Keeping it real (cheap)

Short of a personal tour, nothing is more effective at conveying a property’s attributes and advantages than video, and what may come as a huge relief to many brokers is that the viewer isn’t at all concerned with the narrator’s talent.  What may also come as a surprise is that there is little to no cost involved in producing a quality virtual tour video.  Setting up a YouTube channel takes just minutes, and as the second most searched search engine, is a great place to reinforce your firm’s brand.  If you are not a fan of YouTube’s format displaying other potential videos the user may find interesting, then Vimeo is a great option at a reasonable cost, allowing you to keep the viewers’ attention on you, your listings and your firm.  Video walk-through tours can be done with your smart phone held horizontally as you walk through the space, narrating as if you were with a prospect.  Buying a gimbal (under $100) might be useful as it helps to keep the camera steady as you walk so that the tour is more appealing. And there are numerous free or low-cost video editing software titles available to help you enhance or annotate the video for greater viewer engagement.  (Please e-mail support@RealtyZapp.com for suggestions).

Virtual 3D is not Expensive

Most everyone in real estate has heard of Matterport by now, but what most don’t realize is that there are several far less expensive options available for creating 3-D interior virtual tours.  This is a huge leap from a standard free smart phone walk-through as far as image goes, and takes a bit more time, but represents your firm in a much more professional manner If performed consistently and on every listing. 3-D Vista is a reasonably priced software (Around $100-$500) that is easy to use with many features tailored to real estate.  And hosting of these videos starts at only $100 per year. The difference of having the viewer be able to control their own perspective and navigation through the space is significant. People are already very accustomed to Google Street view and so having the same capability with your listings delivers quick adoption and a pleasing experience among prospects.

Where am I standing?

The final element of successfully adding a video component to your marketing strategy is having a decent floorplan for each available space attached to your listing along with the video. Prospects need to reference this as they watch the video or virtually navigate the space to understand how all their company’s departments will utilize the space.  A floor plan should be a clean rendering of the space rather than a photo of a picture or sketch and should show dimensions.  If one is not provided by the landlord, then a sketch can easily be made on grid paper and any marketing assistant with a base knowledge or Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop can render easily in short time.  (classes available to RealtyZapp subscribers)

Shorten Response Time

When you combine these with all of the listing details a prospect may need to evaluate your property on a platform that allows you to deliver it to them while you’re on the initial call or immediately thereafter, your odds of closing a deal with that prospect increase significantly.  Place your YouTube video or 3-D Virtual tour URL links at the bottom of their respective listings in RealtyZapp. Then attach your floorplans as PDF or include them as images to be used in automated flyers. Then while on the phone with a prospect, or just after the call, send a link with everything from your phone’s RealtyZapp mobile app, and beat the competition to the punch.  Prospect demand immediate responsiveness in this mobile-enabled age, and RealtyZapp helps you deliver.

Over the past 5 years, RealtyZapp has been helping brokers become more pro-active in their marketing and increase their income by streamlining their process while improving engagement and follow up. 

For more information on increasing deal velocity, visit our YouTube channel.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcpBCpFngpQLs9tFBwxHmnQ