Industry Insights: The Ins and Outs of Real Estate Video Production
Real estate video production can be lucrative work. So what does it take to secure projects and succeed in this niche industry?
They say there’s no better investment than real estate. Sure, they’re talking about investing in land, but it’s also true for commercial videography. If there’s one industry that remains constant, it’s the real estate video industry.
For filmmakers and video professionals, real estate video production has largely been an untapped market. Not until the last few decades has it made much financial sense for real estate companies to invest into video for internal and external use. However, as markets boom and competition heats up, real estate companies are looking to hire in-house video talent and reach out to professional agencies and freelancers alike.
If you want to jump into real estate video work, here’s a general outline of the current industry climate — as well as some tips and tricks to create effective content that will help move some real estate.
Understanding Residential vs. Commercial
Image via guruXOX.
The real estate industry breaks down into either commercial or residential. Residential is what it sounds like: real estate for homes and residents, including apartments and other buildings. Commercial is a catch-all term for everything non-residential, from office buildings to shopping malls to general lots of land.
Companies can deal with one or both categories. But if you’re familiarizing yourself with one, don’t expect your work to necessarily be a good fit for the other. Residential real estate companies are usually looking to sell homes to buyers, which means they need to market them in a certain way. Commercial real estate often involves more abstract content since it deals with investments, development, and lots of different moving parts.
Surveying Video Needs
Image via Zephyr_p.
One of the original ways video found its way into real estate was simply as a means to document and survey properties and land. That hasn’t changed — real estate companies still need video professionals to record footage of potential properties for internal use and investment purposes. However, as technology has advanced, aerial videography has entered the space, and a good drone videographer can make quite a career doing flyovers of land and buildings.
If you’ve already invested in (or are interested in buying or renting) a drone setup, here are some great tips for capturing dynamic aerial footage:
- How to Shoot Cinematic Footage With a Drone
- 8 Flight Tips to Make Your Drone Footage More Cinematic
- Drone Footage: How to Make or Break a Project
- Best Video Drones Under $1000
- 4 Easy Ways to Make Your Drone Footage More Cinematic
Property Showcase Videos
Image via CapturePB.
For residential real estate companies, photography has long been king. As long as real estate companies have been online (or even when everything was done by mail), photography has always been one of the most important ways to showcase properties. However, in recent years, as technology and internet speeds have advanced, video has finally become a viable medium for showing off properties.
Many real estate companies have experimented with virtual home walk-throughs, which is a combination of photography and 360-video recording technology. It allows interested viewers a chance to “walk-through” and see a potential location. However, more traditional videos have also become popular. Apartment complexes or upscale homes hire video professionals to record sizzle reels that show off flashy amenities.
Video Brand Marketing
Image via Yuriy Golub.
At the end of the day, most real estate companies looking to grow are brands. Brands need to market themselves as much as they market their products. As real estate industries throughout most of the United States have outpaced standard year-over-year growth, competition between them has heated up. This means that marketing efforts to stand out have also increased drastically.
If you can connect with marketing departments for real estate companies as they grow, the possibilities of steady (if not full-time) video work are on the rise. In many ways, the industry is a blank slate as far as what video can actually do to help brands grow and sell real estate. So act before someone else does.
Cover image by Dmitry Kalinovsky.
For more real estate video production and industry insights, check out some of these links below.
