Most listing videos only reach people who already follow you.
This week’s B.I.T.S. covers a 23-second listing video, a seller update that ends in a recommendation, a $4.55M listing that went viral, and the question your sellers are about to ask.
Before you dive in, put this on your calendar.
Later this month, we’re hosting a live webinar: The Ultimate Listing Presentation, on Thursday, October 29, from 12 to 2 p.m. ET.
We’ll also unveil our new AI listing presentation builder for the first time, live.
Here’s what’s on this week’s B.I.T.S. agenda:
🏆 [B]est in Class: A 23-second tour with an arm swing
🧠 [I]deas That Work: The weekly video that ends in a recommendation
📈 [T]raffic & Attention: A viral listing and the one buyer who mattered
🔔 [S]eller Signals: The spring question you’ll hear soon
Let’s dive in 👇
🏆 [B]EST IN CLASS - Real campaigns by top listing agents
23 seconds. One listing. A whole neighborhood.
Most listing videos show the same things. Kitchen. Bedrooms. Backyard. Maybe a drone shot.
Krys Benyamein (San Diego) wanted a video that sold the house and the neighborhood at the same time.
The tension: a house video only reaches people who already follow you.
His fix was a phone, a whip transition, and a 23-second route through University Heights.
The result: nearly 10,000 views, 35 saves, 20 shares, and 22 comments.
What a whip transition is
You swing the camera fast between locations so the cuts feel like one continuous move.
Krys says the secret isn’t the whip. It’s what you film and in what order.
Here is the video, then the breakdown.
The shot order
Plan the five scenes before you start filming:
The listing. Start in front of the house so viewers know what they’re looking at.
The neighborhood landmark. Whip to the recognizable University Heights sign. Locals connect right away.
A local favorite. Whip to Stella Jean’s Ice Cream, outside first with the branding, then inside the shop.
Back inside the house. Keep the same whip. He reacts to the kitchen and sits on the bed like he’s saying “this is where you sleep.”
Traditional B-roll. Finish with steady footage of the home so the house gets the last word.
How to shoot the whip (right-handed version)
Use the same move at every location:
Extend your arm fully and start recording a couple of seconds before you move.
Start with the phone at your right side, filming the side of your face.
Swing the camera left until your face is centered.
React for one second at most. Point, look surprised, or gesture at the location.
Keep swinging left, without stopping, until you capture your left-side profile.
Same direction and same framing every time. That consistency is what makes the edit easy.
How to edit it so the cuts disappear
Krys uses the Instagram Edits app. CapCut works too.
Trim the end of one clip just after the whip starts.
Start the next clip just before its whip ends.
The fast motion hides the jump between locations. Repeat for each scene, add music, and end on B-roll.
The part most agents skip
Krys collaborated with the local community page @universityheightssd.
That put the listing in front of people who care about the neighborhood, not just his followers.
You can also invite the businesses you feature to collab on the post. Even if they decline, you’ve made content that celebrates the community you’re selling in.
The steal:
For your next listing, pick one neighborhood landmark and two or three local businesses.
Open at the front door, whip through the community, whip back inside, and close on your best B-roll.
Tag every business you feature.
The takeaway:
Your seller doesn’t need a bigger ad budget. They need to see their home in front of new eyes.
Send your seller the view, save, and share numbers when the video posts, and tell them which audience it reached beyond your followers.
🧠[I]DEAS THAT WORK - Strategies listing agents should use
The 4-question seller video that turns “more links” into a plan
Your listing has been up for three weeks. Showings slowed. Your seller texts you a link to a competing listing.
Sending links back and forth isn’t an update. It’s homework for your seller.
Taylor Hack, a listing agent, shared a weekly video routine on The Leads Are Sh*t podcast that fixes this with four questions.
The four questions
Each video answers these in order:
What happened?
How does it affect this listing?
What are the options?
What do you recommend?
The structure stays the same every week. The advice changes with the listing.
What goes in “What happened?”
Hack reviews new competing listings, price changes, sales, pendings, and homes that left the market without selling.
That last one matters. It reminds your seller that listing a home and selling it are different things.
The part most agents skip
Most updates stop after the facts. A list of sales is information.
Questions 2 through 4 are where you earn the fee. Connect each fact to your seller’s home, lay out the options, and finish with one clear recommendation and the reason behind it.
Your seller can then respond to an actual recommendation instead of trying to build a strategy from a pile of links.
The steal: a script you can record today
Use this as your outline:
“Here’s what changed this week: [new listings, price changes, sales, pendings, withdrawals].”
“Here’s what that means for your home: [one or two sentences].”
“Here’s what we could do: [two or three options].”
“Here’s what I’d do, and why: [recommendation and reasoning].”
Keep it face to camera, with no graphics. Hack uses Loom.
Pair it with a Beacon seller report
A Loom answering these four questions plus a Beacon seller report is a match made in heaven.
The report shows your seller the proof: portal views, showing feedback, and the marketing you’ve done on their home.
Your Loom adds the judgment. Question 1 is already answered before you hit record, so you can spend the whole video on questions 2 through 4.
Your seller gets the facts and your recommendation in the same week, and they see the work you’re already doing.
Four small details that make it work
Send it to both decision makers. Hack emails the video so both spouses hear the same advice. Neither has to retell it to the other.
Add the links. Include the properties you discuss so they can revisit your examples.
Pick a day and keep it. Hack usually records on Tuesday, after weekend activity and Monday updates have appeared. Choose the day that fits your market.
Follow up by phone when needed. The video gives most sellers enough context to reply. It doesn’t replace the call when the situation calls for one.
One thing to protect
The hosts pushed back on using an AI clone to deliver this update. The value is your seller seeing and hearing the person advising them.
The goal isn’t a new decision every week. It’s a seller who understands your advice when a decision does come.
The takeaway:
Record the four questions for your next active seller this week.
📈[T]RAFFIC & ATTENTION - Listings going viral (and why)
A viral bunker listing sold for $4.55M. The traffic wasn’t the story.
Zak Bagans just bought the Underground House in Las Vegas.
It’s a 1978 Cold War “Atomitat” with a pool, theater, and fake sky, 26 feet below a regular house.
It sold for $4.55M. The final ask was $5.9M. In 2019, it was listed at $18M.
Listing agent Holly Erker (IS Luxury) says it went viral the day it hit the market.
Here is what she did with that attention.
What the attention actually meant
Viral listings get a lot of eyeballs. Most of those eyeballs are tourists.
Erker treated the traffic as a filter problem, not a win.
Every showing was a three-hour commitment, with the home’s history told along the way.
She kept tours to very qualified, serious buyers only.
Three ways to read the sale
Attention found the right buyer, slowly (most likely). A buyer who already runs a museum and arrived with a team in place. Erker called it “the right buyer at the right time.”
The price correction did the work. Down from $18M to $5.9M, and it still closed about 23% below that final ask.
The hybrid zoning mattered. The county-approved special-use permit opened the door to business use, and a museum fits it.
The first and third matter most. Attention alone did not sell it, and price alone did not either.
The steal:
When your listing spikes, sort the traffic before you celebrate it.
Ask three questions:
Who saved it, versus who just viewed it?
Who asked about showing logistics or terms?
Who has a use for this home that you hadn’t pitched?
Then show your seller the sorted version, not the raw view count.
The takeaway:
When your seller says “we had 50,000 views, why no offers?”, you need a ready answer.
Tell them views measure curiosity and showings measure intent.
Your job is to protect their time and the home by moving the right 3 people through the door, not the most people.
🔔[S]ELLER SIGNALS - Conversations agents are having with sellers right now
Your seller is about to ask: “Should we just wait for spring?”
Mortgage rates are sitting around 7.5%, and the market has gone quiet.
Pending sales were down 8.4% year over year in September, according to Compass economist Mike Simonsen. Zillow puts the drop at 8.5%.
Your seller may not know those numbers. They can feel them in the showing schedule.
What your seller is probably feeling
Impatience with a side of doubt.
Many of them watched rates dip below 6% in February and expected a stronger spring. Now they’re deciding whether to hold out or adjust.
Simonsen says sellers who are tired of waiting may be willing to be flexible on price.
What they’re probably misreading
Inventory is up 4.4%, but not because more homes are coming to market. Homes are just sitting longer.
Price reductions are ticking up. Closed prices haven’t meaningfully dropped.
That gap is where your seller’s story gets confused. A reduction on a neighbor’s listing can read as “prices are crashing,” when closed prices say otherwise.
Where your seller’s buyers went
Many are renting instead.
Zillow says rents rose 2.7% year over year in September. A median-income household spends 34.4% of income on a typical mortgage payment, versus 26.3% on a typical rent.
A John Burns survey found only 6% of people would accept a rate around 7.5%. The “magic rate” is between 5% and 5.49%.
So the buyers aren’t gone. They’re waiting, and they will come back if rates fall.
Three ways your seller might see it
“I’ll wait for spring.” Most likely. It feels safe, and they’re hoping rates fall by then.
“I’ll cut the price now.” Less common, but it’s the seller most likely to get a showing this month.
“Maybe I shouldn’t sell.” Quiet, and the one to watch for, because they may pull the listing without telling you.
Zillow’s chief economist notes rates could fall as fast as they rose. The open question is whether buyers and sellers would still sit out until spring.
The takeaway:
Don’t wait for your seller to bring up spring. Ask first:
“Rates are around 7.5% and pending sales are down. Before we decide anything, let’s look at what’s actually closing and at what price, so we choose based on your options and not the headlines.”
Live webinar: The Ultimate Listing Presentation
On Thursday, October 29, from 12 to 2 p.m. ET, we’ll walk through how to build a listing presentation that wins the appointment.
You’ll also get the first look at our new AI listing presentation builder.
Bring your questions. We’ll answer them live.
Can’t make it? Register anyway and we’ll send the replay.
Thanks for reading the entire newsletter.
See you next week,
- Chris Smith and Jimmy Mackin
