Ask the agent
Do real estate agents actually want video, and which kind?
Agents don’t want video. They want views, and a buyer who calls. Sell the wrong kind and she pays once, posts nothing, and doesn’t book video again, so the kind matters more than the camera.
Cinematic 16:9 is branding
It looks good. It is the one you want to shoot, the one with the gimbal and the slow push through the front door and the music.
It generates zero leads. She posts it once, if she posts it at all, and the buyers who were going to call were already calling off the photos.
It is the one you want to shoot, not the one she posts. That is the whole problem with leading with it, and it is why she paid for video once and never again.
Think about what she does with it. She doesn’t have an editing suite or a free Tuesday afternoon. She has a phone, a parking lot, and ten minutes between showings. A two-minute cinematic cut doesn’t fit in any of that.
An FPV fly-through is a real edge
The second kind actually sets you apart, and you can leave the gimbal at home.
One continuous move through the house, front door to back yard. A reason to pick you over the next photographer, because the next photographer isn’t doing it.
Fake it handheld with the X5. No gimbal. Walk it three times and keep the cleanest pass. It is a ten-minute add at the end of the photo walk, and it is the clip she shows the seller.
Vertical 9:16 is everything
The third kind is the cheapest to make, and it is the one that gets her the phone call.
Ours shoot on four-year-old Galaxy S22 Ultras. Same appointment as the photos, no second trip. Four clips, the rooms that sell the house.
Agents don’t post 16:9. I know, because for ten years I was the one posting. They post vertical, from the phone, between showings. Sell what she can post in a driveway. She posts it, a buyer calls, and she books you for the next one because the last one got a call. That is what she meant by wanting video.
Sold as the upsell, never the headline. The photos get you in the door. The vertical is the question you ask at delivery: "Have you considered social media as a tool to generate leads?" Then two screenshots, one listing with vertical and one without, and one more question: "Do you want ten times more views?"
Have you considered social media as a tool to generate leads?
Don’t sell the video you like shooting. Sell the one she can post from a driveway.
At your next shoot: grab four vertical clips on your phone. In that delivery email, send the two screenshots and the one question.
The Room Formula shot list
Per-room counts and the walk order, for your phone. Free. Then take the sixty-second roadmap quiz and I tell you what to fix first.
Get the shot listGet my roadmapStraight answers
- Do real estate agents actually want video?
- They want views and a buyer who calls. Video is how they get it, but only the kind they can post. Vertical from the phone gets posted; cinematic 16:9 mostly doesn’t.
- What kind of video should a real estate photographer offer?
- Three kinds, in order of what they do for her: cinematic 16:9 is branding, an FPV fly-through is your edge over the next photographer, and vertical 9:16 gets her the call. Sell vertical first, as the upsell at delivery.
- Do I need a gimbal for real estate video?
- No. Fake the fly-through handheld, walk it three times and keep the cleanest pass. Vertical clips shoot on a phone in the same appointment. Cineminn’s shoot on four-year-old Galaxy S22 Ultras.
Related questions
Julian Lundgren sold real estate for ten years before he shot a listing for money. He runs Cineminn, a Minneapolis real estate photography studio, and writes these answers from the agent’s side of the table. Send a question to info@cineminn.com.