The technology that people utilize for marketing these days is really quite something, and it’s not surprising that real estate agents are keen to maximize what they can do with it when marketing homes they have for sale on behalf of clients. Much if not all of it is built on the Internet connectivity that we’ve all been enjoying for 20-plus years now. Visuals are everything in real estate marketing, and that won’t come as a surprise considering prospective homebuyers are always going to want to envision themselves living in a home and a community. And making good use of visuals of different sorts can also be a means of collecting home seller leads too.
We’ve talked at length about proven means of generating the best real estate leads here, but paid real estate leads like the ones we offer here at 4GoodHosting aren’t where you start with this necessarily. They are best seen as a means of augmenting a realtor’s existing status as a realtor who is very visible to potential clients when they begin to search for a professional to work with when buying or selling a home. Naturally, the best and most effective way to do that is to have your name out there and then have a long list of satisfied clients who will be happy to vouch for you as an excellent realtor.
A big part of this can be people referring you to others they know who are preparing to put their home on the market, and you can gain seller leads for real estate agents when former clients rave about the different but super effective means you used to market their home. Sometimes all that is required to sell a home is to put it on the MLS and host open houses. With other properties there will be much more promotion required to convince would-be buyers to place an offer.
One good example of this where new technology is used to great effect is with drone video and aerial photography. There can be a lot to be gained in showing an elevated or ‘bird’s eye’ view of a home as compared to only taking standing height ground level photos of it. In particular it can be very valuable if there is a real harmony between the home and the property it stands on. The way exterior detailing like patios or other fixtures or landscaping adds to the appeal of the home can be better highlighted too. That’s what we’re going to look at with this entry.
Great Images from Up High
Real estate drone video can be very persuasive when it makes a home and property look that much more attractive to a prospective buyer, and as we mentioned above home seller leads can come from them later on as people speak highly of your use of drone video in real estate. Agents do know that to generate home seller leads they must show the clearest and most flattering property pictures they can.
In some instances that’s not possible with a smartphone or even a higher-end DSLR camera if you’re only taking ordinary photos of the exterior. In the past it would have been impossible to take photos or video from a very elevated view in the sky, but no longer. We’re now seeing that the use of drone property photography has taken the real estate industry by storm, and this is a trend that we’re probably going to see gain even more traction. Here are some industry statistics to consider related to this:
- Homes with aerial images sold 68% faster in comparison to homes with standard image.
- 73% of homeowners say working with an agent that uses video to market homes is preferable.
- 83% of home sellers will want to work with an agent that uses drones.
- Drones are used 3.5 times more by high-volume agents than low-volume agents.
- Drones speed up the sales process for commercial and residential properties.
Realtors can then add to the emphatic nature of their property marketing efforts when they use those pictures when creating ads on Facebook or Google, and they will almost always see increased engagement because of them. But as it relates to the best real estate leads realtors need to be a cut above the rest when it comes to delivering the best residential and commercial real estate drone photography, so let’s now turn to a discussion of good real estate drone video and photo tips.
Start at the Start
A good starting point for better flying drone photography and video is to make sure you have the best drone for your needs. Battery life, the resolution of the camera, and pre-programmed flight modes can all be valid considerations and you should weigh all of them from the perspective of how do I get the perfect real estate marketing videos or drone property photography shots. As is the case with many new products it may be possible to get a good quality used camera drone as this is one product where new enthusiasts often upgrade their drone in short order.
You can and should start with preparing the scene. Make sure the home exterior is made to look its best and that the property is equally attractive. Naturally, you will want to choose a day with good weather and clear visibility too. The next thing you will need to do is master your drone and find the best settings for the type of video you want to take, as seller leads for real estate agents aren’t always easy to come by and if you’re going to put the time, effort, and expense into this then you certainly need to do it right.
Try taking your drone to a park near your home for an hour or so and get used to flying it and taking video at the same time. Apparently most people get the hang of it pretty quickly, and you may want to keep the drone at a low height right in front of you while you master the basic controls. In addition to what you read in the owner’s manual you can also likely find good flight instruction videos for your drone on YouTube.
You’ll need to get to know the drone flight modes too, and most of the good ones have intelligent flight modes that make all of this impressively user friendly. The next thing you’ll need to is take some test flights taking photos and videos, and one thing that is always true is that lower in the air is generally better than higher, although if there are other geographical features (like coastline for example) nearby then you can spend a portion of the time taking video higher in the air.
Aerial map photography can be good for home seller leads and it’s good tomato them part of listing presentations online, giving would-be buyers the option of clicking on the video and watching it. But again, to get the best real estate leads you want to stay low so you can get an idea of the property and surrounding land. Another part of the advantage of having real estate drone video is letting you add visual descriptiveness to you narration of the video.
If, for example, you’re describing how the home is a stone’s throw from a nice beachfront park it will be very helpful – and much more persuading – if you’re able to clearly show just how that’s the case and what an attractive beachfront park these folks will have close by if they start to envision themselves living there.
Estimate Expenses
Generating seller leads for real estate agents is something that those agents will have to weigh in an expense / return sort of equation, and in many ways that is true of any expenditure a person makes to further their business. As this relates to using an aerial drone to get good real estate video the national average that realtors can expect to pay for aerial photography is between $250 and $350. As mentioned above though, you may be able to find a reasonably priced used one in good condition if you’re willing to be patient and scour online seller platforms like Craigslist, Kijiji, and Facebook Marketplace.
There will be other points that can factor into all of this though, including location, equipment, competitors, as well as the services and finished products required. In many instances the realtor may become proficient with operating the drone and getting the video but they still need pay for editing to create high-quality, high-resolution photos and video. Prices will also vary based on whether you aim to capture an event, produce commercial images, or create images of a special viewpoint.
With that in mind, you may want to assume more expense up front rather than later and that can be true of nearly anything related to home seller leads in real estate. Higher-end gear typically produces a higher-resolution and higher-quality project, and if you are a realtor who is regularly representing clients with homes for sale then it’s advisable to get better equipment when using drones to video real estate.
The perspective that even 1 home sold in part because of the buyers being smitten with the on-high footage of the home can make the purchase of drone worth the expense is a legitimate one here. And of course if that’s the case then it is very likely that won’t be the first time the better videos of homes on your real estate website create sales results that have your drone more than paying for itself.
Drone Video Tips
It is highly recommended that you first master the operation of your drone, and once you start to compare your video with others you will likely see that it is best to go slow for the most convincing cinematic experience designed to cater to prospective buyers. You can always speed up a shot in post-production to make that drone footage look like a high-speed fly-by. As you become more proficient with the drone and camera you’ll develop more of a sense of when and where you should be zooming in on the home too.
We talked about learning how to edit video well too, or paying to have a pro edit your videos so that they have the full promotional effect you want from them. Getting good drone shots and editing video can be two very different skillsets. And if you still need convincing about learning to do this yourself you can consider a 60 to 90-second real estate drone video can cost between $400-$450 if you were to have the entire service done for you. Keep this in mind as well as you consider what we talked about at the end of the previous paragraph here.
It’s been shown that realtors who incorporate multimedia components into their personal real estate websites well enjoy more follow-up inquiries from individuals or couples who have an existing interest in putting in an offer on the property. Your use of drone video footage for selling homes and coming up with the best real estate leads can definitely be one part of that, and you can make sure you always have a video available for every new home listing you feature on the site.
This is something that an established and more successful realtor with a bigger operating budget to work with, but if you are newer to the business and money is an object then you should consider getting the video yourself. The need to be good at it will be even more profound when you are idealizing your video as a means of both selling homes AND drumming up home seller leads as satisfied clients speak of your real estate drone video proficiency to people in their circle who are now also thinking of selling their home.
There are also smarter ways to edit and treat real estate photos and videos, and as you turn the learning curve with flying a drone and getting video of homes from above you may also start taking an interest in how to do that too. And don’t be surprised if drone video footage becomes a part of how you capture memories with your own family on vacation and the like.
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