Do-it-yourself listing showcase videos can be easy and fun to make. If you are not careful though, your final product could be a bouncy “Blair Witch style” tour of the home’s interior and exterior, more closely resembling a blooper’s reel than serious marketing material.

There are several tips and tricks you can use in your production:

Tripod – Using a tripod stabilizes the camera, getting rid of the “Blair Witch” effect for a more professional appearance.

Staging - Staging focuses on improving the appearance of a property. Staging a home can transform it into a welcoming, appealing, and attractive environment to potential buyers. Staging deemphasizes a home’s flaws and spotlights the attractive aspects.

Audio –Ever watch a video and see the person’s mouth moving, but can’t hear a word because of the background noise? People want to be able to hear what is being said. By creating your video early in the day or later in the afternoon, you minimize the risk of capturing unwanted sounds. This will allow you to focus on your subject.

Lighting – Is the property you’re filming dark and dreary or bright and sunny? Make sure you put it in the best light possible. Consider filming your property the early morning or late afternoon. Photographers refer to the first hour after dawn and the last hour before dusk as the “Golden Hour”. This is the time when the outside lighting is at its best. The sunlight is defused and does away with harsh shadows and highlights.

These days, just about every cell phone and digital camera can take a video. Just because you have a gadget that can take a video, unfortunately, doesn’t make you a Spielberg or a Coppola. By following the basic steps listed above, you’ll be well on your way.

Just remember… unless you want to emphasize the fact that the property you’re selling is in a seismically active location, use a tripod. Also, do not forget to stage your property. This helps when trying to hide that crime scene outline or showing off that outstanding mountain view.

If after following some of these basic steps you find yourself not winning a Best Director’s award or even being nominated, you can always leave it to the professionals. There are many companies out there that can help you showcase your property effortlessly.

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If you’re spending to get traffic to your website from the major search engines you are probably wondering how much of your money is wasted on passive searchers. You know, “browsers” the type of person that’s caught between the conundrum of buying vs. renting or maybe they're 6 months to a year from making a purchase. The type of person you immediately call after they fill out a lead form only to find out they only wanted to know what school zone the house is in but isn’t serious to buy. Eventually, these passive searchers just end up on your drip marketing campaigns in hopes they come around someday.

A way to separate the passive searcher from the active home-buyer and spend money wisely is to optimize your blog and website content to a very local level. In search, the rule of thumb is the longer keyword phrase the better the prospect.

For example:

Chances are a person searching "Manhattan Real Estate" is a more passive searcher than a person searching "Soho NY Lofts for Sale near Wooster Street". In the second example you know exactly what the consumer wants and where they want it. That’s the type of person you want to find your website.

You can enhance your search marketing strategy by setting up campaigns with specific neighborhoods in mind or use the neighborhood names in the link text or headline of your ads. Using these methods can increase your click-through rate of your ads and usually the conversion rates will improve because it will weed out the passive shopper and attract those who know what they want. If you choose to just go the neighborhood route be prepared for less search volume, but since there is less competition the clicks should still be cheaper. This is a good way to stretch your advertising dollar and still attract those hot leads.

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It’s a buyer’s market and Generation Y -- the children of the Baby Boomers -- are buying in droves. They prefer to buy books on Amazon.com instead of the local bookstore. They buy cars from eBay.com instead of the local dealership. In essence, Gen Y is cutting out the middle man. Does this mean they no longer need a Realtor in order to purchase a home? Absolutely not!

A Realtor is much more than just a go-between; the services they offer are not available in black and white or online. A website cannot tell you how a home smells, or about a train blaring through the neighborhood at midnight. A Realtor’s time and experience in this market far outweighs any money saved by squeezing out the middle man.

While books and cars are commonplace items, a home is not. Going about purchasing a place to live in the same manner one would purchase something to drive or read is not always going to result in the same type of savings. In getting rid of your intermediary, you’re gambling on the most important investment of your life: your home.

Wendy McDaniel
MLS Relations Manager
Homes.com

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Okay. The market is tougher today for real estate agents.

Or is it? I suppose it depends on who and what you are. It may also depend on how long you’ve been in the business of representing home buyers and sellers. Do you look at the glass as half full or half empty? And, finally, are you up to speed, or speeding up?

While daily news statistics are pointing out to us in large headlines that home sales are down, as well as home values, the print inside the articles doesn’t go on to say that ZERO homes have sold. Houses are selling and Realtors are profiting. If you’re one of those Realtors or a salesperson who is making this market work for you, jump in here and tell the others what you are doing to improve your business. It’s not even necessary for you to explain your business model. Unfortunately, there are more Realtors today approaching this market in the wrong way than there are approaching it in the right way. We could use your advice.

So, tell us, where are the stray cows in this herd and what aren’t they doing right?


George Salvador, Division Vice President
Homes.com/Agent Advantage

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This has been a wonderful time in the Big Apple. This is my first time ever being here, so I may be biased, but I have had a blast. Jay Thompson wrote on his post that he got to go to the Google party, and we Homes.com folks were there at the Google New York office as well.
And yes, the view is the "worst" ever...

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Blogging and the Long Tail was a topic of interest during this week’s Inman Connect NYC conference. And it is for good reason. The Long Tail is the idea that the 2% of most searched categories are no comparison to the 98% of every other searched category in terms of getting people to come to your blog or website.
And blogging is the way to get this Long Tail wagging.
Another reason many in the industry are placing so much emphasis on the Long Tail is that it costs less to implement.
This Long Tail theory comes about almost naturally and organically through the use of blogs. Real estate bloggers love this and some are using it with great success.
Jay Thompson and Teresa Boardman didn't speak on this topic during their speaking session, but he brought it up during the following session. He is a Realtor in the Phoenix, AZ area, he is an active blogger on Phoenixrealestateguy.com and he gave a wonderful example of how this theory was put to practice.
He was a big fan of Vanilla Pepsi and drank it almost exclusively. Unfortunately, for Pepsi, not many felt as he did and the drink was taken off the market.
Jay was disappointed because he loved the drink, so he wrote a post about his disappointment.
He got many responses from this post. In fact, one of those who commented contacted him, needed his services and Jay helped get him a property.
And all this because he posted about Vanilla Pepsi.

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So far, so good. What a great conference so far. The speakers have dispensed great and quality information.
The two afternoon sessions for the Bloggers Connect Program was "Brush up your Netiquette: Blogosphere's Best Practices", and "Steer your Blog Toward the Long Tail".
The speakers for the first afternoon session were Teresa Broadman, Realtor/Broker for Keller Williams Integrity Realty, and Jay Thompson, Designated Broker for Thompson's Realty. They are frequent bloggers on their own sites and as guest bloggers on other top Realtor blogs.

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I am here in NYC at the Real Estate Connect Conference produced by Inman News, and the goals of the many industry professionals who have made it here are focused. Many have been battered in 2007, and they want better results for 2008.
The focus of Inman Connect is clear: Marketing and the Internet.
This morning I attended the Bloggers Connect Program track. The 9:45am-10:30am session was called Beyond the Written Word: Videoblogging and Podcasting. Videos and multimedia are big and getting bigger. Internet users like pictures and video (youtube.com anyone?). The gist of this session was get involved because it is not going away. Of course, there are some legitimate concerns from the realtors and industry professionals who are already busy. How do they do this with very limited time?
Fortunately there is a lot of help out there and companies that one can partner with to get their videos and podcasts cooking.
The 10:45am-11:30am session was the Keynote Address by Lockhart Steele, Founder and Publisher of Curbed.com. His top was The Future of Blogging.
And the 11:30am-12:15pm session was called Marketing Your Blog, and it was moderated by Joel Burslem, Social Media Manager of Inman News, and the panel included top leaders in the real estate blog industry. I have to get back to this afternoon's tracks, but there is more to come throughout this next two days.
Every track was packed to overflowing. I was standing in the back for two hours, but it was well worth it.

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Text Messaging – What Are “Short Numbers” and How do they Work?
After receiving several text messages on my phone from a “short” number and seeing “zillions” of commercials and programs advertising sending a message to a short 5 or 6 digit number, I wondered how these actually work. After a little research, I found a lot of great information that I thought you might find interesting.

Is there a formal name for this technology?
Yes. These numbers are called “Common Short Code” or CSC.

How do CSCs work?
A wireless subscriber addresses a text message to the CSC number (e.g., 55555), enters code into messages as directed and sends the message. The message is routed through the wireless service provider’s network to the text (SMS) messaging server. The wireless service provider’s SMS messaging server then determines where to route the message based on the CSC and which application provider corresponds to the CSC. The application receives the message and routes it through the software application, which could include sending a confirmation or follow-up message back to the wireless subscriber who originated the message.

Why are keywords sometimes used with CSCs? Keywords are included with the short code (for example, “55555” with a keyword of “Homes”) and allows a CSC to be shared by more than one company or division. Sharing of a CSC is often done for cost savings and management reasons.

Are all CSCs supported by all wireless carriers? This depends on the wireless carrier, but most CSCs are supported.

Are CSCs expensive? That depends on your definition of expensive. Random CSCs are $500 per month, while specific CSC numbers are $1000 per month to lease. Additional development costs from an application provider to integrate into software would also apply to be able to receive the data in a useable format.

For more details on short codes visit http://www.usshortcodes.com.

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Realtors have gone through the battles of 2007. It is now officially a buyer's market, and in order to get your client's house sold for them, you may have to do a bit more than just opening the front door and taking the first bidder. It will take more than just listing the property and placing a clean tablecloth on the center table.
But I am preaching to the choir. You know that in a buyer's market, the house has to stand above the rest.
And that is just one of the many changes from last year.
Hopefully having learned from it, you are plowing through and looking forward to a banner year in 2008.
Market more? Spend less? Improve your website?
We want to hear from you:
What are your business goals for 2008? Fill us in on what you plan to do.

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2008 brings another year of introspection and New Year’s resolutions for many people.
In light of this, if you Google the Top 10 New Years resolutions you’ll find:

• Spend more time with family and friends


• Exercise


• Lose Weight


• Quit Smoking


• Enjoy Life More


• Stop Drinking


• Get Out of Debt


• Give back to others


• Take up a new hobby


• Get organized

Some will be kept and some will be broken. But what if, this year, you made some real estate resolutions?
Here are the Top 5 that are on my list:

1. Get organized- Start researching homes for sale on real estate websites like Homes.com, Trulia.com, Zillow and get an idea of the homes, townhouses or condos you like & areas you are interested in even if you aren’t planning on moving in the near future. It never hurts to look!


2. Budget, budget, budget- This is a tough one. Make sure you know your budget & stick to it. Know what you can afford, and what you can’t.


3. Give back to others- How about blogging? It’s a great way to share your thoughts and ideas with others. Social media groups like LinkedIn and Digg are also great ways to build links.


4. Exercise- 2008 is going to be a combination of running and yoga. Everything is going mobile, faster and even more immediate. With the dawn of the iPhone, and all the convenience it brings, mobile is going to be the new place to look for homes and we are all running to stay ahead. This also means stretching our entire thought process. It means driving past a home for sale, downloading the MLS # into our cell phones, pulling up all the listing information linked to any real estate website we choose (that it is listed on) and wanting an agent to show it to us at that exact minute.


5. Take up a new hobby- I’m not a particularly gadget-oriented person, but this year I think I will try to create my own widget. Sound intimating? It’s not really. There are quite a few free and paid services that allow you to create widgets. Personally, I prefer SpringWidgets, partly because it’s free and partly because it’s incredibly user-friendly for those of us who aren’t, again, gadget-oriented. Check it out.

Good luck with all of your 2008 New Year’s and Real Estate resolutions!

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What a year 2007 has been for Realtors, mortgage lenders, and all those who run within the real estate world. We have seen the disastrous consequences of the sub prime debacle come to fruition, the potential governmental bail outs, and who knows what else coming for 2008. Can it get any worse?
Okay, how about some good news.

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