What
Real Estate Professionals are Saying About Video Home Tours:
REALTOR MAGAZINE
May 2007
"Today, a video tour is on the
leading edge," says TJ Tutor, a specialist in luxury homes with
Coldwell Banker Prime Properties in Fayetteville, N.Y. "But five
years from now, buyers will be demanding it."
Newsday.com
By Aimee Fitzpatrick Martin April 27, 2007 "With
more than 70 million videos seen on YouTube daily," Broker
Loretta Besser says she believes Web-based video tours are the
wave of the future and a winning marketing strategy. "It
makes a house come alive for prospective buyers," says Besser,
who burned DVD copies of the Jessup Lane video and handed them
out like candy at weekly open houses. "It eliminates wasted walk-throughs,"
she says, "and hopefully will shorten the time a house is on the
market." Besser's firm, Loretta Besser Real Estate, is based in
Centereach, says she thinks her strategy will be helpful for weary
house hunters who've traipsed through a dozen open houses to visually
remember her listing on Jessup Lane. "In today's market there's
an abundance of inventory out there, and you have to do everything
in your power to give a house the proper exposure - whether it's
a $300,000 house or a $2-million estate," she says.
"I love that it's a streaming
video, which is more fluid for people to see," says Patrick McLaughlin
of Prudential Douglas Elliman's Sag Harbor office. "I wouldn't
give you two cents for those 360-tours that freeze on your computer.
As an ex-television producer, I know how important good visuals
are."
•"Toni Curto, an owner
with Southampton-based Curto and Curto, says she's "thrilled
with the results" so far. A video was completed in mid-February,
and she says she's gotten four calls from prospective buyers,
which she considers a "tremendous response given the market
and the fact that it was winter." She says she tried it as
an experiment and definitely plans on using it again to showcase
other homes they build.
•"Enzo Morabito, a broker
who represents luxury properties on the North and South forks
for Prudential," Douglas Elliman, says, "The exposure
you get online is phenomenal. Money spent on advertising in magazines
and newspapers is important for branding yourself, but it doesn't
generate the calls like a Web site. People want the sensory experience,
so I've gone to video with that in mind."
•"The beauty of it in terms
of value is that when you invest in a video, it's available to
the entire world 24/7. There's no shelf life - until the home
is sold," Kent Rydberg, a former senior vice president at
Corcoran's Westhampton Beach office explains, adding that he shows
the DVD when making new listing presentations. "As an agent,
it really helps separate you from the competition."
CNNMoney.com
By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer March 2 2007
"I believe streaming videos on Web sites is the
wave of the future," says Charlie Young, vice president for marketing
for broker Coldwell Banker. Sites are already getting souped-up.
"A year ago," Young says, "we were telling all our brokers about
the need to put more [still] photos on their Web sites." Today,
if your site doesn't offer virtual tours, mapping technology,
neighborhood guides and a video library of buying and selling
tips, it's nowhere."
Chicago Tribune
By Mary Umberger, Tribune staff reporter Published March 9, 2007
"I think 2007 will be the year video breaks out,"
said Joel Burslem, marketing director for a Portland, Ore., brokerage
and host of a popular industry blog, Future of Real Estate Marketing
(www.futureofrealestatemarketing.com). Burslem cites the increasing
accessibility of video technology just as the real estate boom
was beginning to fade and the industry was scratching for ways
to attract attention.
Creative Realtors turn to YouTube By Barbara
E. Hernandez
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
December 2006
Krista Miller, 33, an agent with Berkeley-based
Windermere Bay Area Real Estate, put her first walking house tour
video on YouTube in October, and her client received multiple
offers. One buyer who spotted the video purchased the home. She
recently placed another video of a new listing and received 322
hits. She said she expects an offer on it soon.
"Now buyers can do the first round of house shopping
on the Internet. A couple of years ago, that was hard to do,"
said Stephen Levy, director of the Center for the Continuing Study
of the California Economy. "The real estate agent that can say,
'I can send you 20 (video walking tours),' is going to have a
competitive advantage."
"It's sort of a natural evolution," said Colleen
Badagliacco, California Association of Realtors president. "It
went from one picture to virtual tours and now videos."
National Association of Realtors
November 2006 technology report
• Suggested using YouTube to post online video
of homes.
"You need to set yourself apart from what others
are doing," Mark Lesswing, chief technology officer and senior
vice president for the National Association of Realtors in Chicago
said. "It means packaging what they have into what consumers want
on the Internet."
Realtor Magazine Online
by Mike Antoniak 11/01/2006
"I've been able to reduce my showings by 90 percent
- to only those people who are really seriously interested in
a home," reports Jorge Guerra, broker-owner of Real Estate Sales
Force in Miami. "With a video podcast, I can show them a lot more
about the house and its layout and flow than you get looking at
pictures in a regular virtual tour."
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