Technology & Social Media for the Real Estate Professional

Technology & Social Media 

For the Real Estate Professional

Well, first off let me tell you I’m not a realtor so I will be writing this from the perspective of my observations. I did however buy my first home within the last 6 months, and currently have that home on the market. This is also obviously the first home I’ll be selling, so as a potential client of yours I have some tips to offer.

Pet Peeves your clients have...

Location, Location, Location...They say the number one factor in Real Estate is location. Not only is it important, but it’s an element that is unchangeable. It is also the number one thing your client wants to know about the property. People prefer locations for a variety of reasons whether it be close to an expressway, close to public transportation, near good schools, near parks, shopping, etc. So why would you not post the location of your property? 

There is no good reason to not post the location, and the only plausible reason I can come up with as to why you wouldn’t post it is because it’s a bad location. When I was looking at homes if Realtors didn’t post an address or at least the nearest major cross street I would not even bother to continue looking at this home. I also definitely wouldn’t work with the realtor. 

Posting a location allows your potential clients to hop on google maps or www.zillow.com and look at a street view of the home and neighborhood, potentially saving both you and them the trouble of looking at a home they may not be interested in after seeing it’s near train tracks, a power lines, a hospital, a school, a busy road, etc.

Price... Again, why wouldn’t you post the price of a home you have listed? Again, as a potential buyer the only good reason not to post a price is because the place is overpriced and you’d like them to see it not knowing the price, fall in love with the place, and then hope they will pay the overinflated price or closed to it. 

Be it  a menu at an expensive restaurant, a vacation package, or a car; the only reason not to post a price is because it’s not a good price. If you don’t post a price I don’t care enough to contact you to find out what that mysterious price is.

Pictures... What the property looks like is critical to me buying it. Why wouldn’t you post a picture of the property? I see countless posts on craigslist with no price listed, no location listed and a generic cartoon picture of a house. If I don’t see the picture upfront I will not contact you to ask you to send me pictures, I will move onto the next listing that does have pictures. 

With technology today you could literally within 3 clicks of your thumb and 30 seconds have photos of a property on the web; so why don’t you??? If taking photos and posting them is too much for you to handle you should either hire someone to handle this aspect of your business or get out of the real estate game.

Pictures & Videos

I mentioned this in my pet peeves. Pictures are a must if you are a Real Estate Agent. Videos are not quite as essential as photos but it’s a great tool to have at your disposal. It doesn’t cost much if anything, and it gives you, and your listings something that most others won’t have.

As a buyer I like looking at pictures but I also realize pictures can be somewhat deceiving. When it comes to things like room size, colors, textures, a picture often just doesn’t do it. A realtor is also obviously going to take pictures that show the property in the best light possible. Seeing the actual property may not be quite as nice.

A video allows me as your potential client to get a feel of what it’s like to come to this property, walk in the front door, go to the kitchen, walk up to potentially my new bedroom, etc. It even allows you to maybe take a quick stroll through the neighborhood and get a feel for the traffic in the area, if neighbors are outside playing, working the in the yard, etc, basically just gives you a feel of the area as well as the actual home. Something you just can’t get from a photo.

I can do a follow up article on exactly how to take video, how to upload videos, how to host videos, and how to use videos in your listings. For now however, were going to keep things relatively simple.

As far as the type of camera to use for your video, you have many options. Most new smart phones have pretty good video cameras these days. You could potentially shoot and upload video with your phone in a matter of minutes. You should however already at least have a digital camera if you are a Realtor. You will most likely be able to use your digital camera to shoot video.

Most newer digital cameras have a video feature. If you don’t yet have a video camera or a digital camera consider buying one. You will definitely get plenty of use out of it in your Real Estate business as well as on family vacations and in your personal life.

Many websites, articles, and people in Real Estate are crazy about these Flip video cameras. They are easy to use. It’s also nice because the USB port to hook it up to your computer is actually part of the camera. You have no USB cables to lose, plus you always have the ability to hook your camera up to the computer and put video of a new property up onto www.youtube.com or even directly onto your listing.

A better route would be to run out and get a digital camera with a video feature. The sound will be better, the picture will be better, the zoom will be better and best of all it’s comparable if not cheaper than a Flip camera. You can pick up a Canon Power Shot for barely over a hundred bucks on www.amazon.com, I even have an Amazon widget on the side of this page with the actual camera model I use if you’d like to check it out. I personally think this is the route to go, and digital camera with video functions are pretty simple to use.

Editing

Again, I’m going to keep this relatively simple, if you are interested in learning how to edit videos for Real Estate purposes either e-mail me or leave a comment below this article and I will post a follow up article with step by step instructions. For now however I’ll just briefly touch on editing.

When it comes to editing you have two choices. You could hire someone to do your editing for you which will be costly and a bit of a pain coordinating it, and expressing what you want done. The other option is to do it yourself which is surprisingly simple.

When it comes to doing the editing, you basically have two choices. Both should be free if you have a relatively new computer. Mac has a program called iMovie. I don’t care for Mac or any Apple devices so I use Windows Movie Maker on PC. To make a simple video you just open up Windows Movie Maker, click upload music or video, select the file and you have a video made. You then just click the Youtube icon and it begins uploading the video onto youtube. It’s as easy as that, you just made your first video walk through of a property.

If you’d like to have your video look a little more finished and professional it’s very easy to add title pages with the properties address, your contact info, price, etc. You also are able to add music and animations like pages disappearing into the next. I won’t get into that now but again, e-mail me or leave a comment if you’d like a follow up article and or videos on how to do this.

Posting Your Videos

 

This was just touched on in the previous section but we’ll add just a few aspects to this. Posting is very easy through Windows Movie Maker. Once your video is complete just click the Youtube logo in the upper right hand corner and your video will begin saving and posting to Youtube.

There are various other places to host videos online but I like Youtube for a couple reasons. First it’s easy, people are familiar with Youtube, and people know how to navigate Youtube. Second, Youtube gives you a whole new market for your homes. Youtube has millions of viewers. Those millions of people all have a chance of stumbling across your videos.

If you want a different site than Youtube for whatever reason, there’s plenty of other video hosting sites such as www.vidilife.com , www.fliqz.com , www.brightcove.com , or www.photobucket.com, along with a few dozen others. Again, the reason I personally prefer www.youtube.com is because the reasons I mentioned above, but also because it’s a Google product. If you have a Google account you can have your Youtube account in the same place along with a Blogger account incase down the road you’d like to start a Real Estate blog. It also has Picasa, which is a photo editing and photo hosting site. Basically you can have all these tools in one place without having to visit half a dozen sites and remember half a dozen passwords.

What to do with these hosted videos?

So now you may be wondering, great I have these hosted videos but what do I do with them. You can put the links to the videos in your MLS listing so when potential buyers are checking out your homes they can also see a video along with the pictures.

This is great not only because it separates you from the pack of other agents and properties; but also, as I mentioned before, someone watching a video may decide they don’t care for a property without ever having seen it saving both you and them time. This will allow you to narrow down the time you spend together house hunting on properties that will work for the client. If you’ve ever had one of those clients who drags you around town for months on end showing them property after property, this tool will be invaluable to you.

Back to the topic of what to do with these videos though. In addition to placing them on the MLS you can also add them to other sites you post properties on such as Craigslist, Yahoo Real Estate, Zillow, Trulia, Blockshopper, etc. If you decide to start a blog you can also embed these videos directly into articles you post to your blog. You can also have these videos on your facebook page, your myspace page, and well your at it why not send a few tweets telling people about the property while including a link to watch the video.

How about a Real Estate Blog???

In my search for a new home I was curious about a Condo development I wasn’t that familiar with. In searching on the Internet and www.City-Data.com, I wasn’t finding much info about the complex, what it’s like to live there, etc. I wound up stumbling across the blog of a realtor who blogged specifically and solely about this large complex. It became clear to me from reading this blog that this Realtor was extremely knowledgeable about this complex.

My home search is temporarily on hold until I sell my current home, however once I sell I definitely plan on contacting this Realtor to show me these condos. This is a perfect example of how a Blog can help your Real Estate Business.

Not only is a Blog a great way to display your knowledge of Real Estate and also certain areas in your community; it’s also a great way to demonstrate your competent with technology. If I’m planning on listing my house and have one Realtor who knows how to use the Internet to sell properties and another who can’t figure out how to work a digital camera who do you think I’m going to go with?

A blog could be as simple as pictures and videos of properties you have currently listed. This is better than nothing but it’s really not that interesting to readers.

A great way to draw attention both to your properties and to you as a realtor would be having a blog about real estate topics such as how to give your home good curb appeal, how to de-clutter your home for better showings, etc. 

Basically give people ideas that will add thousands onto their sale price. Doing this will both display your knowledge as a realtor as well as give people a reason to visit your site. In turn learning about you and your Real Estate business as well as the properties you currently have on the market.

Social Media for Realtors

Social media is important and something that can help your business grow. Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Youtube, and Photobucket are all valuable tools that cost you nothing to use.

You may be asking yourself, how will these sites my kids play around with help my business grow. First off people use these sites, and other realtors use these sites. If you’re not using them you have less exposure to potential clients than other realtors.

As a first time homebuyer, picking out a realtor and the entire process can be intimidating. Normally the process of selecting a Realtor is seeing a smiling man or women on a bus stop bench or shopping cart and calling them. You look at a few properties with them and if you don’t mesh you move onto the next Realtor.

By having a presence on the web, specifically on social media sites you give yourself an opportunity to show your face, give a friendly introduction, and share the knowledge you have as a Realtor. Maybe you’ve moved a lot in your life. The about me section of your facebook page would be a great place to say something like...”I’ve moved around a lot and understand it’s easy to become overwhelmed with all  complexities of moving. Having to sell a home as well as shop for a new one. I understand it’s easy to become overwhelmed and would love to share my knowledge and experience with clients to help them during these stressful times.” 

Btw, having a social media presence also allows you to demonstrate that you are skilled with technology and the internet. If you have a presence on the web and your competition doesn’t you have that many more avenues to sell someone’s home for them.

Another reason for you female Realtors to have a presence on social media is because men buy houses. Men are extremely stupid. I can say this because I am a man. A friend of mine recently suggested I use a Realtor he knew. Was it because she had sold the most properties out of anyone in her office? Was it because she was recognized as top Realtor of the year in our state? Nope, it was because as he put it...”She’s super hot dude.” When selling the biggest investment of your life, something that potentially can either gain you or lose you a years salary if not more you’d think you’d want to go with a Realtor who’s experienced and knowledgeable. However just as my story illustrates, there’s plenty more idiots like my buddy out there, and if you have a pretty face and a social media presence that may get you some business as well.

In addition to social media being a way to communicate with your clients social networking is also a great way to network with other Realtors. Sure you probably talk regularly with other Realtors within your office but you probably have many other acquaintances from different brokers you see on a regular basis. 

They have homes they need to sell and you have buyers who need to buy homes or vice versa. Having a presence on a social network like Twitter allows you to send out a Tweet to those Realtors letting them know about a great new property you listed. Or maybe you have a friend at with another broker who is looking for a home for a picky buyer and you have a listing you think may be the perfect place. Visit their Facebook page and write something about it on their wall. Not only will they be aware of the place but anyone who frequents their page will also see the property on their wall along with your contact info.

Wrapping Up

We just briefly touched on the different aspects of social media and how it can help grow your Real Estate business. I’d love to hear your comments as to whether you agree or disagree with what I’ve said. Are you implementing some of these tips into your business? If so how is it working out for you.

Because I just briefly touched on these topics maybe there’s something that piqued your interested and you’d like additional info. If so feel free to e-mail me at rulesforrebels@gmail.com or leave a comment below this article. If you request it, I’d be happy to do a follow up article in more detail on a specific topic or even put together a how to video tutorial on how to do some of these things.

I’m also happy to do some consulting work to help you establish a social media presence for your Real Estate business or just to help teach you how to take videos, upload videos, or make a video walk through. Just shoot me an e-mail.