App and stabilizer tailor-made for DIY listing videos

Some real estate agents love to be jacks-of-all trades.

Now, those who often throw on the hat of videographer have a new app and smartphone stabilizer they can use to shoot listing videos. The app makes it easy for agents to organize clips by location and generates a video web page that’s permissible to link to in a multiple listing service listing.

HouseLens Stabilizer

Nashville, Tennessee-based HouseLens, a marketing firm that produces various media for real estate agents in 40 housing markets, has unveiled the tools to cater to agents unlikely to enlist the services of the firm’s professional photographers.

“Professional services will always be the core of our business, but we know that there will always be agents who want to DIY their videos,” said HouseLens CEO Andrew Crefeld in a statement. “Quite simply, we want those agents to have the right tool for the job.”

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“HouseLens DIY,” which is available for the iPhone 6 and Android 4.1 and up, is designed specifically for real estate agents, offering features including “real estate-specific tagging,” auto-editing, royalty-free music, and easy social sharing.

After an agent shoots a clip, the app will prompt the agent to tag the clip with a label describing the footage, such as “kitchen,” “living room” or “dining room.” Agents can then order the labeled clips inside the app and click to stitch them into a video with transitions.

“A lot of agents will have strong preferences about how they want to move through the house for the walkthrough,” said HouseLens Marketing Director Kathryn Royster, explaining the reasoning behind the tagging feature.

The app will also generate a web page that embeds the video in an unbranded video player. That’s so agents can add a video link to a listing in multiple listing services, most of which prohibit the inclusion of links to branded video players such as YouTube, Royster said. If an MLS syndicates listings to listing portals, video links added to those listings can then appear on listing portals, she said.

Agents can use HouseLens DIY for free for 30 days. After that, the app costs $9.99 a month or $99.99 for a year to host 10 videos at anytime.

Andrew Crefeld

HouseLens produces marketing media for agents including walkthrough listing videos (about 250 a week), photography, online 3-D models powered by Matterport (about 20 to 30 a week) and floor plans, according to Royster.

Video packages (including photos) start at $200 for up to 3,000 square feet. Online 3-D models cost $200 for up to 3,000 square feet. Agents can pay an additional $50 to get photographs along with their 3-D models.

“The more products agents combine, the better the pricing gets,” Royster said.

Email Teke Wiggin.