Making your own property video tour is an awful lot easier than you think, all you need is a digital video camera and an ADSL connection to your computer. If you dont have these then we can shoot the video tour for you.

When you create your video, try to keep the total running time to no more than five minutes or so - we will then edit the film down to approximately two minutes, add fade ins, fade outs etc for you. Additionally we will add (if you wish) a sound track - we have found that music is far more effective than narration.

To help you make your video tour we have put together some simple guidelines:

1. Plan ahead. Consider what are the best and most visually appealing features, what to include, and what to leave out. Think about how to highlight selling points in a movie: lighting, perspective, and where you should set the camcorder and tripod to pan the scene.

2. Remember less is more. Video tours should run for no more than five minutes; two minutes when completed - all you need to do is film about five minutes and send your video to us, we will edit for you if you at no additional cost.

3. Use storyboards. We recommend using story boards to plan out each segment of your video before you start shooting. Prioritise which features you want to include, the amount of time to devote to each. Also factor in time for transitions from scene to scene. Plan for the beginning and ending sequences or overlays with graphics that detail the property location, reference numbers etc that we will have to add in.

4. Shoot now, cut later. Shoot each scene at least twice to make sure you have usable clips. A tripod is a must. Pan and zoom slowly to convey motion. Anticipate potential lighting problems and if necessary bring in external lights.

5. Edit. If you planned well, the actual editing process shouldn’t be that difficult — that is, once you’ve explored and mastered the features of the editing software. Most editing software is user-friendly and easy to get a hang of the basics after a bit of practice. If you use Windows XP with Service Pack 2, Windows Movie Maker is already installed on your computer and is very easy to use. But dont worry too much, we will edit your video for you.

6. Upload your video to us for final finishing and publication. This can be done at the same time as you register your property online, at a later stage as an add-on, or we can shoot the video for you at the same time as a property listing visit.