How to make an open house reel (invitation, day-of, recap)

An open house reel isn't one video, it's three: an invitation posted 3–5 days before with a screenshot-able date/time/address card, a day-of reminder (usually a story), and a recap afterward that turns the event into a second post. The invitation is made from the listing photos — two rooms, then the card — and takes minutes; the recap is the one worth filming on the day. Below is the sequence, the card layout, and the timing.

Most open house reels are one post, made the morning of, from whatever photos were on the phone. They get seen by existing followers, after the event has started. The fix is to treat the open house as a three-post sequence with the work front-loaded into the part that needs no filming.

The three reels

Reel	When	Made from	Job
Invitation	3–5 days before	Listing photos + card	Get the details onto camera rolls
Day-of reminder	Morning of	One photo or the invitation reel, as a story	Reach the people who screenshot it
Recap	Within 48 hours after	Phone clips from the event	Turn the event into proof and a second post

The invitation is the one that matters and the one that needs no new footage. Hook on the best exterior, two rooms chosen for curiosity rather than beauty, then the card. Twelve to sixteen seconds. The three-tone script for it is on the invitation script page; the card layout is below.

The day-of reminder is a story, not a reel. A reel posted the morning of the event won’t reach non-followers in time; a story reaches the people who already saved the invitation and just need the nudge. Repost the invitation reel to stories with a “today” sticker and stop there.

The recap is the only part worth filming, and it’s the part agents most often skip. Three or four phone clips — the sign, the front door, a full room, the sign-in sheet — cut to 10–15 seconds with a line about turnout. It does two jobs: it proves the listing has interest, and it’s a post that cost you nothing extra to make. The open house caption bank has recap copy that doesn’t overclaim.

The card layout

The invitation lands on a card that viewers screenshot. Four lines, largest to smallest: day and date, time window, street address, one call to action. Centered, high-contrast, held for at least three seconds. No price, no logo competing with the text. Kadapt’s open-house template holds the card as a fixed final beat for exactly this reason — the render always ends on it, however the property beats are cut, so the one thing the reel exists to deliver can’t get squeezed by the edit.

Timing, and why the invitation comes first

Short-form feeds are completion-driven — a 12-second invitation gets finished, which is what the ranking rewards (the length guide covers the mechanism). Posted 3–5 days out, it has time to reach people outside your following while the date is still ahead of them. Posted earlier, it scrolls out before the weekend; later, only your followers see it in time.

The invitation is also the part that used to cost an evening and now costs minutes: the photos exist, the script is a fill-in, and the card is a template. That’s the practical argument for doing all three reels rather than one — the expensive part got cheap, so the budget goes to the recap. Draft the invitation voiceover with the free script generator, and when the event’s over, the recap is three clips and a caption.

Common questions