Fly-by viewing
Drone videos take real-estate listings to new heights,
When Toronto lawyer Don Roger put his Port Hope home up for sale this spring, he suddenly saw the historic homestead where he’s lived for 20 years from a completely different perspective.
That’s because his agent is among the growing ranks of realtors turning to drone technology to take real estate marketing to a whole other level: sky-high.
“I’d never seen the top of my roof or how the gardens look all laid out — and we have some big gardens,” Roger said. “It added a little bit of zest” to the listing.
And zest is what it’s all about in the Internet age, where potential buyers can click and tour from a continent away and will know within a few super high-definition seconds if it’s a home worth a second glance.
“I’ve had many homes sold to worldwide investors after just looking at the video or having the wife look at the video from afar and say, ‘That’s fine.’ And we’re talking multimillion-dollar homes,” said real estate photographer and videographer Robert Holowka, owner of 4-year-old Birdhouse Media.
In Roger’s case, that’s been particularly helpful, given that his landmark home, the 1829 Penryn Homestead in Port Hope, has a coach house and studio, a hectare of lush land, is surrounded by the Port Hope Golf & Country Club and isn’t far from Lake Ontario.
It’s also listed for $1.5 million, making it a much tougher sell in that market.
“He’s got the right house and the right lot — he’s got his own private park there,” said listing agent Tony Pulla.
“At the end of the day, you still have to meet with people eyeball-to-eyeball to do a deal,” Pulla said. “But with the Internet you just don’t know where a client is coming from any more, so at least we can bring as much of the property as possible to them.”
Condo marketing firm Buzzbuzzhome.com used a drone briefly to chronicle how specific projects were coming along and the views from soon-to-be-built floors, but stopped in the wake of stringent Transport Canada rules around drone use for commercial purposes that are now under review.
Veteran Oakville realtor Dan Cooper recently hired DroneHub Media to show off higher-end properties, including his own Muskoka cottage (list price $7 million) with what’s really more a lifestyle flick.
“It’s got to be an outstanding property to justify it,” Cooper said. “You don’t just take a little subdivision home and send up a drone.”
Bailey Roubos co-founded DroneHub Media with his brother Blake just last June. They have three drones, worth about $4,000 each, and have already been enlisted to do aerial videos — that can cost $500 to $1,000 to produce — of some 25 properties.
“Video is worth a thousand pictures. Our productions tend to show off the property better than how it actually looks,” because of super high-definition 4K technology now common on even lower-cost drones, Roubos said.
“Everything has moved to online marketing with real estate. If you’re not doing this, you’re already behind. It’s a matter of what’s going to stand out when people are looking for a home online.”
Buzzbuzzhome.com sees huge potential for both marketing and site inspection with the $2,500 drone it bought two years ago to create online videos, like one of the now-completed 40-storey Peter Street Condominiums.
“If you’re a buyer living up in Barrie, you can see how your building is coming along or what the view will look like from your window,” said the site’s co-founder, Matthew Slutsky. The drone is now parked, awaiting approval to fly from Transport Canada.
The use of drones has taken off in such a big way as their costs have dropped dramatically the last few years, Transport Canada is in the middle of reviewing regulations that have been in place since 1996.
By the end of this year, the agency hopes to introduce new rules around the use of the fastest growing sector of so-called UAVs, or unmanned air vehicles, those that are 25 kg or smaller.
Right now, it can take about a month to get the special flight operation certificate needed from Transport Canada before anyone can fly a drone that weighs more than 25 kg for commercial purposes . The operator has to provide details of how and where the drone will be flown. They can face fines of $5,000 to $25,000 without those approvals.
“We didn’t get shut down, we got scared,” of possible fines, Slutsky said.
His company was using a drone to create online videos showing the progress of construction on some highrise condo towers and provide potential buyers with a sense of the area surrounding proposed projects. That’s where the rules become a little more grey.
“You don’t need permission, but you must meet the exemption requirements” for operating smaller drones, he said. That includes providing contact information, a description of how you plan to use it and the “geographical boundaries of operation.”