Quick answer: A finished spec home has two jobs to do on camera, and they buy differently. If the home is going on the MLS, a listing media package covers stills, drone, floor plan, and a video cut, and runs $500 to $3,600 depending on home size. If you are building content for the company itself, model home tours, finish walkthroughs, and social clips, hourly is the flexible option: $100 per hour on iPhone 4K, $200 per hour on professional cinema cameras, and $75 per hour for editing.
Vourly rates at a glance:
- iPhone 4K filming: $100 per hour, 1 hour minimum
- Professional cinema cameras: $200 per hour, 2 hour minimum
- Editing: $75 per hour, roughly 1 to 1.5 hours per short cut
- Listing media packages: $500 to $3,600 by home size
- All raw footage included, plus one free revision round per edited cut
This guide is written from shooting finished homes and jobsites around Bellevue, Bothell, and Seattle. A spec home is a specific kind of shoot. Unlike a resale listing there is no seller to schedule around and nothing to declutter, but there is also no furniture, no landscaping in the first weeks, and a punch list that may not be closed. What you film, and when, decides whether the footage sells the house or only documents it.
What to film at a finished spec home
A spec home shoot is really a shot list problem. The pieces that consistently earn their place:
- The approach. The drive up, the front elevation, the entry. Buyers form an opinion here before they see a single interior.
- Aerial context. The lot, the setback, the street, and what is around it. Aerial work is flown by FAA Part 107 certified drone pilots.
- The finish detail. This is where a builder shoot differs most from a resale shoot. Cabinet reveals, tile transitions, trim work, hardware, the stair rail. The specification is the product.
- Kitchen and primary suite, in that order. They carry the most weight in the decision and deserve the most coverage.
- The flow. One continuous move through the main level so an out-of-area buyer understands the layout without a floor plan.
- The empty rooms, honestly. An unfurnished room reads cold on camera. Virtual staging at $30 per image is the fix on the stills side.
The listing rail: media packages by home size
If the home is being listed, the package rail is usually the better value than assembling the same pieces by the hour. Every package includes HDR photos of the interior and exterior. At the 2,000 to 2,999 square foot tier:
- 3D Matterport, $550. HDR photos, a Matterport tour with an MLS link, a 2D floor plan, and blue sky replacement. No video and no drone.
- Highlight, $699. HDR photos, a 60 second highlight video, drone photos and video, a 2D floor plan, one virtual twilight image, and blue sky replacement.
- Cinematic, $850. Same list with a cinematic tour up to 2 minutes.
- Premiere, $1,350. Adds an agent on camera intro and outro, a Matterport tour, and three virtual twilight images.
- Luxury, $2,400. Adds a 60 second vertical reel, a 1.5 to 3 minute luxury video, real twilight photos and video shot in person, and white glove on-site service.
Prices scale with square footage, running $500 to $3,600 across the full size range from under 2,000 up to the 6,000 to 6,999 tier. Useful add-ons for a new build include a 2D floor plan at $50, drone photos at $125 for 3 to 6 shots, virtual staging at $30 per image, and a walk through reel at $150 for a 60 second vertical. The published add-on menu runs $15 to $250. The real estate page carries the full size-tier table.
The marketing rail: hourly filming for builder content
Model home tours, finish walkthroughs, founder or superintendent segments, and social clips are not listing deliverables, and they price by the hour:
- iPhone 4K at $100 per hour, with a 1 hour minimum. A stabilized iPhone 4K rig is genuinely enough for social clips and quick walkthroughs.
- Professional cinema cameras at $200 per hour, with a 2 hour minimum. The right call for a model home tour that will headline the website.
- Editing at $75 per hour, billed separately. Most short cuts take 1 to 1.5 hours each.
A worked example straight off the rate card: a 2 hour iPhone 4K shoot at $200 plus three reels at $225 of editing is $425 total. Film a batch in one visit and you leave with several weeks of content rather than one video. For a larger brand piece, the commercial video production page covers the broader scope.
Timing the shoot against the build
The most common mistake is shooting too early. Two things to wait for when you can:
- Landscaping in. Bare dirt in the front yard is the single biggest drag on an exterior frame, and no edit fixes it.
- Punch list closed. Protective film on windows, blue tape, and stacked material all end up in shot and all cost edit time.
Where the listing rail is concerned, delivery is fast enough that waiting is cheap: HDR photos are delivered by 10am the next morning and a Matterport 3D tour goes live within 12 hours, so a shoot two days before the list date is comfortable.
Delivery, revisions, and what you keep
Raw footage is uploaded to your client portal within 24 hours on every shoot, as a standard and not an upgrade. On a footage-only shoot you can download everything straight away. When the project includes editing, the invoice is sent as editing finishes and downloads become available once it is paid. Files land in a dedicated portal with folders organized by shoot date, ready to hand to your own editor.
Every booking includes all your raw footage and a free revision round. Additional revision rounds are billed at the standard editing rate of $75 per hour, and we reshoot at no charge if anything is wrong on our end. Builders running several homes a year can use team accounts with centralized billing, or the credit system to buy in bulk and draw down across projects on a first-in, first-out basis.
Travel, tax, and booking
Vourly is based in Bellevue and covers Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah, Mercer Island, Sammamish, Bothell, and Seattle, plus the surrounding King County suburbs. Travel is free within 30 minutes of the Bellevue base, then $1 per mile round trip. Washington sales tax is added at invoice based on the shoot address. Every rate above is published on the pricing page rather than held behind a discovery call.
The short version: Shoot the approach, aerial context, the finish detail, the kitchen and primary suite, and one continuous move through the main level. If the home is listing, buy the package rail at $500 to $3,600 by home size. If it is company content, buy hourly at $100 or $200 per hour to film plus $75 per hour to edit, about $425 for a 2 hour iPhone 4K shoot and three cuts. Wait for landscaping and a closed punch list, and all raw footage is yours either way.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a spec home video cost in the Seattle area?
If the home is being listed, Vourly listing media packages run $500 to $3,600 depending on home size and include HDR photos. For builder marketing content, filming is $100 per hour on iPhone 4K or $200 per hour on professional cinema cameras, and editing is $75 per hour. A 2 hour iPhone 4K shoot plus three edited cuts is about $425.
Should a builder buy a listing package or hourly filming?
Buy the package rail when the home is going on the MLS, because stills, drone, floor plan, and a video cut are already bundled. Buy hourly when the goal is company content such as model home tours, finish walkthroughs, and social clips.
Does the drone come with every package?
Drone photos and video are included in the Highlight, Cinematic, Premiere, and Luxury packages. The 3D Matterport package does not include drone. Aerial work is flown by FAA Part 107 certified drone pilots.
When in the build should we film?
After landscaping is in and the punch list is closed. Bare dirt and protective window film cannot be fixed in the edit and add editing time. HDR photos are delivered by 10am the next morning, so shooting two days before a list date is comfortable.
Do we get the raw footage?
Yes. Raw footage is uploaded to your client portal within 24 hours on every shoot. On a footage-only shoot you can download everything straight away, and when the project includes editing the invoice is sent as editing finishes and downloads become available once it is paid. Every booking also includes one free revision round.
Ready to book? Compare every published rate on the pricing page, see finished work on the portfolio, or book a shoot directly. No discovery call required.