16 Oct 07 Objection to Real Estate Video #4: Video is Only Good in Certain Niche Scenarios
Recently, WellcomeMat has been fortunate enough to find that many of the objections to the use of video in the real estate space have come to the surface. We want to say thanks to all of those who helped launch this discussion, and we hope the following blog series will help shed some light. Starting today, we are going to dive into the four most popular objections that we have found to our medium (video). Let’s start with what we consider the least solid of all objections.
Objection to Video #4: “Video is Only Good in Certain Niche Scenarios”
Here’s how the objections have been communicated:
- Video is only appropriate when I have to sell/rent a very unique property.
- Video is only worthwhile for my most expensive listings (ROI).
- Video tours will never be affordable, and will therefore always remain a niche marketing tool.
- Homes are rarely “tidy” enough on production day for a video shoot to occur.
Stating video as a niche marketing tool (as all of these points do) in order to quickly resume the status quo is professional suicide. Why do I use such drastic terminology to describe video’s dismissal? One word: demographics. Justifying a professional shoot might be tough for listings that are less than $300,000, but not doing videos for homes worth less neglects the majority of the two generations that will expect video the most: Generation X, and Generation Y. Both of these generations (Gen Y is 60,000,000 members strong) expect transparency in your marketing, the truth about your product, and the use of the most up-to-date technologies. Most importantly, they expect you to match what is real (your listing) as closely as possible online.
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. “…When pitching Gen Y, keep in mind that they’ve grown up on slick ads and commercial messages. ‘They don’t trust advertising” “In general when marketing Gen Y, be honest. Any whiff of over-promising or false advertising will send them running…” “The marketers that capture Gen Y’s attention do so by bringing their messages to the places these kids congregate, whether it’s the Internet, a snowboarding tournament, or cable TV. The ads may be funny or disarmingly direct. What they don’t do is suggest that the advertiser knows Gen Y better than these savvy consumers know themselves.” “…Gen Yers respond to humor, irony, and the (apparently) unvarnished truth. Sprite has scored with ads that parody celebrity endorsers and carry the tagline ”Image is nothing. Obey your thirst.” J.C. Penney & Co.’s (JCP) hugely successful Arizona Jeans brand has a new campaign showing teens mocking ads that attempt to speak their language. The tagline? ‘Just show me the jeans.’ ” |
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Can we agree that video offers the most real rendition of a place even if Steven Spielberg would not nominate your production for an Oscar? Does any other medium communicate “human scale” (livability, or how a place navigates from front to back) like video can? I am a mere Generation X member that would state my opinion as clearly as possible: if you waste my time, I’m not happy. If you sugar coat your listing(s), and I show up in person to find something unexpected, you are likely further from a sale than closer. Is transparency scary? Heck yeah it is! But the real question is, “can you ignore that transparency is the reality of the real estate space moving forward?”
Say a property is $150,000, and your buyer demographics suggest Gen X or especially Gen Y; is this Go Time for you and your trusty little Canon, or Sony video camera? Ask your kids what they think (heck…maybe get your kids to shoot your less expensive listings). They’ll likely match the desires of their generation better than you are able to 
The agent of tomorrow cannot depend on being privy to information not readily available to anyone else. What real estate professionals can do-whether representing the buy or sell side-is be a masterful guide through the real estate experience and transaction. Video is very new (the fears of picking up yet another new game are heard loud and clear). We do empathize! But keep in mind that the levels of service that you require from a videographer are on a sliding scale. Yes, you will spend more money on videos for more expensive listings than for less expensive listings. WellcomeMat sees videos produced from $79 - $3000 per video where a videographer is hired to do the project. As volume gets easier to come by for honed business models (check out NH’s own Fred Light or Colorado’s Eric Manthey), these prices are dropping. Choosing photos over video or vice versa is a bad move. Denying that your buyers love video (even shaky or not-so-well-lit video) and ignoring demographics is an even worse move. Spend as much money as it takes to market your more expensive listings. For Gen X and Gen Y, your marketing better be as close to real as possible.
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Hands down the MOST effective marketing tool i have seen and used in all of my 16 years selling real estate. There is nothing more transparent and nothing more appreciated by buyers and sellers alike than a solid video tour. I’ve been doing these since march and just now are my colleagues starting to get on the bandwagon. They says things like “how did you find out about this,” and “why didn’t I listen to you earlier and do these tours sooner.” I’m regularly stunned by people’s resistance to change…particularly such positive change that influences consumer perception of an industry (real estate) that so desperately needs a reputation face lift!
The nay sayers resist change while the Doug Heddings of the world take marketshare and push real estate marketing to the next level. ‘Tis brokers such as yourself setting the pace for the entire marketplace Doug. Our team has been working on the real estate video game since late 2004. The majority of our time has been spent explaining why video is going to change the real estate game forever. This “Top Four Reasons Why You Can’t and Shouldn’t Use Video” series is the finale of this era for Team WellcomeMat. No more trying to convince people of our merit, and the value of video. All we do from now on is help people that want to use video to do so, and make stars out of people that are using the medium well. Thanks for sticking with us Doug: it’s been a great journey so far.
Overcoming the Top Four Objections to Real Estate Video
“Video is only appropriate when I have to sell/rent a very unique property.”
So out of the 80% of homebuyers that used the internet to shop for homes last year, the only ones that needed, or wanted, to see a video of the property were those buyers looking for a very unique property? Every property is a unique and special property in some way (just ask the homeowner…). Now if you simply just want to sell or rent a property or (perhaps more appropriately said) wait for a home to sell, then okay, video is not needed. If you have to sell or rent a property then you might want to reconsider what a good video can do for your marketing efforts…
“Video is only worthwhile for my most expensive listings (ROI).
Ah yes, “expensive” is the operative word here, isn’t it? “Expensive” to whom? The Buyer… the Seller… the agent? And expensive compared to what? Ads in the newspapers… the agents time doing fruitless open houses… the Seller’s holding costs for the next several months…?
Ultimately what is expensive is a home sitting unsold for months on end. With 80% of buyers looking on the internet for their next home, some of which that will buy without ever physically visiting the property don’t you think they are looking for as much information as they can get their hands on? How much confidence would you have in buying a property that only had 6 (or less) amatuerish photos as oppposed to one that had a Hi-Def Video walk-through coupled with 25+ pro-level photos…
Video tours will never be affordable, and will therefore always remain a niche marketing tool.
Affordable compared to what? Newspaper or magazine ads…? Hours of your time sitting open houses that no one shows up to…? If a $150- $200 investment is too much to shell out to potentially make a five-figure commission (or more), then perhaps you need to rethink your business model. You know that old saying, “You have to spend money to make money…?”, yeah, well, there is a reason it’s an old saying…
“Homes are rarely ‘tidy’ enough on production day for a video shoot to occur.”
Now while I can’t outright disagree with that statement, I still have to ask, “Whose fault is that, really?” As an agent and a professional, it’s my job to make the Seller understand how important staging and ‘uncluttering’ a home prior to the video/photo shoot is. If they don’t take my advice then I have either not done a good enough job explaining how a clean, staged home will ultimately benefit them or they simply do not care. In either scenario, this is not an excuse to do nothing at all. For the record, these are the same homes that are not ‘tidy’ enough to even take pictures or even do an open house. This issue should really be handled well before a shoot is scheduled…
Objections in any form are usually a buyers way of saying “You haven’t convienced me yet.” It doesn’t mean they don’t see some value, they just don’t see enough value. Although these objections are pretty tame compared to some of the legit issues (i.e. slow buffering times, bad compression, all the problems of amatuer video, etc.), you can still overcome them. And at the end of the day, once they see a quality video tour, the selling part gets a lot easier…
[...] last post covered the fourth most prominent objection to the use of video: “Objection #4: Video is Only Good in Certain Niche Scenarios” We had a great time writing about why you should not confine your video efforts to high end [...]
[...] the use of real estate video, and have been having a great time doing it. So far, we have covered “Objection #4: Video is Only Good in Certain Niche Scenarios” and “Objection #3: I Can’t Do Video Myself”. In this post, we’ll cover the 2nd most common [...]
[...] the use of real estate video, and have been having a great time doing it. So far, we have covered “Objection #4: Video is Only Good in Certain Niche Scenarios” and “Objection #3: I Can’t Do Video Myself”. In this post, we’ll cover the 2nd most common [...]