YouTube Can Help you Sell Your Home

www.youtube.com

Youtube.com: for many people it’s the place you go to see crazy videos of cats or of people falling and singing off-key. But increasingly, it is becoming a place for people to do business. And one of the ways that people are using it for business is by showing off real estate.

For instance, the site Realestate.com offers a youtube channel for all of its listings. The videos show pictures of the home and provide many of the relevant details that buyers would be interested in. The benefit is that the videos are engaging and can potentially draw buyers in more than a traditional static listing can. Unfortunately, this site is currently only for American listings.

However, even this site is not taking full advantage of the power of youtube. Since these videos only show a succession of static images, beyond the simple fact that people are more engaged by videos, this channel is not necessarily that effective. A better approach is provided by Silver:House.

Silver:House is a Toronto-based service that does more immersive video tours of properties for real estate agents. Although the shots generally remain in one place in the room to minimize the jarring, Blair-Witch-Project feel of a handheld tour of a property, they offer pans of rooms to give a genuine sense of their size, layout and connection to the other rooms in a house. These shots also provide an authentic idea of what the view from the unit might look like.

Of course, since these videos are more expensive than a simple collection of still images, they are most effective for high-end properties where the seller wants to minimize the number of showings.

Another use for Youtube in the real estate arena is to get the feel of a neighbourhood. Moving into a new ‘hood can make you nervous, but checking out a youtube tour of it can give you an idea of what the amenities of the neighbourhood are, and what you can expect from the character of the place. There are many independent tours available on youtube. They may not be the most professional pieces on the Internet, but they can be interesting and fun.