Video is really starting to gain momentum these days in the real estate industry, and we couldn’t be any more pleased about that. If you’ve been considering getting started with video tours or agent profile videos, perhaps this read will help you to move forward take the plunge. Here are some excerpts from the interview that are well-worth the read:

How can real estate professionals use video in their marketing?

With such a large percentage of home owners starting their search for property online, using video in online listings is the first thing that comes to mind. Pictures are nice and descriptions are helpful, but there is no substitute to video for giving a user a firsthand experience of the property with a well-done video home tour. In addition to using video to highlight listings it can also be used to showcase neighborhood attributes and provide a profile of your business and team.

For example if you are a Realtor in the East Bay of California you can use video to highlight the quaint neighborhood of Rockridge and its beloved walking streets lined with local restaurants and shops. This content is ‘evergreen’ and helps people evaluating your listings get a true sense of the surrounding area.

Is appropriate for every listing?

I can’t think of a listing where it isn’t appropriate. Even properties that don’t have the most curb appeal can benefit from a video by capturing the attention of just the right buyer. Listings that are moving fast already and perhaps properties that rely less on online research for sales are exceptions to that statement.

Video is too expensive for most Realtors, right?

Professional video production is totally affordable for nearly all marketing budgets. Compared to traditional marketing channels it’s a bargain. It’s much cheaper than print materials, flyers, radio, TV, outdoor (bench and billboard) and other marketing vehicles.

What makes a good web video?

I think there is a big misconception out there that it is easy to make a good video. The fact is making good video that is compelling, authentic and relevant to the viewer is difficult. To wit, of the millions of videos watched on YouTube each day the average view time is less than 10 seconds. This is a direct result of most video not meeting the needs of the viewer.

When the viewer gives you permission to talk to them by clicking play you have to deliver, and deliver right away. To make good video for the Web (which is much different than traditional broadcast video advertising i.e. a :30 second TV spot) it needs to focus on three key things: authenticity, delivering a compelling message, production quality which makes it enjoyable to watch and drives action.

Bottom line is that web viewers have near-infinite choice for their attention and are typically skeptical. This means that your message has to be compelling, relevant and real. Over-produced sales pitches or videos that don’t meet the viewer needs are big turn-offs online.

What are some ways you can leverage the video content you create?

The nice part about video is that it’s a highly portable piece of content so you should look to get it out on the Web to get as many eyeballs to it as possible. Using a smart distribution strategy can put you in front of the right people at the right time. Whether it’s putting your video up on YouTube, Facebook, Active Rain or making it shareable via email and embeddable in a widget the idea is to get your video out there to where the viewers are.

We couldn’t agree more - a big thanks to the Future of Real Estate Marketing as well as to Morgan Brown for the perspective.

Technorati: real estate video, real estate marketing, video tours, web video, virtual tours, real estate advertising, interview

Here’s the Transcript:

Remember the good old days of TV and radio? Everyone would gather around to be entertained. Shows were broadcast at specific times and if you weren’t there on time, you missed it . Broadcasts disappeared into the ether. Well, things have changed.

This is Podcasting in Plain English

Here’s the big idea. Thanks to podcasting, show times don’t matter. When a new show is created, podcasting gives you a way to capture it and take it with you to watch or listen to later - usually for free. It makes shows personal and available on demand - That’s what makes it different from broadcasting.

It works by setting up a connection between a web site and a computer, so that new shows automatically show up when available.

Here are Three reasons why podcasting is becoming so popular.

The first is that anyone can do it. No satellites, radio towers or studios needed. Most people only need a microphone or video camera, a computer and a connection to the Web. With these things in place, they can make their own show that is open to everyone. It also means that there’s a wide variety of podcasts. Whether it’s investment advice from Wall Street, or your neighbors gardening show from down the street. There is likely a podcast for you.

The second is subscriptions. This means that if you visit a site that has a great podcast, you can click a button and subscribe to receive future shows automatically. All you need is a free tool called a Podcatcher, like iTunes, that acts as a way to capture the shows. The shows become yours to listen to or watch as much as you want, where you want.

The third reason is gadgetry. You can download a podcast onto a computer, but you can also download it to an MP3 player or other portable device and take it with you. And remember, podcasts work on all sorts of devices, not just iPods.

So, let’s look at how Jason uses podcasts.

He uses the web everyday, rides the bus to work and loves Japanese culture.

Recently he found a podcast by a Western couple living in Tokyo. After a quick listen, he subscribed to their podcast from their web site. That night, as he slept, a new show downloaded onto his MP3 player. The next morning he was on the bus, listening to his new friends in Tokyo, imagining what it would be like to eat the freshest sushi in the world.

Podcasting made it happen. It made it possible for the couple in Japan to create a show for only a few yen, it made it possible for Jason to subscribe to their show and take it with him. Podcasting means we don’t have to depend on traditional media - now, everyone can have a voice that shows their true colors.

Technorati: real estate podcasting, real estate video, commoncraft, howto, podcast, RSS, syndication

Here’s the link to the official press release from the National Association of Realtors®:

NAR Strategic Alliance Brings Real Estate Video Advantages to REALTORS®

Exciting times are upon us, indeed. We’d like to sincerely thank the NAR staff for all of their excellent work in pulling this together over the past few months. This alliance will most certainly help to inspire agents and sellers to start benefiting from using video for their real estate businesses, and we see this as an amazing opportunity to help them find their way to the most compelling results efficiently. We are truly honored to be a part of this program, and welcome the opportunity that this pairing of efforts suggests. Great things, indeed.

Technorati: Real estate video, agentcasts, real estate marketing, NAR, REALTOR Benefits®, real estate news, video tours, virtual tours

Video content drives news. Journalists and news outlets continue to cover and incorporate popular viral videos into their broadcasts. If marketers post a video in response to a crisis or release a brand-flattering video, they can potentially generate news online that could translate into primetime broadcast coverage.

Search engines can pick up the video. If there’s video content posted on the aggregators about your brand, it will be included in search results. Marketers have a better chance of reaching target audiences if they can get their video messages included in search results as it will be evermore important for advertisers to diversify their marketing efforts to attract user’s attentions.

It’s what people are watching. When it comes down to it, people watch videos online. A December 2007 study by Burst Media found that 76 percent of men and 67 percent of women watch online videos. By spreading pertinent brand messages through online video, marketers have a chance of benefitting from the content being syndicated on other formats. If a marketer can get a message out through video, there’s potential it will be distributed on iPods, homepages, mobile devices, and social networking sites. That’s good coverage. Video posted on a brand’s Web sites will arguably garner more attention than text.

Video goes viral. Every marketer wants their message to be what people are talking about, and utilizing video is a great way to reach this goal. Video is easily dispersed amongst peers and can be accessed and posted on a plethora of platforms. Online video also makes a nice side dish to any news story or blog posting. So if someone is commenting on your event (good or bad), it’s easy to include your video along with that commentary. The idea here is to make it easy for others to get pass along your message for you.

I also particularly love this quote from the article, and think it speaks volumes for the use of video in the real estate industry:

Out of all the tactics available to online marketers, video is the best avenue to reach consumers, especially when the information needs to get out quickly.

I couldn’t agree more. Do your listings need to reach customers quickly and effectively? I suspect that the answer to that question is a solid and unquestionable ‘yes’. If so, you should be using video. It’s really that simple.

Technorati: real estate, video tours, real estate video, virtual tours, video marketing, realtor marketing, online video

Ann Arbor Michigan Real Estate - Karen Moorhead: Agent Profile Video

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As you can likely see, a simple ‘video bio’ like this may very well be useful for just about any real estate seller trying to market him or herself out of relative obscurity online for a number of reasons. Aside from being able to efficiently exude your personality, establish trust, and even assert your expertise to your potential clients who may stumble upon your own website, a video marketing piece like this can also help to get them to find you (and your website) in the first place. How? Well let me quickly expand on that!

In addition to filming, producing, and delivering these Realtor® Profile Videos to our real estate clients, we here at AgentCasts also distribute and publish them across the internet to the top web video sites like YouTube, Yahoo Video, and Metacafe (as well as seven others). To kick things up a few more notches, we also create an RSS Feed branded with the agent’s business information and create a podcast version of their video profile which we submit to iTunes and about ten other highly-searchable podcasting directories online. Sound thorough? Good - It’s supposed to be. =]

If all of this seems at all overwhelming or confusing - well, it’s really not. Perhaps a quick testimonial from Karen Moorhead (the real estate agent featured in the example video above) will help to smooth out the rough edges and ease your mind a little:

“I have been extremely impressed with the videographer who you have from the Metro Detroit area who was willing to come out to Ann Arbor. I loved the video when it was finished.

I was thrilled with the production and the exposure has been incredible. I had an RSS feed tagged with my own name as well as “real estate in Ann Arbor Michigan” delivered to my email, and my inbox is filled with your excellent coverage.

AgentCasts seems to have the whole package: Excellent products, superb production and then the ability to blast the video out to the web.

Thank you!!”

Karen Moorhead
http//treetowntalk.com

Hmm - I think she likes us! That’s just excellent - we like her too.

If you’d like to learn more about our Agent Profile Videos, just click here.

Technorati: realtor marketing, real estate video, agent branding, real estate technology, video marketing

We’re big fans of RSS technology over here at AgentCasts for good reason - it’s a major factor in getting our users real estate video content ‘found and watched’ across the web. Around here, we use RSS specifically in the form of ‘Podcasting’ - which is simply attaching an RSS Feed to audio or video content to deliver the RSS subscription features to our users (and their potential viewers).

Since we love and believe in RSS so much, we actually produce and deliver a podcast version for every real estate video we produce, and even update and manage our users RSS feeds for them. Confusing? Uh-oh - I’ve probably already said too much. Allow me to step out of the way and let Dave work his magic:

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) can be confusing if you know little about it. Other people blather on about “subscribing,” “feeds,” “readers” and the like, while you have no idea what they’re talking about.

If this describes you, you’re in the right place.

You can find definitions for “RSS” everywhere. Feedburner has a page on it; What Is RSS? is all about it; Wikipedia has a detailed page about it. The list goes on and on.

They’re all way too complicated.

You probably want to know more than just what RSS is. You also want to know why you should care, right? You’re busy enough already - you need a reason to add yet another thing to your life.
RSS, in really simple language

Here’s a great analogy for RSS, from Ed Lee (edited slightly):

Your web content is like water in a lake. Lots of people want it and you want them to have it. But, to get it, they need to visit the lake, fill their buckets and then go back to their homes to use it.

RSS enables your audience to create a stream from your lake (where the content is) to their home (where they need the content).

I also like an explanation that Chris Anderson uses (paraphrased) (hat tip - Mitch Joel):

We used to have to go out and find stuff - news, sites, etc… RSS lets the web come to you.

For a slightly longer (3 minute) explanation, here’s a brilliant video from the Common Craft Show on what RSS is and how to use it:

RSS In Plain English (How To) - A funny movie is a click away

Thanks Dave!

Technorati: real estate technology, real estate podcasting, RSS Feeds, technology, web 2.0, subscriptions, podcast

Now we’re not the biggest fans of ‘tooting our own horns’ over here, but our customers sure seem to ‘toot’ them for us pretty darn often these days. Due to a number of recently-received raving client reviews, I’m going to show you an AgentCasts Photo Based Video Tour to let you examine this $97.00 product that they’re buzzing about in action. Here’s a sample, proudly presented in our newly unveiled video player: (RSS readers - click through to view the player)

Our ‘photo based’ video tours (like the one above) are produced from your listing photos alone into killer video-formatted property presentations that you can use to market your listings literally anywhere online. The professional audio narration you hear is indeed included, and the video player you see can be easily posted (and even custom branded) to your own website. Think this looks and sounds pretty good? Our customers certainly do (and so do we)!

Since these tours are produced and formatted as fully web-compatible videos, we don’t stop at just delivering your property tour in a pretty (and useful) player - that’s really just the beginning. Instead, we take your finished video tour and distribute it to the most relevant web video sites online, and even present and deliver it as a podcast to the top podcasting destinations for you. We even supply an unbranded, ‘MLS Friendly’ version of your tour so that you can link it to your MLS without any hiccups. In short, if the marketing reach and rewards that web video offers are what you’re seeking, our $97.00 solution may very well be worth checking out.

As you can likely tell, we’re really excited about the reviews that are pouring in about our Photo Based Tours, and think that perhaps you should be too. Want more info or a product demo? Get in touch.

Technorati: real estate, real estate video, real estate video tours, real estate marketing, virtual tours, realtor marketing, web video, agentcasts

A big part of our model here at AgentCasts is focused on employing a killer web distribution initiative for each and every real estate video we create. This is why we’ve included podcast formatting for all of our videos from day one here in order to supplement our web streaming (Flash video) versions. See, podcasting allows your viewers to ’subscribe’ to your real estate video ‘channel’ via something called an ‘RSS Feed’. Once your users, viewers, or potential clients subscribe to your podcast with this RSS Feed, they automatically receive your new video tours or marketing content as soon it is published. This is the same technology that powers blog syndication across the web, and your video podcast content updates appear to your RSS subscribers in much the same way that new blog posts appear in your feed reader.

Podcasting also allows your video content to be compatible with portable media players such as iPods and iPhones, giving your viewers even greater flexibility in how (and where) they watch and consume your videos. Pretty cool, right? Exactly - That’s why we include podcasts and RSS Feeds with all of our real estate video content.

eMarketer has actually just released a new report on podcast growth which helped to inspired this post. Here are the highlights:

eMarketer estimates that the total US podcast audience reached 18.5 million in 2007.

Furthermore, that audience will increase by 251% to 65 million in 2012. And of those listeners, 25 million will be “active” users who tune in at least once a week.

A number of factors are driving the growth of the podcast-user base:

* Greater ease of consumption for podcast content
* Growing awareness of podcasting
* Terrestrial radio’s use and promotion of podcasting
* Increased penetration of portable players
* The evolution of smart phones and proliferation of affordable mobile data plans

”No one will argue that mobile devices and communication are becoming widespread,” says Mr. Verna. “Even so, the majority of podcasts are actually experienced on PCs, not portable devices.”

Think podcasting your real estate video tours and marketing videos may be a good idea? We surely do. If you’re a real estate seller who’s been using podcasts for syndicating your marketing content, we’d love to hear about your experiences. Drop your comments below!

Technorati: real estate podcasting, real estate podcasts, real estate video, real estate marketing, real estate technology, podcasting statistics, real estate video tours

Since we’re well into the idea of getting more real estate agents to pick up their video cameras and starting filming their property listings themselves, we thought we’d post this short ‘how to’ clip to help you refine your skills and build up your confidence:

Of course, there’s alot more implied in getting your video footage properly shot, edited, and ‘web ready’, but the more useful information you can add to your growing arsenal of resources, the better. Also keep in mind that once you have your real estate video footage captured adequately, you can always just upload it to our Video Editing & Finalization Service to let our expert production team round it off. We can efficiently help you get your video tours polished, live on your website, and even posted to the most rewarding video destinations online to maximize your results and pull in potential customers.

More DIY video filming advice & tricks can be found here at Kipkay’s Video Tips & Tricks on Instructables.

Happy Filming!

This second post of the series, entitled “Video lessons in real estate” does a very nice job of describing what she’s learned so far while figuring out how to get her feet wet with video for her own (potentially) forthcoming listing in New York, and it’s well worth the read. Lots of good pointers in there from an ‘early adopter’s’ perspective. Check it out.

If you’d like to read the first part of this editorial, “What to do this year? Video video”, you can find it here - but only if you’re subscribed to Inman news. I wasn’t planning on having to add the ‘if you’re subscribed part’, but it seems as though this information is now under the lock and key of their subscription model as of this week. When I read it last week (and responded to it, with a very long-winded email), it was free. Hmph.

Agent Profile Videos are a great way to show off your specific expertise and business identity to an amazingly large potential audience through the vast marketing channels that Web video has opened up. As I’m sure you know by now, as a real estate seller your primary point of intersection with your potential clients lies in the value you offer to them, and your ability to make them aware of this value efficiently. By showing your future clients who you are, what you have to offer, and why they should feel confident in your ability to serve them well, you’re delivering them the very essence of your ‘personal value’ in every regard.

With an Agent Profile Video, you’re able efficiently push your personalized branding message out to an incredibly large audience in a seriously engaging and appealing manner. Have you ever had an amazing first conversation with a potential client in person - one which you wish you could have with everyone, one that really got across the unique value proposition you offer and fully-delivered your personality the way you wanted? If so, conceptualize the idea of capturing yourself in this state and broadcasting it loud and clear all over the Web. Sound like it may be extraordinarily valuable to your business at this point in time? Good. It will be.

In terms of addressing the costs of having an Agent Profile Video produced, there are some very fairly-priced services to help you get there, like the one we offer at AgentCasts. So even if you’re not able to comfortably justify doing real estate video tours for all of your property listings quite yet (even though we still think that you probably should be!), you should most certainly think about doing a one-off Agent Profile Video to get your personal brand ‘out there’ and your business in front of your customers right now. Not only will this help you to immediately leverage the incredible distribution potential which online video has opened up, but it may very well help you to effectively market your terrain and capture an audience when you could really benefit from one, like during this very crucial time in the real estate market. The question is asked often enough - who will survive and who will thrive? In answer to that, we here suspect that this decision may very well be exclusively up to you!

Technorati: Real estate, real estate video, agent profile videos, real estate marketing, agent marketing, online real estate, agentcasts, Web 2.0, Agent Profile Videos, ROI, real estate video tours

Daily traffic to video-sharing sites such as YouTube has doubled in the last year and the number of women visiting has doubled, too.

According to the latest research by Pew Internet:

• 48% of internet users said they had ever visited a video-sharing site such as YouTube. A year ago, in December 2006, 33% of internet users said they had ever visited such sites. That represents growth of more than 45% year-to-year.
• 15% of respondents said they had used a video-sharing site “yesterday” — the day before they were contacted for our survey. A year ago, 8% had visited such a site “yesterday.” Thus, on an average day, the number of users of video sites nearly doubled from the end of 2006 to the end of 2007.
• Nearly a third of wired young adults (30%) watch a video on a site like YouTube on a typical day and fully a fifth of online men (20%) do the same.
• The percent of women who visit a video site on an average day jumped from 5% to 11%.
• The percent of those ages 30 to 49, whose use on a typical day increased from 7% to 14% (or an increase of 100%).
• The percent ofhigh school graduates, whose use on a typical day grew from 5% to 13% (or an increase of 160%).

The spread of broadband is partially responsible for the increased popularity of video sites. The survey found that 54% of all adults now have high-speed connections at home.

These numbers are continuing to amaze and impress, with the ubiquity of Web video becoming only more apparent with each new set of poll results that hit the Web. Is the adoption on real estate video as a ’standard’ medium for showcasing properties online that far behind? We may be a bit biased, but we certainly think that it is…

Stay Tuned!

Technorati: real estate video, web video, adoption, agentcasts, online video, pew internet, statistics, news, women, broadband adoption

Best Wishes to All of You,

The AgentCasts Team
www.AgentCasts.com

Technorati: agentcasts, real estate video, holidays

Here’s an example snapshot I’ve embedded of Ocean Drive, down here in Miami Beach Florida:

View Larger Map

So you can now take these visually impressive Google Street View photos and embed them on your own site - right next to your real estate listings if you want! Just go to maps.google.com and pick a location in an area covered by Google Street Views. Once you’ve pulled up the Street View image, simply click ‘Link to this page’ and then ‘Customize and preview embedded map’ so that you’ll be able to select a custom size. Copy the code and paste it onto your own website or blog, and voila - you’re done.

The implications here are pretty self-evident in terms of spicing-up your real estate listings, as now you can show off relevant views in the area where your listing lives without even having to pull your camera out of your pocket. Additionally, we think this is also a pretty cool feature for those of you doing either Virtual Tours or Video Tours for your listings, as now you can easily include some cool area snapshots into your tours if you work or sell in an area which Google Street Views is covering. We’ll certainly be incorporating them here into our AgentCasts property tours right away. Amazing stuff!

Technorati: Google Street View, Images, Maps, Real Estate News, Property Listings, Video Tours, Virtual Tours, Real Estate, Listings, agentcasts, real estate marketing

We’ll be showing off the new AgentCasts video player, shaking hands, and passing along as much information as possible to any and all willing real estate professionals who are interested in leveraging real estate video for marketing their online property listings. So if you’d like to see a demo and get your head around or range services, this will be a great opportunity to do so.

If you want to schedule an appointment (or just establish a time to meet up), please don’t hesitate to drop us a comment here, email us (sales@agentcasts.com), or even give us a call at (954) 889-7092. We look forward to seeing all of you out there in Atlantic City, and hope that it’s a successful show for everyone attending.

Technorati: triple play, realtors expo, atlantic city, agentcasts, real estate video, video tours, real estate marketing, events

The study assessed online buying behaviors to measure the effects of Sellpoint’s ‘Active Product Tours’ (APT)on the purchasing patterns of Online shoppers. Here are their findings:

* There was a 35 percent increase in the sales conversion rate among shoppers who viewed the tours vs. those who did not.
* Shoppers viewing the product tours spent more than 2.5 minutes, on average, engaged in viewing detailed product information about each product viewed.

The Active Product Tours are detailed product presentations featuring audio, video and downloadable sales collateral related to a particular product. Shoppers choose to view them by selecting a “Take a Product Tour” button on the product page.

SellPoint also released the following information:

* Last year, online shoppers spent more time viewing APT on Thanksgiving Day than on CyberMonday (208,509 minutes vs. 181,726 minutes).
* Based on SellPoint projections, Thanksgiving Day view time will total more than 380,000 minutes vs. nearly 182,000 minutes of view time on Cyber Monday.

We find these assertions to be pretty compelling, to say the least. If product tours are this effective in transforming potential buyers into customers, then the implications here for agents and property sellers who are trying to market their listings online are nothing short of jaw-dropping.

Real estate video tours (created from either ‘true’ video or from photos produced into virtual video tours) certainly seem to be a solid and obvious choice for anyone trying to convert their real estate listings into actual sales (and better visibility) on the Web. Is your real estate business using them yet? If not, you certainly should be. Not sure how to get started? Contact us and we’ll point you in the right direction!

Technorati: web video, real estate video tours, real estate video, online real estate, video marketing, real estate marketing, statistics, metrics, video tours

I’m just settling back in after spending the past week at the NAR Expo in Las Vegas, where the real estate world was buzzing more heavily then ever about the possibilities which the evolving Web is opening up for agents and sellers who are actively marketing property listings online. Everywhere we wandered at the Expo we overheard alot of exciting talk about real estate video tours, blogging, social networking, and just about everything in-between. The air was full of excitement about the potential that is starting to infiltrate the real estate industry, and many vendors seemed to be attempting to support the shift either directly or indirectly with their product offerings. However, despite the obvious conceptual push in this direction, we were pretty surprised at some of the important points which were not being addressed which could immediately help property sellers to directly leverage the benefits of ‘Web 2.0′ efficiently without changing their whole game. As such, I’d like to quickly touch on a topic that sits pretty close to home - the difference between virtual tours and video tours, and how a simple shift from the traditional virtual tour to the video and podcasting formats can make a huge difference in effectively leveraging social media with your real estate listings.

After talking to countless agents who were all actively looking to embrace new marketing tools online, we noticed that many of them simply didn’t realize that web video was as easy to get started with as it really is. Most seemed to think that a virtual tour was the ‘inexpensive option’, while video was a more complex and expensive tool which sort of evaded their immediate understanding. However, after about 3 minutes of explaining the simple points of differentiation and describing how a ‘virtual tour’ could easily be produced into a web video compatible format, I was able to get almost everyone I spoke with excited about real estate video. This was not because I was able to (or even attempting to) prove that ‘true video’ was somehow more effective or useful then still photos strung together as a virtual tour (even though it just may be!), but rather because I was able to show them how a virtual tour formatted as video could help them to pull in the benefits of Social Media and Web 2.0 without requiring a major overhaul in their current methods or marketing budget allowances.

Virtual Tours or Video Tours? How about both!

A virtual tour is typically produced by stringing together still images of a property in a slide-show like manner, and is typically ‘locked’ to an proprietary interface which is unique to the virtual tour provider (and not at all geared for web syndication or seamless integration with your own websites). Additionally, most virtual tours attempt to display a faux-panoramic view of the property by stitching images together to show a 360 degree perspective (which many agree isn’t all that flattering, in all truth). I’m sure most of you have seen a virtual tour by now, and if you have you know exactly what I’m talking about. Many agents seem to migrate to these as a method of presenting a better view of their listings then photos alone, with the price-point being a key component of their decision making process.

A video tour created from your still photos, however, offers you the same benefits in terms of presentation that a virtual tour offers (and then some), with all of the rewards which Web video delivers available under the hood. You see, we here at AgentCasts don’t necessarily think that true, full motion video (professionally shot with a video camera) is what most agents necessarily need in order to stand out online, reach their customers and sell their properties faster. We rather suggest that using a web video compatible format for your virtual tours is the important point of distinction here. By creating your virtual tours as videos that can be streamed on the Web and posted directly on your own websites, blogs, and property listing pages, you gain access to all of the buzz-worthy benefits video has to offer in terms of SEO, marketing reach, and visibility online - and this can be achieved for a price as inexpensive (or even less!) then many traditional virtual tours offer on the Web. It’s simply a matter of a slight technological adjustment in the way your property tours are produced, one that we have addressed directly since day one here at AgentCasts.

Of course, we feel that ‘true video’ is highly appealing and will likely become the standard for property presentations online over the next few years, but we do not see this as an immediate requirement for leveraging the benefits of web video and social media in any honest practical sense. In truth, we admittedly feel that video tours created from still photos pack the just same punch in terms of the ‘true need’ which is being displayed by the masses looking to ’step up’ in the online real estate industry, and as such we offer our photo-based video tours as the ‘Virtual Tour 2.0′ to supply the most relevant rewards instantly to your business. If you’re currently using virtual tours and want to make an easy shift to the countless advantages which web-compatible (and iPod / iPhone / portable device compatible!) video has to offer, a video tour created from your listing images will certainly get you there - without having to book a videographer, and without having to stretch or increase your marketing budget at all.

So if you’ve been craving the advantages of real estate video but have been drawn-in by the instant gratification of virtual tours, there’s a middle-ground solution to consider which deliver the benefits of both that you can leverage right away. A virtual video tour produced from your photos will get your listings in video format on your website, YouTube, iTunes, and anywhere else you’d like to be online for less then $100 per property. If you want true video, we offer that too, of course with AgentCasts Local - but in all honesty, what most of you need right now is to begin presenting your properties in ‘rich media format’ on the Web so that you can be found where the masses are now searching and provide better property presentations for your customers online. A photo based video tour gives you just that, without the formatting limitations of a typical virtual tour and for a price that can be easily justified by just about anyone who wants to market a property listing on the web. Why be limited by the restrictions of a traditional virtual tour when an option now exists that supplies much greater flexibility and an exponential increase in visibility online for the same or a similar price-point? There’s not one reason I can honestly think of!

Technorati: real estate video, real estate video tours, real estate videos, virtual tours, home tours, property listings, virtual video tours, real estate tours, real estate marketing, agentcasts, photo tours, virtual tours of homes, Realtors Expo

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 7 /PRNewswire/ — Staying on top of the real estate market is easy and fun when using one of today’s most popular and consumer-friendly platforms, the Apple iPhone.

Starting today, iPhone users now have the power of REALTOR.com at their finger tips. Whether searching for homes nearby or looking for listings in a particular neighborhood, iPhone users now have instant access to all details, including photos and contact information for the listing agent, with REALTOR.com for the iPhone.

“We’re committed to enhancing the experience consumers have when they’re searching for real estate on REALTOR.com,” said Joe DeTuno, senior vice president, product management. “Our new search capabilities for the iPhone are relevant enhancements that give consumers the full power of mobility and immediate access to REALTOR.com in a manner that fits naturally into their everyday lifestyle.”

Industry experts(1) predict consumers will purchase approximately 3.4 million iPhones this year, with an estimated 45 million units sold by the year 2009, making the iPhone potentially one of the most popular hand held devices used to search online for real estate.

A leader in wireless real estate search, REALTOR.com also enables consumers search capabilities through their REALTOR.com Mobile application on cell phones and PDA devices running Windows Mobile 5.0, including HP hw6965, HP hw6925, Palm Treo 700w (or Palm Treo 700wx), AT&T 8525, Cingular 8125, O2 Xda Stealth and Audiovox XV6700.

iPhone users can access listings at http://iphone.realtor.com/ using the browser on the phone for immediate access to REALTOR.com. This URL is provided exclusively for iPhone users.

Exciting, to say the least! I personally did not see this coming at all, but I’m very pleased to hear this news for a number of pretty obvious reasons. Realtor.com is extending itself to embrace emerging technologies, and the implications of this move are nothing short of mind-blowing for us technology buffs. And even though they do not specifically address how and when they will open the gates on posting video tours to the new iPhone portal, we can only assume that it’s on the way. Wow!

Can you imagine the potential here? We here at AgentCasts know that posting videos along with these Realtor.com iPhone site listings is only a simple embed code away, and we’ve been preparing our real estate video content to be iPhone compatible for over 2 months now. Realtor.com - we’re ready when you are!

Technorati: real estate news, realtor.com, realtor, iphone, iphone real estate, iphone video tours, real estate video, real estate marketing, real estate video tours

Between the soft housing market and tight budgets, U.S. real estate agents and brokers are facing tougher choices when they divide up their ad dollars - especially when media choices have proliferated - according to a new study of real estate ad spend trends, writes MarketingCharts.com.

Less than half - 47 percent - of the Realtors® surveyed said they are spending more for advertising and marketing this year than they did last year, the study conducted by Classified Intelligence and RealtyTimes.com found. That proportion was 58 percent in the previous year’s survey.

And despite their complaints about newspaper advertising, Realtors® continue to choose print over what is an almost overwhelming number of media-placement options, according to the report, “Real Estate Advertising - Print Fading But Realtors Still Use It.”

Although just 15 percent of respondents said they still advertise in print, respondents voted newspapers third out of 11 categories for producing qualified leads.

Moreover, half of the surveyed Realtors® said the results from national websites are below their expectations - simply not generating enough leads.

Some 39 percent of respondents said they’re overwhelmed by the number of advertising options; just 5 percent said they felt they have the decision-making process down to a science (see chart).

The study found that the shaky real estate outlook is compelling agents and brokers to use fewer dollars in more productive places, forcing them to reassess their media choices.

Some are turning online: Whereas a year earlier the number of Realtors® involved in blogging and social networking was insignificant, some 21 percent of respondents now say they have their own blog and 25 percent say they participate on at least one social-networking site.

“Real estate professionals are in a tough spot,” said Peter M. Zollman, founding principal of CI. “The economic considerations in an unsure market are pressuring ad performances to do more, for less. At the same time, choices for those advertising dollars have exploded, causing confusion on where to best spend their budgets.”

About the study: The report was based on responses from 344 real estate professionals, who reported they were everywhere from “overwhelmed” to “scientifically buttoned-down” about their advertising expenditures. The report also reviews companies providing technology to real estate ad publishers, leading European and Asian real estate advertising media, and an overview of the latest innovations in real estate ad technology.

Interesting report, and quite relevant for us here at AgentCasts (to say the least)…

Where are your advertising dollars going these days? Are you still beating the dead horse of print advertising, despite its failure to generate the results you need? Are you actively considering leveraging new mediums such as real estate video tours, blogging & social networking in order to help you overcome your current marketing hurdles on the Web? We certainly hope so. Many amazing new tools that actually work are now finally well-within reach (and even available on this website!) - It’s time to reevaluate your strategies.

So, Realtors® - what marketing techniques will you be using to help navigate your own sales efforts out of this slump? We want to know!

Technorati: real estate marketing, real estate advertising, real estate news, real estate trends, real estate video tours, agentcasts, online marketing, online real estate, video tours

Tonight, the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric will be running a piece on employing creative real estate marketing techniques to help overcome this particularly slow market. They will be focusing on the use of real estate video tours as a solution to help agents market their listings, and we’re quite excited to hear what they have to say (to say the least!).

The spot will run on the CBS Evening News on Wednesday, October 24th 2007 at 6:30PM EST (today) - don’t miss it!

Big thanks to Fred Light of Nashua Video Tours for pointing this out to us a few days ago. He will actually be featured in the segment, and will be shown taping a house in Leominster, MA for one of his clients. Very cool - congratulations Fred.

We suspect that this ‘prime time’ piece (right before the World Series) will seriously help to raise the general population’s awareness about the value of using video tours to market their real estate listings, and cannot wait to hear exactly what they have to say. Tune in - this is a great opportunity to hear this information from a reputable source other then a video tour provider (like ourselves), so we hope that you will all be watching!

**Update: I was just informed that this is now being postponed due to coverage of the wildfires raging through San Diego. I’ll post the revised date and time on this blog as soon as we receive the details.

Technorati: real estate, video tours, real estate marketing, real estate video, CBS evening news, Real Estate news, agentcasts