The AgentCasts Real Estate Video FAQ

• How Do I Get Started?
  
  If you'd like to get started with our video services, the first way is to place an order on the site by visiting our Services page, shopping our various products, and then clicking the 'Order Now' button on a product page.
  
  If you need some help deciding on which service is best for you, or could use some help to better understand how our services work, you can always Contact Us by phone or by email and we'll be glad to answer all of your questions:
  
  AgentCasts Sales Inquiries:
  
  Phone: (888) 9RE-VIDS
  Email:  sales@agentcasts.com
  
  
  
• Does AgentCasts Service My Area?
  
  Yes - we do.
  
  AgentCasts offers all of our video production services across the entire United States as well as in Canada. We have a rock-solid network of highly qualified videographers who handle the filming portion of your video tours professionally and efficiently at your location. Then, once your property is filmed, the footage is sent back to our main production facility in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where it is fully edited and produced by our production team. This ensures consistent, precision production quality that you can depend on - wherever you may be located!
• Is Video Hosting Included?
  
  Absolutely. We currently include 'unlimited' video hosting with every video service we provide, and host all of your video purchases on our servers until you tell us to take them down. So, the answer is yes - hosting for your video is most certainly included!
  
  
• Video Tours, Photo tours - I'm confused! What do you produce?
  
  AgentCasts is focused on delivering resulting media presentations which will get your real estate business and listing content out to the web in 'video format', so that you can benefit from the search engine optimization results and get your listings on the best video and podcasting sites across the web. For this reason, we create quality video tours for our clients from whatever source material they have - from your property photos, your self-shot video footage, or from video that an AgentCasts videographer records on-location with our full motion video tour service.
  
  For clients who do not wish to have an AgentCasts videographer come out and film their property and do not want to shoot any video footage themselves for whatever reason, AgentCasts can produce compelling property presentations from your listing photos alone for only $149.00 each. These photo-based tours are equally as effective in getting your listings out and across the web, allowing you to benefit from the SEO results and 'experience' of using video without having to shoot and process any footage at all. For this reason, we offer image-based video tours to our real estate clients who wish to get their listings 'off the page' but don't have the time or resources for acquiring actual video footage of their properties.
  
  For clients who either have a videographer on-staff or own and use their own video cameras, AgentCasts can even produce and finalize your own self-shot property footage into optimized, high-quality video presentations ready for the web for only $297.00 per video with our Video Editing and Finalization Service. Simply upload your recorded video content to our production staff, and our team will clean up, process, edit, finalize, brand and distribute your video across the web for you.
  
  In summary, AgentCasts can produce and deliver video listings by filming and producing your video tour on location, by finishing off your own self-recorded video footage, OR by using your property listing photos to create a video tour. Still confused? Email us or give us a call at (954) 647-2226, and we'll be happy to explain anything that you may require more clarification on!
  
• How long does it take to film and produce a 'Full Motion' Video Tour?
  
  In general,. filming your property will typically take about 1 to 2 hours, although this really depends on the size of the location we're filming. Some properties may be up 10,000 sq. feet in size, and obviously this would take longer than filming a house under 5,000 square feet!
  
  Once your property footage is recorded, you can usually expect your finished video tour to be delivered to you and 'live' on the web within 3-5 business days.
  
  
• Why does a 'Full Motion' video tour cost more than a typical Virtual Tour?
  
  This simply boils down to the cost of shooting professional video, on-location. We need to have videographer travel to your property listing, professionally shoot the video, bring your footage in-house for editing, mix it with the recorded audio narration, forge the final production, render several copies for final release to the customer and the web destinations, and then distribution to over 30 video and podcast websites. In short, the answer is this: labor costs, the time it takes to edit and produce your video, and a fixed expenses.
  
  Also note that if you are looking for a more 'cost effective' solution for presenting your listings with video, our Photo Based Video Tours offer very similar benefits in terms of providing a virtual walk-through of your property, increasing your listing's visibility, and getting you online exposure through the video and podcasting sites...but for only $97.00 each video. So if cost is a concern, you may want to check them out!
  
  
• What is included with the final video tour production?
  
  As soon as your video is finished, we send you with an email with all of the links you will need. These links include:
  
  

  • A video tour that is 'branded' with your business and contact info that can be easily posted onto your website with our our custom video player widget.
  
  
  • An 'unbranded' video tour and clean display page that can be loaded into your MLS listing without violating their often-strict rules regarding using your own contact information on your virtual or video tours.
  
  
  • A downloadable video file for copying to your hard drive, so you can view the file locally and easily burn your own video tour DVDs.
  
  
  • Your own podcast RSS feed link that lists all your videos and allows your users or visitors to subscribe to your video 'feed' or channel updates automatically.
  
  

  As soon as you review your finished videos and confirm that 'all is well', we go on to publish your keyword-loaded video for you to the top ten web video sites, and even post your video as a podcast to iTunes and over 10 podcasting sites for maximum online exposure and search engine potential. How's that?
  
  
• Why should I market my listings online with video tours?
  
  Video tours offer your prospective customers a clear visual display of your real estate listings without having to schedule preview appointments or open houses, and allow for them to visually walk through your listings without having to be there.
  
  By offering video tours of your property listings, you give your clients a means of finding out if they are interested before they take the next step of scheduling an appointment - saving everyone countless hours in the early decision making process. In truth, buyers who view video tours typically take up to three times less time making a purchase decision with a Realtor®!
  
  Then there's the 'online visibility factor'.  Each video tour AgentCasts produces for you is distributed online to over 10 web video sites and ten of the top podcasting engines.  This helps your video rise to the top of the most relevant searches in the most relevant locations on the web, wherever your potential clients may be searching online. 
  
  Our included video tour distribution services help to immediately improve your own website's organic and direct referral traffic from search engines, while presenting your video listings in as many places as possible in order to get them in front of your potential customers. As you can see, the benefits of video extend well beyond simply providing a better representation of your real estate listings online - they're rather an entire web marketing strategy within themselves!
  
  For more information on why video tours make alot of sense for real estate sellers online, visit our Why Video Tours? page on the site!
  
  
• Which video and podcasting websites will you distribute my videos to?
  
  We upload your finished real estate video to the following web video sites:
  
  

  • YouTube, Metacafe, Yahoo Video, Revver, Google Video, Daily Motion, Brightcove, Jumpcut, Google Video, Vsocial, and Vimeo...to name a few.
  
  

  We also distribute your finished video tour as a podcast to the following podcast directories:
  
  

  • iTunes, The Pod Lounge, MirPod, Vicasting.com, Podomatic, Vital Podcasts, Podlounge, Videopodcasts.tv, Meefeedia, Digital Podcast, Podfeed, Podcast Alley, Podcast.net, Podcast Zoom, Videocasting Station, Podbean, and Podshow.
• Are there any SEO benefits in using video tours for my real estate listings?
  
  Each video tour AgentCasts produces and distributes for you online will rise to the top of the most relevant searches in the most relevant locations on the web, wherever your potential clients may be searching online:
  
  

  • Search engines like Google will list your video tours as results for targeted organic searches.
  
  
  • Web video sites will return your video tours as results for searches that match your keywords.
  
  
  • Podcasting sites like iTunes will index your video podcasts and display them for relevant searches.
  
  

  Our video tour distribution strategy helps to immediately improve your own website's organic and direct referral traffic from search engines, while presenting your video listings in as many places as possible in order to get them in front of your potential customers. As you can see, the benefits of video extend well beyond simply providing a better representation of your real estate listings online - they're rather an entire web marketing strategy within themselves!
  
  
• What does an RSS Feed do for me and my video tours online?
  
  RSS stands for 'Really Simple Syndication', and is a popular, new technology for notifying users of updates to content in a website, blog, or Internet TV channel. This is great for your customers, so they can subscribe to all your property listings with your RSS Feed and get instantly notified each time you update a new video tour.
  
  For more detailed information on Podcasts and RSS Feeds and what they can do for you and your video content online, check out the Wikipedia Entry on RSS or the Wikipedia entry on Podcasting.
  
  
• Web Video, Video Podcasts, etc. - What's the defference?
  
  Good question! Although video on the internet is extremely beneficial on its own, a video on the internet which includes the technology of podcasting is, well...even better! For this reason, AgentCasts produces your property tour videos as both 'web videos' and 'video podcasts' in order to achieve the maximum visibility and flexibility for your content as well as your potential audience.
  
  For streaming your video on the web, posting it on your website and submitting your video to the major web video sites, we produce a Flash video which is optimized for this purpose. In order to also get your content into iTunes^TM, the iPhone^TM, and to portable media players, we also create a video podcast version of your video which is produced in Apple's^TM Quicktime^TM format. This is necessary in order to accommodate EVERY method of consuming video that exists, so that your property tours get the maximum exposure possible. Additionally, adding the 'podcasting elements' to your videos allows your audience to 'subscribe' to your content for free, and automatically alerts your audience of new listings or 'shows' as soon as you have them created.
  
  In summary, AgentCasts produces your video-based content as both a 'web friendly' Flash video and a video podcast (along with an RSS Feed), so that we can ensure that you receive the maximum results from your listings and that your audience can find and view your content in any way that they prefer. We're thorough!
  
  Have more questions? Email us!
  
  
• What are Podcasts, and what is Podcasting all about?
  
  Podcasts are audio and/or video programs available for download over the internet much like an ongoing radio or TV show series. A podcast is typically formulated into a series of episodes that can be subscribed to via iTunes and various directories. In addition to computers, podcasts can be downloaded to iPods and other MP3s for on-demand, on-the-go listening.
  
  For more useful information on Podcasts and RSS Feeds and what they can do for you and your video content (and your business) online, check out the Wikipedia Entry on RSS or the Wikipedia entry on Podcasting.
  
  
• How does a podcast differ from streaming audio or video?
  
  Because streaming audio files are listened to as they are being fed to a computer, live internet connections are required. Podcasts differ in that they may be downloaded to a computer and listened to later offline, or transferred to a digital audio player.
  
  Additionally, podcasts are distributed using RSS Feeds, which allow users and listeners to 'subscribe' to them by simply clicking on an RSS subscription link. This ensures that your audience receives your new audio or video episodes as they are released or updated, and also allows your audience to consume your media content wherever they prefer - not only on your website!
  
  
• Can I order DVDs from AgentCasts for our real estate videos?
  
  Yes, absolutely. We typically produce DVDs of your video tours at a price of $25.00 each, but we also offer volume discounts for larger quantities:
  
  

  • Over a quantity of 10, you pay only $24 each.
  
  
  • Over a quantity of 20, you pay only $22 each.
  
  
  • Over a quantity of 30, you pay only $20 each.
  
  
• I'm really busy. Can you guys just do all of this for us?
  
  Not a problem - that is really what we do 'by default' here anyway!  In short, we can make all of this as turnkey as you want. Talk to us!