BECOME AN APPRAISER

Thought of becoming a real estate appraiser?  Read some of the comments on this forum to gauge a few of the challenges.

MARKET FOR REAL ESTATE VIDEOS?
I produce videos, and I am a real estate agent. First, yes there is a market for this. There are several national chains that provide this, as well as many independent marketing, photography, and video companies. The average price in my area, Denver, is about $100, but there are companies that will offer packages, such as designing a brochure, taking pictures, AND doing a video tour, which they post online. I have used a company that does this as they do a better job than I could do myself. Which leads me into why that is...

They take wide angle photos and assemble them using pan and zoom, with nice background music and links to each room below the tour, as well as having the tour run automatically. Scrap your video equipment for this type of work, as windows will blast through as being way too bright, or your rooms will be way too dark - pick your problem. There are tricks to the trade, and this is one of them. Who would have ever thought making video would work best by not using video?

I don't know what your market is, but you can probably get a good idea by searching google and seeing what is going on for this type of work. There are much easier ways to make money than this idea. Another fact to consider is this - real estate agents are cheap. Yep, I said it, and it's true, and I am one - so don't attack me. That in itself should be enough to discourage this idea. Good luck.

The price you charge depends on the area you live in, the average price of properties for sale, the number of local real estate agents, and the competition.

These days, in cost cutting moves, many real estate agents just shoot still photos of the properties they list, and use online listing services that convert those photos into videos automatically.

For those agents, it will be difficult to get them to pay you to do walk through videos.

However, you might be able to convince real estate agents to hire you to create the kinds of videos I show in my articlehttp://www.bmyers.com/members/Another_video_related_service_you_can_offer_paying_clients.cfm

These will have a stronger appeal to the agent, as it promotes the agent more than it promotes an individual home. 

You'll find that creating these kinds of videos is a lot easier and you'll get better results when using photos rather than video.

The problem with video, especially when doing a home walk through, is the lighting will change in each room, and unless the house has been staged, and unless you use special lights, the video usually won't be very flattering.

If you want to produce videos for paying clients, be sure to read our 4 part series on the subject athttp://www.bmyers.com/members/Producing_Videos_for_Paying_Clients__Part_I.cfm

(h/t forum member at BillMyers.com)

The way to set up this business is not to sell home videos to agents (who frankly come and go, and who are notoriously cheap). Sell your services to brokers, and structure the deal as a win-win:

1. Offer to shoot only the homes that that they list because the listing broker is always paid when the home sells, regardless of who sells it - even if it's a different brokerage.

2. Offer them a choice between a smaller flat fee up front or a small percentage of their commission at closing. This percentage would be larger than the flat fee, of course, to reflect both the difference in the time value of money (since you're waiting to be paid) and the added risk you're assuming (since the owner could pull the property off the market or the home doesn't sell, and you never get paid). However, it's attractive to the broker because they don't pay up front, and because they only pay if and when they've made a nice chunk of change.

Yes, you've shifted the risk of this selling expense to yourself, but you also get paid a lot better for doing so - and the broker likes you much better, too, and they won't hesitate for a second to call you whenever they list any property, instead of asking themselves whether they really want to incur the cost of shooting a particular property. (You'll get to shoot more lower-priced homes, and be paid well for them.)

3. Work brokerage PR into every video. This can be done in the intro, the outtro, and even woven into the home video. An opening pan shot of the realty office with "Mount Vernon Realty is pleased to bring you this (fade to exterior shot of home) stately residence featuring..." - and then 15 seconds again at the end punching the experience and expertise of the brokerage to help the viewer find and finance exactly the home they want.

4. Show your ability to shoot commercial properties as well as homes. Many brokerages handle both.