People have been saying video is the future of real estate for several years and in that time I've have seen some amazing examples (see: 'When I Dream About Listing Video’s This Is What I Dream About', 'The Most Sex Filled, Action Packed Invite To An Open House You’ll Ever Get. I Promise'.) but it never seems to actually happen. Our clients have added videos to their single property Websites (see: 'A Realtor Marketing Above and Beyond?') but it is unfortunately too rare.

The increase in online video viewing is undeniably on the increase as evidenced by this data circulated by YouTube as part of their sixth 'birthday' celebration:

The YouTube blog post adds they have seen a 37% increase in views over the last six months and a 100% increase since last year.

But I keep asking myself if video will ever go mainstream in real estate? Even with an almost overwhelming choice of hardware, software, vendors and training, many real estate videos end up doing more harm than good to an agents reputation (see: 'Listing Video’s – The Good, The Bad and The Hilarious'). Industry execs continue to complain about agents who do not include photographs when marketing listings and then there are the many that add photo's that are so bad one can't help but find them entertaining. Unfortunately this means we are laughing at the agent rather than with them (see: 'Bad MLS Photo’s', 'The Worst MLS Photo’s Ever?', 'Home For Sale – Sex Toy Provided Free'). I think it's safe to assume that anyone who doesn't add photographs to market a home will never create a video.

Answer honestly - do you think Realtors will ever make video a core component of their marketing? I suspect not.