Online Real Estate Videos Increase Perceived Property Values

A recent survey by PropertyPreviews demonstrates the impact that online videos and professionally produced photography have on perceived real estate property values.  According to the study, survey results show that the use of an online video tour in marketing real estate property increased the perceived value of a home by 6%.

Additionally, users indicated that they would be more likely to actually be interested in and visit homes on the market that had online video or professional photography associated with the listing. Finally, The data also shows that individuals who viewed a video of a property felt the listing would be on the market for a shorter period of time when compared to similar homes.

“In this difficult housing environment, real estate professionals and home sellers need to do all they can to differentiate their property,” said Brian Balduf, CEO of VHT. “While perceived value is not the same as what someone ultimately pays for a property, it sets the benchmark as to what this property is worth in a buyer’s mind compared to other homes in the same neighborhood. First impressions often have a big impact on a buyers’ decision making process on which homes to visit and how much to offer.”

Professional photography and video creation services are readily available to real estate professional, with costs ranging from free to a few hundred dollars. The use of these services has increased significantly as evidenced by the number of real estate related videos on sites like YouTube.

“Professional photographs and videos are just as essential as a yard sign,” said recent home seller Patricia Potocki of Palatine, IL. The small investment made by my real estate agent was absolutely worth it and really set my home apart from other properties in the area.”

“More than 84 percent of prospective home buyers start their search on the Internet, so the use of video to market a property is essential,” said Jeff Harris, general manager of PropertyPreviews.com. “Videos are free to create on PropertyPreviews.com so the return on investment is significant and home sellers should be demanding it.”

To capture the viewpoint of the typical prospective home buyer, the survey included responses from several hundred individuals, evenly distributed nationally among male and female, between the ages of 35 and 54 with more than $75,000 in household income.

The respondents were shown descriptions of homes, some of which also included a video and some professional photography. They were then asked about their perceived value of the home; how likely they were to visit a home; and how quickly they thought the property would sell. The survey methodology was designed by a graduate Research class at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Survey Results Summary:

• 320 respondents viewed homes in the $400,000-$600,000 range.
• Respondents that viewed listing information accompanied by professional photography valued the property at an average price of $460,735, an increase of 11.5 percent or $52,896 over the average perceived price of the description-only property, $407,839.
• Respondents viewing a video valued the home at an average price of $432,329, an increase of 5.7 percent or $24,490, over the average perceived price of the description-only property, $407,839.
• Survey respondents believed a home with professional photography was three times more likely to sell within the standard listing period than a home marketed with only descriptive information.
• When asked how likely they were to visit the homes listed with professional photography, seven times as many respondents indicated that they were “very likely” to visit the home as those who said they were “very likely” to visit a home with only descriptive information.

I think it would be interesting to see this research expanded to focus on real estate video tours (essentially photo slideshows) vs. professionally produced online video for real estate.  My feeling is that given that professional photography produced a large lift in survey results, the same could be said of professionally produced online video.   Perhaps the combination of the 2 would be even more powerful?

About the Author - Mark R Robertson
Mark Robertson is the Founder and Creator of ReelSEO.com. Mark has had extensive experience in online marketing, particularly in Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Local Search, Video Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You can follow Mark on Twitter @markrrobertson

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