It might be easy to assume that this is mostly the young Internet user, and that those who are able to afford real estate are mostly in the other quarter. The assumption might even be partially true right now, but the future buyer and seller is the young Internet user. Or maybe you love referrals. A referral might sound like "Hey Dad, if you're thinking of buying a house there, check out this site. It's got lots of good information and video." I'll take that visitor any day.
The interesting thing is that my videos made up of stills are viewed more than the few I tried with a camcorder. So, you can use Windows Movie Maker, on most Windows XP machines now, and a free YouTube account to get started. Take your still photos, add some titles, credits, transitions and a little legal music, and you have a video presence. Here's one of our expert Guides' tutorials on Windows Movie Maker, and my thoughts on using YouTube for real estate.
I couldn’t agree with you more Jim. When it comes to video, we need to think out of the box. Video is incredibly powerful when it comes to getting across a new idea or concept. Text is out but make it a video and you will get incredible attention.
As the founder of the Accredited Consultant in Real Estate® Course and coaching program, I’m definitely into using video to educate not only real estate professionals but the public of the benefits of the consulting model. And having a lot of fun with it: check out http://www.ACREonYouTube.com.
Jim, you’ll notice that there is no real “video” but rather stills with music and narration.
Realtor Magazine actually had a similiar article in the July edition that stated that the “Video Revolution is Upon Us”. It is ABSOLUTELY A FACT! I (a proud EXIT Realty Agent)have worked with a company out of Tampa, Florida that will fly you in from anywhere in the country and shoot a Personalized Marketing Video for you and train you on aspects of the business that will knock your socks off! I know if you call the office, they would be willing to help you corner the market in your area, as I have done! 727-942-3388 Good Luck!
Get Creative There are so many ways to get noticed.
Camera’s are less expensive every year
Invest in a tripod!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_A2jY6-rRo
So many great ideas out there!
David Pylyp
ShopTOism
David,
Thanks for the comment and the video link. Interesting, and I see you’ve gotten some good comments on it.
Jim
I totally agree as well. There is far too much competition to settle with the old ways to market. Consumers have less time, they have more distractions and want to make decisions with as less leg work. This is where video comes in. And the great part is video marketing can be just as affordable as traditional methods, while reaching millions of people. Avenstar Productions offers very good prices and they offer film-like video so there is an extra WOW factor in videos they produce for there clients.
As a Real Estate Video producer I can say that using video in your marketing efforts is by far the most important step to “futurizing” yourself as a leader in the industry. There are too many advantages to using video to NOT utilize this growing trend. Unfortunately, many Realtors will not take the time to learn how video can benefit them and will most likely fall by the wayside as more and more buyers are starting their search on the internet. But WAIT….what do I mean by advantages? Well let’s talk about Syndication and Google Search for a minute. Now that Google has incorporated “organic” search results, videos are now showing up as a search result right alongside competing Realtors websites. So what do you think that buyer is going to click on first? Keep in mind that YouTube is ranked within the TOP 5 most visited websites in the world…….I think that about says it all! And what about syndication? Videos are constantly being syndicated be other blogs and news sites whereas real estate listings are rarely ever syndicated. To prove this….1.) go to your favorite real estate classified website 2.) find any for sale listing and copy & paste the address into Google’s search box. 3.) see how many different websites that for sale address can be found throughout the internet. 4.) Now go to YouTube and search for real estate listings. 5.) notice how many times that video has been “picked up” by other websites across the internet. Generally a real estate video listing will have been syndicated all over the internet within 2-4 weeks. There are many factors that help the video get great exposure such as writing a detailed description of the video etc..and more can be learned by researching SEO for video.
Real video means using the audio captured from the local area, the property listing. A little less branding of the agent, broker and more property, local events is what the buyers, surfers want, need. The audio is 40% of the video engagement, experience.