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Video versus Virtual Tours
 Frequently Asked Questions about Luxury Home Video About Luxury Home
VIDEO OR VIRTUAL TOUR?
A COMPARISON
Currently popular virtual tours and slide shows are a step up from snapshots. However, the lower quality virtual tours are often distorted and have that “cheap” look. The better ones do a good job of documenting the physical structure of the home. However, because virtual tours use still images they tend to appear static and somewhat ordinary. They have become so common in the marketplace, today, that they no longer seem special. Would you rather look at a virtual tour or a well made video with music?

Luxury Home Videos excel in the following areas:

  • More Natural Beauty
    Video trumps virtual tours in showcasing the beauty and value of landscapes, gardens, trees, water features, and wildlife. Plants swaying in the breeze, butterflies and birds, fountains, waterfalls, and animals add to the exuberance and aliveness of the presentation.
  • Location Benefits
    One of the most important selling points is location. A skillful videographer can perform pans and zooms in a way that showcases the property in the context of its beautiful surroundings. A good example is the video for 208 Taylor. This home is located adjacent to the Ring Mountain nature preserve in Tiburon, CA. Its excellent location is one of its major selling points. The video communicates the value of the location in a way difficult or impossible to achieve with still imagery. Prospective buyers can imagine how they will feel on their daily walks through the adjacent nature preserve.
  • Better Window Views
    Have you noticed that the windows in virtual tours are usually overexposed? This is because the photographer must choose to expose for either the room or the window. Typically, the photographer exposes for the room, thus leaving the windows overexposed.

Professional video cameras can properly expose for BOTH the window view and the room in one scene. The cameraperson can zoom in through a window from deep within a room and have the proper exposure for the view outside. He or she can then slowly zoom out through the window and into the room while maintaining good exposure for both lighting conditions. This is because the video camera takes thirty pictures every second and continually adjusts the exposure as the focus moves from the brightly lit outside to the darker interior. This advantage can be seen in the kitchen window and skylight views in the 117 Bishop video tour. The technique creates a sense of continuity very much like being there.

  • Art versus Documentation
    A typical virtual tour is presented as a documentation of the physical structure that is up for sale. It caters to the analytical part of the buying process and requires numerous manipulations of the mouse to complete the tour.

In comparison, a Luxury Home Video is a work of art. It requires only one mouse click to play and appeals to buyers’ visual and auditory senses. Real estate videos are relatively new and are still a novelty, thus making them more interesting to watch then virtual tours.

The music video format makes it easy to relax and imagine that you are in the video. Meanwhile, an abundance of information is communicated in a Luxury Home Video. At 30 frames per second, 2,700 pictures are shown in just 90 seconds!

The video experience appeals to both the emotional and analytical aspects of the buying process. We believe that by appealing to the buyer’s emotional and analytical sensibilities, a Luxury Home Video increases your odds of being contacted by a potential buyer for an appointment.

All content copyright 2005 by Luxury Home Video