When you are creating an online listing for your vacant rental property, simply uploading images isn’t enough to entice renters anymore. Instead prospective tenants want an immersive experience through virtual video tours. This has proven to be quite effective for landlords.
However, the effort you put into the video tour can determine your ultimate success. As such, it’s important to know how best to film a great video tour of your rental. And while you can hire a professional videographer to do it for you, having some basic DIY skills can be helpful too.
Advantages of Filming a Great Video Tour of Your Rental Property
Whether you own one or a dozen rental properties, to be successful, you must follow trends to fill vacancies. As such, when trying to find a tenant, you must do everything to help you stand out from the competition.
Creating a virtual video tour of the property is a great way to make your investment appealing to potential tenants. You can rewrite this to: Before filming the video tour, make sure to perform the end of tenancy cleaning.
Having a video tour has the added benefit of engaging prospective tenants and allowing them to interact with the property. The virtual video tour will enable them to explore the space and visualize themselves living there. What’s more, virtual tours enable people who are unable to view the property in person to do so at their own convenience.
How to Film a Great Video Tour of Your Rental
Personalize the Video Tour
When you begin filming, provide the same experience as an in-person tour. The goal is to help the viewer picture themselves in every room. Take your time talking about the amenities of each room, pointing out the best features of the space, and emphasizing what can be done with the space.
Using this approach will greatly maximize the changes of prospective tenants completing a rental application. Try to include the top 8 amenities renters look for.
Hire an Expert
Anyone with a smartphone and simple DIY skills can film a great video tour. That said, if you doubt your DIY skills or simply don’t have the time to do the filming, then hiring expert help may be necessary.
You can hire a professional videographer, real estate photographers, or individuals with experience in property showcasing such as a property manager.
Software and Equipment
Before starting the filming process, first, ensure you are working with the right equipment and software. As a property manager, you don’t have to go out and buy an expensive camera, but you must ensure that the videos you take are of high quality.
You have two options in this regard. The first one is using a quality DSLR camera. This is one of the best investments you can make for your property. The price can range anywhere between $100 and $6,000.
In addition to getting the camera itself, you’ll also need equipment, including a fisheye lens and a tripod.
You can also use a smartphone. Just make sure the smartphone is of good quality and produces high-resolution videos. This is an easier way to film a video for your rental property, but a camera can produce a higher quality video.
Set Up the Shot
Now that you have the right equipment and software, the next thing is to begin the filming process. The following are some tips to help you do just that.
- Record in landscape mode. You want to avoid portrait mode because the dimensions won’t fit properly on a computer screen. Recording in landscape mode will enable you to capture more details for a better viewing experience for your tenants.
- Get the lighting right. Recording video in the mid-mornings or late afternoons typically produces the best results. The goal here is to avoid footage when there are strong sun rays beaming through the window.
- You will also want to get the backlighting right. Avoid shooting in front of the windows or directly into a source of light. This will cause the videos you’re trying to capture to be overshadowed.
- For best results, keep natural light on your back rather than facing it directly. Also, do not use your phone’s flashlight as it never yields good photos compared to natural lighting.
Narration
If you are planning to have narration in your videos, then it pays to do it right. Narrations are essential when adding hotspots or stand-out features in a video. Recording audio for a video is simpler than it seems and can improve your video tour.
If you are not planning to have a narration, then consider muting the footage and adding background music.
Keep It Steady
Try to keep your hands as steady as you can. You can also invest in a tripod to simplify the entire process for you. Expect to pay anywhere between $100 and $300 for a good one.
That’s a Wrap!
Filming a great video tour of your rental property is key to helping you fill vacancies. However, hiring a property manager can be ideal if you find the process daunting. Blue Door Realty is a professional Rio Rancho property management company. Get in touch to learn more!