Wayne Maillet
Member
A house tour video should run one to three minutes: roughly a minute for a studio or a single room, two to three for a family home. Film one slow, continuous pass in the order a visitor would walk it, holding the phone level at chest height with every light on, and mute the sound or add a short voice-over afterwards.
Plan the route before you press record. A reliable order is the front door or hallway, living room, kitchen and dining area, the main bedroom, other bedrooms, bathrooms, laundry or garage, and finally the backyard or the best view, so the video ends on the home's strongest feature. Open every door you will pass through, and never walk the same stretch twice, because viewers build a mental floor plan from the sequence and jumping back confuses them. A house tour video filmed in one take proves how the rooms connect, while one clip per room is easier to get right.
Movement is where a phone-shot house tour video goes wrong. Hold the phone in both hands with elbows tucked in and the screen level, turn your whole body instead of your wrist when you pan, walk heel to toe more slowly than feels natural, and pause for two or three seconds in each doorway before stepping in. Do not pinch to zoom while walking. Use the 1× lens for most rooms and 0.5× only where 1× cannot fit the space, since the ultra-wide stretches edges and can make a room look larger than it is. A gimbal is optional: Action mode on recent iPhones, and SuperSteady on Samsung Galaxy phones, steady a walk well, although Apple says Action mode works best in bright light.
Light and sound deserve a minute each. Film in daytime, open every curtain, switch on every lamp, and if a bright window turns the room dark on screen, tap a wall rather than the window. Plan for the video to be watched muted. Recording your own voice is fine, but recording other people is not always legal: 13 states, including California, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Washington, require everyone's consent to record a conversation, so cut any audio of buyers or neighbours. This is general information, not legal advice.
Where the house tour video goes decides the shape. Film horizontally for listings, links, and YouTube, and crop a vertical version afterwards for Reels or TikTok, which allow up to three minutes. Zillow Showcase accepts one video per listing of up to 120 seconds, uploaded by the listing's photographer through Aryeo, and Craigslist's help pages describe image uploads rather than video, so upload to YouTube as unlisted and send the link. If the video will be public, start inside the front door instead of at the street, keep license plates out of frame, and remove mail, family photos, the alarm panel, and keys from view.
Not every listing needs real footage, and that changes how you approach a house tour video for marketing. October is an iPhone app (iPhone 12 or newer) that guides one walk and returns finished photos plus a walkthrough made by an AI video model, usually within a few hours, for $99 per place of up to six rooms, with the first place free. That walkthrough is smooth camera movement between AI-drawn photos, not filmed footage, so for a listing it can replace the shoot; for a landlord's move-in record or an insurance inventory, film it yourself and keep the original file. People comparing house tour video options can start there for marketing and film the rest.
Rules for branding, length, and file type differ by MLS and portal, and results vary by home, so confirm with your agent or MLS before publishing.
Plan the route before you press record. A reliable order is the front door or hallway, living room, kitchen and dining area, the main bedroom, other bedrooms, bathrooms, laundry or garage, and finally the backyard or the best view, so the video ends on the home's strongest feature. Open every door you will pass through, and never walk the same stretch twice, because viewers build a mental floor plan from the sequence and jumping back confuses them. A house tour video filmed in one take proves how the rooms connect, while one clip per room is easier to get right.
Movement is where a phone-shot house tour video goes wrong. Hold the phone in both hands with elbows tucked in and the screen level, turn your whole body instead of your wrist when you pan, walk heel to toe more slowly than feels natural, and pause for two or three seconds in each doorway before stepping in. Do not pinch to zoom while walking. Use the 1× lens for most rooms and 0.5× only where 1× cannot fit the space, since the ultra-wide stretches edges and can make a room look larger than it is. A gimbal is optional: Action mode on recent iPhones, and SuperSteady on Samsung Galaxy phones, steady a walk well, although Apple says Action mode works best in bright light.
Light and sound deserve a minute each. Film in daytime, open every curtain, switch on every lamp, and if a bright window turns the room dark on screen, tap a wall rather than the window. Plan for the video to be watched muted. Recording your own voice is fine, but recording other people is not always legal: 13 states, including California, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Washington, require everyone's consent to record a conversation, so cut any audio of buyers or neighbours. This is general information, not legal advice.
Where the house tour video goes decides the shape. Film horizontally for listings, links, and YouTube, and crop a vertical version afterwards for Reels or TikTok, which allow up to three minutes. Zillow Showcase accepts one video per listing of up to 120 seconds, uploaded by the listing's photographer through Aryeo, and Craigslist's help pages describe image uploads rather than video, so upload to YouTube as unlisted and send the link. If the video will be public, start inside the front door instead of at the street, keep license plates out of frame, and remove mail, family photos, the alarm panel, and keys from view.
Not every listing needs real footage, and that changes how you approach a house tour video for marketing. October is an iPhone app (iPhone 12 or newer) that guides one walk and returns finished photos plus a walkthrough made by an AI video model, usually within a few hours, for $99 per place of up to six rooms, with the first place free. That walkthrough is smooth camera movement between AI-drawn photos, not filmed footage, so for a listing it can replace the shoot; for a landlord's move-in record or an insurance inventory, film it yourself and keep the original file. People comparing house tour video options can start there for marketing and film the rest.
Rules for branding, length, and file type differ by MLS and portal, and results vary by home, so confirm with your agent or MLS before publishing.