Real Estate Video Tips – HDHat.com
There is a growing push towards real estate video being one of the most important factors when a homeowner decides who to list with. The good ole “What are you going to do that is different…” question is easily laid to rest when you can show a home seller that you are going to provide a high quality, full blown real estate video tour of their property. The real question you need to ask yourself is can I pull that off without a little bit of help and how long will I be sitting in front of a computer while doing so!
Enter HDHat.com. I recently spoke to Mark Passerby who shared tips on cameras, shooting the video properly and how there amazing service is a perfect solution to the growing demand for real estate video.
The easy part for most agents is getting the footage of the property. There are many cameras on the market right now (Mark mentioned 3 great options that work with any budget) that are both affordable and will get the job done easily. Where the challenge lies for many Realtors is in the post production of editing, voice over, transitions, etc in an effort to produce a finished video that really has that WOW factor we know tech savvy home sellers demand.
HDHat.com has really simplified this process for you by giving you a 2 click portal to upload the raw footage to and they will then turn around in 24 hours and send you the final polished clip. They handle all of the tedious work behind the scenes for a very fair price and you get the quality and word of mouth that comes along with providing something that is cutting edge and done professionally. Another awesome perk of what they can do is by them submitting your new listing videos to several different video sites it gives you some really great SEO juice in Google when someone searches for the address of that property. They even have properties that are all 10 results on page on in Google and they all link to the well done real estate video tour.
Mark even gives tips and tricks that really improve the footage on your end and makes there job easier, thus producing an A+ real estate video in under 24 hours. In fact you will be spending less than 20 minutes of your time getting the footage and they take it from there. Mark was also nice enough to answer a question that I get all the time during our interview about which cameras are the best for recording footage for this real estate specific use.
I hope you find our interview informative and I would really encourage you guys to try out HDHat.com as it is a cost effective, tech savvy solution to putting out high quality real estate video tours without spending a whole lot of time or money!
You can also see a collection of there work by visiting their YouTube Channel. Here is one sample to view now:
If you have any questions for Mark you can also leave those below as always.
There are 14 responses to this post! Join in...
This is a nice idea, but I don’t really like the robotic voice. It would be nicer if it were a real person.
My biggest issue is this company uses YOUR video to promote THEIR company – not your listing. It’s all filled with SEO for the video company – and I would want it to come to me.
Other than that, if you don’t want to do it yourself it’s a decent option.
No in fact we have agents who have us distribute to their Youtube channel, their Wellcomemat, and Realtor.com etc. for example http://www.youtube.com/melissalegrand some agents ask that our name not be in the video at all which is not a problem as well(see DebonTheWeb example below).
We accomodate and welcome any request and love tech savvy agents that want to use the video 100% for their own SEO and benefit.
In our Craigslist/Blog code for instance we go out of our way to find that listing on the agents site and link it back to that page even though most times agents don’t give us that info.
Narration is an option and some agents in the past have narrated certain sections themselves as they tape etc.
Here is an example where the agent has us edit but she hosts the video herself I think on Viddler and our name doesn’t appear nor is it distributed to any sites by us except one that we do for her. http://www.debontheweb.com/ you can see her “featured property” about 1/2 way down the page.
Mark
Interesting comment about the robotic voice. I’m the HDHat.com narrator and I’ve never been accused of being a robot. I may be a bit cold at times, but metallic? No way.
[...] June 25, 2010 by hdrealestatevideotours Full Article here: Real Estate Video Tips [...]
I’m a RE/MAX agent in Lansing and a die hard HDHat Video Tour fan – if you want to impress your clients, and put yourself above your competition, you need to utilize their services!
Sellers are impressed by the high quality and love the addition of a professional narrator (not robotic, in my opinion) – they know that you are going above and beyond to sell their home. Many of my buyer leads are from video tour hits – it is often the video tour that interested them enough to get them out to see that home in person, and whether they buy that home or not, I’ve captured the lead – leading to more sales and what agent could argue with that?!
The bottom line is I can’t say enough great things about HDHat – they 100% care about you as the agent and the tour as YOUR tour. With no video experience myself, and very little time to spend learning any, they are invaluable to me and my marketing budget – they make it so easy I’d be losing money not to use them (time = money, too)! Their website is easy to navigate and managing your tours there could not be simpler.
Sincere thanks to Mark and his team for providing wonderful services and support – I wouldn’t be as successful without them!!
Sylvia – you bring up an interesting point, but I am a tech savvy agent who uses HDHat to edit my videos. Mark and his team always send me the final video as both an mp4 and m4v file so I can upload it to my own video channels on YouTube, Viddler, WellcomeMat etc. so that I have full control over the SEO.
I have been taking videos of my properties for over 3 years and used to spend hours editing them myself. I even got a steadycam but still couldn’t match the smoothness of a video stabilized by HDHat. The finished video looks better than ones I edited myself at a reasonable price and with a quick turn around time. I tried them once and was so pleased with the results I won’t go back to editing videos myself.
All due respect to writer Sylvia…but I could not disagree with her post more if I tried. HD Hat and Mark Passerby (my contact at HD Hat) have been out of this world in every way I could hope for as a real estate agent with insanely high expectations. I’m a type A personality to the extreme and expect as much perfection from others as I do out of myself when it comes to my marketing.
I pride myself on being on the bleeding edge of technology and for the life of me could not find a video production company that could take my amateur video and make it look beautiful for a reasonable cost. When I found HD Hat, frankly I thought it was a little too good to be true…until I got my first video done by them. Honestly-I hesitate writing this review because I don’t really want other Agents to know how fantastic my experience has been with this company…it’s like my little secret…my ace in the hole. I definitely owe a lot to Mark and HD Hat because they have provided the platform I needed to take my marketing to the next level.
Frankly-I’m sort of a crummy videographer. That simply doesn’t matter with HD Hat. Mark takes my amateur film and turns it into a beautiful production complete with sound, narration (amazing voice-not the least robotic), satellite mapping and somehow they manage to take most of the shake out of my film. All of this for an incredibly reasonable price. I’m immensely grateful to HD Hat for giving me the tools I needed to create gorgeous videos that make me stand out as a top agent in the area. You’d be a fool NOT to check them out.
And as for HD Hat using their name at the end of the Video…last time I checked we live in America the Beautiful where Capitalism is what this great Country was founded on. I could care less that their name is inside my video. They’re not my competitor so it makes zero difference to me. With the quality product they provide…they deserve some credit and I’m happy to give that to them!
Thanks for everything Mark and HD Hat! I’ll never go anywhere else for my video production.
Katrina Hanson, Star Properties, Inc.
I have to tell you these guys are great, do a great job and provide an excellent product for a price you can’t beat. The other thing is they have excellent customer service which is becoming hard to find in this technological age. Mark and his theam do a great job, give you guidance and provide you with some really good “Tech” tips. Pete Veres – Elite Asset Management Team – RE/MAX Elite Albuerque, Nm
I’m with Katrina….I wanted to keep HDHAT my best kept secret, too. But I realize my efforts to do so would be futile as there will be no keeping Matt and his awesome team hidden as people hear more and see more of their work. I am probably the worst videographer on earth – even with all the right equipment….but Mark has been more than patient and given me pointers and has some how magically transformed my shaky, amateur footage into sparkling, professional, impressive video tours! My sellers love them, I love them. Honestly, the video is something that I use a clincher to get listings and I feel of all the marketing I do, it’s money best spent. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Great Job Mark!!!
You make it easy for your clients.
I really appreciate this site and interview with Mark. What Mark is saying really does work. I have my Flip and Zi8 with Wide-Angle lens and shot this video, which Mark professsionally edited…did an awesome job: http://www.hdhathomes.com/tours/699_tourb.html . The agent was well pleased with the result of a quality video and the deep linking of the video in Google and beyond. I’ve learned so much about shooting these tours and video in general just from working on this one video with Mark. I highly recommend his services. Bill Cobb Appraiser in Baton Rouge
This is a great piece for all to read – My job is to shoot the video for our clients, Mark’s job is to edit and distribute – NO way I can do that on my own half as good as HDHat and no way I can do it cheaper.
One of the biggest benefits is that he does push the agent whenever and wherever he can – it’s not at all for himself.
Keep up the great work, Mark!
[...] HDhat.com has tested a very inexpensinve .45x wide angle lens on the Iphone 4 with great success. We will publish the modification method here on TechSavvyAgent.com and our Blog soon. [...]
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