Three formats consistently grow a real estate channel: property tours filmed on location, virtual property tours recorded from a screen, and housing market updates covering neighborhood conditions and mortgage rates. The talking head video, in which an agent speaks directly to camera without accompanying visuals, is not one of them. Each of the three formats can be produced with a single recording tool capable of screen capture, webcam, and vertical 9:16 output.

What Are Real Estate Videos?

Real estate videos are recorded marketing assets produced by agents to attract prospective buyers and sellers, typically by showing property, demonstrating local market knowledge, or both. Their distinguishing characteristic on public channels is visual substance: the video shows something the viewer wants to see rather than presenting the agent as the primary subject.

Two Dubb tools cover the production. The mobile app handles filming on location, with a teleprompter, stabilizer, picture in picture, and clips. The desktop app handles screen recording, webcam capture, and vertical 9:16 output, so screen-based tours and market updates come from the same place.

Decide What You Are Going For First

Before choosing a format, answer two questions, because the answers change everything downstream.

Buyers or sellers? Most agents lean one way by background. Someone who came from commercial tenant representation naturally thinks buyer-side. That instinct is worth knowing about, and it is not the same question as where you want your business to grow next. Plenty of agents are naturally buyer-oriented and need seller business this year.

Which channel? Paid advertising, working your sphere, farming a neighborhood door to door, or building organic presence. These are genuinely different disciplines, and the right next step depends entirely on which one you pick.

Everything below assumes the answer is organic, on YouTube and social. If you would rather knock doors, the advice is different and none of this applies. That is not a criticism of door knocking. It is that a strategy chosen because it sounded good and then abandoned is worse than either one done properly.

Why the Talking Head Does Not Grow a Channel

Here is the thing most agents get wrong at the start. They set up a camera, sit down, and talk about the market or about themselves. It feels like the obvious way to make a video, and it is the format least likely to grow a real estate channel.

The reason is what the viewer came for. Nobody searches for an agent talking. They search for a house, a neighborhood, or an answer about the market. A face on screen with no accompanying visual gives them none of those, so they leave, and the channel never builds the watch time it needs.

The real estate videos that work all share one property: there is something to look at other than you. Property, screen, data, a neighborhood. You are still present, still the voice, still the person they eventually call. You are just not the only thing on screen.

Type One: Property Tours on Location

The first format is you in the field, walking a property. This is the one people assume requires a videographer, and for most agents that assumption is what stops them from ever starting.

If you have invested in professional equipment or work with a videographer, absolutely keep going. That route produces excellent results. But most agents are doing this alone, with a phone, between appointments, and the question is whether that is viable. It is, and the mobile app features are what make it viable:

• Teleprompter. Your script scrolls on screen while you film, so you can hit the key points about a property without memorising them or restarting six times.
• Stabilizer. Smooths out the walking footage that otherwise makes a self-filmed tour look amateur.
• Picture in picture. Puts your face on screen alongside what you are showing, so the tour keeps a human presence without cutting away.
• Clips. Record in segments rather than one continuous take, which removes the pressure of getting a whole property right in one pass.

The rule I would apply is that the teleprompter is what makes this repeatable. Filming a property is easy once. Filming forty properties is a workflow problem, and reading a script instead of improvising is what turns a good day into a habit.

Type Two: Virtual Property Tours

The second format is show, do not tell, without leaving your desk. You record your screen touring a property you are not physically at.

This is how agents cover the listings that draw attention regardless of whether they represent them. A striking listing in a well-known area is eyeballs, and eyeballs are what a young channel needs. You get to demonstrate taste, market knowledge, and an eye for value, using property you would never otherwise have access to.

Worth being careful here, and this is the part nobody mentions in the excitement. Using listing photos, video, or MLS content for a property you do not represent raises real questions about copyright, MLS and IDX rules, and your board's advertising requirements. Those rules vary by MLS and by state and they are enforced. Before building a series on other people's listings, confirm what your MLS permits, attribute the listing agent and brokerage as required, and check with your broker. Commentary and criticism have more latitude than reproduction does, but the safe path is knowing your rules rather than assuming.

Type Three: Housing Market Updates

The third format positions you as the advisor rather than the salesperson. Housing market news, neighborhood conditions, where mortgage rates are going, what inventory is doing.

This is the format that compounds. A property tour is relevant until the property sells. An update establishes you as the person with a finger on the pulse, and that reputation persists after the specific numbers have gone stale. It also attracts a different viewer: the homeowner who is not ready to move yet but wants to know what their neighborhood is doing. That person becomes a seller in eighteen months and they already know who you are.

Two practical notes. Cite your sources on screen when you quote figures, because a market update whose numbers cannot be traced is worth less than one that shows its work. And keep clear of anything that reads as financial or lending advice, since discussing where rates might go is different from advising someone on their mortgage, and the line matters for your license.

The Three Formats Side by Side

Pick the One You Will Actually Do

Here is the selection criterion nobody expects: pick based on what you enjoy.

Some agents hate driving around neighborhoods and would rather do everything from a screen. Others find desk work draining and come alive walking a property. Both are legitimate, and knowing which one you are is more predictive of whether you publish consistently than any analysis of which format performs better.

Consistency is the variable that decides channel growth. A format you tolerate produces four videos and stops. A format you like produces fifty. Fifty mediocre videos in the format you enjoy will beat four polished ones in the format you dreaded, because the channel needs volume before it needs polish.

You can also do both, and many people do: screen-based work on office days, property tours when you are already out. The point is to choose deliberately rather than defaulting to whichever seemed most professional.

One Tool Covers All Three

The practical objection at this point is usually about tooling. Three formats, two of them screen-based and one on location, sounds like an equipment problem.

It is not. The desktop app handles screen recording, webcam, and vertical 9:16 output, which covers virtual tours and market updates including the vertical cuts that social platforms want. The mobile app covers on-location filming with the teleprompter, stabilizer, picture in picture, and clips.

Two apps, three formats, no separate editing suite required to get started. The reason that matters is not cost. It is that every additional tool in a workflow is another place the habit breaks, and habit is what this whole approach depends on.

Common Mistakes and Troubleshooting

Starting with talking head videos. The most common opening move and the least effective. If your channel is stalled, check whether anything other than your face appears on screen.

Waiting for professional equipment. The videographer route is excellent and it is not a prerequisite. Agents who wait for it usually never begin.

Improvising on camera. If you are restarting takes repeatedly, write the script and use the teleprompter. Restarts are why people quit filming.

Filming a whole property in one take. Record in clips. One flubbed line should cost you a segment, not the entire tour.

Building on other people's listings without checking the rules. Confirm MLS, IDX, and board advertising requirements before making it a series. Getting this wrong is a compliance problem, not a content problem.

Quoting market figures with no source. Show where the numbers came from. Unsourced authority is not authority.

Choosing a format because it looks impressive. Choose the one you will still be doing in three months.

Best Practices Worth Adopting

Decide buyers or sellers before you decide anything else. Your real estate videos serve the goal, not the other way around.

Script the property tours and read them. The teleprompter exists so your fortieth tour is as easy as your first.

Record vertical when the destination is social. A 9:16 cut travels to the portrait-first feeds without re-shooting anything.

Mix these into the schedule even when listings are slow. They attract the future seller who is not searching for a property yet.

Watch a few examples before committing. What I see most often is agents choosing a format in the abstract, then discovering three weeks in that they dislike doing it.

Recording Tools Compared

Several tools serve parts of this workflow well. The distinction is how much of the three-format range each one covers on its own.

If you only ever record at a desk, a screen recorder is sufficient. If your week includes both a listing appointment and a desk recording, the value is in not switching tools between them.

Proof: Why This Actually Works

These three kinds of real estate videos are not a theory. They are the patterns agents have reported back as having worked in their own businesses, collected into a library of past real estate sessions and use cases that new agents can review before choosing a direction.

Two patterns hold consistently. The first concerns format selection: agents who choose based on which work they enjoy publish considerably longer than agents who choose based on which format sounds most professional. Channel growth follows publishing consistency more closely than it follows production quality, so enjoyment is a better predictor of results than ambition is.

The second concerns the talking head. Agents whose channels stall are disproportionately those whose videos show only the agent speaking. When the same agent switches to property, screen, or market content, the change in performance comes from the visual substance rather than from anything they altered about their delivery.

Methodology note: these are directional observations drawn from the real estate use cases agents have reported to us and from aggregated, anonymized patterns across Dubb users, not a controlled study. No figures are attached, and outcomes vary by market, niche, and posting frequency.

The takeaway is unglamorous. The format matters less than picking one you will keep doing, and almost anything beats talking to a camera with nothing else on screen.

Frequently Asked Questions

What kind of videos should a real estate agent make?

Three formats consistently work: property tours filmed on location, virtual property tours recorded from your screen, and housing market updates covering neighborhood conditions, inventory, and mortgage rates.

The format to avoid as your main output is the talking head, meaning you speaking to camera with nothing else on screen. Viewers come looking for a property, a neighborhood, or an answer about the market, and a video with no visual substance gives them none of those.

Do I need a videographer to film property tours?

No. If you have professional equipment or work with a videographer, that route produces excellent results and is worth continuing. But most agents are filming alone with a phone between appointments, and that is entirely workable.

A mobile app with a teleprompter, stabilizer, picture in picture, and clips covers the gap. The teleprompter means you read rather than improvise, the stabilizer smooths walking footage, and clips let you record in segments instead of getting a whole property right in one take.

Can I make videos about listings I do not represent?

Virtual property tours of eye-catching listings are a common way to build reach, since a striking property attracts viewers regardless of who holds the listing. Check the rules before you build a series on it.

Using listing photos, video, or MLS content for a property you do not represent raises copyright, MLS, IDX, and board advertising questions, and those rules vary by MLS and by state. Confirm what yours permits, attribute the listing agent and brokerage as required, and check with your broker first.

What should I put in a housing market update?

Neighborhood conditions, inventory levels, and where mortgage rates are moving. The format positions you as the advisor with a finger on the pulse rather than as someone selling a specific property.

Cite your sources on screen when you quote figures, since commentary whose numbers cannot be traced is worth less than analysis that shows its work. Keep clear of anything that reads as financial or lending advice, as discussing rate trends is different from advising someone on their mortgage.

Which video format should I start with?

Whichever one you will actually keep doing. Some agents dislike driving around neighborhoods and prefer working from a screen. Others find desk work draining and prefer being at properties. Both are legitimate.

Consistency drives channel growth more than production quality does, so a format you enjoy and publish fifty times beats a format you tolerate and abandon after four. Watch a few examples of each before committing.

What equipment do I need to record real estate videos?

Less than you would expect. A mobile app handles on-location filming with a teleprompter, stabilizer, picture in picture, and clips, which covers property tours without additional gear.

For screen-based formats, a desktop app that records your screen and webcam and exports vertical 9:16 covers virtual tours, market commentary, and the social cuts of both. Two apps handle all three formats, and keeping the tool count low matters because every extra step is a place the habit breaks.

Turning a Channel Into Listings

The sequence for real estate videos is short. Decide whether you are chasing buyers or sellers, and confirm organic video is the channel you want. Choose among property tours, virtual tours, and market updates based on which you will enjoy enough to keep doing. Then record: mobile for the field, desktop for anything on screen, vertical when it is heading to social.

The tooling is deliberately unremarkable, which is the point. Dubb mobile brings the teleprompter, stabilizer, picture in picture, and clips to on-location filming, and Dubb desktop covers screen, webcam, and vertical output for everything else. One workflow across all three formats, so the friction that usually ends these efforts never gets a foothold.

If you want help deciding, review the past real estate sessions to see the formats in practice, then book an optimization call and bring your answer. Someone will walk you through the tools step by step and get your branding and contacts set up properly, which is a better use of an hour than guessing at it alone.