When marketing rental properties, you must innovate and upload more than a few photos to attract tenants. In today’s housing market, most tenants request a virtual video tour. With this, it’s a good idea to be updated with your marketing materials. This way, you can generate more leads and increase the chances of your rental property being occupied.
There are many ways to create a virtual property. You have the option to hire a professional videographer and editor to create a video tour of your property. If you need to make one more quickly and without spending a lot of money, you can use your smartphone to create the virtual tour video.
If you are a landlord and are looking for ways on how to create a virtual video tour of your rental home, Peak Residential put together this article to guide you.
Advantages of Using Virtual Video Tours
Opportunities to increase the occupancy rate of your rental property are not only available to big real estate companies but are equally available to small business owners. If you want to stand out when releasing a video tour of your property, read on.
Uploading a virtual tour encourages audience interaction and allows them to engage with your property. Aside from that, property video tours can help potential renters picture themselves sprucing up the space or a feel of how it looks living in your rental home. These are just some of the advantages of having a video tour available for your prospective tenants.
Since most people needing rental spaces are usually have limited free time to go to showings, virtual tours give them an opportunity to see the house at their convenience. This is a good opportunity that every landlord or property manager should use to reduce vacancy.
It’s a good idea for you to create an experience that lets your future tenants imagine themselves living in your rental space. This way they would be encouraged to submit an application.
Tips for Getting Hight Quality Shots
To create the best video tour, consider the following as a guide:
Customize the Rental Video Tour
In the video, make the experience as close to an in-person showing as possible. If you’re unsure on how to start, it’s always a good idea to search for video tour inspirations. You can also do a practice run, where you pass through the property the same way you would during a showing to get an idea what the video’s flow should look and feel like.
Choose the Perfect Software and Equipment
It’s important to be ready with the software you would use in creating a virtual tour. Once identified, next thing you need to prepare is the equipment and tools you will use in creating the video tour.
To take photos and videos of every room inside the rental home, you don’t need to buy a new high-quality camera. You can take test shots using your phone and update the settings to your liking.
Invest in a DSLR Camera
If you’d like to take high quality photos and videos, investing in a DSLR camera is a good way to go. It isn’t required but it will produce great shots resulting in less editing.
To maximize its use, invest in other equipment that will allow you to take steady, wide-angle shots. Tools such as a tripod and lights are a good addition to your equipment and allow you to shoot high quality videos.
Record in Landscape
Avoid the two black vertical bars on each side of the screen by recording videos in landscape. It will produce aesthetically pleasing videos and capture wider image of the room. This type of orientation gives your audience a better viewing experience.
Choose the Best Lighting and Angles
A good rule of thumb when taking perfect shots is to use natural light. Use it in moderation as bright lights can cause the video to look overexposed. If this happens, you can control how much light comes in by adjusting the blinds or taking the shot at a different time of day.
Take test shots until you figure out the best angle for the video. Making these test shots and applying some adjustments can give you the best results. This ensures that your capturing the rooms size and scale accurately and that everything is well-lit.
Frame Shots and Limit the Use of Zoom
If you’re using your smartphone when taking the video, avoid using the zoom feature as much as possible. This produces a low-quality result and sometimes a pixelated video. To remedy the situation, get closer to whatever your trying to capture.
Keep Your Hands Steady
Avoid distracting your potential tenants by taking blurry and shaky video. Stand against the wall or in a corner that could give you good support. As much as possible, hold the phone close to your body or use a tripod when shooting your video for best results.
Managing the Audio in Video Tours
Another important element of a video tour is the accompanying audio. Here are some tips to help ensure that your video has clear and engaging audio:
Mute Audio
If you want to avoid awkward and annoying background noise, it’s best to mute the audio while filming and just focus on the shots to highlight the best features of the property instead.
Add Narration
If you’d like to highlight specific details about the rental unit, it’s a good idea to use voice over or narration.
Bottom Line
Filming a video tour is a great way to help prospective tenant envision themselves living in the property. If you’re shooting the videos yourself, make sure you take the time to prepare the space, take test shots and pay attention to lighting and angles. If you’d like help marketing or managing your rental properties, consider partnering with the experts at Peak Residential.
