Legal firm brings a touch of movie magic to selling houses

Published on Friday 27 August 2010 21:33

YOU don't just need a glossy brochure and a nice line in patter to sell your des res in Scotland any longer. What you really need is a film director to shoot a movie of the property, with soundtrack, that you can put on Facebook.

As the housing market stutters amid fears of a double-dip recession, one legal firm is offering clients the opportunity to capture their home on film to entice prospective buyers.

Russel & Aitken has teamed up with a professional director to create one-minute movies of properties for sale.

The service, which costs about 250, is thought to be a first for Scottish vendors and employs the same digital filming technology used by Star Wars director George Lucas and to shoot US television drama House. The firm hopes the movies, which are filmed by Shoot Home, will boost house sales by creating a "viral" demand for properties, with the clips compatible with internet enabled phones and clients able to post the clips on Facebook to generate interest.

The popular ESPC website has now had to change its technical layout to allow the inclusion of an additional "video" button that takes buyers to an external site on which they can view a movie clip.

Scotland on Sunday understands two other Edinburgh firms are considering offering the service, and Dianne Paterson, residential property partner at Russel & Aitken said she hoped it would become the norm in Scottish residential sales.

"We don't want this to be exclusive to us, we want to roll it out to other solicitors in Scotland," she said.

"With social networking, it is all about what you can pass on to your friends and these videos can be posted on Facebook, and talked about on Twitter."

Tony Perriam, of estate agent Retties, said: "It sounds like a useful arrow in the quiver."

Joyce O'Hara, 56, commissioned a one-minute clip to help sell her flat in Greenbank, Edinburgh, and is enthusiastic about the technology: "If you have a well-presented property, the more likely people are going to want to see it."