Online meetings have extended that thinking.  Given scattered email and phone traffic, along with various parties involved…all can be cumbersome depending on the objective.  Sometimes you have to meet and hash things out.

Below is a mock screenshot of an agent conducting an online meeting…

Specific Purpose Above:

• Agent is working with investors (wife & husband team) in Canada
• Investors looking to purchase many foreclosed homes in Arizona
• Email and phone traffic has been heavy, husband/wife investors not in-sync with each-other
• Agent holds online meeting to meet “face-to-face” with both (where they can at least see him).
• Meeting consists of showing listings, certain websites (synced so all are looking at the same web-page, at same time), etc.

There are many things to consider when acquiring an online meeting app…and protocols to best follow when conducting an actual meeting  (I.e. don’t assume attendees will use meeting’s built-in VOIP feature [PC microphone/headset] during the meeting if you’re a regular Skype user…keep voice aspect over a typical phone).

Possibilities and usage are endless. Even in-house within the brokerage; associate brokers having meetings w/ agents (could be done online in some instances).  List goes on…

Recently, we were browsing listings in the Phoenix metropolitan and came across a “choice” listing online (20 photos, good detail, virtual tour, video tour, etc)…a listing that met our strict criteria when engaging in an advanced search.  An absolutely beautiful and engaging home presented online.

Funny thing with the virtual tour was the music selected by the agent.  The music playing was Christmas / Holiday music. Immediately, we could do the math and draw conclusions of how long this listing has been on the market;  inferring a small, but duly noted, air of caution (why hasn’t this property moved).

Yes, “the weather outside is frightful” here in the desert (not snow, but blazing hot summer heat).

Be sure to cross check any online listing tools within your arsenal that use any “seasonal” or “holiday” oriented flair.  This agent did a bang-up job in giving us every resource to see this property in it’s best light (after a pretty penny spent I’m sure by this agent).  One small item that required a little attention-to-detail.

But there is more for agents/brokers to be concerned with, to ensure their listings get “face-time” on many online real estate classifieds.

Time to get Geeky…

So where is online search heading and how can you remain competitive?

The growing frontier is definetely keyword search. It’s here and it’s growing. In terms of Computer Science, it’s a realm called “Natural Language”. We see it today with companies like Vast, Roost, Oodle and other online classifieds, where keywords are an intricate part to the online, consumer search experience…where the importance of keyword search for RE professionals is now extremely important.

Given the example of Roost to the right, we see opportunities for consumers to refine search results on key words like “Hardwood Floors”…rich keywords and phrases. I remember Joel of FOREM once mentioned folks from Boston searching for “Wicked” features, like a “Wicked Kitchen” per se.

Why Care?

One Word…Syndication. For me, Point2 is most robust in syndication partners (see graph of Point2 Syndication Partners). From the Graph, you’ll note syndication to Vast and Oodle from Point2. If Point2 syndicates to Vast…your listings are now at Overstock.com as noted by Inman. Given Point2 syndicates to Oodle.com…your listings are now at Walmart.com per Joel Burslem at FOREM..

Heck, Point2 could extend their graph to be

• Point2 –> Vast –> Overstock
• Point2 –> Oodle –> Walmart

What You Need to Do
Be top heavy in your “outdoor” and “indoor” descriptions of a property, more so than below:

Warning. What is a checkbox for “hardwood floors” on your base technology for listings, also available for consumers to check when searching…may not be a checkbox for consumers searching on syndication partners, whose search is different and constantly evolving. “Hardwood Floors”, “Oversized Cabinets”, etc…all needs to be in the description (you may even feel like your duplicating the information because it was a “checkbox” when you added the listing…so be it).

Go top heavy in keywords and phrases in your descriptions…leave nothing to the imagination, get it in there, double it up, be long-winded, be extremely verbose.

What Online Classifieds May Be Doing With Your Listings

I brushed off a graph from my master’s thesis in Mgmt Information Systems, to give insight on how online classifieds who are implementing natural language search…how they may be parsing, chopping up and indexing your listing’s interior and exterior descriptions.

It’s a process called “Noun Phrasing”…extracting the meaty and important phrases from sentences. Given listings, it may be “Remodeled Kitchen”, “Large Lot”, “Game Room”, etc that online classifieds may be extracting and indexing for natural language search.

Bottomline…
Takeaway. Because of syndication and different searching methods available on consumer sites, your descriptions must more keyword-rich than ever before.

As an agent I would not care if my listing was found by a consumer browsing Overstock.com while perusing new digital cameras. Overstock is not the #1 destination for real estate consumers….However…

If my listing was syndicated to a not-so widely visited site…but my listing was on the first page of search results by a consumer looking for “jacuzzi tub”, “oversized lot”, “mountain view”, “remodeled kitchen”, “shed”, “Phoenix, AZ”…..I’d take the lead and run w/ it.

Last Friday, I filmed a few corporate videos in HD that are currently in post-production, going through edits before the final cut.

I’m a Webographer remember…quality video I put into the hands of a Videographer…premium and high-end photos, I put in the hands of a professional Photographer.

Personally, HD video for clips that have a long shelf life, I.e. Agent Profile, may be something agents consider when approaching a local production company for video objectives.

Practice Sessions :: Low-Def
To the right is an example of video we did to practice being in-front of the camera (Basic DV Camera to practice a bit). This was enjoyable experience, and always interesting to see yourself behind the camera (especially when you think your going to appear a certain way…then looking at the footage you see yourself otherwise).

Real Sessions :: Hi-Def
Upon reading Larry’s post, I had asked a company I’m working with, The Reid Effect here in Phoenix, AZ to give me a screenshot of the footage this morning. To the right is a screenshot of footage caught in hi-def. The technology the company used is HD camera using a Letus Extreme adapter, an adaptor that allows you to use a 35mm lens that gives you a shallow look (blurring the setting behind me…but placing focus on me). All very crisp, clean. Some other examples of this effect utilized by Reid Effect can be found here.

Pros & Cons to HD :: Download Speeds
Concerns Larry mentioned on download speeds of HD film can be assisted in post-production, with asking such a production company for final cut optimized for smaller display size (I.e. 300 width x 187 height) to display on a website.

Where is HD Applicable in Real Estate?
Short answer for Agents/Brokers…I’d say video that would have a longer shelf life, I.e. Agent Profiles, Brokerage Profiles, Community & Neighborhood Videos (where RE Pro does majority of their business); videos where content is considered current for a few years. Personally speaking, longer shelf-life is where I’d outsource to a professional versus considering doing as an in-house, do-it-yourself job.

Anyone interested in seeing the final cut (and even the before clip for comparison)…drop a comment and will ping you when it’s complete.

• No “Navigation” – I’ve been wanting to see better navigation in video tours, so I can jump right to footage of the kitchen per se…versus waiting until 3 mins & 53 seconds of a 5 minute tour to see what I want to see.
• Self Serve w/ Lite Assistance – being able to take a DV camera or a slick Flip Camera, take good footage and ship it off for someone else to make the “final cut” pretty.

I signed up at RealtyFlix to be alerted for when they’d be open for business after meeting those folks at 2007 NAR Conference. The doors are indeed open per email I received earlier this month.

RealtyFlix.com Tiered Options
I do like their blend of services…especially for those looking to take video footage and ship off to someone else to put into production, as displayed w/ option #3 below.

1. Standard Service – You have already completed video tour…that’s ready for Distribution — Free w/ 6 photo limit, $9.99 for 20 photo limit.
   
2. Photo Tours – For those who don’t have video footage — Free to preview for liking, $89.99 to buy
   
3. Video Editing – For those who have raw footage (wanting someone else to do the work) — Standard is $169.95 or Enhanced (can be longer, I.e. 60 mins and divided into “Chapters”) is $219.95

The Viewer
It’s apparent where RealtyFlix put in their resources…it’s the anatomy of their viewer. It’s a nicely contained, all-informative view of not only video, but navigation to Agent Info, Photos, Listing Info, Etc…not to mention ease in syndicating on any web page as displayed below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The kicker for me with the viewer (what comes with the Enhanced Video Editing services) are the “chapters”, navigation to specific “scenes” of video, such as Kitchen, Master Bedroom. Simply breaking up a video and providing navigation to chapters (scenes) is paramount, especially for video over 5 minutes in length.

The chapters give immediate access to footage I want to see now (versus waiting 3 mins and 53 seconds into the video), providing navigation that consumers are familiar when you compare with traditional virtual tours. A critical feature for lengthy video tours.

Good question.

Here we have a scenario of a fully qualified agent/broker, but a SELLER that simply wants to participate in the Marketing, be a part of the “process”, but not get in the way — maintaining the traditional real estate relationship with their agent/broker.

Listing Agreements commonly have such inclusive narrative:

Seller’s Duties And Representations. The BROKER is granted the exclusive right to sell the PROPERTY, as the SELLER’S agent, during the term of the Agreement and the SELLER agrees to refer all inquiries to the BROKER, to cooperate in marketing the PROPERTY….
[Source : http://www.agentfeldman.com/samplelistingagreement.htm]

It’s understood today’s BUYER wants to be actively involved in the purchase of their next home, commonly perusing online, telling their agents “can we see this home”? But what RE technology exists for the SELLER to “cooperate in the marketing of the PROPERTY”. Do agents even want their SELLER’s to drive eyeballs and foot-traffic to the property, saying “hey, that’s my job”.

SELLERs Marketing Their Listing

What exists (or can be built & funded) to further inspire SELLERs to participate in the marketing of (a) their property and (b) listing agent / broker, all within the confines of the Listing Agreement and rules, laws, regulations of a state’s Department of Real Estate.

I’m referring to:
– more than flyers posted on the bulletin board at the SELLER’s job,
– more than the SELLER staging the home, keeping the home tidy for open houses,
– more than the SELLER directing their friends to the 4th home on the agents “My Listings” page on their website,
– more than emailing the SELLER a link to the property to share w/ friends and family,
– more than online listings having a “Refer a Friend” option,

Viral Communications of Consumers – What Exists

Tools like Announce My Move provide resources for Listing, Open House, and Moving announcements, with purpose of the client to virally market the agent/broker. Also, tools like Homeminders.com provide that “magnet on the fridge”, with a 24-month maintainence plan that sends past clients email reminders on proactive home maintainance. When the closing gift is email-driven…it can be viral.

But there has to be more…

More RE Technology for Seller’s Required

There needs to be more technology that energizes and solicits marketing participation of the SELLER, driving additional “foot-traffic”, but keeps all inquiries directed to the listing agent/broker (given the traditional real estate model). Technology that taps into a client’s contact list, their friends’ contact lists, and the friends of those friends’ contact lists. In this age of linkedin, facebook (some limitations there), the SELLERs communication can be extremely viral and that of past clients. Limitations may include SELLERs not interested in doing much marketing, not being tech-savvy with RE technology for this purpose.

However, myself as a consumer, I WANT to participate in the marketing. I don’t want to be lead with negotiating the BUYER’s side, overseeing the execution of voluminous amount documentation, all the things worthy of the commission to my agent.

I want to do more than what is commonly offered in-terms of participation as the SELLER, but I feel RE technology has not adapted to this yet…where lack of services are not presented to agents/brokers, to in-turn, have their SELLERs fully engage. Am I missing something here…

Tickets in Section 248 at the stadium are now going for $3900 to $6500. However, current ticket-holders aren’t the only ones looking to make a fast buck during the most highly televised TV event in the world.

Super Bowl Rental Properties
Homeowners in Glendale, AZ and other cities in the Phoenix Metro are looking to rent their homes for good money as hotel space is extremely limited. Many are, or should I say “trying to”, wear the agent hat these last couple of weeks, listing their properties in online classifieds like SuperBRentals.com, Craigslist (Phoenix, Boston and New York) and more. Many fall short with their marketing efforts given a couple of pictures, short property descriptions and overall lack of effort that does not instill sense of trust for renters to shell out thousands of dollars. Why do they fall short? Online, real estate technology is not their field of expertise…but, is online marketing of properties becoming easier where consumers can do more themselves?

Is RE Technology that Easy? Can Consumers Do it Themselves?
One acquaintance of mine here, Drew D., has a bachelor pad about 3 miles of the stadium and was doing okay with marketing efforts (a little action on eBay, Craigslist, etc). Drew is not in real estate, he’s a consumer who looked to rent his home. After light discussion, he decided to engage a single-property website (grabbing HTML to produce nice online flyers) and a virtual tour; technologies he wanted to implement in a short amount of time, get out the door, and separate his listing from the pack. Drew D. was determined to do this himself and simply have fun with it.

He ended up with a good property site at www.PhoenixEventHome.com (a generic domain name for future events well-beyond the Super Bowl) using an AgencyLogic Powersite and a RealBiz360 Virtual Tour. [Disclosure: AgencyLogic and RealBiz360 are sponsors of Webographers].

Note that Drew. D could have used VFlyer.com, Postlets.com and other service-providers for single-property website and HTML flyers. In-terms of tours, RealEstateshows.com, VisualTours.com, etc. could have also done the trick. What’s important to note is many technologies commonly used for “For Sale” properties hold true for Rentals, especially for those RE Pros in the property mgmt business.

Drew D. could have gone farther with his rental, claiming his property at Zillow, updating property information for a more accurate Zestimate, specifying a “Make Me Move” dollar amount as he now has outta-town eyeballs on his property. Overall, I was impressed with his efforts. For a first-timer…this was good.

Technology Rift Between Agents & Consumers on the Rise?
Here we have a scenario of a “consumer” performing activities with real estate technology; activities commonly performed by agents, assistants and other RE professionals. Makes me think back to Jeff Brown’s discussion where technology may leave Realtors behind in 2008.

Is the technology rift between agents and consumers continuing to grow? Should we view Drew. D, a gentleman in his early 30′s who commonly performs daily activities online as on outlier; negating any such myth? Would Drew D be the high-maintenance client expecting many technology bells & whistles from a listing agent? Should the slogans of today’s RE technology providers be…”so easy even a consumer can use it”?

BTW, Drew D. is still taking inquiries by upstanding individuals to rent his home for the Super Bowl.