Written By: Jerry Rossi
Jerry Rossi
The number one reason that will keep surfers coming back to a real estate website is EMOTION. How does one generate emotion on a static website? Use photos? Yes, pictures can generate emotion. I cover this more thoroughly in Chapter 3, A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Bucks of my book, Dog Eat Dog & Vice Versa: 9 Secrets To Put The Bite Into Your Marketing. Photos do generate some emotion but not much. Every real estate website has photos. Virtual tours? Okay a little. After all, the number one click on REALTOR.com is “show me only houses with Virtual Tours”. However, I’ve never had a buyer stand in the middle of the den and turn slowly 360 degrees to the right until they fall over.
MOVING PICTURES
Video is the only hope to generate the kind of emotional connection we want to have with suspect real estate buyers. Think about it, consumers have watched billions of hours of video since the advent of TV. We’re accustomed to it, captured by it, addicted to it, wowed by it. We gathered around to watch a man walk on the moon. Now we look at photos of deep space from the Hubble Telescope on the screen of our smart phone. Video has become the norm. It is short attention span theater where ‘two and half minutes’ is considered a long time – yet it still can create emotion.
Rules of Emotional Video
First – “Stop It!” I know what’s going through your mind, “I can’t afford to do a video.” I agree, video is expensive, and if you were to spend the bucks on a high quality, highly produced, glitzy video, it most likely wouldn’t work. Why? Because that would look, feel, and smell like a commercial and drive people away. Think the YouTube phenomenon!
Second – it must be short, space isn’t the only reason YouTube limits videos to 10 minutes. For real estate, I’ve found 1.5 to 2.5 minutes. There’s no need to explain or narrate as in, “This is the bathroom…” (No kidding – Charlie come looky here – it’s on the inside). No flowery adjectives. Do not SELL it. Do not use the voice of the one holding the camera. No need to have people or actors in the frame.
And, while we’re at it: Who cares if you or an actor can walk out onto the page of your website and ‘try’ to sell something. If most consumers are looking at houses while at work, they’ll dive for the mute button to shut you, or your actor, up.
DIY
That’s right – Do It Yourself. Dust off that video camera you bought for the family three Christmases ago that’s in the hall closet – and get busy.
Lighting is everything. Yes, you can go out and rent expensive lighting equipment, but don’t. A couple of portable floodlights with high watt bulbs are all you need. There is an easy lighting trick you can use – gels. Gels are colored transparencies that you place over the floodlight to temper the light. Go to the office supply company and buy a pack of colored transparencies. Pink or salmon work well for most inside shots. If one sheet doesn’t help, use several at a time.
Another trick is to direct the lights up and be conscious of shadows. Needless to say, if natural light is too bright, close the shades, blinds, or drapes. Or, shoot in through the window from the outside for a different effect. Pick the best time of day (best light) to video the outside. If the house is well lit at night – that may be the best time.
Every house has a look, a feel, an emotion. It doesn’t matter if it’s a new Mac Mansion or a 970 square foot, 40 year-old track home. Remember the old adage, “Someone’s shack is someone else’s castle.”
Let me create an example of identifying the emotion. Let’s say you have a five bedroom home complete with a huge bonus room, large yard, and playground equipment listed. So what’s the emotion? KIDS. Putting kids in your video can be a whole new set of problems. So how do you demonstrate this emotion? Get a sound bite of kids playing and add it to the video of the yard. Have a sound bite of a football crowd when showing the bonus room. Sound bites are a great way to generate emotion and there are lots of Wav or MP3 files on the Internet for free. Go to: http://www.thefreesite.com/Free_Sounds/Free_WAVs/
Sound of Music
Music is very emotional and there is a lot of free music as well – go to: http://freeplaymusic.com/ for one. Use music to set the tone or pace of the property. If you can define a purchaser, or category of purchasers, you may wish to use music that they can or will identify with. At http://e-MotionalVideo.com, my emotional video demonstration, you will see a new home that the builder built with a targeted purchasing category of 28 to 65 year olds, high-income technology professionals, doctors, or lawyers. In addition, a 1963 Corvette Split Window Coupe was used as a prop, as well as classic blues rock music.
Sound, Music, Props, Lighting, now camera work – pan slowly – take your time, it will show. Take care not to zoom in and out like a cartoon eye in an attempt to focus. Hold the camera low and shoot at a slight upward angle to give volume to the frame. Use reflection whenever possible by shooting countertops, mirrors, and window glass. Don’t forget the drive by and rolling shots. Placing the camera on an office chair gives a dolly effect, as will a child’s wagon.
Cut
To end up with approximately 2.5 minutes of good video, you’ll have to shoot 45 minutes to an hour. I’ve learned to use two tapes. One that will contain the actual footage and another that the pros call B-roll, which is a collection of shots that may, or may not, be added to the finished product. Here is a quote from a friend of mine, “Want to make a great video? Shoot lots of footage. Some of it will end up good and maybe a little will be great after editing.” Kyle Nuckolls.
As a PC user since 1986, I was entrenched, like many, in Microsoft. I also have a deep vein of the creativity and a need for atheistic consideration. In September of 2008, I switched to Mac at the urging of my artistic friends. And I’m glad I did, if for no other reason than iMovie. iMovie is very user friendly. I’ve actually become an amateur editor overnight – not really. Like everything else, there is a learning curve.
Others tell me that Microsoft’s Movie Maker is equally as easy to use. Whatever you use, understand that there will be a learning curve and time will be needed. The end result will put you in a new category of real estate expert. Let alone your family will finally be glad to get the videos you’ve taken burned onto CD’s to show on your 60-inch flat screen.
Remember, you don’t want it to be perfect. After all, this is not academy-award grade film. It is YouTube-reality based video. It is not created to sell the property or person (yes you can make a personal video that humanizes you and spawns emotion) but only to instill emotion. Instill emotion to keep the Internet real estate surfer coming back to your site, the HOOK stage.
The COOK (“the LOOK, the HOOK, and the COOK” ™)
Having properly executed the HOOK, the suspect purchaser, now buyer, is comfortable, well-informed, emotional, and ready to take action. This usually starts with an e-mail to you. It may also be by text or telephone. Whichever way they choose, understand that it will be their choice and requires your immediate response.
All the ingredients have been simmering in their Hook Crockpot over time – bubbling with emotion. It’s now your, the agent’s, turn to don the hat of advisor and facilitate the home purchasing process.
It is my belief that we cannot sell someone a house. What we can do is find what they want, need, desire, and can afford to buy and facilitate the process. Our job is not to sell – it is to facilitate the home buying and selling process. Not to use the 30’s flimflam dialog of Robert Preston, “We got trouble, right here in River City…”; Not the hard sell of the 60’s, “You should buy this now because I have another buyer coming at 4:00…”; or, the contrived dialog of the 70’s,
“When the great American Statesman Benjamin Franklin had to make a decision, he would draw a line down the center of the paper and put all his reasons for buying on this side, and his reasons for not buying…”; or, the game show dialog of the 80’s, “Wouldn’t you, couldn’t you, shouldn’t you, don’t you agree?” Or, the practiced cadence of the 90’s, “If, for the benefit of everyone, I could show you a way….” All have given way to the ‘do not sell’ patience of the professional advisor.
The New Dawn of the Emotional Evolved Consumer
All purchasing is emotional. As real estate salespeople and once the purveyor of the information, we were with the purchaser during the time of their emotional rise. Now we are not. All of our purchasers today start their property search on the Internet. The Internet is a sea of real estate nets (websites) – all with the expectation of capturing the same fish – the illusive buyer. Standing out is next to impossible, so high-valued is now the goal – high-valued on the list of free content rich, instant information that triggers the emotional brain and activates the buying process. Now we, as real estate agents and brokers, are there, in comfort and rapport, to work in trust with the buyers and facilitate the process. It’s a new dawn of the real estate professional, once salesman now professional advisor with one more tool in our tool box, that of e-Motional Video.
