Vertical property videos for Reels, Shorts and TikTok: a practical guide

Most people who see your listing on social media will see it on a phone held upright. A landscape film posted to Reels, Shorts or TikTok plays as a narrow strip across the middle of the screen, surrounded by empty space, and is easy to scroll past. This guide covers specs, framing, hooks and posting rhythm, and how to get a vertical film from landscape listing photos.

What size should a vertical property video be?

Export at 9:16, 1080 x 1920 pixels. Meta recommends 9:16, 1080 x 1920 for Reels, and the same file works for YouTube Shorts and TikTok, so one export covers all three apps.

A few practical points follow:

• Full HD is enough. A 1080 x 1920 file is sharp on a phone screen and uploads quickly over a mobile connection.
• Length decides what YouTube calls a Short. YouTube Help explains that since 15 October 2024, square or vertical videos up to 3 minutes long are categorised as Shorts, while a wider ratio such as 16:9 keeps a video in long-form.
• Check each app's current limits. Maximum lengths and upload rules change with each redesign; the 9:16 frame is the constant.

Our guide to choosing an aspect ratio for a property film compares 16:9, 4:3 and 9:16 side by side.

Where should text and logos go in a 9:16 frame?

Keep every word and logo in the middle band of the frame, well clear of the top and bottom edges. Each app draws its own interface there: the username, caption, audio label and progress bar along the bottom, tabs or a search bar along the top, and like, comment and share buttons running up the right-hand side.

The exact overlay differs by app and by device, and it changes over time, so do not design to the pixel. Instead:

1. Put the price, area and headline feature in the middle third of the frame, slightly away from the right-hand edge.
2. Place the agency logo on the closing card rather than in a corner for the whole film.
3. Keep each shot's focal point (the pool, the fireplace, the view) near the centre.
4. Watch the export full screen on a phone before posting, and move anything that would sit under the app's buttons.

How do you hook viewers in the first 2 seconds?

Open on the single most desirable shot, already moving, with the location or one headline fact on screen. The first 2 seconds decide whether someone keeps watching or swipes, so there is no room for a logo animation, a slow fade from black or an agent introduction.

Strong opening frames include:

• the view from the terrace, the garden in sunlight, or the front of the house with a slow push-in;
• a short line of text such as "4 bedrooms, 10 minutes' walk to the station" or "[Area], [price]";
• a camera move that starts on the first frame, because movement is what separates a video from the still photos around it in a feed.

The tour can follow the usual room order, but the teaser should lead with its strongest shot. For shots worth leading with, see our shot checklist for listing photos.

Caption everything

Add burned-in captions to any narrated film. Many people scroll with the sound off, and a narrated tour without subtitles becomes a silent slideshow for them. Use a large, high-contrast font on a solid or outlined background, in two short lines within the same middle band as your other text. A music-only teaser needs a few text cards instead: location, bedrooms, price and a call to action.

Teaser or full tour: how long should each version be?

Make both. A 15 to 30 second music-led teaser earns attention from people who were not looking for a home; a narrated tour of about a minute serves people who already are.

These lengths are editorial judgement, not platform rules: short enough that people finish, long enough to show three or four rooms. Our guide to property video length by channel sets out the reasoning.

How do you make a vertical video from landscape listing photos?

There are three routes: crop each photo to a tall slice, pan across it, or extend it upwards and downwards with AI outpainting. Most listing photos are landscape, usually 3:2 or 4:3, so none of these routes is free: cropping loses width, panning costs time and outpainting adds content that was never photographed.

With a crop, choose the slice for each shot deliberately (the fireplace, the kitchen island, the window with the view) rather than taking the dead centre. With outpainting, check every extended frame for invented features: an extra window, a skylight, a bigger garden, a ceiling higher than the real one. Anything that would change what a buyer believes about the property has to go. Our article on enhancement versus misrepresentation sets out where that line sits.

Then disclose it. A short "includes AI-generated imagery" note in the caption, or a label on the film, keeps the marketing honest, and EU transparency rules make disclosure a legal question too; see the EU AI Act and AI-generated property videos.

How often should you post property videos?

Post each listing three or four times across its life rather than once, and keep a weekly rhythm your team can sustain. No platform publishes an ideal frequency for estate agents, so what follows is reasoning, not a rule.

Any one post reaches only part of your audience, and the likely buyers of a given home are a small share of it. Reposting the film with a different hook each time (the garden, the price, the location) gives it several chances to reach them without asking anyone to watch the same thing twice. A workable pattern for one listing:

1. Launch day: the teaser, with area and price on screen.
2. Two to four days later: the full narrated tour.
3. On an event: an open day, a price change, "under offer" or "sold", reusing the best clip with new text.

Across the agency, two to four vertical posts a week is easier to keep up than a burst of ten followed by a silent month, and keeps your profile active for vendors who check it before a valuation; the "sold" post is really for them. Our distribution checklist shows where the vertical cut fits alongside portals, email and WhatsApp.

How Echoflicks makes vertical films

Echoflicks renders each film in the aspect ratio you choose, 9:16, 16:9 or 4:3, at Full HD 1080p or 720p. For a 9:16 film, each landscape photo is extended at the top and bottom with AI outpainting, and every shot is instructed to keep the architecture, layout, fixtures and furniture as photographed. Still, watch it before you post.

Two formats suit social media. Eye candy is a 20 to 30 second music-only teaser built from the 3 or 4 best shots. Tour is a narrated film of about a minute, with optional burned-in subtitles you can style (font, size, colour, and a pill or outline background). Every film carries machine-readable metadata marking it as AI-generated, the web studio adds a visible "AI-generated" corner label by default, and each film has a public share link with a ready-made social caption. A film typically takes 20 to 50 minutes, and your agency's first one is free if you want to try a vertical cut on a current listing.