Photos are great for capturing that initial interest, but let’s face it – photos are shot of the BEST rooms in the BEST light at the BEST angles – and often times are not indicative of the the HOUSE looks like, but what a specific ROOM (at the best angle of course) looks like.

Real estate buyers (heck, I think ALL buyers, especially younger buyers) today want complete and total TRANSPARENCY. They don’t want to see a “tease” of the house. They don’t want to see what YOU allow me to see. They don’t want to see JUST the best rooms – they want to see EVERYTHING – just as they would if they were touring in person.

They also do NOT want a house salesperson either. They are doing THEIR research on their own time getting their own information – not clouded by someone who wants to sell them something or get put on a mailing list of endless spam. If today’s realtors don’t sell to today’s buyers the way they WANT to be “sold”, they’re going to lose out. They want complete and total transparency.

Personally, that’s where I see the true value of a video walk through. It truly IS the next best thing to actually being there. Especially for buyers out of state or even local – there are SO many properties on the market that it can be physically impossible to personally view them all, and yet you want to see as much as you can BEFORE you trek out and BEFORE you initiate contact with a house salesman.

Many old school Realtors don’t understand this. They think it’s wrong, but it’s irrelevant what they THINK. It also probably is why the job of a Realtor will be dramatically changing very quickly, just as it did in the travel industry. Realtors will be more of a consultant towards the END of the transaction, rather than a salesperson. Buyers are taking total control of the front half of this transaction. This is how it’s being done today and you can read study after study that bears this out.

Photography will NEVER, EVER be replaced by video. Video is an additional benefit, and one that serves an entirely different purpose than still photography.

- My wife, who is an agent, recently had buyers back out of a mutual because they sat down to watch a video they took of the house and decided they didn’t like it. A poorly taken video can definitely do harm.

- Her agency automatically provides a panning tour with audio for free for listings over a certain amount, which means I need to convince agents of the value of a real video over a panning video.

- To be honest, neither I nor my wife have ever seen a video that improved our opinions of the property. Most videos are either too long or do not show anything the pictures do not.

- Given that I have a 5D Mark II, I considered whether I could make some more money with a video tripod + editing software. Agents I asked thought video was cool, but weren’t willing to pay anything worth taking the time to do it.

Probably the only time I have seen video being truly helpful is for more expensive properties that attract out of town buyers.

I wonder if Coldplay knows a company like highresmediallc.com is using their music and making money off it?

http://www.highresmediallc.com/hrmvideo/ventanapark.html