Ep. 4 Can Great Photos Change How Buyers See a Home?

Great listing photos can make or break a sale—and Matt Greco knows why. Scott & Colin sit down with Matt to explore how he built his real estate media business, what separates good visuals from great ones, and why small details matter. They cover Matt’s early pivot into photography, the realities of shooting challenging homes, and how the industry is and isn't changing. Matt also shares straightforward advice on marketing, social media, and helping a property stand out. It’s a fast, engaging conversation about the work behind the images buyers trust, and you will walk away having learned something valuable.

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Creators and Guests

Host

Colin Cuthbert

Father. Husband. Friend. Real Estate Professional.

Host

Scott Dempster

Scott Dempster is a Vancouver REALTOR® who offers tailored services to exceptional clients.

Guest

Matthew Greco

Founder, VP Visuals

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Final Ep 4 Matt Greco
[00:00:00] Matt Greco: If your child was learning the walk, they failed three or four times. Would you just tell 'em to stop walking? No. You get up, and you keep going.
[00:00:07] Scott Dempster: Everyone's got a real estate story. Some are wins and some are total nightmares. We are here to give you the keys to what's really going on in Vancouver Real estate from what it actually takes to become a real estate agent to what it really costs to build a home and all the stories in between. This is the real estate of things where nothing is off the table, and everything is negotiable.
[00:00:31] Uh, all right. Our guest today joining me and Colin, our guest today is Matt Greco, who is our real estate photographer, videographer, shorts, reels, everything in between, and owner of VP Visuals and, uh, we've known Matt I guess for, going on, How long you think?
[00:00:48] Five, six years, I guess.
[00:00:50] Something like that.
[00:00:51] Matt Greco: Something like that. I started in 2020.
[00:00:53] What were you doing before?
[00:00:54] Ironically, I put a cable in the ground for Rogers, so I was slugging it out all day in the summer and in the winter times I would, uh, take the time off when the ground froze in Ontario?
[00:01:04] Yeah,
[00:01:04] I'd come out to Vancouver Whistler. That's what got me out here. Yeah.
[00:01:08] Scott Dempster: So, doing what you did and doing what you do now, how, how did that come to be?
[00:01:12] Matt Greco: Well, if you want to see how I, I got into the cameras and just that lifestyle of just like video and photography, when I was in the middle of coming back and forth when I was doing the, the time and the skiing in BC. My brother got me a GoPro and then I just got obsessed with it. I was making videos all these times, like walking around, just like me out in the bush, like doing nothing.
[00:01:35] But I got addicted to, uh, video editing. And then when I went back to work and started putting cable on the ground, I would just always like watch YouTube videos and just obsess with just like videography.
[00:01:45] Okay.
[00:01:46] In general, it didn't even start with photos. And then maybe two years after that, I bought an actual camera that was like a nice, beginner camera that I had. But, uh, I just got obsessed with it. And then I, I just hit a point probably when I was 27, where I was like, you know what? Like life is too short to not do what, like I love doing, I was like scared just to move forward, just like I'm gonna go full time with videography and photography. It was weird. I was like 27. Everyone around me was just in construction and all that. And I was like, you know what, I'm gonna do this. And everyone just looked at me like I was trying to be a movie actor.
[00:02:20] Really?
[00:02:21] Yeah. That's what no one, no one really like believes in you. That's what I felt like my, my parents were fantastic, my family. But my friend group, they were just like, what? What are you talking about? Like, I would be like, I'm, I'm editing tonight. Like that's all I'm doing. I'm staying in, I'm just gonna make videos.
[00:02:36] Colin Cuthbert: Were you the only artist.
[00:02:37] Yeah.
[00:02:37] Outta your friends?
[00:02:38] Matt Greco: Yeah.
[00:02:39] Okay.
[00:02:39] Yeah, pretty much. I decided to come out here to pursue that, to specifically pursue making film and video work my, uh, my life. And I ended up partnering up with a guy I met in Squamish. His name was Will, he was 22, lived in a van. Man, he was such a good artist. He had a red camera, he had a whole portfolio and all that, and a website. So, we teamed up, I was helping him market it and then landing bigger contracts and that's when I got into it.
[00:03:08] Scott Dempster: And that was with real estate photography?
[00:03:10] Matt Greco: No, that was just like with, uh, brands, small brands and businesses. So, we landed like four or five clients at that time. We did a About me video for a veterinarian. We had one guy on a contract for YouTube videos on van Conversion company.
[00:03:24] Scott Dempster: Oh, okay.
[00:03:25] Matt Greco: Um, stuff like that.
[00:03:26] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:03:27] Matt Greco: We did a plastic surgery place that was more like real estate 'cause we were just showing off all the tools and like their new showroom and stuff like that.
[00:03:34] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:03:34] Matt Greco: And then COVID hit, so we lost all those contracts, and I was trying to figure out what to do around that time. At that time, like real estate was rocking and rolling still. It was still open, and all their other contracts were closed. So, I was like, I'm gonna take a swing at this. And I just fell in love with it.
[00:03:50] Colin Cuthbert: What made you stick with real estate? Because it sounds like a SWOT analysis got you into it, but being such an artist, what made real estate stick and make that your main thing?
[00:04:01] Matt Greco: It, it was mostly that like once you land a client, you have a client and, and it's more physical, shooting and editing. Then, you know, outreach, shoot the kill.
[00:04:12] 'cause the other stuff was mostly shoot the kill, like 90, like 75% of it was meeting with brands. Or meeting with companies, what's your vision? What's your goal? Like, what ads do you want to run? Campaigning, you know, relationships and like this business as well. But like that one, like in real estate, it was mostly just shooting.
[00:04:29] And at first, I didn't even do photos. I'm video only, like I just do videos and everyone's like, well, I just need photos. I had to learn quickly how to take real estate photos. What I love most about real estate is one that it's not shoot the kill. The people that I meet are really like nice and day to day, right?
[00:04:45] If it's your clients or just my own clients, like, you know, realtors are very sociable humans. It's very easy and I am too, right? Like I, I love going out and just like talking to people.
[00:04:55] Colin Cuthbert: I played with a little bit of editing 'cause I'm a geek. I like, the technology and stuff like that and very quickly realized how insanely time consuming and how meticulous you have to be, and it is equal parts art and science. What would you say would be one of the things that people most underappreciate about editing and a video?
[00:05:20] Matt Greco: It would, it would probably be how complex things can be, especially longer videos. I like, like wedding videos. I remember I did one, I spent 40 hours on editing it. It was my first one. That's a full week of work. But you know, I, I recorded all the speeches. I recorded the whole ceremony. I had probably four, like two cameras. I had four hours of footage at the end of the day, and then I had to make a video. I made like a 12-minute video of that, and then I made one for the vows and then one for like each person that went up and spoke.
[00:05:47] But yeah, I spent like 40 hours on it. It's just how like complex it is when you have a lot of footage and then just putting it together. And then probably sound design. I feel like sound design's under looked like greatly. Like a really good video always has a really good sound design. Like when you watch movies in the theaters or anything that are good ads.
[00:06:04] Yeah, it's like, it's, it, it, they sync up really nicely. I feel like that's overlooked.
[00:06:08] Colin Cuthbert: That part is overlooked in my opinion. Like the timing of transitions between photos and how the beats of the song hit.
[00:06:15] Matt Greco: Yeah, but that's easy. You see the beat; you just cut right to it. But it's just getting the pieces together and then making a story like its storytelling. Even though like we're shooting homes, like it's still storytelling.
[00:06:26] Scott Dempster: What was your first place you shot? How'd you get it? How'd you, how'd you start up? What'd you do?
[00:06:30] Matt Greco: So that's a, that's, that's a very big common question for people that are starting and it's a how do you, how do you start? And, and what I did was like, you know, when you're beginning, it doesn't matter what camera you have, I appreciated it more that I had, uh, a 6,500, which would've been like a $900 camera at the time, and like a really crappy lens.
[00:06:48] But I learned that camera through and through in the settings and how far I could push it. And then even this one here. It's like a mid-range. Yeah. Lucille right here, right? Like, it's not like the higher end ones. It's a really good photo camera. But like I, I just got my basics down and I see a lot of people jumping in and just grabbing the best that you get and then they not knowing what they're doing. So that was like one thing. I just had like bare minimum gear. I had like a DGI mini one, like old.
[00:07:13] Scott Dempster: That's a drone. Yeah.
[00:07:14] Matt Greco: Yeah. And I, I just reached out to everyone email calling.
[00:07:18] Scott Dempster: Agents?
[00:07:18] Matt Greco: Texting. Yeah.
[00:07:19] Scott Dempster: Okay.
[00:07:19] Matt Greco: I'll do free video. I'll do a free video. LinkedIn is where I got my, uh, very first job. My first two jobs was, uh, Elaine Andrews, and I still have her today.
[00:07:27] Scott Dempster: Okay, nice.
[00:07:28] Matt Greco: Another one was a developer, Vic, and I still have him today.
[00:07:32] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:07:32] Matt Greco: And then after that would've been Theo Birkner. I went up to Squamish. I drove all the way up to Squamish and shot a house that they had, and all three of those I still have today. And then I've learned that you can't really give out majorly discounted work to get work 'cause you attract the wrong people and, and they consume a lot of your time.
[00:07:50] Scott Dempster: You know, it's, it's cool to hear that how you got your start, because it's very similar to realtors. Like I know when I first started out, when Colin first started out, day one on the job, you know, they gotta put a certain level of trust in you. Right. And they know you're brand new, they know I'm brand new or Colin.
[00:08:05] But I think that goes to say about your individual character and how you carry yourself and being confident and you know you're gonna do it and you have done it. Right. Yeah. It's, it's, it's a gamble for sure. Right?
[00:08:15] Matt Greco: Yeah.
[00:08:15] Scott Dempster: You know, it's just part of it.
[00:08:17] Matt Greco: When I first started, 'cause. Who I was living with at the time, they were very COVID cautious, and they didn't want me leaving the house to film anything. Right? So, I ended up moving out on my own and I moved into a garage behind one of these like character homes that got converted.
[00:08:33] Colin Cuthbert: Okay.
[00:08:33] Matt Greco: To like a studio, but it wasn't really converted into a studio like where the garage door was. It was just drywalled and there's a window. And I had concrete floors.
[00:08:42] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:08:42] Matt Greco: And uh, there was a toilet in there, but there was no kitchen. There was no shower, nothing like that. I had a hot plate, right.
[00:08:48] Colin Cuthbert: Was a prison cell with a hot plate.
[00:08:49] Matt Greco: Oh yeah?
[00:08:50] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah.
[00:08:50] Scott Dempster: Where was it? Like east?
[00:08:51] Matt Greco: This was East van.
[00:08:52] Scott Dempster: East Van.
[00:08:52] Colin Cuthbert: Of course it was East Van.
[00:08:53] Matt Greco: Yeah, it was Eden. Eden Street. I love Eden Street. That street in Vancouver. It was Eden Street. And how much were you paying for rent there? It was $600.
[00:09:01] Scott Dempster: Okay.
[00:09:01] Matt Greco: Everything included.
[00:09:03] Scott Dempster: What's everything? The toilet,
[00:09:05] Matt Greco: uh, the no, the internet, the hydro, the water. Right. Um, I was fortunate enough to be able to go into the main house and have my showers and then clean my dishes.
[00:09:16] Colin Cuthbert: Pretty fortunate.
[00:09:17] Matt Greco: I, uh, yeah, I was pretty fortunate and, and that's how I started, like, I was just like pure resilience. Like I, I, I lived very frugally like for a long time.
[00:09:27] Scott Dempster: Mm-hmm.
[00:09:28] Matt Greco: Um, while I started and I just reinvested everything back into my equipment and my time and I, I just obsessed with it. Like, I missed the garage days. Like life was very simple then.
[00:09:37] Colin Cuthbert: Mm-hmm.
[00:09:38] Matt Greco: Yeah. I, I really appreciate that time and just like the drive that I had, but also when I first started, I didn't think that I'd be so emotionally attached to how good my art is.
[00:09:47] Colin Cuthbert: Mm-hmm.
[00:09:47] Matt Greco: And like when I made mistakes, I would have like days where I just beat myself up.
[00:09:51] Scott Dempster: Mm-hmm.
[00:09:52] Matt Greco: Right? Or like, I would look back at a video I made like two months ago and I'd be like, ah, I suck, right. Why do I suck? Right. Or like, what's going on here? But it, it. It was like a double-edged sword. Like it, emotionally, it was a, a rollercoaster. And eventually once you're like shooting for a bit after like two years, three years, you get this big confidence.
[00:10:11] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:10:11] Matt Greco: I, I don't make mistakes anymore. Like where you have to go through those feelings to get to where you're going.
[00:10:16] Colin Cuthbert: Well, they're called lessons, right?
[00:10:17] Matt Greco: Yeah. But it was, it's more art too, right? And just being hard on yourself. Like, I've talked to painters like, and they say the same thing. They're like, I hate my own work. Right. But eventually if you just keep going at it, putting eight hours in, you'll create something that you really like and then you'll appreciate it even more. 'Cause you know what it took to get there. But like also, I appreciate the garage. I miss the garage. All great companies come from a garage. Yeah, right.
[00:10:41] Look at the legends. Amazon.
[00:10:44] Scott Dempster: That's true.
[00:10:44] Matt Greco: App. Microsoft Viewpoint Visuals, VP Visuals, right?
[00:10:48] Scott Dempster: Shameless plug.
[00:10:51] Matt Greco: No, they're all great companies.
[00:10:52] Colin Cuthbert: Well, Tom at Myspace.
[00:10:53] Matt Greco: Yeah.
[00:10:54] Scott Dempster: You get up and going, you know, a few agents put their trust in you and um. You got the business going and you know, reinvesting, like you said in in the equipment, things like that.
[00:11:04] How did you grow the business or how did you stand out, I guess, from competition? Because, you know, in real estate photography or photography in general, in some cases you're just a number. But, uh, how'd you stand out? How'd you grow the business?
[00:11:14] Matt Greco: I did it just like the old school way. Mm-hmm. Like I, I just put my best foot forward on everything that I, I did like any, any job or project, like.
[00:11:22] Same with video. I just always focus on like quality first and then service. Like a big thing that gets overlooked in our industry is like we're a service provider. Right, and you're showing up on someone's house on like a very stressful day. Like, I understand it, your dog knocked over something. Now there's a stain here.
[00:11:38] You think those flower's ugly, like you guys have been arguing all morning about what are, what goes where and what.
[00:11:43] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:11:43] Matt Greco: Right. Like, and it is a lot of money, right? Like you're, you come in and like you try to just ease the situation, right. And you, you read the room, obviously, but like, I think it's a combination of my personality, um, with just like me putting my best efforts forward at all times because like everything matters.
[00:12:00] Colin Cuthbert: What I love about you too is just that you are unabashedly just authentically you.
[00:12:05] Matt Greco: Yeah. There there's different versions of me, I'd say, but yeah, definitely.
[00:12:09] Colin Cuthbert: Oh, I mean, we, we have young clients with, you know, hilarious personalities. And then we have elderly clients, which sometimes you don't get to know if they have a really well-rounded sense of humor or not. And I have introduced you to some of those clients who now communicate directly with you and rebook you for stuff. And they love you. And my eyes are wide open going, oh my gosh, this person's 80 something years old, and I'm not sure, you know, Matt's gonna come in his man bun, his Tofino surfer bro self, which we just love.
[00:12:43] You know, you want to prep them or something. Say, hey, Matt's just an awesome jovial character, but I don't, and they always, always come back and they're like, Matt, he's the best. I love that guy.
[00:12:54] Matt Greco: Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. But like, I, I just understand the situation. It's a stressful day. There's no need to be stressed or freaking out.
[00:13:02] Like, we're here to make the, the situation as easy as possible and you get the best result that we can. Right. And like another thing too is just like, you know, you walk into spaces and like they're 90% there, right? It takes 10 more minutes just to get them a hundred percent. Like it is not that big of a deal.
[00:13:17] Like sometimes we have crazy days where I'm shooting five houses at once and then I show up and it's like, oh my God, this house is like tentative. Like, oh, you want to move some things. I'm like, ah. Majority of the time, my agents that I work with are great and the house is 90% of the way. And that it makes a huge difference when you're moving things and you get in that, like each room to like where it needs to be.
[00:13:37] To get more real estate agents and grow my business, it was just, I focused on quality and like I really focused on people that wanted to get on camera. It just spread. Yeah, like it was, it was mainly word of mouth like. If you look at my social media, like I haven't posted since like 2023, right? But like, you know, I'm picking up new clients here and there like all the time, but I'm, I'm busy.
[00:13:58] Colin Cuthbert: Right? They call you. We call you.
[00:14:00] Matt Greco: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Like I, it is just that, um, it, it was quality and then at the start it was, it was free work, but I realized really quickly that you can't do free work unless you, you get value out of it as well.
[00:14:13] Scott Dempster: With regards to the shoot days, and, and you and I have kind of, and, and Colin, we've had these discussions w with whether it's a condo or a big house or a little house or a town home or whatever it may be, what is your opinion on daytime versus nighttime and what's, you know, obviously the nighttime. Cost of it more. 'Cause you gotta get the light just right and there's only so much daylight as opposed to the nighttime when it happens. But what's your advice, I guess you could say to people or at the same time, what do you feel is a better product to put out there?
[00:14:45] Matt Greco: Me and you have discussed it. We have different views on it actually. So, for the people that are listening that don't know what he is talking about, it's called twilight. So, there's about, once the sun sets, there's 15 minutes later, the sky goes blue. It'll stay blue for about 45 minutes, depending on weather. And in Vancouver, when you start looking at high-end real estate across the world, somehow Vancouver's landed on this blue window for luxury.
[00:15:09] Scott Dempster: Okay?
[00:15:10] Matt Greco: And so, when you look at interiors in, let's say LA on the water or Melbourne or anywhere, that's very expensive. New York, right? They, they shoot all golden hour, right? They don't do interior photography when it's a blue hour. But Vancouver does. There's a few photographers that picked up on it in here, and then all agents jumped on it.
[00:15:29] Colin Cuthbert: You know why?
[00:15:30] Matt Greco: Why is that?
[00:15:31] Colin Cuthbert: Because if you see a grid of photos out there, people's eyes jump to the blue first.
[00:15:37] Matt Greco: a hundred percent. Any house twilight or uh, even golden hour exterior. are well worth it. And it's because your thumbnail is that beautiful photo that pops out from everything else and your click through rate, all of it, the analytics behind it, it draws people to,
[00:15:53] Scott Dempster: it kind of puts a highlight on it, especially on MLS and, and Paragon and things like that.
[00:15:58] Absolutely. Where it, it just sticks out more. Right?
[00:16:00] Colin Cuthbert: Everybody wants the postcard.
[00:16:01] Matt Greco: by far.
[00:16:02] Colin Cuthbert: So, rule of thumb, never questioned Matt. When he tells you when he wants to shoot it, there's science behind it.
[00:16:07] Scott Dempster: You know, some, some agents, you know, kind of gny on price and things like that. And you know, you would admit for sure you're not the cheapest guy or gal on the block by any means, but the quality is there that you know is why you charge what you charge, things like that.
[00:16:22] But in real estate, it's funny because what are, you know, an agent's kind of fixed costs, right? It's floor plans, its photos, its video, it's you know,
[00:16:31] Matt Greco: car payment,
[00:16:31] Scott Dempster: you know, it's, Hey, it's a car payment. Right?
[00:16:34] Matt Greco: It's those meals that you take out.
[00:16:35] Scott Dempster: Yeah, exactly. But it's, you know, all things considered in comparative to other industries like say construction, where. Labor is 40%. If materials 50%, you're left with 10. Why wouldn't you invest in something that you know truly broadcasts the product that you're here to sell in, in, in the biggest platform? That being photography, right?
[00:16:53] And, uh, it, it's kind of surprising that that is a reaction. And you know, the photos that we see sometimes on MLS is quite funny sometimes. The agents that we see that are taking photos on the iPhone on the 17 Pro or whatever the hell they have.
[00:17:10] Matt Greco: And, and then they go to their, their office and they say, oh, see, like you can't even tell that the iPhone 17 is so nice.
[00:17:16] Scott Dempster: But what's crazy to me, Matt, what's crazy to me is that their clients were okay with that.
[00:17:21] Matt Greco: I, I don't know if they know that. That's like, I always look at it too, and it's like, I don't know if they know the difference. Right. And they must 'cause they look online. Right? Right. You, you can compare apples to apples.
[00:17:31] Why does my house look like this versus that? But it, it blows me away too, that as an offering, as an agent, like real estate photos, you can find $150 guy, do a decent job. Right? Like, imagine if your clients found out that you're listing to a $2 million place and you didn't spend $150 on photos.
[00:17:48] Scott Dempster: Yeah, no, absolutely.
[00:17:49] And that's what I'm driving at. Yeah.
[00:17:51] Matt Greco: It it's crazy, you know, and like I start at $225 for a condo and then a detach house will probably be like $325, and it goes up by the square feet. Right,
[00:17:59] Scott Dempster: right.
[00:17:59] Matt Greco: But like, that's just like market value price for like the photo quality that you get there.
[00:18:04] Scott Dempster: Absolutely.
[00:18:04] Matt Greco: You can sell honey to bees, right?
[00:18:06] Like those agents, you, there's no change in them and convincing them not to. But yeah, I've seen it online like even this past week, unfortunately. Like I, I saw something. It's a very expensive place. Area land value 2022 markets hot as hell. This agent just took a Google photo and then a Google satellite photo of the place listed at four or five, and then it didn't sell.
[00:18:29] Hmm, when, and, and the person that I was with said, at this time, it should have at that price, and it would've been very easy. Now they're a million dollars less today, right? And, and here we are finally someone that's taken photos of the place.
[00:18:41] Scott Dempster: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:18:43] Colin Cuthbert: We've kind of moved past a market where the, the real estate transactions were almost like commodities. And it's an emotional purchase now. You have to get people emotional.
[00:18:53] Matt Greco: I get 'em excited.
[00:18:54] Scott Dempster: Yeah, exactly. And the photography's, like you say, it's the biggest thing. And then there's the's video and there's reels.
[00:18:59] Matt Greco: I, it, it is. It's a combination.
[00:19:01] Scott Dempster: It's a combination.
[00:19:02] Matt Greco: And prices always Trump everything. Right.
[00:19:05] Scott Dempster: Totally. Yeah,
[00:19:06] Matt Greco: price and just like overall demand. Like it's just a basic economics thing, right? You, you, you take really bad photos, but the price is right. People will come.
[00:19:14] Scott Dempster: That's true.
[00:19:15] Matt Greco: Um, but did you get as many people, did you get in front of all of 'em, right? Yeah. That's the thing. That's the difference between like decent photography or just your iPhone.
[00:19:24] Colin Cuthbert: Doing it and doing it well.
[00:19:26] Matt Greco: That's what you want. You want as many eyes and many people in there all at once.
[00:19:29] Scott Dempster: talking about drones. What, um, just kind of open-ended question with it, but where do you see the importance of drone photography in detached, you know, freestanding home sales listings, things like that marketing.
[00:19:43] Matt Greco: Mostly for video. It, it, it's just a, another layer that adds onto it. Or just even overall just like feeling of just how the video is and the storytelling is the drawn photos as well. It really shows the property from like a different angle, especially if you have pools in the backyard or anything like that, but like lot value size.
[00:20:03] You know your house is from 1920 or something like that, right? You like a majority of it's like the land. Your land's 1.3, your house is 200. You get a good perspective how big that lot is, where the trees are on it, all that stuff instead of the ground. A lot of properties like they, especially with the trees, it's tough to shoot some places from the front, from the ground.
[00:20:24] You don't get an aspect of how big the lot is until you put something up in the air. You can physically see it. And then then location, right? It's, it's hard if you don't have little animations of like, here's the house, and then there's the highway, there's the rec center, there's, you know, Grouse Mountain 15 minutes away, but you, you get the perspective of what location you're in.
[00:20:45] Scott Dempster: So, you're getting in your car and you're going to 1, 2, 3, 4. Smith Street for a shoot, right? Yeah. And it's at one o'clock and you're in your car and it's quarter to one kind of thing, right. Are you thinking to yourself, is this home gonna be ready to shoot? Or what am I walking into? And, and, and how often, how often is it a shit show and how often do you like, oh, big sigh of relief and the front door opens and it's like the candles are lit and everything's perfectly, what's the odds on shit show to perfection?
[00:21:13] Matt Greco: You know what? I am fortunate enough where i've hit the point in my career in business where the people I work with are very good agents. Right? Like they, they've prepped the house, right? Like, like, you guys don't mess around. Your houses are always staged, right? Yeah. But like, you know, you do give me a heads up when it's, yeah, hey look, it's a tentative property.
[00:21:34] Hey, look like this is subject to sale. They found out two days ago that we need to put this online.
[00:21:40] Scott Dempster: Yeah, totally.
[00:21:41] Matt Greco: There's, there's circumstances. And, and you have to just totally understand that, like going into it. And a lot of it sometimes is like right at the front door. Oh, hey, by the way, it's a tenant property.
[00:21:52] And I haven't, uh, I, I haven't, I haven't even made contact with him yet or seen it. That happens a lot, ironically. Yeah. And it's just like it is what it is, right? Like it's a tenant property. I could ask if I can move a few things, but it depends on how those people are. Each tenant is different, and I understand the situation.
[00:22:09] Scott Dempster: Totally.
[00:22:10] Matt Greco: Yeah. I like it. It, they're gonna get re-homed or hopefully someone buys it and they're still there.
[00:22:15] Scott Dempster: Have you ever had a, a tenant says, you're not coming in to shoot this or anything like that? Like mean
[00:22:20] Matt Greco: it happened last week.
[00:22:21] Scott Dempster: Really?
[00:22:21] Matt Greco: Yes.
[00:22:22] Scott Dempster: Okay.
[00:22:22] Matt Greco: I don't argue or anything like that is No, no. Your position. The agent did and, uh, we were able to shoot it, but it was, they don't want the furniture or their art.
[00:22:31] Art was everywhere, blur out every single thing. And then she wanted to do a video as well, and it was, it was challenging just to get something together.
[00:22:40] Scott Dempster: and awkward. Right.
[00:22:41] Colin Cuthbert: Sounds like a lot of editing.
[00:22:43] Matt Greco: It was. It was just like the wides inside the place. I, I couldn't actually, uh, like get, like the living room or anything.
[00:22:51] I, I got one wide of the bathroom, one wide of like one bedroom.
[00:22:55] Scott Dempster: When you say wide, like a wide lens.
[00:22:56] Matt Greco: shed Wide. Yeah, a wide shot. He is like, I could do a detailed shot of a fireplace in the living room. There's no art, but then it's like you're talking about a living room here. Like I ended up using some photos.
[00:23:06] Just do a little like quick slideshow through those little parts. But it was mostly, uh, location that we were like focusing on that one. It happens once in the blue moon. It's funny when you show up and these people clearly just don't have a good relationship with their landlord. And they're like, yeah, no, don't touch anything.
[00:23:23] And you look at the kitchen and there's just like, I don't know, like pots, pans everywhere and yeah, like there's chicken that's out. I've seen it. Right. And there's rat traps on the ground. There's no rats.
[00:23:34] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:23:34] Matt Greco: Yeah. And I've had that.
[00:23:36] Scott Dempster: Oh, like they've almost, yeah. This quote unquote staged it.
[00:23:39] Matt Greco: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:23:39] Yeah.
[00:23:40] Scott Dempster: Oh, okay. Yeah.
[00:23:41] Okay. Okay.
[00:23:42] Colin Cuthbert: I've had that before where a tenant protested the listing. And I get it. You're being displaced and everything like that. It's not us. You know, the, the owner really wants this process to happen. Yeah. But I had one tenant who protested, went down to the storage locker, grabbed the entire contents of the storage locker and dumped them out in the family room and left weeks of dishes out on the thing like you, we couldn't. We to Photoshop everything,
[00:24:10] Scott Dempster: you know, Colin and I and, and, um, the team, like whenever we go and sell a tenant property, it's, it's definitely a kill 'em with kindness as much as you can scenario. Right.
[00:24:20] Matt Greco: And its communication and, and realtors are listener right now. You, you should meet with them beforehand.
[00:24:27] Yeah. Before, before show up. It shouldn't be like, hey, we're here to shoot your house. No, you, you should go through the tenancy agreement and tell 'em what their rights are. Right, and, and a timeline on what's going to happen here. Uh, you know, if they need to be paid out or signed a, like a tendency to end an agreement, I believe it's called.
[00:24:44] But those things, like I have a few agents that swear by it, and it makes a huge difference when you show up. They give 'em a little checklist like, hey, look, look, we would appreciate, like if, you know, all the bonds were up and the beds were made, and like all the dishes were away. Like, just very simple,
[00:24:58] Scott Dempster: simple planning and preparation.
[00:25:00] You know, we have rules and I with, you know, agency and things like that. Like we can't say you're shooting a property and it's right by a bunch of, uh, huge power lines and things like that. We can't ask you to, oh, Matt, can you just Photoshop that out and take the power lines out and things like that. Do you get asked that a lot?
[00:25:19] Matt Greco: You can't misrepresent the priority, right? That's it. Like, that's all it is, right? Like, and that's, I had a guy. Just the other day, it was a Richmond house. It was probably like two eight. It was a really beautiful home. They had like these big stones, they were like one foot by one foot on the outside of the house.
[00:25:34] Okay. But they were like brown, but they looked like some were just discolor colored, like they're all.
[00:25:39] Scott Dempster: like from one stone to another kind of thing.
[00:25:40] Matt Greco: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's like, oh, it bugs me. He's like, can we just Photoshop it all to be one color? And I was like, look like, that's misrepresenting the property.
[00:25:47] I was like, we have to shoot it to what the eye is. He is like, no, no. If it rains, they're all wet. They're all in color. I'm like, yeah, that's a good argument. Right, but you,
[00:25:56] Colin Cuthbert: is he out there with the garden host spraying down the house?
[00:25:58] Matt Greco: No, he definitely wasn't. But he, he pushed it and I was just like, look like you could talk to the agent and see how you want to represent the property. Like we could do anything.
[00:26:06] Colin Cuthbert: Oh, this the owner of the house,
[00:26:09] Matt Greco: it was the owner of the house. It wasn't the agent. Oh, wow. Yeah. And uh, it, it happens all the time and not, not a lot of power lines. Uh, when I was first starting, it was a lot of people in West Van, they were like, can you Photoshop out the power lines for the view?
[00:26:20] And I was like, uh, yeah. Okay. And then I learned, I was like, before, like this was like, when I was first starting, I was like. Oh yeah. No, you can't do that.
[00:26:27] Scott Dempster: Even if you could do that. Yeah. Even if we were allowed to have our photographer, you do that. Yeah. So, what's gonna happen? You're gonna Photoshop this gigantic power line or a series of power lines out of the view over, you know, Barard Inlet or whatever it might be.
[00:26:45] And then I'm gonna call my clients, say we have a showing at five 30 on Friday night. Then I gotta leave my house at five o'clock or 4 45. I'm gonna get there. I'm gonna, I'm gonna set the house up and I'm taking the longest route around to my conclusion here and making it more dramatic. Mm-hmm.
[00:27:00] Matt Greco: Build it up.
[00:27:00] Scott Dempster: Then our clients at the house, they're gonna leave, they're gonna go out for an hour. They've probably worked for 45 minutes to get the house ready. Then the showing starts at five 30. The agent walks in, and the buyers walk in, and then I hear them over talking. They go, well, what are these power lines?
[00:27:15] This is a deal breaker, and we've wasted everyone's time. Right? So, if it's something that, you know, it's gonna cause an issue, it's, it's more important, you know, to have that discussion. You know, for us as agents. During the listing presentation to say, hey, your value could be X, but it's probably more like Y because you have a giant ass power line impeding your view.
[00:27:36] Right. So why even hide it?
[00:27:37] Matt Greco: I, I, I hate misrepresenting properties.
[00:27:40] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah.
[00:27:41] Matt Greco: And I love leaning into what the weaknesses and strengths are over the place. 'Cause it is the same like you just said. Like let's say that it's beside a school.
[00:27:50] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:27:50] Matt Greco: Oh great. You might hear the kids screaming and stuff, but you know what's nice?
[00:27:54] Is that it every day it's only gonna take you five minutes to walk your kid to school, and you get to experience that.
[00:27:59] Scott Dempster: Totally. Yeah. I remember we had, uh, a property just across the way here and, uh, I think it's four or five houses, you know, away in parallel to the, to the freeway. I mean, at the end of the day, speaking of North Vancouver specifically, anywhere you go, the highway is kind of sort of thing, right?
[00:28:16] Mm-hmm. I remember when you were shooting that one just over here, we were doing the drone photography and. It's like, yeah, don't hide the fact that it's next to the highway. 'Cause like I say, I go back to that same point and it's about qualifying buyers and buyers’ agents to say like, okay, like you've seen the photos, great.
[00:28:33] Obviously that's why you're calling me your clients like the listing. But you know, prep them and, and just pre-vet and have those questions and say, you know, look, it's near the highway but it's also near a massive park. It's in one of the best areas in North Vancouver. All these sorts of things, right? Just so that you're not wasting time.
[00:28:49] Matt Greco: For me, the, the misrepresentation and all that. Yeah. Virtual staging starting to come into play here. It's been in our industry now for probably about three years. It's gotten very popular between a lot of people. What, what's the rules along those lines with what you can and can't do at some point? Because I have a feeling that lawsuits are popping up in my
[00:29:07] Colin Cuthbert: Scott's looking at me.
[00:29:08] Scott Dempster: Oh, I think I know.
[00:29:10] Colin Cuthbert: Okay. I thought you were looking at me being like. You know the rules.
[00:29:14] Scott Dempster: Well, as I understand it, and this is, I would still always to big disclaimer here, double check. You can have virtual staging, but then your next photo, or you have to show the photo not virtually staged. So, you can create the facade or the, or the theory or the look. But then you have to be providing the raw, actual photo to accompany that stage photo.
[00:29:36] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah. I don't know if that's a rule or if that's just good practice.
[00:29:38] Scott Dempster: Okay.
[00:29:38] Colin Cuthbert: I think you need to disclose.
[00:29:41] Scott Dempster: It's a constant question, whether it's this industry or you know, whatever it is, artificial intelligence, ai, having the presence, right?
[00:29:48] Matt Greco: Oh shit, this podcast is gonna be number one.
[00:29:51] Scott Dempster: But it's like we get the question all the time. You know? Do you think you're gonna be replaced by ai? I find it hard to believe that real estate agents are gonna be replaced by ai. You know, every time you turn on the tv, this new iPhone 17 or 18 or 19 or 20 in Pro and it, it's showing the shit that these cameras do, which is quite amazing.
[00:30:11] Yeah. And, and it's quite fun and it's awesome to have for your, for your life and your kids and stuff like that. But do you kind of sit there and watch the same app ads and go, shit, five years this thing might be better than me?
[00:30:22] Matt Greco: No, because the, the camera sensor's too small. So, like, you'll, you'll enter rooms that are low light, like, uh, an iPhone. Specifically, like right now, the way that it's set up, it's just that the sensors are too small, so it doesn't, darker rooms, it doesn't pick up. Like it's not as sharp. It's not as nice. It's like, and maybe one day. Maybe one day.
[00:30:42] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah. Jim Cook, if you're hearing this, that's Matt talking, not Colin. I love the iPhone.
[00:30:46] Matt Greco: Yeah, but you go, go ahead and shoot a dark room. Go into the basement and then stand with the window behind you and then take a photo and see how it looks compared to a bright, sunny room with views. Right? Yeah. So, the iPhone's crazy because now when you do take a photo, it's using two lenses to put one photo in or other photo stacking, so you could see outside the window and inside at the same time.
[00:31:10] It's really good light, but uh, the sensors, there's only so much you could do when like, you know, the sensors, the tip of your finger.
[00:31:18] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:31:19] Matt Greco: You know what? I want to go back to the virtual staging thing because what's happening now in our industry, and it's been like this for a while, maybe like two, three years, there's programs that I could just upload a photo to and it's $5 or maybe a dollar a photo, no virtual stage of the room, but it's not good, but you, you can't do two angles at once.
[00:31:38] So let's say I have two photos of one living room. It'll put separate furniture in it, and it's been like that for like three, four years. Now, ChatGPT, you could, you could throw it in there. Or even, there's a new one called Nano banana.
[00:31:50] Colin Cuthbert: Nano banana,
[00:31:51] Matt Greco: yeah, yeah, yeah. Gemini, right? They're good, they're good.
[00:31:55] But what's happening is that it doesn't just furnish your room. It will change your walls. Your, it, it, it looks like the same walls, but it it's like a rendering now.
[00:32:05] Scott Dempster: Oh, okay.
[00:32:06] Matt Greco: Yeah. Right. It, it doesn't look,
[00:32:07] Scott Dempster: it's like a cartoon.
[00:32:08] Matt Greco: Yeah. And I've, I've seen some that go through ChatGPT and ChatGPT is not there yet.
[00:32:12] And it's like your, your house is a rendering, like that's not even the house.
[00:32:16] Scott Dempster: Yeah,
[00:32:17] Matt Greco: like what you fix, the grass, the, the, the messed-up gutter, you know, you fix the roof all in this one like photo. I'm like, what's like, whoa. Right. Yeah. Talk about misrepresented and it's just like, I, I could see huge issues in the future of this and it's because agents are cutting like it.
[00:32:32] It's one thing to virtually stage a room where you don't manipulate the room and you just plop in furniture.
[00:32:39] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:32:39] Matt Greco: That's, that's what I've always been doing. That's what I like. Right. But once you start changing the floors and you're, it, it, it's just like, what's going on? I got another case here because I just, I just shot this actually, and I, I want to get your opinion on it.
[00:32:53] 'cause I couldn't believe it because like when it comes to virtual staging and renderings, if you're doing presale, everything's rendering. Right?
[00:32:58] Scott Dempster: Yeah. But then what's built is not the exact same thing.
[00:33:01] Colin Cuthbert: Mm-hmm.
[00:33:01] Scott Dempster: Right. And, and I shot a, maybe like a, I think it was town home community, but they had called those too.
[00:33:07] The developer went into rescindance, I believe it's called. Were they.
[00:33:11] Colin Cuthbert: receivership?
[00:33:11] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:33:12] Matt Greco: There we go. I don't know who completed this project specifically. Maybe they did. I don't know. Maybe they got a loan. They, they had renderings of pools, gyms, all this, like amenities and stuff. And the people that already bought in, already paid and they didn't get any of that.
[00:33:25] Scott Dempster: really.
[00:33:26] Colin Cuthbert: They cut out the amenities.
[00:33:27] Matt Greco: Yeah, they cut out the amenities completely.
[00:33:29] Colin Cuthbert: Good night.
[00:33:31] Matt Greco: Yeah. So, it's just like, what happens then when it's not a built product? You get a rendering of, uh, a gym, a pool and all that stuff, and then what's built after you put your down payments on it?
[00:33:41] Scott Dempster: Well, I mean, two sides of it, right? What was in the fine print?
[00:33:45] Colin Cuthbert: Oof.
[00:33:46] Scott Dempster: Right. These are renderings. These don't, do not represent.
[00:33:49] Matt Greco: who's your realtor,
[00:33:50] Scott Dempster: right? Well, no, totally. No, it totally dude.
[00:33:52] Colin Cuthbert: legal advice. ILA.
[00:33:54] Scott Dempster: No, but totally you. You're both. You're both totally right. It's a realtor's job. Like read that fine print. Yeah, that pool looks great, but is it gonna happen? Right? But that's the fine print and um, you gotta read on that stuff too, right?
[00:34:08] Matt Greco: We're gonna have issues with this in the future.
[00:34:10] Scott Dempster: You think the furniture would look a lot better in virtual studio? It looks like it all came from the brick, like warehouse sale in the tent.
[00:34:19] Reels and, you know, videos and the importance of that within our industry. Like Colin and I know it and everything's, not everything, a large percentage of our marketing is through social media. More specifically Instagram. And I say Instagram because you know,
[00:34:33] Colin Cuthbert: We're so old that we don't TikTok.
[00:34:35] Scott Dempster: well nail on the head Colin, because what I'm seeing in Instagram is kind of the migration that we saw on Facebook, where all of a sudden you get a friend request from your dad or your mom, right. Where, um, the baby boomers have
[00:34:49] Matt Greco: figured it out,
[00:34:50] Scott Dempster: figured it out, and they're like, this is great. And they're getting their, you know,
[00:34:54] Matt Greco: their screen time,
[00:34:54] Scott Dempster: their screen time on it too. Right. And, and I think that's, 'cause like Colin says, the TikTok and uh, the other platforms that are out there, I don't know, I'm not, I'm no genius on the analytics, but it seems like it's for the younger demographics possibly. With Instagram, we're seeing good exposure. Uh, we get a lot of likes, we get a lot of follows, things like that. I'm the first to admit that I've never, you know, sold a home from Instagram. Right.
[00:35:18] Matt Greco: Oh, but you've bought one. No. You have, you told me through your story post.
[00:35:22] Scott Dempster: Yeah. Yeah. That's true. That's true.
[00:35:24] Matt Greco: You have, you have sold one through,
[00:35:26] Scott Dempster: but where do you see the importance on a, an agent being in front of the camera? Because I think it's a fine line you walk where, if your client then sees that if you're listing a home and they go, well, this's just, this is a video of Scott kind of in front of my house and that sort of thing, and you're featuring the house, but you're also featuring yourself. Much like how an open house is more so for the agent than it is for you know, the, the seller can be more convenient 'cause you can put more people through the house in a short amount of time. But do you see a pretty big importance and do you push that on a lot of agents that you shoot for to say, Hey, like, uh, you should be in front of the camera and this is where, where it's going?
[00:35:58] Matt Greco: There's a huge difference between what a YouTube video would be versus what a social media video would be and how you would create it. And I, and I see people mix this up all the time. Agents miss this, and then they post a video that they made for YouTube of the listing video, which is a tour video.
[00:36:16] Yeah. Which is basically, let's just show this house in the best light in the video. And it's like kind of a walkthrough. It's just a different form of media, but they'll post it on their Instagram.
[00:36:24] Colin Cuthbert: and it's two minutes long. Is that what we're getting?
[00:36:26] Matt Greco: No, it's just the first scene is just their logo and then, you know, you're eight seconds in and then it's just, just four second drone shot.
[00:36:34] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:36:34] Matt Greco: Guess what? You have to change the word of algorithm to like your audience.
[00:36:38] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:36:38] Matt Greco: It's like what do your audience want.
[00:36:39] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:36:40] Matt Greco: Right. And that, that's a really big thing. And what they want
[00:36:42] Colin Cuthbert: The audience is a fickle son of a bitch.
[00:36:44] Matt Greco: Yeah. They want to see your face; they want to see who you are. And I also do believe that you should be on camera for both videos. I find that, uh, it, it adds a depth of layer to the video and storytelling. I, if you look at my horizontal videos for YouTube showing the property, I like to be inside the house within like 20 seconds.
[00:37:03] Scott Dempster: Mm-hmm.
[00:37:03] Matt Greco: Like we do put your face on it just to brand it. But also, that, that first 20 seconds is the most boring part of the video. 'Cause what you, you show outside of the building. Yeah. How many seconds do you need for that?
[00:37:14] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah.
[00:37:15] Matt Greco: I, we're all addicted to reels right now.
[00:37:17] Colin Cuthbert: Many people's seconds. You don't have seconds.
[00:37:20] Matt Greco: No, you, we show your face. You, you say the best thing about the place, if you want to say the name, whatever. But I don't put the address on it anymore. I don't put the address, logo, animation. Everyone that's like trying to figure this thing out there was like, oh, you didn't put the address, like address on it. I'm like, I don't do that anymore. Like, alright, watch five real estate videos and tell me like two of the addresses or one of them, you won't tell me any of them. When you guys are on camera versus when you're not, how, how is it performing? Right.
[00:37:48] Colin Cuthbert: I cringe at myself.
[00:37:49] Matt Greco: Yeah.
[00:37:50] Colin Cuthbert: I really wanted to avoid for a very long time until you both peppered me on it to get on the screen and I dislike it. But then I just want to like go the other direction and make fun of myself and have fun with it.
[00:38:04] And there's been some pretty viral content out there that I have a lot of fun with. In fact, school pickup yesterday on the gravel field, I had, um, my son's friend's mom, who's an actress, like dead serious, be like, you need to get an agent. And I was like, absolutely not. She's like, you could do commercials. I'm like, no, no.
[00:38:26] Scott Dempster: But it's, and, and you know, Colin gets more into the, you know, the theatric videos and I gotta do a better part of that too. But it, it does get follows and it does get, you know watches and all this kind of stuff, but it's also a fine line. You walk like,
[00:38:40] Colin Cuthbert: totally
[00:38:40] Scott Dempster: Colin and I send them back to each other, you know, real estate agents, whether in the States or in Europe or whatever like that. And some these videos we like, whoa, are your sellers seeing this? The shit they're saying in the videos. And you know, to get the follows, to get the interest and things like that. And it's such a fine line that you walk and I think Colin's pretty creative on putting together some sort of a storyboard or a plan and whereas I kind of more wing it and just wanna talk a little bit about the house, but.
[00:39:05] To your point, to your credit, you've always been good about, look, people are gonna know how many bedrooms there are. People are gonna know how many bathrooms there are. You don't need to. Describe the, um, the very straightforward facts about the house. It's more about what we would say to someone when they come in, and that's what you've coached us on to say, what do you love about the house?
[00:39:22] What makes this house stand out about 1, 2, 3, 4, as opposed to 1, 2, 3, 6, the house down the road? Why is it better? What are these features and, cause the video is gonna tell, right? And the description below is gonna say six bedrooms, four bath, you know, this kind of thing. Basement, suite, yada, yada, yada. But it's more about showing the people. And it's true of any property that you're selling. What are the things that make it stand out against the other homes that are for sale too, right?
[00:39:45] Matt Greco: Yeah. And I, what I see a lot of agent’s kind of miss on it is they, uh. They start doing this, and, and they'll, they'll give it a shot for three months and then they'll be like, oh, like I don't see any return on this.
[00:39:55] Scott Dempster: Right.
[00:39:55] Matt Greco: And, and there's no point of this.
[00:39:57] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:39:57] Matt Greco: And, and it's, it's kind of like I, I watched someone just recently talk about it last night. It's like if your, if your child was learning the walk.
[00:40:05] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:40:05] Matt Greco: And they, they failed three or four times or five times. Like, would you just tell him to stop walking?
[00:40:10] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:40:11] Matt Greco: That's it. No, you get up and you keep going.
[00:40:13] Scott Dempster: Right,
[00:40:13] Matt Greco: right. Like, you eventually get better, you get, you get more comfortable on camera. Like, like Colin was lucky. He, he was a great right away. Mm-hmm. First video, we all did. I was like, oh my God. He was like, it was Wayne's house.
[00:40:23] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah.
[00:40:24] Matt Greco: Yeah. Oh, fantastic. That was a fantastic video.
[00:40:26] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:40:26] Colin Cuthbert: Well, he is such a nice lawn. And I was like, yeah, can I just lay down on the lawn and pet it?
[00:40:31] Yeah,
[00:40:31] Matt Greco: but it was a perfect blend of like,
[00:40:33] Scott Dempster: but also, a key feature of the house
[00:40:34] Colin Cuthbert: totally
[00:40:35] Matt Greco: being, being very professional on it and then also just like you showed your own personality in it as well. Um, and it was just a good coherence of blending because that's like a really big thing with you being on camera is like, you get to show both sides of it, like who you are as a person and market the home.
[00:40:49] Scott Dempster: Well, people.
[00:40:51] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah, that's been, that's been number one for us. Um, coming outta the gate was like, look, we're not trying to take over the world and eat everybody's lunch here, but we want to attract people that get our sense of humor and, you know, are all on the same page. So, let's not pretend to be anything else.
[00:41:06] Let's just, you know, be ourselves.
[00:41:08] Scott Dempster: Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. And, you know, heard this from many people. Some of the smartest people I know kind of within the big real estate industry, people will buy and sell. Well, it's true of any industry cars or bikes or whatever you're selling. People buy and sell with people that they connect with, that they like, that you're personable, that you're, they want to sit and have a conversation with just like this, right?
[00:41:28] But it's a fine line where you don't want to just be selling yourself. You have a product to sell and a job to do. But you know, connecting with anyone, um, whether it's a showing when they come in or an open house and things like that, if you're very. You know, abrupt and a jerk. People are gonna be in and outta that house in five minutes, much like a video. They're gonna watch it for five seconds ago. Look this schmuck, right?
[00:41:48] Matt Greco: I truly believe too, that like they deal with 500 views. It's still like a successful video.
[00:41:53] Scott Dempster: That's success. Absolutely. It's 500 people.
[00:41:56] Matt Greco: But like, you know, most of them are gonna be realtors in your area and then they'll second look at this property. Or maybe they didn't know. And like you say, like you haven't sold a property through social media, but like you indirectly don't know how many times you've put something back on someone's radar.
[00:42:11] Scott Dempster: Sure. Or maybe someone's daughter watched it and said, hey, you should see this. And then things were not aware of.
[00:42:17] I'm sure.
[00:42:17] Matt Greco: you've seen a property on social media and turned around and took a second look at it.
[00:42:21] Scott Dempster: Mm-hmm.
[00:42:21] Matt Greco: I've also found, like when I first started in this industry, like how Well, uh, just old school marketing works.
[00:42:27] Scott Dempster: Yeah,
[00:42:28] Matt Greco: right. Like old school signage. I remember one guy, he, he is an older guy. He was, uh, he worked for Starbucks and he's a huge signage guy, because he is gotten a huge success from it. And same with Mailouts.
[00:42:39] Scott Dempster: Mailouts,
[00:42:39] Matt Greco: just, just phone calls with people. Right. I, I find it's a combination of kind of everything, but the video stuff is where they're like, everything's kind of like pushed towards.
[00:42:48] Scott Dempster: Yeah. It's interesting how much of that old school marketing, or call it old school, but the print media, things like that, like one of our best clients, I think we've now done eight or nine ends or transactions with them.
[00:43:00] They, they called me off of a mailer. Very straightforward. We're thinking of selling. Come on in. The first one goes in the bin. The second one goes in the bin. The third one, maybe that sits on the kitchen counter for an hour. The fourth one, if you're lucky, get stuck on the fridge magnet and maybe the fifth one, they go, oh, you know what? We should call that agent right through that repetition. And, but that's not untrue of what we're talking about with, with the social media thing and just brand recognition, putting yourself out there with it, right.
[00:43:28] Matt Greco: No, absolutely. But going on camera is like probably like pound for pound the best thing you can do for your brand.
[00:43:35] Yeah, for social media, because like these videos of houses, like, just think about it, how many times you're scrolling through on Instagram and watch the full video of a house. Even if it's very quick.
[00:43:44] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:43:45] Matt Greco: You're not,
[00:43:46] Scott Dempster: yeah.
[00:43:46] Matt Greco: You're there for that person.
[00:43:48] Scott Dempster: Final kind of question for you, Matt. Someone's getting ready, think of, of selling. What are one or two quick tips you'd give on, you know, either it's on photo day or, or things they can do to, you know, um, just spruce up the house or anything like that. That, any, any kind of quick tips, advice that you give to home sellers and things that they can do to stand out?
[00:44:08] Matt Greco: Uh, well I would, I would take a step back and look up like the main issues who you hire.
[00:44:13] Scott Dempster: Okay.
[00:44:14] Matt Greco: Right. You have to hire you two, obviously.
[00:44:18] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah.
[00:44:18] Matt Greco: Yeah. 'Cause that'll be taken care of. Um, no. Look, look at, look at who you're interviewing. Interview three, four people.
[00:44:26] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:44:26] Matt Greco: See what their price is and stuff, but like, deep dive on their Instagram. See, see what they do for, for video if they're on there or not, or photos. And look at not, not their, so like buys, but like, they're solds 'cause sometimes it's like properties that they ended up buying. So, it's not their own marketing package.
[00:44:43] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:44:43] Matt Greco: But just listed. Or if you go on the REW, like they, they better have an REW profile. Like they better. Majority of people go on REW or realtor.ca, right? Have it set up like you just see if their website's proper, look at their past listings. Like some properties are tenanted, some properties are an older couple, they're downsizing. These can't get things done and ready. The situations do happen. But if eight of 10 of their listings are staged, you know, look proper.
[00:45:14] All the paint is done, the garden's ready. And the photos are all good. Nothing's dark. Like you want bright, bright and big are what sell in real estate. It's the opposite of what architectural photos are.
[00:45:24] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:45:25] Matt Greco: And, and my advice is just look at their, their offerings, right? Are they on the camera, in the video or not? Do they offer video? You know, are they doing the drone right? Like, these are all things like, oh, like look, you have a detached house. Like are they doing twilight photography for it? Like these things all do matter.
[00:45:42] Scott Dempster: Yeah,
[00:45:42] Matt Greco: they're all little things that add up and you know, it is a difference between a hundred people coming through your listing or 125.
[00:45:49] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:45:50] Matt Greco: And that could be a huge difference. At the end of the day, like a good agent will provide the value for the results. I truly believe that.
[00:45:58] Scott Dempster: And partnered with, you know, a good product, like what you put out. It's all key. It all has to work together and it's the planning and preparation and processes is long even before you go live to the MLS.
[00:46:10] There's so much that needs to be done and um, should be done. That's key. Right. Do you have any horror stories or anything like that that you want to tell?
[00:46:19] Matt Greco: It's always like these ones that are like hoarder-ish and they'll be like, hey, like, oh, do you need me to move that? Like, do you, do you need me to move that, that one vase there?
[00:46:27] I'm like, uh, yeah, yeah, no, if you take it out, that'll be better. I've learned to just be like, yeah, yeah, yeah. If,
[00:46:32] Scott Dempster: but there's 10,000 newspapers sitting in the other.
[00:46:34] Matt Greco: Yeah, like my, my socks are stuck to the ground. You know, I got, but it's just, it's rude to say, because you understand that like, that's just a health issue of some people.
[00:46:46] I shot one where there's like three people in there and they're smoking cigarettes inside the house while I'm in there.
[00:46:52] Scott Dempster: While you're shooting it?
[00:46:52] Matt Greco: Yeah. I've never, I've had two clients smoke cigarettes inside the house. One of them was an old lady that was retiring and going to Amica, and she didn't care if she was in her living room in front of her tv not. Respect. You know?
[00:47:08] Scott Dempster: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:47:09] Matt Greco: And the other two were like just smoking cigarettes and their whole house was just like, gross. It was.
[00:47:15] Scott Dempster: mad.
[00:47:15] Matt Greco: It's just a lot of grossness,
[00:47:16] Scott Dempster: man.
[00:47:17] Matt Greco: Or just the hotels. Like I've entered rooms where it's like a two, three-bedroom house and there's 12 people in them and there's beds everywhere and nothing's made, you know, it is just like the darkest side of it. Nothing crazy though.
[00:47:29] Colin Cuthbert: Yikes. Yeah. Uh, I got one last question. So. If all your appointments on one day cancel, where would we find you? When Matt gives himself a day, where's he going?
[00:47:39] Matt Greco: Yeah, I'll be working. That's, that's the unfortunately
[00:47:42] Scott Dempster: Oh, like editing day.
[00:47:43] Matt Greco: If, if I am, if it's on, I'm, I'm doing, you know, from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed at like two, three in the morning. So, like, usually if I'm that busy, I'll be editing no matter what. But if you're telling me I've taken care of all my stuff,
[00:47:57] Colin Cuthbert: yeah, you've gotta a hall pass.
[00:47:59] Matt Greco: Oof.
[00:47:59] Colin Cuthbert: Guilt free hall pass.
[00:48:00] Matt Greco: Ooh, a Sombrio. I'll be camping on the beach, or I'll be at Jordan River, camping on the beach and surfing. If not, I'll be up in Whistler. I have a few friends that live up there and if it's snowing, 'cause I'm, I've become a snow princess.
[00:48:14] Colin Cuthbert: Okay.
[00:48:14] Matt Greco: I want something. I like skiing on a nice crisp day, but all my friends better be out there. Yeah. If I'm by myself or one other person, I got other things to do. But if it's snowing, I'll be out there.
[00:48:24] Scott Dempster: Good.
[00:48:24] Matt Greco: And uh, yeah, it's pretty consistent across the board, probably those two things.
[00:48:28] Scott Dempster: That's awesome.
[00:48:29] Colin Cuthbert: So, where we find you at Viewpoint Visuals
[00:48:31] Matt Greco: VP Visuals.
[00:48:33] Colin Cuthbert: VP
[00:48:34] Matt Greco: Yeah.
[00:48:34] Colin Cuthbert: Visuals.
[00:48:35] Scott Dempster: So where can we find you on Instagram? What's your handle?
[00:48:37] Matt Greco: It's Viewpoint Visuals still.
[00:48:39] Scott Dempster: Oh yeah.
[00:48:40] Colin Cuthbert: Keep it tight.
[00:48:41] Matt Greco: Yeah. No, my phone number is still seven oh five number.
[00:48:44] Scott Dempster: Oh man.
[00:48:44] Matt Greco: I know, right? I know. At least I'm not on Gmail anymore, but I still answered my Gmail one.
[00:48:50] Scott Dempster: That's awesome. Uh, Matt, this has been more than informative and we can't thank you enough for taking the time joining us in the podcast here in the green room and, um, like you said, people could find you VP Visuals online, on your website, on Instagram, on all these things.
[00:49:07] Uh, thanks again for coming on, and this has been a blast.
[00:49:12] Matt Greco: Thank you.
[00:49:13] Scott Dempster: Thanks for hanging out with us. And remember in Vancouver Real Estate, nothing's off the table and everything's negotiable. Subscribe now to the real estate of things wherever you get your podcasts.