Recording a Voiceover That Does Not Sound Like an Advert

A voiceover is the difference between a video a buyer watches and one they scroll past, because it is the only part that can carry judgement — what is good about this flat, what is worth knowing, what you would tell a friend. Most agent voiceovers fail in the first three seconds for reasons that have nothing to do with equipment.

Where and how to record

Record in a car with the engine off. It is the best sound booth most agents have — soft surfaces, small volume, no echo, and nobody walking past.

Failing that, a wardrobe with clothes in it, or a bed with a duvet over your head and the phone. Both sound absurd and both work, because what you are killing is reflection.

Never record in the empty flat you just filmed. Bare rooms echo, and echo cannot be removed afterwards by any tool worth using.

A modern phone microphone in a soft, quiet space beats a cheap external microphone recorded badly. Buy the space before you buy the hardware.

What to actually say

Do not read. Write bullet points, then talk to them. Read prose has a rhythm that listeners identify as an advertisement within about three seconds, and once they have identified it they stop listening.

Say the number out loud once — the price, the carpet area, or the rent. Viewers who hear a specific number stay to hear the context around it.

Lead with the thing you would say to a friend. "The kitchen is small but the balcony off it is the best part of this flat" is worth more than thirty seconds of feature listing.

Name one flaw. It costs nothing, it is going to be visible anyway, and it converts the rest of your commentary from marketing into advice.

Fitting it to the picture

Record the voiceover before you edit the picture, then cut the video to the words. Cutting words to fit a locked edit is what produces the rushed, breathless narration you hear on most listing videos.

One take per sentence, not per script. If you fluff the fourth line, record the fourth line again — do not go back to the top and accumulate fatigue.

Leave two seconds of silence at the start and the end. It gives the editor something to fade into and out of, and it stops the first word being clipped.