The real estate industry in Singapore is fast-paced and ever-changing, reflecting the country’s rapid economic development and shifting demographic trends. Over the years, the industry has undergone significant changes, including the way that properties are marketed.
With the rise of technology and social media, home tour videos have emerged as a powerful tool for real estate agents to showcase properties to potential buyers. In Singapore, home tour videos have become increasingly popular, transforming the way properties are marketed and sold here.
In this article, we look at the origins of our PLB Signature Home Tour videos and how they have reinvented property marketing by breathing life into homes, drawing from a recent case study.
How it all started
Back in 2016, our founders Melvin Lim and Adrian Lim observed a gap in the market as they questioned the efficacy of traditional marketing efforts such as leaving brochures and flyers in mailboxes. With a vision to bring prospective buyers on a tour of the property virtually, they produced their first video and pioneered what is now known as PLB’s Signature Home Tour Video, with a consultant presenting the property’s unique selling points – and not a mere tour of the interior, but a deep analysis and solving concerns within the video itself. We also innovate heavily with motion graphics and 3D Architecture Visualisation, further reinforcing the notion of bringing homes to life.
The refreshing video was well-received and they sold the property within a month. Wanting to stand out further from the competition, the pair decided to start a company. A client suggested they call themselves “Lim Brothers” since they shared the same last name and from there, PropertyLimBrothers was formed.
Upon a series of successful videos, an in-house production team was established in mid-2017 which would mark the beginnings of PropertyLimBrothers Media. Since our official inception as a firm in 2018, our production powerhouse has produced more than 1,800 home tours and educational videos on YouTube, garnering over 40 million views and over 67,000 subscribers at the time of writing. To date, PLB is the only real estate company with a full time in-house production team, which allows us to control the quality and consistently put out high-quality content.
Case Study: Achieved a New Pricing Benchmark after Repositioning with Home Tour Video
Last year, in October 2022, a seller reached out to engage the team to sell their landed home. It was a 2-storey semi-detached that had the largest land size in the Jalan Bumbong landed enclave. Standing at 8,288 sqft with a built-up size of 8,319 sqft, the unit had two fully built levels and a roof terrace that could be built up into a third level.
The property was previously marketed by other agents for months but did not make any headway as they failed to explore the potential and highlight the rarity of the property. At the same time, there was a challenge to overcome the price point of the house due to its large size, which buyers found difficult to overlook due to the historical transactions. And by the time the sellers had contacted us, they had already lost out significantly on opportunity cost as they wanted to purchase their next property but the interest rates had risen and there was a fresh round of TDSR revision. Because of that, they wanted it to be sold fast in order to move on with their plans.
After understanding the property in great detail, the team conducted deep research and analysis into the surrounding area as well as the potential of the space and land size. With all the information at hand, we produced our PLB Signature Home Tour video. Below are the factors that we were able to achieve with the home tour video, contributing to the successful sale of the property.
Immersive Experience
One of the most significant benefits of our PLB Signature Home Tour videos is that they offer a more comprehensive and immersive experience for potential buyers. Singapore’s housing market is notoriously competitive, with many buyers eager to find their dream homes quickly. Our home tour videos provide an excellent solution to this problem, as they allow potential buyers to get a detailed look at the property from their own home. This was especially effective during the pandemic, when we brought the viewing experience to the comfort and safety of one’s home.
Video is a powerful storytelling tool and format to bring out the imagination and creativity of the viewers, and that is one of the aims of our home tour videos. Bringing the audience on a virtual tour of the property while having a presenter highlight the pros and cons of the space is effective as it serves as a “preliminary viewing” of the property before moving on to the next step in the process.
The video format also allows us to present our analysis in a visually appealing way. For example, when presenting about the potential price appreciation of the property, we used visuals and bite-sized information to draw the audience’s attention while delivering the key points. This way, the audience will not have to read through chunks of text to decipher our message. It also leads us to the next factor.
Presentation of Research & Analysis
In order to justify the asking price and convince the audience that the property is worth buying or investing in, we needed to present our research and analysis in a way that is easy to understand. For this property, we wanted to touch on several intangible unique selling points.
Firstly, the land size of over 8,000 sqft is something that you can no longer find anywhere else with a $9 million budget. That means that the buyer will be buying into a huge land size and a property that is barely 6 years old with an asking land PSF of only $999. Secondly, we highlight the subdivision criteria and potential return on investment, if the property was to be subdivided into two semi-detached houses in the future. And lastly, the future exit potential by highlighting the URA Master Plan of the surrounding area.
Furthermore, throughout the presentation of the property, we provided suggestions for renovation, furnishing, and highlighted possible usage of spaces to help the audience envision what they can do with those spaces. At the same time, we also solved foreseeable concerns such as the entryway to the bedrooms being right next to the kitchen. All this was possible thanks to the deep research done by Listing Managers George Peng and Dionnis Lim. With their wealth of experience in marketing landed homes, they predicted and assuaged buyer concerns even before they had stepped into the home. This not only qualified the buyer, ensuring that everyone who stepped into the home was a suitable and potential buyer, but it also meant that buyers were aware of the potential obstacles and will not be caught off guard during the physical viewing.
When we present all this information in a home tour video, we also want to balance it between showing the different spaces within the house so that there is a coherent flow and storytelling element. That is where the script and editing come into play. After stringing together the many elements to highlight the different aspects of the property, we include timestamps in each video so that the audience can easily toggle to the part that they are interested to see or revisit.
Graphics & 3D Architecture Visualisation
A huge part of what we do is to continuously innovate different ways to present properties in our home tour videos. Graphics have always been a way for us to make our videos more engaging and immersive, but we have recently stepped things up by incorporating 3D Architecture Visualisation for renovation and A&A inspirations.
3D Architecture Visualisation allows for the creation of highly detailed and accurate models of building designs, which can be used to help the audience envision the potential of a space or structure. With these renderings of the property, the audience not only gets a sense of the space but is also able to visualise how the property would look like in different lighting conditions. This greatly improves the viewing experience and invokes a sense of wonder and curiosity about what it would be like to actually live in that space.
Meet the Consultants
The deal was conducted by George Peng and Dionnis Lim, Listing Managers at PropertyLimBrothers. Speaking about his experience, George mentioned that in the digital era where many people are venturing into video production to market properties, the way we address concerns and illustrate the potential as well as pain points of a property makes our PLB Signature Home Tour videos stand out from the crowd – evident from how the team managed to sell this property within 1.5 months at a record price after repositioning with our home tour video.
Watch the full home tour video below:
Closing Thoughts
To sum up, home tour videos have brought about a paradigm shift in the real estate industry, particularly in Singapore, where the housing market is competitive, and time is precious. As pioneers of the presenter-style home tour video, we are able to showcase properties to potential buyers in a more immersive and convenient way, attract a wider audience, and facilitate the buying process for potential buyers. The benefits of home tour videos go beyond marketing and sales; they also help buyers make more informed decisions and ensure a more efficient process for both buyers and sellers.
Each of our home tour videos is tailored and strategically crafted to showcase the best facets of a property as we firmly believe that every property is unique and requires a careful approach to developing the marketing and content strategy, instead of hastily launching it in the market.
If you are interested in marketing and selling your property with us, do reach out to us here for a free and non-obligatory Seller’s Consultation session. We will be glad to assist you in planning and executing the next phase of your property journey.
