Anyway, I have been so busy developing an intranet for the office I work with…one of them new real estate start ups! This particular website finally launches this week after 4 solid months of intense development and is allowing me to free up some of my time. So, I have decided to try and jump back into the blog world again and train the audience I’m gaining over at my original prospecting baby (Virginia Beach Estates, Inc.). I’ve recently pulled the videos I had on display, one of which illustrates my movie talent, although I couldn’t come up with a witty way to describe my “On Camera” talent. I’ll try to keep in touch as much as possible and very soon will come back to show you the fruits of my labor!

For a brief introduction, please take a trip to my youtube video (It’s nothing special…actually quit disturbing). However, I’m very excited to be in the position that I’m in and look forward to sharing with you over the next few weeks!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WhSmhOHSAG4

That was a wonderful idea you and Steve put together for the unfortunate…

You hit on the biggest reason for taking the time to do something like this. It markets the agent, and I can appreciate the exposure you got from this project – All deserved! You have the voice, the composure and the presence to pull this off beautifully, and you did.

Now, as you said, when you have ten or more transactions chugging along at once, I suspect it is going to be a bit more of a challenge to pull this sort of thing off. For every problem, there is a solution, and I have got to believe that there is a third-party someone out there with video skills who can develop a cost effective way for an agent to produce something unique for each and every listing without breaking the bank or leaving no time for that agent to do other things (like, say, their job).

Awesome job with this one, in any event!

More to the point, I think Sven summed up nicely what I have been wrestling with. With all of our time strangling technology, it really comes down to value, doesn’t it? Our marketing tools and offerings can not be infinite; at some point we all have to make decisions about where to focus our limited financial and time resources.

Our current visual tour product is not cost prohibitive, and since the photos are taken by others, professionals, the time commitment is manageable. I would be more than willing to pursue a different approach to the whole video offering IF I was convinced it would improve the market time or the ultimate bottom line to the seller. I am not convinced of either… yet.

The exception, I suppose, would be the truly unique home which has a story to tell that can’t be told in the traditional video tour format.

Someone wants to buy, they say “I want a house in areas X or Y”. If those areas have nothing that meets their desires/price, they’ll look in area Z, Q, W, L, etc… until they find something that fits or give up. They look in a specific price range, and I’ll tell you right now, what will drive buyers to a house like nothing else is a good deal. This will blow away any video no matter how good that video is.

Let’s say I wanted to buy something along the lines of that house, and I see that video. The first, the VERY first thing I would do is look in the neighborhood and area for similar listings to get an idea of value. If a house across the street is listed for $50,000 less and is comparable, well your video just sold the neighbor’s house.

Now I could see a video like that being useful for driving traffic to a developer’s complex or a new suburb of a city that is in development. Even then, value is everything. You can post the crummiest pictures (all sideways and grainy), put N/K on every item in the MLS listing, post it in a downward moving market, and it’ll still sell if it’s priced right.

The original intention of this video was to create something clever for the current Century 21 “Dig the Digs” contest (would certainly appreciate your vote at http://youtube.com/century21). After it was done I stumbled upon the ActiveRain contest and threw my hat in that ring as well.

Long story short, I won the ActiveRain contest earlier this week and will be one of 50 attendees at a very up-close-and-personal day long Seth Godin seminar later this month. If you can’t tell, I’m a bit of a marketing junkie and Seth serves up some of the best Kool-Aid around. The value of this experience far outweighs the days work that went into the making of the video. For that I am grateful (my “thank you” video is posted here: http://www.vimeo.com/891605).

In the interest of full disclosure, I am a rookie agent. Less than 10 months in the biz. I don’t have 6 buyers, 2 inspectors and a pissed-off termite guy. I’ve got time. Too much sometimes. If the first intention was to win my sellers $21,000 in the C21 contest (which equals a well-deserved $21K price reduction for the listing agent I would argue), the second intention was to market myself. I’m happy to report listing appointments are happening more frequently as a direct result of the exposure the video has generated. As a new agent with no track record behind him, differentiating myself with a unique marketing approach is, in the words of Seth Godin, my purple cow.

The video was never intended to directly sell the house site unseen. Very tough (ie: impossible) to do in 2 minutes. It was intended to entertain people long enough for them to want to know more. Is the video perfect? Hardly! Do I have a lot to learn? Duh. But I’m convinced (apparently unlike many of my colleagues around here) that “marketing” a property these days consists of way more than a yard sign and an MLS listing, so I had to stretch myself and go for something different.

Plus, how else could a rookie agent just getting his feet wet get the kind of national exposure this video has generated so far for me? I am completely overwhelmed by the positive feedback this effort has earned me, and I CAN NOT WAIT until I am too damn busy to make another one!

On the other hand, Kris, I willingly accept your challenge and vow to prove you wrong on the one-hit wonder comment! : )

Thanks to everyone for caring enough to have an opinion and write it down. The other plus is I have learned a TON from this experience! What’s the value of that? Priceless, right?

Stay tuned loyal viewers. I have not yet begun to market my properties!

Mike Lefebvre

Oh, and the “K-8 schools steps away” is a Fair Housing violation.

But the rubber chicken was really cool.

Now do I think that will sell someone on the house – not really. I am not sure that anything whiz-bangy will make a house sell. This goes back to what realtors talk about all the time – there is no magic formula for selling houses, just hard work.

You need to make sure your house has enough information to compel someone to ask to see it, they have to be in the market for that type of house in that area (you cannot MAKE someone like the type of you are selling, they either like new construction / historic / ranch or they don’t and there is nothing that an agent can do to MAKE them).

That having been said, snaps to the video guy!!!

I’ll bet that very few viewers actually went to the single property web page listed in the last few seconds of the video. I did and found a masterful job of representing the home with abundant pictures, detailed information and convincing material that made me want to buy. I thought this was well very well done. If the video had focused any time at all on directing the viewer to the static web page it could have been more than just a contest winner.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/gettingstarted/guidedtour/large.html

As a serious/imminent buyer, though, I want *sameness* – same video length, same general order. It’s the same reason I want to see MLS sheets instead of agent brochures – I can compare all houses by putting their info side by side to get an accurate comparison.

I don’t expect a video to make me fall in love with a house, though it certainly can help justify why I should put it on my list to see. As you said, most videos provide “something of value which the traditional visual tour does not” … a sense of how the house ‘feels’. For that reason, it’d be great if all listings had them – more efficient for everyone involved!