According to a report by the National Association of Realtors, pending home sales in the U.S. slid down 1.3 percent in July putting the housing recovery on the backseat, temporarily. In the wake of a decelerating housing market, a new trend has gripped the home sale sector - making staged home videos.
The whole experience of pitching a house to prospective buyers has taken a completely different angle. Old school solicited home tours are gone. In the modern era of technology, staged home videos have now replaced still pictures and virtual tours.
The complete home selling activity seems to have taken up a very "Hollywood-like" approach. Realtors are now making mini-movies, complete with actors, scripts and background scores to entice buyers, reports the Wall Street Journal.
While one movie titled "The spider and the fly" shows a mysterious woman wearing black, running through the rooms of the home while maids prepare the place for a party, another shows a young woman clad only in her underwear, tied to a chair and held captive in a large home. A SWAT team surrounds the property and then rummages the home. In the final scene, the woman is rescued by two men who later pull off their masks and are apparently the listing agents of the home!
Another movie shows a King-Kong like figure climbing a tall building but it later appears that it is the co-builder of the structure in a costume!
Realtors believe that these entertaining videos can garner more traffic to a particular listing and generate more interest in the homes. The mini movies can also help gather more people for open houses and also probably help the seller make some extra bucks, reports MSN.
"It generates more people that might be interested and I believe that these videos can get the sellers more money," Terry Burger of Re/Max Unlimited said to MSN.
Some realtors believe that videos will also help maximize the number of audience a seller usually reaches. Curt Hahn, CEO of Filmhouse said that videos could help people fall in love with homes that they never considered earlier, reports ABC News. Hahn recently directed a movie for a 4000 square feet condo in Nashville, Tennessee.
"I'll give you a perfect example of why still photos don't sell houses. You wind up with all these empty, cold, still photos that don't have any emotion. They don't sell. They just show. Our movies create an emotional connection with a buyer," Hahn explained.
However, some realtors think the whole video-making project is a waste of time and money and don't include crucial information like square footage. But marketing has always been a dynamic subject. Sellers have to try their hands at everything. If creative options like these videos sell, then why not give it a try.
Check out some clips of these videos below:
