Why do some sellers not want video? Somebody please explain

i find that floorplans and pictures are a lot more useful than a video. Videos that I've seen make the place look smaller and strange sometimes.

Fluter

I would guess some might think a video may convey a sign of trying too hard to sell. The thought being, trying to make "my ad more fancy" than the others and is overpriced.

I am not saying I feel this way but your asking what may be the psyche of some sellers.

Video tours work better for houses, as they allow potential buyers to get the sense of the exterior/curb appeal as well as the interior characteristics/flow of the houses. It's definitely helpful to virtually walk through those properties.

But I find them much, much less useful in NYC, where virtually all properties are (smaller) apartments. A large majority of properties in NYC are thus too small to benefit from "moving pictures." You get a better sense from floor plans and pictures than you would from moving pictures where there isn't much room to move to begin with... And, as ab_11218 says, it does make smaller spaces look even smaller.

I tend to avoid looking at them because if they are not done well, I find that they can make me nauseous with all the jerking & panning about. I wonder if sellers think that there will be an added expense to them & convey to potential buyers that the cost will be passed on.

I find them very cheesy and unappealing at best. At worst, the listing becomes a joke on Youtube on "what NOT to do when making a video."

I don't just sell walls, I sell light. I don't just sell location, I sell services. I find video to generally underrepresent those things.

How do you put in a video that your SoHo loft has better light than the three other competitors? How do you put in a video that the condo that you've got listed is so "full-service" that the doorman will always help you with the stroller?

Some things consumers just have to experience for themselves.

ali r.
{downtown broker}

I'd second the idea that good floorplans, and several in-focus photographs are more valuable to me than videos. The videos I've seen aren't very good, take too long to load, and back to my first point.. floorplans and pictures (more than a few please) are more to my liking. I want to be able to look at a listing quickly and see if I'm interested. If you are thinking of taking the time to make a video, make a floorplan first, or instead of...

weird fisheye lens videos just make me feel like i'm watching Blair Witch Project. Floorplan and good pix work for apts.

Thanks to everyone, these are really great comments.

One of the Top Agent earners we know, a multi-millionaire agent, is advocating videos and he provides them for all his listings.

My video wouldn't end up a joke at all. I have experience with this stuff and education. I have Madison Ave experience as well. The videos I've seen by Top Agent are excellent.

What that Top Agent does is create (actually, he hires) videos that begin by describing the 'hood, and then move into the building and the apartment.

My own concern about videos is that leave nothing to the imagination, and take away any sense of discovery which I think is part of the fun of shopping for real estate.

Until I can overcome seller resistance, I'm not really going to get a chance to see if videos work, or not, for my listings.

Thanks again, all, good stuff to ponder. ..

{Manhattan real estate agent.}

Large, bright hi-res photos that can be carefully studied are far more useful than a grainy, endlessly panning video with stiff dialogue and Kenny G soundtrack, "this is the living room, note the very large windows and period detailing and how the guy playing the sax doesn't ever take a breath."

I generally don't care for them but I did see a good one of a lovely apartment off of Beekman Place. It started at the curb & showed the building, walked you through the lobby & then the agent met you at the front door & walked you through the apartment. It was very nicely done & that is certainly the key; also, it was a larger apartment. Probably the average, smaller unit doesn't need that type of marketing but for a larger, more expensive property, it's another tool for the sellers.

Fluter, with all due respect to the illustrious field of RE agents, their blather makes me ill and the idea of having to actually HEAR them each time I click on a listing is not attractive. And frankly I'd sooner live in a box on the sidewalk than waste time on a video that first "describe[d] the 'hood." In NYC, pretty much anyone looking at a unit knows the neighborhood. This isn't Toronto or Chicago with a 100 districts and sub-neighborhoods far from the center of things. And as I sift listings, an agent telling me there is a Whole Foods 4 blocks away and 3 subway lines within a 10 minute walk, and that Wash. Sq. Park is just 3 blocks away does not appeal to me or add value of any kind. Unless you are moving here from out of town, these things are typically known to prospective buyers. I want to SEE the apt., not hear an agent talk about it or worse yet, hear a narrator with a British accent that the agent thinks is classy talking about the apt. If the pix are good, the floorplan accurate, and listing info complete and truthful, a video may be a nice bonus, but I don't think spending $$$ for a great video is going to get the apt sold any quicker.

I guess basically a video to me, is an advertisement, and I just want the listing. Like Kylewest says I don't want to hear a description of the hood, I live in NYC, if I'm looking at listings in any neighborhood I either know it myself already or I can do the due diligence to see if I like it... or I can read what the broker typed in the text of the listing. And again, as Kyle points out, unless you are moving here from a distant location, who needs that info?

Floorplans, and accurate ones at that, as well as lots of pictures!

kw: I guess people have as much trouble finding the mute button as they do finding the "ignore this poster" button. ;) lol, jk, etc.

On a more serious note: as a video producer, I can tell you that if you're going to hire a professional, high quality video shot, edited, etc. I think you'd have to spend a minimum of $1,000 and probably closer to $2,000 to $3,000 for any unit which it would be worth shooting a video of (i.e. WTF needs a video of a straight studio?). As a result, I think you aren't going to find high quality videos of apartments posted by brokers unless they come from a video production background and are going to do it for free (or nominal cost) you aren't going to get a "quality" video. And a poor quality ANYTHING hurts more than it helps. How many times have we seen hand drawn, out of scale floorplans, or really bad photos and thought "what a disservice this broker is doing to their seller"?. In fact, what we have seen is comments about improvements in still photos have piqued buyer's interests (recent discussion here about one agency's new tool to give full screen high res photos for their listings met with a lot of positive comments).

So, I think if some agency started putting up a bunch of great videos, people would quickly change their minds on this, but if all owners have seen is crap, can you blame them for being resistant to having their own unit represented in the same way? What this MIGHT bring on, however, with the current economy, if one of the larger agencies actually hired an IN HOUSE crew to produce high quality videos of their important listing, you might see high enough quality videos that they became more highly accepted.

But there's another issue: lot of people have turned to the internet for their RE search because it's a MUCH more "you drive" experience. Well, if you've got printed ad/listing copy and still photos, the user can go thru them as quickly as they feel: they can spend 10 seconds to a minute to look at all the info. but if you've got a 5 minute video as the presentation, the user needs to sit thru those 5 minutes if they want all the info. If you want to go thru 50 listings, with print and photos you can probably do it in under 2 hours (for some, in under 1/2 hour), but with 50 5 minutes videos? It's over 4 hours.

Agree with 30, better to not do it then do it crappily.

Which brings me to the question, for a $7m townhouse, they couldn't hire a photographer who had a flash??

These may be the worst photos ever for a listing.

http://www.prudentialelliman.com/listings.ASpx?listingid=1180778

Hate videos; never watch them when they are available. Floorplans tell you much more about how the space is used/what space is usable. In small spaces, that is absolutely key.

ALSO: because they often feature brokers yammering on about how this is the best property in the history of real estate. They never are, and while I'll put up with certain brokers yammering at me at open houses, I do not invite their disembodied voices into my home via video.

Modern,

Those photos are the least of that townhouse's worries.

What an utter disaster. I wouldn't pay a dollar over 1.5M for that utter fuck'n disaster of a space!!!!

What the fuck is wrong with people?

It's killing me because I can't remember but that townhouse was in a book or article a few years ago, I remember it distinctly, just can't remember which book/article or who owned it at the time... and I guess I could look on ACRIS ...

"kitchen by ***infamous*** architect Stephan Jaklitsch" ???

memito,

I agree. While looking at the photos, images from "The Silence of the Lambs" kept popping into my head...that basement kitchen is downright weird.

"All inquires are confidential."

As compared to what? Calling the NY Post Page Six?

I thought this phrase was odd too.

An example of inspiring video that captures the essence of a property through the magic of 3D CAD and John Tesh at the piano.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HuKESjbWP8

I agree that videos tend to be pretty useless. Many of them are nothing more than pull-outs, push-ins and pans of the still shots. What's the point?

Thanks for sharing, spnnaker1, but it's the music that makes that video. I don't dig the fake looking photos and all the Ken Burns effects, but maybe that's just me.

{Manhattan real estate agent}