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About Us

Why should you have a Video Tour on your listings?

  • Listings with a Virtual Tour actually get more hits
  • They show the flow of a home and the context of a room instead of a limited still shot
  • Your marketing should include every available resource
  • Your sellers expect you to provide maximum marketing of their home

   Your buyers use the latest technology - so should you!
 

Why you should use Hearth & Home Videos for your Real Estate Video Virtual Tours


1.  Every marketing visual tool should ADD to the level of presentation of your property.  Photos let viewers see what the home looks like and are certainly a vital feature of any online listing presentation. Video Tours should add a level of information about the home, giving a sense of size, flow and context of each room or view. If a virtual tour doesn't add information it is just a waste of the buyer's time.

2. Professional equipment.  A video camera with latest HD technology, tripod and lighting are used.  The level of camera does make a difference in quality. A wide angle (but not distorting fish-eye) lens is used to increase the amount of a room that can be shown. While many agents may feel they do fine with a handheld camcorder walking through a home, a fluid head tripod is critical to ensure a smooth steady shot.

3. Professional lighting.  When a Hearth & Home Video Tour is filmed, supplemental lighting is used.  Imagine being able to turn on a dozen more lamps in a room and then shooting it!  Portable extra lighting makes a room seem larger and more cheery.

4. Editing.  If you try to walk around a home with a handheld camcorder you are not going to be able to get one continuous good take, and there are sure to be some rooms that did not film well. Using sophisticated editing software that goes far beyond freeware is critical for the quality of the finished Video Tour.

5. Hosting.  Where to host your Video Virtual Tour is often an issue. Creating the video is one thing, but how are people going to view it? YouTube is not an option - it is very poor image quality and its purpose is for social or entertaining video, not a polished marketing product. Hearth & Home Videos hosts the Video Tours we produce. They are uploaded to the MLS and Realtor.com with a link back to our site from which they open immediately for viewing.

6. Flash format Video.  Your Video Tour is put on the web in Flash format which means it is streaming video and a lower megabyte size.  This allows for the video to open virtually immediately instead of a viewer having to wait for a lengthy buffering period.  Since not everyone has a high speed computer connection (especially many real estate offices) this means more potential buyers will watch the video and not just close it while still waiting for it to load. 

7. A Collaborative effort.  Your Hearth & Home videographer will work with you on what to include and what to highlight. Your input will be respected.


 

Why Use Professional Photos?

Read what the Wall Street Journal 10/4/10 had to say:

"Attention desperate home sellers. Don’t want to lower the price on your house? Consider better photos. Real-estate listings that use photographs taken by the higher-end SLR cameras favored by photographers and photography enthusiasts, tend to do better than those that use photos from cheaper point-and-shoot cameras, according to a new analysis done by Redfin Corp., a Seattle-based brokerage.

Not surprisingly, listings with better photos command higher asking prices: If you believe your home is worth the investment of good photography, you’ll probably ask more money for it. The surprising part is that the tactic works. At the closing table, listings with nicer photos gain anywhere between $934 and $116,076–as measured by the difference between asking and final price–over listings using photos from point-and-click cameras.

SLR or single-lens-reflex cameras give users more control over what they capture and tend to produce high-quality images. They cost more than point-and-shoot cameras, but considering the data may be worth the investment for a home seller. Even better, ask your broker to bring in a professional photographer.

Redfin only looked at listings in Boston and Long Island, where there was enough metadata incorporated into photos to do a complete analysis.

The data also showed that listings with nicer photos get more online attention. And yet, for all this, only 15% of listings incorporate higher-end photography. This is even true at the high-end. Redfin found that more than half of $1 million-plus listings were shot with low-end cameras."

 
 

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