Which Agent Would You Call?
January 16, 2008
We all know the stats don’t we? You know the numbers as to how many people are beginning their search for real estate on the Internet. I’m not going to restate them because if you don’t know the stats, then this entire post is beyond your comprehension.
If you’re going to sell and buy real estate in the new world, then you have to be technologically advanced. There is no other alternative. One of the technological advancements that you must wrap your arms around is the use of video in marketing properties.
There is nothing more compelling than video. It’s why we like the movies. It’s why we watch television. It also may be why you can’t sell any property. Real estate is local??? Hogwash! If you’re marketing to a local demo then you’re simply not marketing.
It makes for good fodder at local board meetings or may sound like a great mantra from Lawrence Yun, but that cliche is played. Wake up! Anyone, anywhere, at anytime, can find out about just any information needed, on any property for sale, in any market. It’s absolutely absurd to be repeating the phrase “real estate is local”. It’s so untrue. It’s a crutch, and it’s simply erroneous and bad business.
I personally have bought properties sight unseen and I have sold properties sight unseen. I once put a property on the market, sent out 300 emails, posted the pertinent links, created a video, and sold a house to a woman in Ohio who wanted a rental property in South Florida. Neither one of us even attended the closing. I have never seen her and she never saw me.
A year later she sold the property to a couple who wanted to move from Philadelphia who saw the info I had left on the Internet. They contacted me, I told them I had sold the house and referred them to the new owner. They purchased the property and I received a check. The couple from Philadelphia did not even see the house until 5 days before closing when they came down for the final inspection. Real estate is local? Keep thinking that and you’ll be working at a Walmart real soon!
Blanche Evans is the award-winning editor of Realty Times, the Internet’s largest independent real estate news service. Recently Ms. Evans posted a featured video story about the rise of video viewing and its impact on selling real estate. You can view her report below:
Her points are spot-on, according to the latest Horowitz Associates report, Broadband Content and Services 2007, six out of ten high speed Internet users watch/download online video content at least once a week and 86% do so on a monthly basis, compared to 45% and 71%, respectively, in the 2006 study. You can’t disagree with the numbers. Again, we are talking about statistics that the agent in today’s market can’t ignore.
Howard Horowitz, President of Horowitz Associates, Inc, concludes that “There is a dynamic relationship between broadband access, broadband content and broadband consumption… bringing more consumers to the platform… (which) creates an even greater demand (and expectation) for broadband video… the data suggest that broadband video is not cannibalistic to linear video, but rather, an enhancement to the consumers’ ‘traditional’ TV experience.”
It’s fairly obvious, if you want to sell in today’s wired world, you need to be wired and tuned in yourself.
However, if you are going to venture into the director’s chair, do so to make an impact. All video is not created equal. What excites you in watching a movie or television show? More than likely you do not get excited about watching a grainy, bad sounding movie or show/ Why would you think a prospect would have any interest in the same kind of badly produced reel on a video they view of a prospective home?
You also have to understand that a PowerPoint presentation set to music isn’t a video. You also must know that on film, you are also showing a prospect (Seller or Buyer) what kind of person you are as well. After all, hasn’t most of the marketing taught to agents been about selling yourself? Well a shoddy video speaks volumes about your cheap, technologically deficient outlook on things. Don’t slouch, it is too easy to be exposed on video.
Let’s look at a few examples.
The first shown below, is nothing more than a Powerpoint presentation disguised as a bad video. I know there are some companies that rip-off unsuspecting agents and tell them this works…it doesn’t and it’s worse than boring. Think purple cow and wanting to be remarkable. This obviously is neither remarkable nor compelling. Grade F-!
The second video below, is a bit better, basically because it’s actually a video. Too bad that it appears and sounds like a crime scene video. I find myself thinking we are going to see crime scene tape and a chalky outline. I applaud the effort, but no trophy given here. I give the CSI Home Video a grade of: D+
Real Estate for Sale - Gary, IN 46404 - Real Estate Video Tour
The third video below…well it speaks for itself. Although she doesn’t show me any of the inside of the house, I already feel like I want to live there. I know what I can expect. I can Google the rest of the information I need. I can already feel the laughter of watching the Cubs lose and anticipate seeing the Bears be the Monsters of the Midway!
Wake up people, we are talking about Chicago here. You see, she makes me want to call her. Her video tells me here’s an agent who has passion, understands what I am looking for and is pretty hip. Remember who is using the Internet and remember the stats.
We Rock Chicago - Curb Cut Media - Chicago, IL 60646
I want to buy this house and I am in Florida! Still think real estate is local? She is marketing to the entire world and it works. I want to work with this kind of agent and you can bet, this type of agent will be around in 2008. Her grade..She gets an A. The Only reason she does not get an A+ is I always know I can do better and I am sure she wants some room to top herself as well.
If you are not prepared to get yourself up to speed, remember, there’s always Walmart!
Hey Barry!
Thanks for writing about our video and posting it on your blog. The radio bit this afternoon was fun, too!
Risa and I worked hard with our team on the video, and we are just thrilled with the results. We always need to give props to Jude, Scott, and Dan, our video editor, cameraman, and sound engineer respectively. They are the pros who executed our vision so well. I sometimes forget to mention that when I talk to people about the video.
Anyway, I’ll put you on my feed reader and I’ll check back to see if anyone has any questions about how we did the video or wants some advice about creating their own.
Anyone out there who needs a Chicago REALTOR to refer their business to, you know where to find us!
Thanks again.
I disagree with you a bit on the videos. The first one gets a D from me. The second one is an F-. In the case of the first, an actual video would have showcased the house better, but the house looked good. The second one should have been skipped… or shorter… or not had music that was ripped off from a memorial service. I was wondering if they were going to tear it down at the end of the video. Finally, the pans and tilts were choppy, and entirely too stiff.
The last one was good. If one were looking to promote the area rather than a listing, it was very good. But, it didn’t make me want to see the house any more than perhaps take a vacation to Chicago and hit the neighborhood. I think that both of the intros (Chicago i general, and Wicker Park specifically) needed to be a little shorter, and the house needed some interior time… unless it looked like #2.
But, your point that we need to embrace real video is a solid point.
Hi Lane.
Your points are well taken. Let me take a moment to sort of fill in the missing pieces, and maybe that will put things in a bit of a different light for you.
First, you aren’t the first person to say the intro is too long. You may be right. But there is a method to the madness that is Curb Cut Media. You’ll notice that the intro is almost exactly 1:00 in length - we have a very small bit of editing to do to make it exactly 1:00 with a closing slate containing our contact information.
In media (particularly paid advertising), everything happens in :30 increments. TV commercials are typically :30 or 1:00 and radio ads are 1:00, :30, or in rare cases, :15. So the first part of the video can now be a standalone piece that can be plugged in as its own TV or new media commercial.
Maybe it will be shown on a movie theater screen in the pre-previews time when people are settling in with their popcorn.
Maybe Barry and Barry will sell me time and space on their blog, or someone else with a local blog will, and I can market Risa with our video that way.
Maybe I will put the opening Chicago Montage on my DVD as part of the main root menu, and it will loop in the background while the viewer chooses which of the neighborhoods to view on the DVD. You always need good root menu eye and ear candy on a DVD!
Maybe I will pay to run my 1:00 commercial on local cable TV during a show that matches an appropriate target audience for some narrow-casting. Since Risa has done a few HGTV shows, perhaps putting the commercial on that network will create good synergy.
In fact, you can see the standalone opening Chicago Montage video here and see what I’m talking about.
Now, your other point about the video not being about the home.
That’s by design. The video isn’t about the home.
The video is about the neighborhood. It’s about all the cool places to go and things to do in the neighborhood. Chicago is chock full of 100 great neighborhoods, all with their own different characteristics and selling points. Often, in a very large metropolitan city like Chicago, the first thing a buyer must figure out is which neighborhood they want to live in. There is much less commoditization of real estate in an urban environment - you can walk a few blocks from where this video was shot and be in completely different neighborhood with completely different stocks of housing.
This video is about Wicker Park, not about a specific house in Wicker Park, although Risa has a listing there.
Our next video will be about Lincoln Square, where we have a huge, contemporary penthouse condo for sale. But that video won’t be about the condo either. It will be about all the shopping, dining, entertainment and recreation options available in Lincoln Square as well as all the old victorian homes in the area. We might throw in a cameo appearance from the penthouse property, as we did in Wicker Park, but we’re not showcasing the property in the video.
Barry had done a bit of a ROI calculation during our interview on the air, and he’s almost on target with his numbers using the assumption that a $30,000 commission (3% on a $1,000,000 home) is generated by a $5,000 video, yielding a return on investment of 600%. Nevermind the details regarding all our other costs, which are substantial. Print advertising in the Chicago Tribune costs a fortune, high quality, glossy brochures, a high resolution, professional photo shoot of the property, paying a staging expert to come in and prepare this HUGE home for sale, catering a luncheon for Brokers and Agents, brokerage fees, error and omissions fees… The list goes on an on.
Anyway, the 600% ROI quickly gets reduced to something quite less impressive.
The only way to get that ROI back up is to take 3 or 4 or 5 listings listings and get 3 or 4 or 5 buyers from promoting this non-property-specific video.
You have to be smarter than the average bear to make it in this business, and getting as much re-use out of these videos as possible is pretty darn important when you’re spending $5,000 out of pocket with no assurance that the listings will sell or that buyers will buy.
Hope this sheds some light on things for you.
Dave,
I follow your points, and understand where you are going. I hate to be critical, because it is a well done clip. My point is that if I am looking for homes in the area, I may get bored of seeing all of that info (either over and over, or if I am already sold on the area).
As I said in my comment, it does a great job of selling the neighborhood, but doesn’t sell the house. If I am cruising videos looking for houses… I’m looking for houses. I want to see the houses. If my purpose is to look for neighborhoods… it is perfect.
I guess the difference is that we see the video working at accomplishing different things.
And, please remember, I think the video is great.
Dave,
One other thing. I’m going to promote the video on my Active Rain blog, and see what sort of comments it generates. Of course, most of the comments will be from real estate professionals, but they are the ones that are out in front of the curve. I’d love for you to join the conversation. http://activerain.com/blogs/lanebailey I can’t post a direct link yet… I haven’t written the post.
If you aren’t a member of Active Rain, here is a link to join. http://activerain.com/action/referrals/lanebailey
And, yes, I do get A/R points if you join their the link. If you don’t want to join throught the link, feel free to go to A/R directly.
FYI…
Barry C has posted this article on ActiveRain and can be found here:
http://activerain.com/blogsview/341017/Which-Agent-Would-You
By the way Dave, please let us all know when your new piece comes out.
[…] to David Weiss who is a Prudential agent in Chicago along with his wife Risa. We featured their video and it was wonderful. It was a 4 minute piece featuring a local neighborhood exposed to a global marketplace. How […]
Barry & Barry:
It’s been long overdue, but we’re just now putting the final touches on our second video, which features a really under-hyped area of Chicago called Lincoln Square. It’s a vibrant neighborhood, with a growing number of eateries, pubs, and eclectic retail without the rawness of Wicker Park, the subject of the first video.
Anyway, I thought I’d give you a heads up, and also let you in on some of the behind-the-scenes challenges we faced on this video.
First, we loved the fast paced editing and jump cuts we did for the Wicker Park Chicago video - the look and feel was exactly what we envisioned. And that theme is still present in the upcoming Lincoln Square video, too. But what we were afraid of doing was creating the same video, sticking similar music on it, and giving viewers more of the same.
So we definitely jazzed up the music, and we tried to get a little more personal with the neighborhood, which is appropriate for Lincoln Square - you have less density, more detached homes, and a less frenetic feel here.
We’re thinking with the Cubs season right around the corner, we might do a Wrigleyville video when the weather gets above 40 degrees. So maybe June or July…
It’s finally posted.
We Rock Chicago - Lincoln Square
Let me know what you think.
[…] show we had David Weiss from WeRockChicago on again to talk about his new video. Barry C wrote a blog about real estate videos a month or so ago and we have the opportunity to talk with David at that time. He has now release a […]
[…] show we had David Weiss from WeRockChicago on again to talk about his new video. Barry C wrote a blog about real estate videos a month or so ago and we have the opportunity to talk with David at that time. He has now release a […]