Is selling property in Dubai becoming a little harder than it used to be? Of course not!

There still is a big demand, and always will be, so what’s changed?

Well for one, the off plan properties are slowly coming online now! So investors and potential home owners aren’t buying property from brochures and DVD anymore. They are beginning to ask for images of the neighborhood, and what the interiors of the property look like, i.e finishings etc.

This will only be a growing trend soon, as off plan properties get converted to real world standing structures.

Need an example? Not a long time ago, you could sell a Jumeirah Beach Residence or Palm Apartment to a buyer by simply showing them brochures and computer generated video. You had to! the buildings were not up yet.

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Now as a Real Estate Agent or an Investor who owns one of these apartments, you will certainly be asked by prospective buyers to supply them with visuals of the apartment, and why it is better than others.

Don’t fall off a cliff when it comes to creating a property video, That’s what this post is about!

To help you get started in this new area of real estate ( it’s a standard in other established markets) we introduce and bring up the subject of creating Video Tours for Real Estate Property.

Objective: To produce a short video tour of a home to show to potential buyers, either locally, or Half way around the world if need be. Why?

answer: to give them a ‘feeling’ of the property before they visit - or to induce them to actually visit the property!

Equipment:

A decent video camera.

Prices are falling by the day, and even if they are not, buy on installments, but get a reasonably decent video camcorder. Consumer HD is a great way to start, but of course MiniDV will be ok, if you want to start off basic and upgrade later.

However, try to get a cam corder with as much ‘mega pixels for still shots’ as you can get. This way you can also take snapshots when you are video shooting

Tripod! - Very important. If theres one piece of equipment needed, at least for creating a property video - It’s a tripod. We are’nt out to shoot the Blair Witch Realty Project!

The Art:

Are there Video Professional who tell you its hard to shoot property videos? Dont entirely believe them.

Have you really dissected a property video? Take a look at a video of a home tour. It’s really not all that hard to do.

All you see is slow panning of the camera on a tripod, horizontally and then vertically. You rarely see the professionals attempting a real ‘walk thru’ from room to room.

As you get more experienced with doing tripod mounted / panning videos, you can later get adventurous and use all sorts of tricks; folding the tripod legs down and placing it on a chair with wheels and slowly going from room to room etc.

Remember - You aren’t producing a hollywood blockbuster here, and it’s rare that a person just buys a project after watching a video tour ( though thats currently debatable in Dubai! )

So, as long as you do a decent job of not shaking the camera ( tripod!) and you do s-l-o-o-o-w panning with the tripod handle you should be just fine!

Getting camera stuff right: It’s not rocket science anymore to focus and white balance a camera. Hit Auto!

if you do want to get just that wee bit involved, spending a day with the camcorder manual and the internet wont kill anyone to learn just the basics of things like focus and white balance.

THE BIG QUESTION: WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS YOURSELF?

Well that is because YOU are passionate about selling that property! So you are the Director telling the story of that particular house, and why its a good deal/buy.

The more you are behind the camera, the more cues and unique highlights you will discover about that particular property when pitching the sale to a client!

Editing the video: It’s not that hard really… If your doing things like calculations and mortgages and analysis, this is really only as hard as using a computer mouse. In fact if you have Windows XP you already have the software built in to grab video from your camcorder and edit it. Go to Start—-Programs—-Accessories—-WindowsMovieMaker to get started.

Or see this post on just about ‘the easiest’ video and DVD creation package out there. It’s really click and Burn.

Voice over and Music: Voice over is simple, grab a decent mic, and close the bedroom door. or, just use subtitles and music!

Free music? search google for Creative Commons music licenses. As long as you are actually not selling your walk-thru, you can use any of the music under the creative commons license as long as you give a credit line in the video.

Showing off your Work: With the click and burn package above you can make a DVD complete with your own logo and chapter menu - No technical knowhow needed.

You can also save a copy as mpeg / quicktime or Windows media etc for playback on your laptop.

Then of course there is the excellent platform for hosting Real Estate Videos online .. and starting off free too! at Vidlisting.com

So there you have it!. It’s a fun hobby or you can get serious with it.

But remember, if you are really that busy to DIY, just call in the professionals, that’s what WE are here for!