Zillow Preview teaser video: a coming-soon reel from photos

To promote a Zillow Preview listing, make a short vertical teaser: three to six listing photos, a "Coming soon" line burned in as text, and no voice at all. On Sume that is one Timeline 1.0 render with a silent spine and photos as slots, then one caption job that burns your own wording. Eighteen seconds of output bills as one output minute, $0.10, at the published Timeline rate.

The reason to do it this month: on September 17, 2026, Zillow announced that Preview listings are live on Realtor.com as well as Zillow, so a pre-market home now shows up on both sites at once. This post covers the teaser, not enrollment, which Zillow says goes through your brokerage.

What did Zillow change on September 17?

According to Zillow's release, Preview is a pre-market listing feature: buyers can view a home before it is officially listed on the MLS, and that early access now runs on both Zillow and Realtor.com. Zillow reports more than 400 enrolled brokerage partners and says Preview listings drew 18% more views, 9% more shares and 7% more saves than comparable listings during the first 14 days.

Those are Zillow's figures about Preview listings, not about teaser videos, so treat them as the reason a pre-market window exists, not as a promise for your reel. Enrollment happens through enrolled brokerages, and Zillow says it costs sellers and agents nothing.

What does a coming-soon teaser need?

Keep it short and silent. Nothing in the release asks for video, so this is your own social asset: it points people at the listing while it is still pre-market. Each part maps to one Sume surface.

How do I render the photos?

Import your photos so they exist as media.sume.com URLs, since Timeline refuses off-host links (see Media inputs). Then submit one render. Starts must increase, the first slot starts at 0, and slots may trail the spine by at most half a second, so three 6-second slots fill an 18-second spine exactly.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/timeline-1.0/render \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: preview-teaser-001" \
  -d '{
    "audio": { "mode": "silence", "duration_seconds": 18 },
    "video": [
      { "source_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_front/front.jpg", "start": 0, "duration": 6 },
      { "source_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_kitchen/kitchen.jpg", "start": 6, "duration": 6,
        "transition": { "type": "fade", "duration": 0.25 } },
      { "source_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_yard/yard.jpg", "start": 12, "duration": 6,
        "transition": { "type": "fade", "duration": 0.25 } }
    ]
  }'

How do I add the words without a voice track?

A speech-to-captions job on a silent clip fails with caption_no_speech and a next action of use_overlay_captions. Send cues instead: each cue has text, start and end in seconds, and Sume burns exactly that copy at those times. Use one cue for "Coming soon", a second for the neighbourhood, a third for your name and brokerage.

Poll the job and read the file from the job result, as in Jobs and results. Pass the Timeline MP4's media.sume.com URL as video_url; the Video captions guide lists the style and font options.

What should I check before posting?

• Use real photos of the home. If you retouch or stage any of them, disclose it; California AB 723 is one example of a rule that cares.
• Keep the address and price off the video until your brokerage has cleared what a pre-market listing may say.
• Ask your brokerage how Preview listings are handled for your market; Zillow says enrollment goes through enrolled brokerages.