Tips for Apartment Tours using SalesMail Professionally-Edited Video

Tips for Apartment Tours using SalesMail Professionally-Edited Video

Ready to record an awesome apartment/model tour that people will want to watch over and over again?  Let them fall in love with the apartment through video!  Let's get started.  

Preparation

  1. Make sure your phone is charged and in do not disturb mode.
  2. Turn on all of the lights in the apartment, open curtains/blinds where appropriate, and tidy up!
  3. Grab a gimbal for stability or plan on holding your arms pressed to your side to avoid shaky video.
  4. Have a plan for what you will record - which rooms, features, details, etc.
  5. Optional: Grab a friend/coworker so that one of you can film and one can be on camera delivering the tour.

Get Started

Stability:  Use a gimbal, a tripod, or tuck your arms pressed against your sides to keep your video footage stable.
Orientation:  Record footage and take photos with your phone held in landscape/horizontal position!  This will capture a wider area and have a better end result.  
Do not zoom in:  Find out why
Variety:  The best virtual tours are created by providing our video editors with a variety of different footage and photos. 
Audio:  If you are narrating the tour, be sure your phone is pretty close to your face while you are recording so that your voice is captured well.  You may also use a lapel mic for even better quality.

What to Capture:
  1. Take a photo of the front entrance of the community, including a nice photo of the signage.  
  2. Take a photo of the front door/entryway of the apartment.
  3. Take a video of walking up and approaching the door and opening it.
  4. Take still photos of any nice details in the apartment such as archways, windows with a view, nice appliances, pretty décor, etc.
  5. Take a video of each room, standing in a corner and panning slowly (even more slowly than you might think we mean) from left to right and right to left.  Avoid capturing yourself on camera in any mirrors or window reflections.  Remember to tuck your arms in for phone stability if you aren't using a gimbal or tripod!  While large rooms are best recorded panning from left-to-right and right-to-left, smaller rooms such as closets can be recorded panning from bottom-to-top, or top-to-bottom.
  6. For bathrooms, take video footage entering while panning from the vanity to the shower.  Avoid catching yourself on camera in the mirror!  Take still photos of any special details such as accessibility features.  
  7. Take photos and videos of any adjacent patio and/or garden areas or any pretty views out of the window.

Pro tip:  Record a tour video of every apartment/model type as they become available.  Those videos come in handy in the future when a particular model is occupied at the time but you want to share a tour video with the apartment empty or staged.  


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