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Back in 2015, I wrote about drones giving commercial and residential real estate marketing a whole new perspective.

My friends at DreamDirt were showing buyers acres of Iowa property from the air, and I got to narrate some of those flying tours.

Great aerial views. I’m NOT doing the flying. Everybody wins.

In 2020, the same conversation took a turn because everything in 2020 took a turn because…2020!

Masks, distancing, and understandable concerns about letting strangers through the front door made property showings complicated.

Video and especially drone work offered agents the chance to introduce properties from a distance, and narration gave prospects a credible storyteller to guide them through what they were seeing.

Eleven years and all those discussions and recordings later, it occurred to me that I should really UPDATE my website’s Real Estate Voiceover & Video Narration page.

Consider your visit to the updated page an open house for your ears (and eyes). You don’t even have to take your shoes off.

The new demo includes clips from my work with DreamDirt, including footage from nationally recognized productions.

As you may recall (but then again, why would you?), in 2016, two videos I narrated earned first and second place in the National Auctioneers Association’s marketing competition for Best Auction Promotional Video.

Then, as now, a lot of good work goes into making those pictures and words work together, and I am always happy to have the speaking part.

I also updated the page with a beautifully videotaped and edited tour of a log cabin home on a 68-acre farm in Iowa. It gives you a chance to hear how my voice follows the video from the rooms inside to the land outside.

That’s what I enjoy about real estate narration: the story changes with every address.

A family home needs a welcoming introduction.

A commercial building needs clear information about the space and its features.

Acres of land need context—and sometimes a pause so viewers can appreciate just how far that view goes.

For agents, drone operators, and video producers, my job is to help those details come together in a natural, engaging way. You’ve put thought into the property and the pictures. I bring that same attention to the voice.

The updated page also answers practical questions about scripts, recording, and getting started. Your listing description and property specifications may already contain much of what a producer needs to shape the narration.

So, if you’ve followed this story from those early drone videos, welcome back. If you’re just discovering that I narrate residential and commercial property tours, welcome aboard.

Come hear what a property can sound like.

I’ll be the guy talking. You probably figured that out.

Tags: commentary, real estate, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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I would happily take a little less “unprecedented” right about now. How about you?

Masks. Social distancing. Trying to figure out where you can go, who can be there, and how far apart everybody needs to stand. Even the simplest things seem to require a planning meeting.

For my friends working in residential and commercial real estate, getting prospective buyers through a property has become one more complication in a year nobody ordered.

Sellers may be uncomfortable welcoming strangers into their homes. Buyers may be uncomfortable going inside. Touring an occupied commercial building brings its own concerns for the people working there.

But houses and buildings still need to be bought and sold. People still need somewhere to live. Businesses will hopefully still need a central place to work.

How do you introduce a property when getting everyone through the front door is so difficult?

My thoughts are simply that video has become more important than ever. And so has what people HEAR while they watch.

I have previously talked about how I am a big proponent of video as a sales tool for commercial real estate and residential real estate sales. I am all in on drones as possibly the best way to get the emotional and cognitive buy-in from prospects. A real estate video gives prospective buyers a chance to explore from a distance. Ground-level footage can take them through the rooms, while aerial drone footage introduces the property’s setting and surroundings.

But when someone watches that tour at home, the agent may not be there to explain what they’re seeing.

That’s where professional real estate narration can help. And yes, this IS what I do for a living, so I’m hardly an impartial observer. But my facts check out as true…especially through all this COVID crap.

A friendly voice can guide viewers through the property, connecting the pictures with details that matter. For a home, that might mean explaining the layout, pointing out a feature, or introducing the outdoor space. For a commercial building, it might mean describing access, available space, and how different parts of the property fit together.

You’re giving people a tour they can see AND understand.

Watch this video and tell me if this isn’t a pretty effective way—second to an in-person visit—to show a residential or commercial property (this video I narrated kinda shows both)::

I’ve enjoyed doing this work for years through audio’connell Voiceover Talent, including property videos for my friends at DreamDirt. In 2016, two videos I narrated earned first and second place in the National Auctioneers Association’s marketing competition for Best Auction Promotional Video. I was proud to contribute the narration to those productions.

The purpose today is much the same, even if the circumstances are very different: help people understand the property’s story.

The voice shouldn’t sound like someone shouting specifications across a parking lot. It should feel like a knowledgeable, welcoming guide, with enough room between the words to appreciate the view.

And getting a script started doesn’t require inventing the property all over again. Agents already have descriptions, specifications, and important features that can be shaped into conversational copy to follow the footage.

Will a narrated video replace every visit? No way….agents are the beginning, middle and end of every transaction.

People still buy from people. Period, full stop.

But right now, video tours give agents a badly needed tool, offer prospects a useful first look, and help them arrive with better questions when a visit is possible.

If you’re a residential or commercial real estate agent, video producer, or drone videographer putting together a property tour, I’d be glad to help give it a voice.

We’ve got enough distance between us right now. Let’s help buyers feel a little closer to the property.

Tags: commentary, real estate, video, video production, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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BUFFALO, NY, May 26, 2016 – – Two unique video productions, narrated by national voice talent Peter K. O’Connell, have been awarded 1st and 2nd place by the National Auctioneers Association, in partnership with USA Today. The annual National Auctioneers Association Marketing Competition awarded the top prizes to the O’Connell-narrated videos in the category of Best Auction Promotional Video from among scores of entries.

About National Auctioneers Association
Founded in 1949, the National Auctioneers Association (NAA) is the world’s largest professional association dedicated to auction professionals. Headquartered in Overland Park, Kan., the NAA represents the interests of thousands of auction professionals in the U.S., Canada and across the world.

About Peter K. O’Connell
America’s Friendly, Neighborhood Voiceover Talent, Peter K. O’Connell, has worked with a wide variety of companies from around the world in addition to these two videos awarded by the National Auctioneers Association. Some of Peter’s clients include General Electric, Kraft Foods, PBS Television Network, Shell Oil, Pitney Bowes, Western Union, Bacardi Rum, Highlights HIGH FIVE Magazine, Deloitte Canada, Rich Products, U.S. Army, Starz Cable Television Network, BlueCross BlueShield, SunSetter Awnings, Time Warner Cable, Harlequin Enterprises and Darien Lake Theme Park.

A multi-award winning voice talent who is often described as a natural born storyteller, Peter K. O’Connell’s voice-over productions have been heard globally in radio and TV commercials, medical narrations, television infomercials, political commercial voice-overs, TV network promos, e-learning narration projects (computer-based training, internet-based training and web-based training), PSA’s, message on-hold, as well as other video and media productions. Peter owns audio’connell Voiceover Talent, a division of O’Connell Communications, LLC and can be reached via audioconnell.com.
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Company Media Releases ON LINE:
http://www.audioconnell.com/media

Company Name Pronunciation:
au·dio·o’·con·nell (awe-de-oh-oh-kah-nel) or au·di-o’·con·nell (awe-de-oh-kah-nel)

Company Name Spelling:
Use lower case letters- audio’connell or audio’connell Voiceover Talent

Company Web:
http://www.audioconnell.com

Company Blog:
http://www.voxmarketising.com

O’Connell Voice-Over Resume:
http://www.audioconnell.com/clientuploads/pdf/OConnell_Peter_Voice_Over_Resume_151021.pdf

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A beautiful kitchen. A spacious office building. Acres of land stretching toward the horizon.

For my friends working in residential and commercial real estate, photography—and, increasingly, video—has become an important part of marketing properties online.

Working with a client in Iowa, I’ve been introduced to a very impressive new tool that I think will change the rules and help home and building sellers quite a lot.

My friends at DreamDirt have been using drones with video cameras in what appears to me—as a narrator rather than a real estate professional—to be an exciting new way to showcase properties.

DreamDirt specializes in auctions, including many farms with hundreds and even thousands of acres. Buildings on a property are important, but land for livestock and crops is equally vital. How do you tour all that and tell its unique story?

Sure, you can rent a plane and fly over with a video camera or a great still camera. That tells a story.

What I want to tell you, based on my work for them, is that drone video can tell a much more compelling property sales story.

I’ll give you one example: in Iowa, it should not surprise you to hear, it snows. This can make touring a 200-acre property on foot much less practical. But when you have a drone flying smoothly and effortlessly over the property, skimming past the hedges at what feels like a breathless speed, with everything clearly in focus, a buyer gets a much clearer view of the property.

And even smarter than using the drones is that DreamDirt brought me on to *NARRATE THE FLYING TOUR*.

I’m telling you…it’s very effective. Just watch this video:

In essence: here is what you’re seeing. Here are the important features. Here are the specs that tell the story WHILE YOU’RE FLYING AROUND looking at it. A friendly voice conversing with you, anticipating your questions, and helping the video show and tell you the answers.

For commercial real estate, it’s hard to imagine a more engaging way to tour a property from a distance—unless you were flying around in your own jet pack. That’s Jetsons territory, and we are not there…yet.

So what about residential real estate? Not a stretch for my mind’s eye.

I can imagine a drone approaching from outside, flying THROUGH THE front door, gently taking you into the rooms, up staircases, and out back to the yard or pool before rising to show the neighborhood. Potential buyers will eat that UP!!

Oh, and yes…a professional voice talent (again, I offer myself up for the job…aren’t I generous and selfless?) telling the house’s story in a friendly, custom way—with a script shaped from the specs the agent already has on their computer.

Bada bing, bada boom. Sold!

As drone footage finds its place in real estate marketing, I see an opportunity to bring aerial views, ground-level footage, and professional narration together into a more complete property story, whether residential or commercial.

If you’re planning a residential or commercial property video, consider the voice while you’re planning the visuals. Your listing description provides a useful starting point.

Give buyers a great view—and a voice (mine, me, this guy…ahem) to guide them through it.

Tags: commentary, real estate, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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