Real estate listing video script

How long it should be

At 140 words per minute, 90 seconds is 210 words. A walkthrough also has stretches where the camera does the talking, like a slow pan across a garden, so leave gaps in the script with [shot] cues rather than filling every second.

A longer tour of two or three minutes suits homes where buyers want detail. The structure stays the same; you add rooms, not adjectives.

The structure

1. Hook (5–10 seconds)

   Who the home suits. "If you've been looking for a family home you can walk the kids to school from" does more than "Welcome to 14 Orchard Row".

2. Location

   Two or three things within reach that buyers care about, with real walking times you have checked.

3. Walkthrough, in order

   Room by room in the order the camera moves. For each room, one thing the photos cannot show: the light at a certain hour, how quiet it is, the storage.

4. The facts

   Bedrooms, bathrooms, parking, chain or availability, guide price. Saved for the end so they do not interrupt the walk.

5. Viewing call

   When viewings are and how to book one, said by the agent to camera.

Example: a three-bedroom family house

An agent films a walkthrough of a terraced family house. The opening and closing are to camera; the rooms are filmed on a gimbal with the script read as voiceover.

193 words · about 1 min 23 s at 140 words per minute

[exterior, front of the house]

If you've been looking for a family home
where you can walk the kids to school,
this one is worth a look.

I'm Ruth Adeyemi from Harbour Lane Homes,
and this is Number 14, Orchard Row.

[street shot, towards the park]

You're four minutes on foot from Orchard Primary,
and the park at the end of the road
has a playground and a Saturday market.

[front door, walk in]

Coming in, the first thing you notice is the light.
The hallway runs straight through to the garden,
so you can see green from the front door.

[kitchen]

The kitchen was redone two years ago,
and the island seats four,
which is where most of the homework gets done, I'm told.

[living room]

The living room faces west,
so it gets the evening sun,
and the fireplace works.

[garden, slow pan]

And out here, the garden is a good sixty feet long,
with a shed and a vegetable bed already in.

[agent to camera]

So: three bedrooms, one bathroom and a downstairs toilet,
permit parking on the street,
and no onward chain,
with a guide price of four hundred and twenty-five thousand.

Viewings start this Saturday.
Call the Harbour Lane office or book through the link,
and I'll show you round myself.

Opening a script in the browser replaces the one saved in the online teleprompter on this device. Nothing is uploaded.

Tips for listing videos

• Write to the shot list, not the brochure

  Walk the house with your phone first and note the order you film in. Then write one short block per shot, so the words always match what is on screen.

• Say what photos cannot show

  The listing photos already show the worktop. Use the voice for evening sun, a quiet street, a loft that really is usable.

• Keep the facts for the end

  Bedrooms and price in the middle stop the tour dead. Buyers who have watched to the end want them, and will wait.

• Write prices and sizes the way you say them

  Spell out "four hundred and twenty-five thousand" on the prompter. A misread figure on camera means a reshoot, or worse, a wrong number published.

• Check every claim against the particulars

  Walking times, school names, "recently renovated": the video has to match the written listing, and the same advertising rules apply to both.

• Film the to-camera parts separately

  Reading while walking backwards through a doorway does not work. Record the opening and closing on a tripod with the prompter, and voice the walkthrough over steady footage.