Last year, if you told me that Youtube videos were a viable way of advertising your listing to interested clients, I wouldn't have taken you seriously. The craze over short form content on Instagram and TikTok had completely taken over, and all of our attention spans were shortened to seconds. I also knew that Youtube's algorithm is completely different and even more random than Instagram and TikTok. Instagram themselves used to say that 5-6 seconds of content was the max someone could create to do well on the platform. But after hearing success stories from a few realtors that post to Youtube, I decided to look into it a bit more, and discovered something interesting.
While I create a few different forms of videos, some are longer in duration - aimed not at getting a viewer's attention, but showing the already-interested buyer the details they are looking for. This includes long cinematic listing videos, which typically show most of the home excluding smaller bathrooms, closets, etc. They are designed to meticulously and cinematically show off a home and are different than the catchy 15 or so second reels you see all over social media.
Surprisingly, I recently learned that 50%+ of homebuyers use Youtube as their starting point when looking into a property. It makes sense, considering after looking at listing photos and wanting to learn more about the property, you'd want all the details you can get. Longer listing videos are a great example of this; slower paced videos designed to show potential clients the most and best parts of the property. This is especially important for those out of state clients, who can't quite make a drive to check out an open house. After doing thorough research and finding a newly created listing video for the property they are looking at, they are able to view it in a way that they wouldn't be able to do any other way.
One last thing I want to touch on related to statistics - only 9% of agents nationally create video media for their listings, (videos of any kind) yet 73% of homeowners would be more willing to list with an agent that creates media, and not only that, video increases the amount of interest generated by 0ver 400%. A year ago was a different time - but today, I recommend not only ordering a short reel for social media, but a longer video in order to have those potential buyers become even more interested, especially if the property is both hard to sell or if you're looking to fetch a higher selling price.
Be sure to contact me today if you have any interest in creating media for your listings!
