Have you ever wondered why so many people feel drawn to housing market videos? Maybe you are an agent and admire other agents with high end listings and amazing video tours. If you feel like you want to get in on this hot trend, this episode is for you!! PRESS PLAY to learn the best practices for shooting listing videos, why it’s better to get in the video game now and not wait until you’re “ready," whether or not video is just as important if not more important than photographs, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, when you should seek to pay a professional and when you should DIY. My guest today is Mark Salmon of Darkwater Films. Mark is an experienced videographer who assists those looking for digital video production from filming to finished edits. He and his team work directly with their clients throughout the creative process offering many different and versatile options to showcase businesses, real estate properties, products, services and more. Connect with Mark : https://www.instagram.com/darkwaterfilms/ ________________________________ Have a question about real estate? I'd love to help you out! Real Talk Q & A phone lines are open now at 1-844-5-BIG-RED and I’m here and ready to take your call. Connect with me on Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/denisepetti/ Connect with me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/denise.donnellypetti Visit my website: https://www.denisepetti.com/
Have you ever wondered why so many people feel drawn to housing market videos? Maybe you are an agent and admire other agents with high end listings and amazing video tours. If you feel like you want to get in on this hot trend, this episode is for you!
PRESS PLAY to learn the best practices for shooting listing videos, why it’s better to get in the video game now and not wait until you’re “ready," whether or not video is just as important if not more important than photographs, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, when you should seek to pay a professional and when you should DIY.
My guest today is Mark Salmon of Darkwater Films. Mark is an experienced videographer who assists those looking for digital video production from filming to finished edits. He and his team work directly with their clients throughout the creative process offering many different and versatile options to showcase businesses, real estate properties, products, services and more.
Connect with Mark : https://www.instagram.com/darkwaterfilms/
________________________________
Have a question about real estate? I'd love to help you out!
Real Talk Q & A phone lines are open now at 1-844-5-BIG-RED and I’m here and ready to take your call.
Connect with me on Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/denisepetti/
Connect with me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/denise.donnellypetti
Visit my website: https://www.denisepetti.com/
Live from the wildfire podcasting studios. It's the real talk with big red show where we keep it real with real estate agents and real life buyers and sellers, lenders, and landlords vendors and investors, and anyone who's anyone that lives to inspire real success. I'm your host, Denise Petty. My friends call me big red.
And this is your show where people, places in dreams come together. Real talk Q and a phone lines are open now at eight four, four, five big red and I'm here and ready. I need to take your call.
the very first real talk with big red podcast on this, my maiden voyage episode, we've got a lot to accomplish today and I'm going to share with you effective tips for marketing with video, so that whether you're the listing agent, the homeowner, or even the buyer or the buyer's agent, you can engage in a realistic and enjoyable visual experience.
In this episode, I also get to launch my first live real talk Q and a segment. I've got a newly licensed real estate agent who has a question about whether she should shoot a listing video with her iPhone or risk busting her startup budget to hire a videographer stay tuned because big red is about to get real.
Have you been wondering about why so many people feel drawn to housing market videos? Maybe you're an agent and you admire other agents with high-end listings and amazing video tours. If you feel like you want to get in on this hot trend, you don't want to miss this episode during COVID-19 it's been a sellers market.
And that means there are more buyers than there are homes available to buy. All of them are competing for the same properties. Often the homes that were for sale went under contract before they were even seen, thanks to things like high quality photos and videos. Those two things alone did most of the heavy lifting for listing agents.
The homes that were selling themselves once buyers saw the interior photos and the video tour. Gone with the first and second walkthroughs suddenly without warning, right under our noses. Literally every single home began going under contract before we knew it. Agents couldn't even compete with homes going under contract for 10, 20, 30,000 or more over asking price.
As soon as we went into lockdown, people began searching for better home solutions, larger, more comfortable spaces, a room with a view, a room for an office, a room for a gym, a playroom for the kids quickly, we, as a culture, realized that we either needed to make better use of our space or find a new one, how to decide your next best place video.
Book at HGTV, love it. Or list it. Fixer upper flip or flop property brothers. Good bones, renovation Island, windy city rehab, hometown viewers, all over the country are keyed in on this idea of watching other people like them, buying, selling, and investing in and renovating homes. Just last week. The national association of realtors reported that existing.
Home sales grew for the fourth consecutive month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.54 million. That is up 9.4% from the prior month and nearly 21% from one year ago. We all know that COVID had something to do with that, but could video have something to do with it too? In this episode, you'll learn best practices for shooting listing videos.
Why it's better to get in the video game now and not wait until you're quote unquote ready and whether or not video is just as important, if not more important than photography. And most importantly, you'll learn when you should seek to pay a professional. And when you should do it yourself
on today's episode, I'm excited to introduce you to Mark Salman of dark water films, Mark. An experienced videographer who assists those looking for digital video production from filming to finish edits. He and his team worked directly with their clients throughout the creative process, offering many different and versatile options to showcase businesses, real estate properties, product services, and more good morning, Mark.
Welcome to the show. Thanks for having
me.
Yay. First of all, whatever got you into the business of video production and editing. I know you have this background in music, graphic design, screen printing. How'd you get started.
Uh, well, it's something that I always wanted to do instead of something that I fell into doing.
So for instance, um, you know, when I was a kid, um, there was a show on discovery channel called movie magic, and it showed all the behind the scenes and all the intricacies of filming. And it was just like, you know, my eyes were like being like, that's what I want to do, you know? And it was kind of like a dream of mine as a kid.
And, uh, then I just fell into screen printing. It just kind of happened, you know what I mean?
Yeah. It was just like,
so I, uh, fast forward a little bit. I was 19 and I'm like, what am I going to do for a job? And I bought myself a real nice camera and a real nice computer, and I'm like, I'm going to go do it.
I'm going to make wedding videos. And I'm going to make a bunch of money and blah, blah, blah. And this is my 19 year old brain, you know, I'm trying to sort this out, obviously that didn't happen because you know, my dad's like, when are you going to really get a job? You know? And he found something in the, uh, in the papers that was like, Hiring a graphic artist.
And I was just starting to get into that too. And it just worked out, you know, and I got hired doing that and it was the screen printing world. And 16 years later here, I was still doing it. So, um, you know, when COVID happened? Well, actually it was, uh, that's not fair to say, uh, right before COVID happened.
Um, there was this new camera that came on the market that was kind of like everybody was buzzing and changing the game because it was like an affordable, like cinema quality camera. Um, and I was like, You know what I think I want to pick that up and start dabbling into it and then, you know, boom, COVID everything shut down.
And, um, which was kind of like a blessing and a curse at the same time.
I CA you know, it's interesting how I feel like I'm watching you discuss your, your journey and your background and how it's been this evolving sort of circuitous journey, but it's always been steeped in this creative desire to, for expression.
And I think. You know, COVID really helped. Did you feel like COVID helped us help you to really solidify your desire to, uh, go for what you always felt drawn toward?
Yeah. In a way it did, because it gave me an opportunity to do that. Whereas I wasn't working 40 hours a week here. I was laid off at home and I'm like, I need to do something.
You know, so it's like hundreds of hours of YouTube and internet reading, everything I could possibly get my hands on, you know, studying lighting techniques and, uh, camera gear. What's important. What's not important. What's crucial to me and what I want to do, you know, and just, it gave me time to do all that.
Hours and hours and hours of research, um, to get me to where a place where I was like, okay, cool. I think I can actually now do this
professionally. And I mean, you and I have worked on projects together. We have a couple in queue and you know, I've had the benefit of seeing your work firsthand and it's just beautiful.
And it's nice that, you know, during that time where we go into lockdown and we go on, I think it's almost like hibernation, you know, where we kind of go in and you retool and you think about how you're going to. You know, come out of the gate when all this stuff, you know, passes over and we're still sort of, you know, gently emerging from this cocoon a little bit, but it's been nice to work with you and then to see the fruits of that investment that you put in.
So this career
munch. Thank you.
Yeah, absolutely. Um, you know, we do have a caller, uh, who has, um, a question about a video. She is a real estate agent. Her name is Cynthia, and she's on the line. Hey, big grid. My name is Cynthia and I am a new real estate agent. I am actually just getting started and I wanted to get your advice on using video.
I do want to offer video to my list. The same clients, but just the startup cost of hiring a videographer is a little bit out of my budget right now. Um, I do have an iPhone 11, so I was wondering if you've had any tips or advice in the way of video that I can do on my own.
So, yeah, Cynthia, um, what I would do if I were you starting out and you want to incorporate video because like we all know it's very, very important right now, especially, uh, showcasing houses and stuff like that.
And if all you have access to budget wise is an iPhone 11, a that's actually a great tool and you can get started that way. Um, the only thing I would suggest to you maybe. A very small investment. If you're trying to do it as you're on your own is to get a, uh, a mobile gimbal of some sort. And that will just help your shots be super smooth and steady.
Even though it's already built into the phone software, it still has a lot more wobble when you're just kind of clunkily walking through the house, um, that, and then I would suggest, um, searching online. There's some really great free editing software. Out there. And, um, you know, you don't want the video to just be you walking through the house.
You want to just get the nice angles of the rooms that you can. And then, um, you know, put it together in like a minute and a half maximum where you have nice cuts and nice little kind of reveal shots and yeah, you could. You could definitely get by with a phone.
Now I need, I see a lot of people make mistakes with holding the phone vertically instead of horizontally in those shots.
Because if they were to say, put it on like a YouTube channel or social media media channel, doesn't it make more sense to hold the phone assault, certain orientation.
Yes. Absolutely. So, especially if you're showing something like a house, um, you know, you don't want, if you're holding it vertically, now you're enclosing the viewer.
You know what I mean? And everything's feeling tight and confined,
so
yeah, you definitely want to go wide for everything in a, in a house to make it look as big and welcoming as
fun. I see people make that mistake, even if we're like, you know, back in the day when we'd be out at like bars and people would be taking videos of like, you know, the bands and stuff, like they would hold their phone up.
Right. And I'd be like, I'd want to go up to them and kind of.
Just tilt it for them. Like, come on. What, what are you
doing? You don't want to do that? Yeah. It's like, it's like habit, I guess, because of dashboard cams and stuff like that, that's just, sir, it's positioned upright. Um, but yeah, that's, that's a good point.
Now about this gimbal thing you were talking about, is that just an app or is that, is that an actual device?
An actual mechanical device. It's a three axis gimbal and it's got little motorized, um, points that it, it can study. So my arm could be you can't. The listeners can't see what I'm doing, but I could be moving my arm pretty vigorously, even running down the street.
And these motors are going to be keeping your, your phone. Absolutely still.
Well, and I think that's going to have some up
and down, but it's really going to compensate for a ton of that motion where it seems like it's almost like on a crane or like on a, like on a, um, you know, a rail system,
almost a Dolly.
It's interesting because I've, I. I feel like when I watch some videos online, especially of property listings, um, on social media, particularly that I feel like I get some motion sickness. So I feel like. I need a Dramamine to be able to watch some of these videos that people are putting up there. So you think a gimbal really kind of bridges the gap there?
Yeah, absolutely. Unless you're going to lug around a tripod with you and set it up in every room, which would be a total pain. You could do that and you could get by that way, and then you have nice, smooth panning shots through, you know, each room would be perfect. That would just take way longer.
So, yeah.
Well, and so to the average listener, the average agent, they might say, wow, this sounds really involved. This sounds like. Uh, you know, I'm going to need to take a course in video editing and video production in order to be able to take, you know, I just want to kind of turn my recorder on and go through the rooms and call it a day, but really in service to your.
Customer and service of your seller and of your prospective buyer, you really should think about doing it, right? I think so.
And you know, I say this all the time, it's like, if something is worth doing, it's worth doing it. Right. And that's just kinda how I am about things, you know, I don't want to put time and effort into something that I'm not going to try to do.
Right.
So let's just say someone were to come to you. I mean, I came to you right. To, to see if you could help me out with one of my clients.
And we had met, um, on our most recent project, you kind of had of a vibe in your head and exactly what you're going, uh, expecting to have the outcome be. So just a nice, good communication line so that I know what to expect going in.
Um, and definitely, you know, Avoid changes on the fly as much as possible, unless there's some weird situation like we ran into with heavy wind and then it's like, all right.
Yeah. So in that case, we had a photo shoot planned and it was on long beach Island, which is where I specialize in my listings and my buyers.
And then we have our graphy shoot scheduled and there's no predicting the wind on that Island. It's it's an ever changing. Element that, you know, we can't predict, um, even if the forecast calls for wind, you know, we just can't necessarily, you know, anticipate that it's going to be there. And so it, it prevented you from getting the drone up in the air and we had to sort of adapt and I guess, you know, all things being equal.
It's nice to have like a sh is it good to have sort of a. A shot list or anything like that, or is it more like, do you just take the reins? Um, I kinda like to just
sort of, kind of take the reins in, unless there's something specific about the house that's like really important to be showcased on. So I'm like I would trust the agent to be like, you know, these are the real strong points of the house.
I really want to focus on this section or whatever, and, you know, kind of give me that heads up. And then I kinda like to just get in and do my thing, you know, just looking for those ideal little. Scenes, if you will. Yeah. It's weird to think of it as a house, as being scenes, but it's still kind of is.
And, and, uh, you know, I know that I provided you with sort of, uh, I, I gave you photos in advance, um, to give you a sense of the flow of the rooms and the size of the rooms and how it was stayed.
That was helpful to have a, you know, kind of a mental. Picture of what I was going to be, you know,
walking into still, it was 2,800 square feet, that house. So you still don't have a sense of scale from the, from the photos necessarily?
No, not really.
Yeah. And, uh, that was a waterfront property. I remember, you know, Us realizing at the end, we thought, Oh wow.
You know, we really have to showcase this water, but sun was an issue. So we had this blinding sun, you know, it was almost like the time of day we had to really adapt and, and, um, pivot.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And that's, that's always going to be a thing, you know, especially with real estate that the sun is always just.
It's not that cooperative. Yeah.
Yeah. And so, I mean, even when you're working as professionals in this, in this business, you know, you still have these unforeseen circumstances that are going to creep up. And I guess the. The key takeaway is to just not let it overwhelm you and not get too discouraged or distracted.
Yeah. So you like people that I work with a lot, they always say that like, filmmaking is kind of like just constant problem solving and finding work arounds. And you have to be quick to think and, and, and work around issues like that. You know, where. We were filming. We had the grand idea of let's shoot the exterior at golden hour, a nice, beautiful sunset lit light, but little did we know on the interior shots, it's reflecting off the water to get those balcony, you know, in there.
And it's like, okay, well,
yeah, you mentioned COVID earlier causing you to sort of like rethink your, uh, you know, your career moves. Right. And. Agents, you know, real estate agents have had to do the same thing. We've had to completely adapt to this new way of doing business. Um, Several months after lockdown, we had to rethink how we were going to list homes and market homes.
And it caused us to have to do a lot of virtual tours, a lot of video presentations, listing presentations. Um, there's this thing called Matterport, which is like a 3d technology that a lot of clients where a lot of agents were using prior to, um, video. And then. All of a sudden you started seeing more open house videos, more virtual tours, because this is what was selling homes in the era of COVID.
So when you think about homeowners, obviously it's a sellers market and a lot of people didn't want to list their homes because they don't want people traipsing through their homes, potentially, um, exposure, risk and all those things. So video has really salvaged a lot of the. Market in that way of being able to still get out there, still show buyers his houses in a safe way.
And, uh, keep the market going. The market is up, you know, homes or something for sometimes if they're not selling at list price or selling for well over list price. So video, I think a lot of homes I even sold a home that went was never even seen that he, they, they bid on it. They went under contract.
They'd never even been in it. They relied on FaceTime video. Oh, wow. Like a FaceTime virtual tour and, um, and listing photos and listing video in order to make their purchase decisions. So as we gear up for 2021, I mean, we are potentially facing another resurgence of this virus. And for agents that aren't yet on board with video, you know, Yeah, I think that you really
it's like, like this is a do or die.
Like you're it, if you want to keep up with the competition for sure. You
gotta get on that. Yeah. I read a, I read a quote, not too long ago about, um, technology, uh, once a new technology rolls over you, if you're not part of the steam role, you're part of the, yeah, that's good. You were brand at the American writer said that.
Um, so yeah. What do you think about going into 2021? And you know, with this video marketing strategy, what do you say to agents.
Um, well, I'd say it's a necessity. Like you just, you have to figure it out on your own or you have to be willing to hire a professional. And if it's not in your budget, you know, you use those tips and tricks that, um, and definitely edit, edit is where the magic happens.
So, you know, if you look at any walkthrough before I add my stuff, it's going to look pretty goofy and pretty wonky. So it's very important to get that edit, correct. And time it correctly. And if you do have the budget, absolutely, you know, spend the money to help push and sell the house.
Honestly, as an agent, you make it back.
You know, it, it's not like it's not like he just put it out there. And especially in this market, you're not, it's not like you're not going to sell the house. There's too many buyers and not enough homes to buy. So if you do that little extra spend in the upfront, you know, your commission more than. More than covers the cost.
And certainly don't forget about, uh, rental properties. That's like, if you want to have an edge over competition, if you have a listing for a rental or something like that, like it's almost a must to have that video to set you above the others.
Totally. A hundred percent. Well, I think that, you know, it's such a pleasure to have you here and it's so wonderful to highlight you and feature you as a professional in film.
Um, I would love to put people in touch with you. So, um, tell people where they can find you.
They can get me on my website. It's a dark water films.com or they can do facebook.com forward slash dark order films, or they can do at dark water films for Instagram.
Perfect. And so if anybody is thinking about tackling this, you know, if you guys are out there listening, and you're thinking about tackling video on your own, because obviously there is good reason to do so.
And you feel like it's just a little bit untenable. It's not something you can quite get your arms around and give Mark salmon a call it dark water films. Thanks so much for coming today. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
real talk with big red is brought to you by our sponsor red feather staging, where creativity and profitability connect. If you were an agent looking to list a home, or if you're a homeowner looking to sell a home red feather staging is the premier provider for setting your home sale up for success.
Red feather staging partners with you to showcase your home or your clients. In the best light possible for better photos, better showings and better profit margins. After all, when rooms look good home sell well. So call red feather staging today at (609) 760-4334. That's (609) 760-4334. Or visit red feather staging.com to book your appointment today.
And this is the market analysis segment of the show. I went out and looked@somestatisticsonlineandistumbleduponthebeatablewebsitebyaudible.com. And I was looking at one of their articles that talks about how video continues to be one of the most effective elements in a digital marketing strategy in 2020.
And they showcased a whole bunch of statistics and. Compiled a list of some of the latest social media video marketing stats from around the web. This is really interesting. So, um, according to HUD, So, this is really interesting. According to HubSpot 81% of videos use business as a marketing tool, 81%. And if you think of yourself as a realtor or any other business person, um, how is video playing a role in your marketing strategy or is it at all?
So think about that 81%. And that's up 63% from last year. That's an incredible statistic. And I want you to also think about the fact that. By 2022. This is another stat by Cisco. Online videos are expected to make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic. So if you have not yet gotten on the bandwagon of incorporating video, as part of your marketing toolkit, you are behind.
According to WordStream, 92% of users are watching video on mobile and they will share it with others. Think about the power of that statistic. 92%. Are watching it on their mobile phones and they're going to share it. So your video tour and your open house video, your virtual tour, that stuff's going to get seen by more than just your audience, that wraps up this episode of the real talk with.
Big red show special. Thanks to our in-studio guests, Mark Salman of dark water films to our color, Cynthia, to our sponsor red feather staging. And of course to our producer, Taylor Cruddas until next time people, if you want to go places and realize your dreams, remember you've got to keep it real. Thanks so much for listening to real talk with big red.
It was great to spend some time with you. If you liked the show, share it with a friend and don't forget to subscribe to this podcast. And if you found value in today's episode, I encourage you to go ahead and leave a review. This way more people who love real estate will be able to find the show. And don't forget to connect with me on Instagram at Denise Petty and visit my website.
It's Denise petty.com to find all the show notes for this episode and all past episodes, plus all the featured listings of your dreams.