned about shooting real estate videos, so you can get your house sold in no time.

• A DSLR
• A wide-angle zoom lens (16–35mm) / 17–40mm
• A tripod with a slider
• A second tripod head that sits on top of the slider
• And if you have a drone, we’ll use that too!

If you’re wondering about video lights, don’t. You don’t need them! Natural light will do the trick for all your interior and exterior shots, so planning your shoot around the weather is key. A partly cloudy day will look the best on camera. If it’s dark and gloomy, you might want to reschedule.

Don’t give into the fisheye

It can be tempting to use a wide-angle lens like a fisheye to make a small room look bigger than it is, but don’t give in! Instead of trying to fool potential buyers, use the power of video to accurately represent the rooms in your house.

Stick to less distorted lenses like a 17–40mm or a 16–35mm for the bulk of your shots.

Tidying up

Before you click record, take a walk. Literally, walk around the house and keep your eye out for anything that calls attention to itself. Your goal is to hide distractions that might not look great on camera. This walk might include:

• Decluttering counters and table tops
• Hiding pets
• Shutting closet doors
• Smoothing wrinkles on bed spreads
• Taking down pictures of homeowners
• Closing toilet seats
• Adjusting couch pillows

Planning your shots

You only need about 2–3 shots for each bedroom and each bathroom in the house. But for the important rooms like the kitchen, the living room, or the master suite, make sure to get enough shots and camera angles to paint a full picture for the viewer.

At the same time, try to avoid over shooting. If you have a good shot, move on to the next one. And if you mess up, delete that clip and start over. This’ll help you race through the edit.

You don’t need as many shots outside as you do inside. Depending on the house, around 10–15 exterior shots will do it. You’ll need a collection of wide shots of the front and back of the house, close shots of the front door, and any other detail shots or unique parts of the yard you want to capture.

Shooting your video

Shooting a real estate video is all about introducing motion into a still environment. That’s why we rely on our two friends: slides and glides.

Slides are great for capturing an entire room and making wide shots more interesting. Position your slider just outside of a doorway to reveal a room. Or try sliding and panning to get a wrap-around effect.

Glides bring viewers into the scene by moving the camera front to back. This is where a second tripod head will come in handy. Just make sure you can’t see the slider in the shot.

If you don’t have a slider, panning the camera will pan out just fine. Who knows? It might even be pantastic.

Slow pans and tilts can add some motion to an otherwise static shot, keeping the video moving along. Pans and tilts also look great for detail shots of a room, like hardwood floors, tile, or counter tops.

While you’re shooting, be mindful of your camera’s settings.

Since the subject is the room, you’ll want to keep everything in focus. To do this, keep your aperture number at around f 4 or 5.6. Then, balance the brightness out by adjusting the ISO and shutter speed.

Up, up, and away

Having access to a drone is a nice bonus to get those aerial shots of the house and the surrounding community.

The key to drone shots is subtle movement. You can use the drone like a slider, going from left to right, or slowly toward the house from the street as well.

Grab a few shots in the front and back of the house. Then if it’s safe, take it to the sky to get a bird’s eye view of the property and the lot.

Editing your footage

Now that you’ve shot your footage, you’re ready to edit the video.

Order your clips according to how you would walk through the house. This will help viewers to understand the layout of the home without seeing it in person.

Since you have a variety of shots of each room, don’t be repetitive. Use a good mix of slides and glides, and don’t over show a room. This will help to keep the video snappy. Viewers can always rewatch certain parts that interest them, and you can track their interest in your video’s stats.

Background music will make your video feel more polished. You can license songs from sites like Marmoset, Premium Beat, Pond 5, or use one of the free Wistia music tracks.

Curious how all these steps came together in the end? Below is the final real estate video that we made! The house is already sold, so try not to get too attached.