This week, I have two videos that suffer from the same issue. And what is the issue? I hear you cry.

Simple - they are not videos. They are crappy quality slide shows. They remind me of the advertisements for Indian restaurants I used to sit through as a young man when (I don’t know if they still do this) I was at the local cinema.

This was, of course, in the days before the multiplex. Here’s how they went - background music - usually some standard sitar music - Ravi Shankar probably as that’s the only sitar player any one has ever heard of. Fade in photo of exterior of the restaurant, fade out/in to interior shot, fade out/in to couple staring lovingly into each others’ eyes over the appetisers, fade out/in to smiling restaurant owner with happy staff members all around, fade in name and address of restaurant, End.

Just watch these two videos. Seem familiar?

It was OK back in the day before ready availabilty of good quality video. Everyone knew the restaurant anyway, and everyone knew they couldn’t afford to have a video produced. I still wanted a curry after the movie though

Is it OK now? No, I don’t think so. One, it shows these expensive, high-quality properties in a poor light, not even coming close to doing them justice. Two, it demonstrates the fact that the real estate agent cannot afford or is unable to source a good quality video. These are million dollar plus properties.

So, not only are you risking the potential loss of a sale, you are turning off potential clients. If I had a million dollar property to sell, I would be looking for an agent that had some kind of grasp of today’s luxury marketing techniques. Crappy slide shows on YouTube ? No thanks. If you are going to market a property using video, at least make a video.