Instagram Reels
Instagram is where your existing audience — past clients, local followers, other agents — sees the listing, and where sellers look you up. Reels reach beyond followers; the feed post mostly does not, so post the reel and let it appear in the feed too.
- 15–30 seconds. Completion matters; end before the viewer would have left.
- Cover frame: the exterior or the best room, not a title card. It is the thumbnail on your grid.
- Caption: price, beds and baths, neighbourhood, one sentence, then the address. Hashtags for the city and neighbourhood, a handful, not thirty.
- Tag the location. Local discovery on Instagram runs through the location page.
TikTok
TikTok distributes to people who have never heard of you, on the strength of the first few seconds. It is the platform where an unusual house travels furthest, and the one where a plain house travels least. Post the listings with something to look at; post every listing on Instagram.
- Lead with the feature, not the front door: the view, the kitchen, the pool.
- Text on screen in the first second — the price, or a question the video answers.
- Up to 30 seconds. The reveal-style cut works well: doorway, then the room opens.
- Reply to comments with the next room. Each reply is another post.
YouTube Shorts and YouTube
YouTube is the one platform where people search by address, street and neighbourhood, and where a video stays findable for years. Use Shorts for the vertical reel and the main channel for the wide walk-through, titled with the street and the city.
- Shorts: the same 15–30 second vertical cut. Title with the neighbourhood and the price.
- Main channel: the one-to-three-minute walk-through, wide, with a title card per room and the listing details in the description.
- Link the listing page in the description; it is the one platform where the link is clickable and lasts.
Mistakes agents make on social
- Posting the wide walk-through as a Reel. Cut a vertical version; the wide frame has room to crop.
- Opening on a title card or the agent. Open on the house.
- One video for all three platforms with no caption changes. The video can be the same; the caption and title should not.
- Posting once. Coming soon, just listed, open house and sold are four posts from the same clips.
- Music that fights the cuts. Pick the track first and cut to it, or cut first and pick a slower track.
Questions
Which platform should a real estate agent post video on first?
Instagram, because that is where your sellers and past clients are and where they check you out. Add YouTube for the searchable walk-through and TikTok for the listings with something unusual to show.
Do I need to be on camera?
No. Listing video with the house as the subject performs on its own; the on-camera posts are a separate thing you can add if you want to. Everything in this guide works from photos of the property.
How often should I post listing videos?
Every stage of every listing, which for most agents is a few times a week without making anything extra. Consistency beats volume; the platforms reward accounts that post regularly more than accounts that post a lot.
Read next
- Real Estate Video Marketing: A Practical Guide for Listing AgentsHow to use video to market a listing and yourself: which videos to make for each stage of a listing, where to post them, what to say in the caption, and how to make it routine rather than a project.
- How Long Should a Real Estate Listing Video Be?Recommended lengths for real estate video by use: 15–30 seconds for Reels, TikTok and Shorts, 30–60 seconds for the feed, and one to three minutes for the listing page or YouTube. With the reasoning behind each.
- 12 Real Estate Video Ideas You Can Make From PhotosTwelve listing video ideas for agents that need only the photos you already have: room reveals, feature spotlights, before-and-after staging, neighbourhood context, open-house teasers and more.