Guide
How to make a listing video: an 8-line script and a 10-clip shot list
A listing video is not a tour. It is one person telling one buyer why this house is worth a viewing. This guide gives you the script, the shot list and the edit, all of it filmable on a phone in under an hour at the property.
- The whole script
- 8 lines
- 5 to 10 seconds per room
- 10 clips
- The feed cut. The long tour is a different file
- 60 seconds
Say why the house will sell, not what the rooms are called
The standard listing video is a silent pan of every room with music over it. Buyers scroll past, because it looks like every other one.
The fix is a voice. Yours. Every house has two or three real reasons it will sell: the light, the school catchment, the price against the street. Name them out loud.
The kitchen is not a feature. What the kitchen lets a buyer do on a Saturday morning is a feature.
And say one honest line. The garden is small. The third bedroom is an office. One honest line buys belief for the other seven.
The script: eight lines, about sixty seconds
Write it before you film. Eight lines, each a sentence or two, read out loud in about a minute.
Read it to camera in one take. Stumble, keep going, say the line again. The edit removes the stumble, not you.
- Line 1, the hook: the price, the area, or the standout. [Price] in [area] with a south-facing garden.
- Lines 2 to 4, the three reasons it will sell. One line each.
- Line 5, the honest one. Name the compromise before a viewer names it.
- Line 6, the neighborhood. One specific: the school, the station, the Saturday market.
- Line 7, the buyer. Say who it suits: first home, growing family, downsizing.
- Line 8, the ask. Open house Saturday at 2. Send me a message for the address.
This is the whole editor
Highlight a phrase and a clip lands on those exact words. No timeline, no keyframes, no layers.
The shot list: one talking take, then ten clips of the house
Film the talking take first, before the room clips. Best room or the front of the house, phone vertical at chest height, facing a window.
Then walk the house and film ten clips, 5 to 10 seconds each. Hold the phone still, or move it slowly in one direction. One movement per clip.
Film toward the light, never against it. Open every curtain first. Turn on every lamp.
Get the two shots buyers always ask about: storage and the garden. Then one detail nobody else films: the original latch, the tiles, the view from the kitchen sink.
The order to film in
Talking take first. The room clips double as your b-roll.
Talking take
The 8 lines, one take
Wide of each room
Still, 5 to 10 seconds
The light
Windows, garden, brightest room
Storage and garden
The two buyers ask about
One detail
The shot nobody else films
The edit: each room appears on the words that name it
The rule that makes a listing video watchable: when you say the kitchen, the viewer sees the kitchen. Word and picture on the same beat.
Captions on, always. Most of the feed watches on mute. Words that are not on screen do not exist for those viewers.
Cut everything that is not one of the eight lines. The feed cut is sixty seconds or less. The long walkthrough belongs on the listing page or YouTube, as a different file.
You can build this in a phone editor over an evening. Or hand it to the AI route: Cutroom takes your talking take, up to 3 minutes, and returns it edited in about a minute. Highlight the sentence about the kitchen in the transcript and your kitchen clip lands on exactly those words. Move it if you disagree. Six caption styles, in the browser.
A finished 30-second video is about 110 credits: 100 credits for the batch, then 20 credits per finished minute to export. 3 finished videos are free in your first 7 days, with 600 credits and no card, with a Cutroom mark across the middle.
One take to a posted listing video
Your walkthrough clips become the b-roll.
Upload the take
Up to 3 minutes
Batch
100 credits: transcript, cut, b-roll
Swap in your rooms
On the words that name them
Export
20 credits per finished minute
Post
9:16 MP4, 1080x1920
Post it the day the listing goes live, then send it to people
The video is a listing tool, not a social post. Publish it the day the listing goes live, when the portal alerts fire and the first viewings get booked.
Send it, do not only post it. Reply to every inquiry with the video link. Put it in the follow-up message after every viewing.
Show it to your next seller. A listing presentation with last month's video in it answers the question every seller has: what will you do to sell my house.
When it sells, film the follow-up in one take: what it listed at, what happened, what you learned. That video keeps working long after this house is gone.
Questions people ask
- How long should a listing video be?
- Sixty seconds or less for the feed. Attention drops before the second minute, and the feed cut only has to earn a viewing request. The full walkthrough can run three to five minutes on the listing page or YouTube. Two files, two jobs.
- Do I need the seller's permission to film?
- Ask before you film, and film after staging. Skip family photos, documents and anything with a name on it. Most sellers say yes without hesitating. A marketed house is what they hired you for.
- Vertical or horizontal?
- Vertical for the feed: Reels, TikTok and Shorts all want 9:16. Horizontal for the MLS and YouTube tour. If you only film one, film vertical. That is where buyers scroll every day.
- Can I make a listing video without being on camera?
- You can voice the clips without showing your face, and a voice beats music alone. But an agent on camera is what makes the video yours instead of anyone's. If you will not appear, at least record the eight lines as narration.
- What if the house is ordinary?
- Sell the price, the street and the light. An ordinary house at the right price in a good school catchment is exactly what most buyers are searching for. The honest line matters most here: name the compromise, then name the trade.
- What does the AI edit cost?
- On Cutroom, about 110 credits for a finished 30-second video: 100 credits for the batch, 20 credits per finished minute to export. Basic is $39.99 a month for 2,500 credits, about 20 videos. The first 3 are free in your first 7 days and carry a Cutroom mark.
Eight lines, ten clips, one hour at the property. The method survives every listing. If the edit is the step that stops you, Cutroom hands it back finished in about a minute, and the first 3 videos are free.