A Realtor’s Guide to Real Estate YouTube Marketing [Examples Included]

As a Realtor or real estate investor, you must have tried almost every social media channel to generate leads – Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to name a few! However, 99% of Realtors don’t give YouTube a try. Even if you did, the chances are you gave up when the first couple of videos didn’t gain any traction.

It’s quite unfortunate that most Realtors don’t leverage YouTube marketing despite the fact that it’s one of the cheapest and most effective ways of generating buyer and seller leads online in 2022.

In this guide, I am going to:

• explain why YouTube is the best social media platform to promote a real estate business in 2022 and beyond.
• let you in on the best strategies to get clients from YouTube,
• share with you some of the best YouTube channels from local real estate agents just like you to make you feel motivated,
• free and paid video editing tools and tips for Realtors and real estate investors (most of you aren’t video editors, but I believe this is hardly a reason for real estate professionals not to start a YouTube channel),
• and last but not the least, share with you some of the tips on how to set up a successful YouTube channel even if you are not good on camera.

So, let’s dive in:

10 Real Estate YouTube Channels from Realtors 

Before we talk about the best practices to follow when setting up a real estate YouTube channel and many other things in this massive guide, let’s start with some motivation.  In this list, I haven’t featured Realtors with hundreds of thousands of subscribers. I did a random search on YouTube and found some channels from Realtors just like you. Here are some of the channels I came across:

• Jessica Riffle Edwards, Wilmington Realtor

A Realtor in Wilmington NC, Jessica Edwards is the breakout star of Coldwell Banker’s YouTube Channel. Her channel has got nearly 14K subscribers and many of her videos have received over 100K views. She makes videos when driving around neighborhoods in her city and posts a lot of home buying guides on a regular basis.

• Matt Leighton, Arlington 

Matt Leighton is licensed Realtor in Arlington VA. He has over 16,000 followers on his YouTube channel and he covers a wide range of topics from best homes on the market in his county to tips on buying and selling. His neighborhood profiles for every part of the county are quite popular and each one has hundreds, even thousands of views:

• Creath Partners Real Estate, Austin 

This Austin, TX real estate agency covers housing market updates, home buying and selling tips, information about latest home listings and a lot of other topics. Check out the following video from their YouTube channel that has over 65K views:

• Nan and Company Properties, Houston 

Nan and Company Properties, Christies International Real Estate is Houston-based real estate agency, working with clients from all over the world. Their YouTube channel has got less than 200 subscribers, but they are very consistant with the video publishing schedule. Their videos get from a few to hundreds, even thousands of views. They cover market updates, listing information, lifestyle, and luxury living. Check out their video here:

• Steve Penate, Phoenix 

Steve Penate provides home buying and selling tips, Phoenix real estate market updates and interviews with experts on his YouTube channel. Though he has just about 1.5K subscribers, his videos usually get from a few hundreds to thousands of views. Check out one of his YouTube videos below:

• Mike & Cindy Jones, Jacksonville Realtors

Mike and Cindy Jones offers information on home buying and selling process. They also promote their newest listings and houses for sale using video, showcasing the best features of houses we have for sale. They also use the platform to do a Live stream every Thursday. Their channel has about 1.6K subscribers, but some of their videos get thousands of views.

• Mark Zilbert, Miami

A leading luxury real estate broker in Miami, Mark Zilbert showcases his signature property listings. Though he has only 2.3K subscribers, some of his videos have got nearly 100K views. Check out one of his YouTube videos here:

• Mark McDonough Team – Sacramento Real Estate

Mark McDonough – a Sacramento realtor – is quite disciplined about his YouTuve video posting schedule.  He regularly posts videos related to the current state of the Sacramento real estate market and educating people on buying and selling homes in and around Sacramento

• Courtney Murphy, Denver

A Realtor serving the Denver metro area, Courtney Murphy isn’t bothered with lighting, sound quality and aesthetics; however, she has been very consistent with her video posting schedule. Her videos rank on top for most keywords related to Denver real estate. She receives hundreds of views on her videos and if you scroll down, you will find that she gets a lot of comments and questions from prospective home buyers. Watch her in action  below:

• Danny Lush Real Estate, Las Vegas

Daniel Lipchanskiy shares tours of new build communities, as well as resale homes and condos. His videos that receive thousands of views and a lot of comments from prospective buyers aim to educate home buyers and home sellers on the process and many other areas of real estate.

You may be dissuaded by low subscriber count on these YouTube channels, but some of these real estate professionals and agencies have been posting videos for the past several years – even if it means just one video a month.

I strongly believe that 1K YouTube subscribers are way better than 1K Instagram or 1K Facebook page likes. Unlike Facebook and Instagram, YouTube is a search engine. People actively search for information on the platform. It means that a video you posted three years ago may still get you a lead, just like a blog post which ranks high in Google results.

8 reasons Realtors should leverage YouTube Marketing

Since its launch in 2005, YouTube has become the most popular video sharing platform. YouTube boasts of 2 billion monthly active users watching one billion hours of video content per day. YouTube is used by 73% of USA adults. And since YouTube is a video platform, it has a more profound impact on the viewer.

While these are some generic statistics indicating the extent of the platform’s popularity, here are a few reasons you should use YouTube marketing as a real estate agent, broker or investor:

• YouTube SEO is easy

Doing SEO (search engine optimization) for a local real estate business to rank high in Google organic searches is getting difficult with each passing year. It takes months if not years to get on page 1 of Google.

But this may not necessarily be the case when it comes to YouTube SEO. Google that owns YouTube is definitely promoting videos in organic search results.

All you need to do is give your videos a nice headline with the right real estate keywords and write an attractive and long description. Publish videos on a regular basis. I am confident that in a few months, your videos will start getting views from home buyers and sellers.

YouTube videos can help your website SEO indirectly. You can embed videos in blog posts and other types of content. People will stay more on your site to watch the videos. The increased ‘Time on Site’ will help your content rank higher in search results.

Another great feature of YouTube is that videos are recommended to viewers based on their ‘watch history’. So if viewers watched your video and forgot about you, it is likely that they will get recommendations for more videos from your channel whenever they use YouTube the next time.

• YouTube is a great tool for inbound marketing

Inbound marketing is opposite of door knocking or cold calling. The leads come to you.

YouTube is definitely one of the best platforms when it comes to inbound marketing. It helps your prospects get familiar with you before you talk to them and put them through a sales funnel. Most real estate professionals report that they get calls or texts from their prospective clients after watching their YouTube videos.

• Videos are easier to produce

You may not believe me on this, but making videos are definitely easier than writing text for most real estate agents and brokers. You just need to be yourself, may be write a few lines of script in a conversational text, take out your phone and shoot yourself speaking. It’s the easy part.

Most real estate agents get stuck when it comes to video editing. Well, there are many paid and free video editing software programs available in the market that make it extremely easy to edit videos; however, you can spend a few bucks and hire a professional video editor on sites like Fivver. From creating a YouTube intro to adding special effects, these professionals on Fivver are highly skilled. The best part is you can have a video edited for as low as $10-$15.

• Videos are more engaging 

Our brain is apparently programmed to retain visual information for a longer period of time. For this reason, they would remember your face, the logo of your business or any message you convey through your real estate YouTube videos.

According to studies, the average viewer remembers 95% of a message when it is watched, whereas only 10% when read.

• Originality is valued on YouTube

You don’t have to be a theater personality or be a professional actor in order to get famous on YouTube.

In fact, originality can help you connect with your prospects at a more personal level. Be yourself to impress your prospects with your unique voice and personality.

• Best way to stand out from competition

As soon as a person looking to buy a home or sell one goes online and runs a google search, he or she is bombarded with property listings everywhere. You can stand out from your competition by publishing video guides on different aspects of home buying and selling process.

Your prospects will not only be grateful to you for providing them easy-to-consume information, but also view you as an expert in your target market. The result will be more leads and clients.

• Easy to repurpose your video content

By producing YouTube videos, you will be able to leverage video marketing at scale. You can use the same videos and publish them on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram (after editing them as per the platform they will be used for.

For example, Instagram is best suited for short videos). The organic reach of videos on all these platforms is way better then text-based posts.

• A more personalized real estate sales funnel

If you are collecting real estate leads online, you must be using a real estate sales funnel. Instead of using just textual messages, you can embed YouTube videos in your drip emails. This will make your branding message more personalized.

You will be able to build your personal brand a lot faster. Personal branding is important for Realtors because they are a local business.

Your leads will get to know you by watching you in action. It can be the game changer for a local business.

SEO Checklist for a real estate YouTube channel

There is no point spending hours making a YouTube video if it doesn’t rank high.

I have already mentioned YouTube is a search engine. People search for information on YouTube. So you need to follow certain YouTube SEO best practices when posting a real estate video. Here is he step-by-step YouTube SEO guide:

Step#1: Real estate keywords for YouTube

Keywords are the most important aspect of YouTube SEO. And thankfully, doing a keyword research for YouTube is not a rocket science. Just type in a word or phrase related to real estate such as ‘buy a home (interest city or neighbourhood)’ and see if YouTube suggests you search phrases.

If you need ideas, check out this Ultimate List of Real Estate Keywords I recently published. While this list contains keywords that you can use to rank your content in Google search, the same keywords can be used for making YouTube videos.

You can also check out YouTube videos by other Realtors and real estate investors and go through the list of tags they have used. It will give you an idea of most popular keywords for a particular topic.

Step#2: Make engaging videos

How long people watch your YouTube videos is a huge ranking factor.

It means that the longer a viewer stays on your video, the higher it will rank in YouTube search results.

What it basically means is that you need to make engaging videos. This YouTube SEO metric is called Audience Retention.

Some other factors that indicate that your videos are engaging include:

• The number of comments on the videos

• How many people subscribe to your channel after watching a video

• How many people share your videos

• How many people click on the link to your video from YouTube search result. It means you need to create attention-grabbing thumbnails and headlines.

• How many thumbs up or thumbs down your videos receive

• The length of the video. Longer videos rank higher.

Step#3: Using keywords the RIGHT WAY

You’ve already done an in-depth keyword research. Now is the time to use those keywords in the video.

• Did you know YouTube can transcribe your videos? It’s important that you ‘say’ the keyword at least a few times in the video.

• Use the keyword in the video title

• Write a long description (it’s very important) and use the keywords a few times.

• Use keywords as the tags for your video. Apart from helping with SEO, the tags improves the chances of your videos getting recommended.

Step#4: Market your videos 

It’s very important that you promote your videos as much as possible. This will not only help you with brand exposure, but also improve SEO.

Here are a few tips to help you get more views:

• Use most important keywords in channel description and About sections. Write an engaging description.

• Make sure to create a video playlist. Club related topics together to create a playlist. Playlists automatically play every video in the playlist, so once a viewer has watched a video, he or she is automatically taken to the next video in the playlist.

• Do you write blog post or guides on your website? Embed relevant YouTube videos in them. It will not only get you more views, but also improve your content’s ranking in Google search. How long a user stays on your real website is a huge ranking factor.

• You can add the link to your YouTube channel or a relevant video in your email signature.

• Are you active in forums such as Quora or Reddit? You should leave links to your relevant videos in discussion threads.

So these are some basic YouTube SEO tips for Realtors.

Luckily, unlike SEO for Google organic search, you don’t need to implement any kind of technical SEO when it comes to optimizing YouTube videos for higher ranking.

YouTube marketing best practices for Realtors & Investors

There are certain things you need to keep in mind when marketing your real estate business on YouTube. Following the below-mentioned YouTube best practices will ensure that you get the most out of your video marketing efforts:

Consistent visual branding

There are a few aspects of YouTube branding:

• YouTube Intro

• Thumbnails

• Titles and subtitles

• Animations

• YouTube banner

It’s extremely important that all these aspects of visual branding are consistent. This includes logo, title and subtitle, font, colors and the overall color theme that you use for animations and texts.

Don’t know how to create a YouTube intro, thumbnails, animations etc.? Well, you don’t have to worry. You can hire professionals on sites such as Fiverr and get them to create an intro for just $10-$50. You can also hire video editors and animation experts. Some freelancers provide all the above-mentioned branding visuals including an animated logo at a very reasonable price.

Never overdo self-promotion; focus on viewer’s intent

Many real estate agents and investors devote a major partition of their video to self-promotion. It’s a big mistake. People watch your videos to get information, not to learn about you.

You need to learn how to self-promote without seeming spammy.

It shouldn’t take you more than a few seconds to introduce yourself. You should then move on to the topic at hand. You need to keep the viewer’s intent in mind and focus on the value you are offering through your videos.

Use Multiple Call-to-Actions (CTAs)

Here are a few YouTube CTAs you must use in each and every video:

• Suggest related videos at the end of each of your video

• Prompt viewers to subscribe to your channel and click on the notification bell

• Put your social media buttons in your video

• Place links in the video’s description

• Direct viewers to your website with pop-up CTAs

• Ask your viewers to share and comment on your videos (good for SEO and audience engagement)

• A lead magnet: You can offer your viewers something in exchange for sharing their contact information with you. For example, a free home value estimation or a free eBook on the home buying or selling process. You can promote this lead magnet at the end of the video and tell your viewers to find the link to the lead magnet in the description. When viewers click the link, he or she is redirected to a landing page on your website where they have to fill out a form to avail your offer or access the resource such as an eBook.

Make your videos engaging and edit them professionally

Make sure that as soon as the viewers start watching your video, they know what they will get out of it.

If a video is about the best neighborhoods in your city, there is no point educating your viewers about the closing process. You can make a separate video on how closing works. Your videos should be to the point and professional.

Make a habit of watching YouTube videos of other real estate professionals and try to learn from them.

Make sure that you spend a good amount of time editing your videos and cut out parts which make you look like an amateur. As already mentioned, you can alternatively hire a video editor on sites like Fiverr.

Be consistent

Giving up after posting a couple of videos on YouTube is one of the worst mistakes that Realtors make. Come up with a posting schedule and stick to it – even if it means one video a month.

Don’t underestimate the ROI that YouTube video views provide. Even if your videos are getting no more than 100 views, you shouldn’t feel disappointed. Did you know how much 100 clicks in a PPC campaign will cost you. We provide PPC management service to real estate professionals and depending on the competition in a market, 100 clicks will cost you anywhere from $300 to $600.

Use evergreen informational content

When you create videos on buying, selling or investing guides, make sure that your content is evergreen. This will keep your videos relevant forever.

For example when you make a video on ‘Steps to Buying a Home’, don’t talk about any current real estate market trends (which are seasonal). Make a separate video if you want to provide the latest market updates.

70+ YouTube videos ideas & topics for Realtors

Equipment you need to start Vlogging on YouTube

• Camera
• Microphone
• Tripod or Gimbal Stabilizer
• Lighting
• Video Editing Software

In conclusion

In this guide, I shared with you YouTube channels from real estate agents, brokers and investors. Check them out and try to replicate their strategy.

Don’t judge yourself too much about how you look in front of camera. If you are consistent, you will learn the ropes over time. Follow the best practices mentioned in this guide and you will do fine.

Are you using YouTube for real estate marketing? If yes, let me know in comments how it’s working for you!