An Effective Tool for Building Great Media

One exceptional tool for creating production quality online media is Animoto.com.  Animoto is an amazing web application that allows you to easily integrate high quality still images with short segments of full-motion video to build compelling video-like content.  You can even set the photos/video to music and the playback adjusts to mesh well with the tone of the audio.  With the use of an Animoto Pro account, it’s a simple matter of investing 30 minutes to upload and organize your still images and short video segments, add titles, and make a background music selection.  Then, sit back and allow the “magic” to happen as Animoto creates a professional quality video presentation of the property that can be added to the your website, blog, or embedded in other sites.  The end result is a compelling, professionally produced video that attracts viewer attention and creates important differentiation from other properties and agents.

Here is an example (Click Here and scroll down – embedding is not working properly) of an Animoto-produced video that my parents, both of whom are real estate agents in Lafayette California, created for a local city guide on their website.

Effectively Leveraging This Content

1. Create Quality Local Content – The above video serves as a visual guide to the town where my parents’ business is focused.  For visitors to their website, many of whom are not local and may have never seen Lafayette before, the video is a great introduction to the town.  You can also create even more hyper-local content such as videos with dedicated webpages for the neighborhoods you specialize in, like this neighborhood page for Happy Valley, a small but popular neighborhood in the area.  This creates a highly targeted landing page with quality content that gets number of long-tail SEO referrals.  While the volume isn’t huge, the quality of that traffic is exceptional – several SEO referrals to my parents’ website for queries like this have translated to actual closed transactions just this year alone.
2. Marketing Listings – As a seller’s agent, creating and distributing high quality photos and videos of a client’s home that provide a compelling viewing experience for the prospective buyer is of paramount importance.  If you don’t have the time, skills, or equipment to shoot high quality images or video, for many listings, it’s worth hiring a professional to shoot high quality digital images of the home.  With those in hand, the agent can readily augment them with HD video shot from the newest generation of smart phones, such as the Apple iPhone 4.  Even a short segment of video showing a panoramic view or children playing in the neighborhood can add texture and interest to the video presentation.
3. Winning Listings Presentations – In a competitive market, every effort to stand out helps.  Why not go into a listing presentation with a pre-made video of the prospective client’s home?  Even a rough version using images and video from the outside of the home and neighborhood only will still give the seller a taste of what you can do to best position their home via media.

Creating and distributing compelling online media has never been easier, and can make a meaningful impact on your business.  Good luck!

Gifts Under $50

There are a ton of great gifts available for less than $50. From a 7-port USB hub that keeps all your gadgets connected at once to a double dose kick in the ass from phenom Gary Vaynerchuk, the under $50 list will keep your geek busy well into 2010.

Kensington 7-Port USB Hub [Amazon Link]
Kingston 16GB Flash Drive [Amazon Link]
Trust Agents Book by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith [Amazon Link]
Crush It! Book by Gary Vaynerchuk [Amazon Link] and Vook [$6.99; iTunes Link]
iTunes Gift Card
Griffin AirCurve iPhone/iPhone 3G Amplifier [Amazon Link]
Dolica 62-inch Tripod [Amazon Link]

Gifts Under $100

Video is fast becoming the medium for getting to know each other online. With all that video comes editing. An external hard drive is good for keeping excess clips from weighing down computer performance.

The Roku HD media player is a cutting edge way to put digital video (Netflix/Amazon on Demand) in your living room without all the intricacies of a traditional home theater PC.

Samsung Story 1TB External Hard Drive – $99.99 [NewEgg Link]
Roku HD Digital Media Player – $99.99 [Amazon Link]

Gifts Under $200

Audio Technica AT2020 USB Microphone – $101.97 [Amazon Link]
Flip UltraHD (120 Mins) – $151.98 [Amazon Link]

One rite of passage for real estate techies is to develop their own online brand. Podcasting and video blogs can be done in half the time once you’ve got the right equipment listed above.

Klipsch iGroove SXT iPod/iPhone Sound System – $149.99 [Amazon Link]

After experimenting with podcasting and video blogs it’s only natural that you’ll come away with a little more rhythm. The Klipsch iGroove is a cool way to keep the party going.

Motorola Droid – $199 [Verizon Wireless Link]/ iPhone 3GS – $199 [Apple Store Link]

All-in-one devices are all the rage these days which makes the Motorola Droid (Verizon Wireless) and iPhone 3GS (AT&T Wireless) the hot stocking stuffers to have this year.

Gifts Under $300

Garmin Nuvi 765 – $209.99 [Amazon Link]

If you’re looking for a dedicated GPS unit the Nuvi 765 serves as your North star, in-car bluetooth communication system and traffic guidance via FM updates. Now you’ll never get stuck in rush hour snarls while on tour again.

1-Year Lynda.com Subscription – $250 [Link]

How did I go from video editing slow to pro within 3 days? Lynda.com. The site offers up an all you can watch buffet of video tutorials on computer software like Adobe Lightroom 2, Photoshop and iMovie ’09. The videos are short, educational and clearly laid out which means you can find what you’re looking for in a snap.

Amazon Kindle – $259 [Amazon Link]

For the tech savvy bookworm, Amazon’s Kindle can download the hottest new books in under a minute. There is even PDF support so you can read ebooks, contracts and other documents on the go.

Xbox 360 Elite – $299 [EBGames Link]

The Xbox 360 isn’t just a video game system anymore. Featuring Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm integration alongside Netflix Instant movies, the 360 will help you stay on top of your social media empire without leaving the living room recliner.

Gifts Under $500

The real estate photo bar is on the rise and you (and your geek) should be ready to dazzle future sellers with outstanding photos. Newer point and shoot cameras can capture professional quality results with ease. Check out the hot new Canon S90IS and it’s primary competitor to see how you too can attain listing photo euphoria.

Canon S90IS Digital Camera – $399.00 [Amazon Link]
Alternative: Panasonic DMC-LX3K – $436.17 [Amazon Link]

Gifts Under $1100

Video editing, podcasting, photo enhancing. All this -ing will require some beefed up computing power. Refurbished Macs are an awesome way to put the preferred tool of digital creatives in your hands at a price you are happy with.

Refurbished Macbook Pro – $899 [Apple Store Link]

Desktop Alternatives:
HP TouchSmart 300-1020 20-Inch Black Desktop PC – $848 [Amazon Link]
Refurbished 24-inch iMac – $1,099 [Apple Store Link]

Gift Under $27,000

Finally, if you’re really looking to make a big impression on that special someone or have been rolling around in a clunker waiting for the perfect intersection of value and clickity clack gadgetry, I present to you the 2010 Mazda 3.

Complete with cool geekery like push button start, adaptive lighting system that steers the headlights as you turn your wheel and highway mileage of up to 33 mpg (29 mpg on 2.5L models), the Mazda 3 will give you a fresh dose of style and tech.

Such a delicacy isn’t for the price conscious as a full spec model will set you back nearly $26K but if you’re car shopping this pick should make your short list.

What do you think about our top 20 gift guide for real estate geeks? Do you have any gifts you would add to our list?

Some pretty impressive specs come packed into the small design including a 12.1 megapixel sensor, ISO 6400 sensitivity behind a 5x wide-angle zoom lens with five-way VR stabilization and the ability to add transitions and effects to the slide shows beamed from the LED powered projector. The list price is $430 with a September ship date. Not sure how that will equate to street pricing I’m guessing it will settle into the $399 range for holiday shopping.

A good wide angle lens camera is about all any agent needs to take decent photos with a projector built in, this could be the next standard for DIY real estate professionals.

Sharing pictures and videos just got a whole lot easier. Photobucket has launched a new one-click sharing to all the major social networking sites and blog sites. Now you can put your favorite video on MySpace, share that awesome picture on Facebook, or embed your Real Estate photos and listings on your blog.

Take the sharing features for a spin with single pictures, your whole album or a slideshow.  Whether you choose to share by IM, email, or posting to social networks, blogs and forums, Photobucket has got you covered.

So I tested this last night and it works flawlessly, and it only takes seconds to initiate.  While PhotoBucket seems to be on the cutting edge with this new feature, I can only hope that Flickr has plans to keep up with their competition.  Flickr is very limited in this arena.

Photos and video are big proponents of Real Estate, they capture the interest of many on-line consumers.  The investment of  “Time” is also a key element in Social Media Marketing and Networking.  How do these components impact both (you) the provider, and the end user (your customer) when deciding which service is best for you?

Which photo and video hosting site are you using and why? Does having the ability to syndicate your work “Socially” play a role in your choice as to which site you would use?  I’d love to hear what others think and feel?  Your feedback and comments are greatly appreciated. 

Adding images and photos to your blog posts makes them easier to read, more appealing to the reader, and can even help to illustrate a point or give an example of something.

If you’re currently using images in your blog posts you may be finding them online or taking them from your computer, then putting them into a photo editing program such as Adobe Photoshop. If you’re not using images in your blog posts it may be because you’re not sure how to, don’t have a good program to edit images, or just haven’t thought about it.

Well, Picnik makes it easy to take a photo you found or have and add rounded corners, a drop shadow, border, make it black and white, and much more! It’s all FREE and very easy to use.

For an easy to follow video tutorial on using Picnik check out my previous post on it.

What that other post does not cover though is the Firefox plugin that allows you to instantly take a photo you’re viewing on a website and import it into Picnik with a single click.

Once you install the plugin you can simply right click any image on a website and select “Edit in Picnik”.

Not only does this plugin allow you to edit images on a website, you can also take a screenshot of that website! So if you’re writing about a website, blog, etc, you can now have a screenshot of that site instantly created using Picnik. You can then take that screenshot and crop it to the exact part of the site you wanted to add to your blog post.

Here’s a quick screenshot I did in less than a minute of the plugin page for the Picnik plugin:

Adding screenshots when you’re talking about a site or product really adds to your blog posts. It helps illustrate a point, give an example, or simply show what a site looks like without your readers having to click a link.

Oh, and if you’re on the fence about switching to Firefox, check out this post by Brad Andersohn: Internet Explorer vs Mozilla Firefox The Mythunderstanding

* All of the above images and screenshots were created using Picnik and the Picnik plugin on Firefox.

This FREE tool, in my opinion, allows the Real Estate Agent to design and distribute their own Video/Virtual tour and it includes background music! All you need is a computer and the pictures of your Listing (if you don’t have multiple pics of your Listing, STOP reading this Blog, and GO TAKE EM!)

Virtual Tours have been a staple on most Listings now for years, and because of gas prices, have become increasingly more expensive. Some have reached the $199 status. Well now, you can do it yourself; for FREE in about 15 minutes. Animoto will then generate a code and a link that you can use for the MLS and/or your website to display the Video. They also offer “Push Button” ability to upload it to a variety of Video sites, Blog sites, and Social Networking sites….YOU GOTTA TRY THIS!
AND DON’T FORGET TO NAME IT PROPERLY!!!!

Well “Moppets”, as always, I prefer to keep it short and sweet! I want you to go play with this “Cool Tool” and then decide for yourself (or, if you’re married, let your wife decide!).

See ya next time!

The Coach

This is web 2.0 justice at its best. Although I suspect poor Faye of ignorance over immorality, it’s a good reminder that the power to publish comes with legal responsibility. Libel and Copyright violations are the most common mistakes that bloggers seem to make. Back in the early days of RE blogging, Zillow’s General Counsel, Liam Lavery, posted tips for bloggers looking to avoid both of these common legal pitfalls. In that post, Liam distinguishes between plagiarism and fair use:

Frequently, bloggers declare that the First Amendment permits them to use freely any content available for their Web sites. In fact, U.S. copyright law does provide some relief via the fair use doctrine. However, the fair use doctrine is subtle and easily misapplied. Section 107 of the Copyright Act lists four factors to be considered in determining whether a use made of a work in a particular case is fair:

• The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.
• The nature of the copyrighted work.
• The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
• The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

As you can see, I totally overdid it on the the contrast and saturation. And the video needs music or a voice-over but you get the idea. The sunset view over Elliot Bay from downtown Seattle is breathtaking and there’s always something happening on the bay and downtown.

Could this work for advertising listings? I think so. The way a great view changes throughout the day can be spectacular and it’s something a prospective buyer cannot fully appreciate even after visiting the house. If the home’s view accounts for a large chunk of its price tag, a time lapse movie may be the best way to show it off. I can imagine a looping video could be useful at an open house and it could be a deal clincher on bad weather days.

Once you know what you’re doing and have equipment and software that you trust, shooting a  time lapse movie is pretty easy; just set up the camera and leave it shooting. You can then create a movie with just a few clicks of a mouse. Here’s a list of the tools I used and what I’ve learned for next time.

1. Digital Camera – Nikon D70 with standard 50mmm lens. The camera’s battery died after about 6 hours but I suspect that I’ll be able to shoot 12+ hours with auto-focus turned off.
2. Laptop – PowerBook G4 – to control the camera and store the photos. With a laptop for storage, you don’t need to worry about exceeding memory card storage limits – about 5 GBs of photos went into that short video.
3. Camera control software – Nikon Capture – I hope to find a better alternative before the trial runs out on the Nikon software but it does what I need it to (i.e. it takes a photo every X seconds). For this movie, I shot a photo every 6 seconds but exported the movie at 15 fps (normally 24 fps.)
4. Time lapse video creation software – Bensoftware’s BTV PRO – it didn’t crash once despite moving large files around. If you’re using a mac, I can recommend BTV PRO and it seems to have a few other good reviews online.

Last tip: beware of shooting through windows. If you can, place the camera outside – shooting through glass can cause all sorts of unintended side-effects. If you have no choice, place the camera as close to the glass as possible, disable auto-focus and ensure that there aren’t any lights immediately inside or outside the room that you’re shooting from.

Update (9/29): I’ve fixed the contrast by exporting the movie again. This really is easy once you get the hang of the software settings. So the movie looks a lot better raw I also uploaded it to Viddler this time and switched to the Viddler player you now see above. I think Viddler does much better justice to a movie like this and it would now make a great feature on a single property website. Anyhooo – here’s the original from YouTube if you’re interested in checking out my first attempt (Youtube is much easier on memory though so the Youtube embed seems to play the movie much smoother – at least on my computer.)

I’m actually surprised there aren’t more listings up there, but maybe it’s just that only a handful of people know about it. If you have a bunch of photos from a listing — or any other collection of photos — I encourage you to visit the site and give it a shot. You may want to read “Synthing to sell: using Photosynth to help sell a house“and “Synthing tips: How to synth a room” before you get started.

Once you’ve got one you’re proud of, show it off by linking to it in a comment below. It seems to me that this would be a pretty nifty way to make a pitch to potential clients to try to pick up their listing.

Since I’m a hopelessly addicted 360 image geek the first iPhone app I downloaded from the store was the PangeaVR 360 image viewer by Brian Greenstone of Pangea Software. The fascinating part of the app is how the image slowly floats from landscape to portrait mode as you move the phone around and how you move the pano around by dragging you finger on the face of the display.

Brian’s design is simple and elegant! All you have do to allow a group of existing panos to be displayed on the iPhone is build a few lines of xml that has links to equirectangular JPGs for panoramas that you want to display.

Just for fun, I decided to make a iPhone version of the 360 tour of my Rental home. It took about 15 minutes and the result looks like this. iPhone users that have the free PangeaVR app and type in “http://lohrman.com/7318fairway.xml” into the “enter url” area of Pangea VR to display the tour.

Yea, I know, it’s pretty geeky and not terribly practical but it’s a lot of fun. I’d really rather have Flash on the iPhone but that’s probably not going to happen any time soon.