Comments on: Online real estate marketing expert speaks http://www.business2.com.au/2008/02/online-real-estate-marketing-expert-speaks/ Real Estate Agent News and Information Technology Sat, 13 Mar 2010 21:38:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: michael liu http://www.business2.com.au/2008/02/online-real-estate-marketing-expert-speaks/comment-page-1/#comment-3436 michael liu Sat, 01 Mar 2008 05:14:30 +0000 http://www.business2.com.au/2008/02/13/online-real-estate-marketing-expert-speaks/#comment-3436 Like your work John, really simple, straight forward, and easy to get to. Thanks for your advice/ideas on your article regarding the education of real estate agents. I agree with on the fact that video is here to stay and that we need to educate. We are in early days, and I must admit It has been hard for us to try and educate/convince agents that this is a product for them, we are getting there slowly, this is actually good for us as we are learning that different real estate agencies have their different ways of approaching the market. At least we know that the ones we do get, stay with us as they realise the economic and not so economic benefits once they have used our product, I am sure the same goes for everyone else in the business. As for the portal idea, we love it and it's not about competing with the big players (which seems to be a knee jerk assumption by a lot of people that access our video tours via our homepage). Our product is mainly accessed via the likes of realestate.com, domain, agents home pages, youtube, & yahoo, and as far as the consumer is concerned, we don't exists. What we want to get is traffic credits from these hits for future uses (watch this space), If any online business out their is cheating themselves of this 'RETHINK HARD FOLKS!!', extremely valuable water to have under your bridge if you think you are going to be around in a few years. Most ex film makers have been pre conditioned to create content and hand it over (like the good ole days) and I think that the smart ones will realise that they need to have some sort of control over their content. At this stage I don't think there is a 'how to' get it right as it is too early in the game to know what people want (I don't think the agents know half the the time, and why would they as this is all new to them). I think it's great that there are a number of online video real estate companies out there trying this online real estate presentation product in there own different ways, and it is my guess that the different types of real estate agents will be attracted to the different types of video marketing tools that are available to them. I do know one thing, that when it does go off in a couple of years, there will than more enough work for all of us. Like your work John, really simple, straight forward, and easy to get to. Thanks for your advice/ideas on your article regarding the education of real estate agents. I agree with on the fact that video is here to stay and that we need to educate. We are in early days, and I must admit It has been hard for us to try and educate/convince agents that this is a product for them, we are getting there slowly, this is actually good for us as we are learning that different real estate agencies have their different ways of approaching the market. At least we know that the ones we do get, stay with us as they realise the economic and not so economic benefits once they have used our product, I am sure the same goes for everyone else in the business. As for the portal idea, we love it and it’s not about competing with the big players (which seems to be a knee jerk assumption by a lot of people that access our video tours via our homepage). Our product is mainly accessed via the likes of realestate.com, domain, agents home pages, youtube, & yahoo, and as far as the consumer is concerned, we don’t exists. What we want to get is traffic credits from these hits for future uses (watch this space), If any online business out their is cheating themselves of this ‘RETHINK HARD FOLKS!!’, extremely valuable water to have under your bridge if you think you are going to be around in a few years. Most ex film makers have been pre conditioned to create content and hand it over (like the good ole days) and I think that the smart ones will realise that they need to have some sort of control over their content. At this stage I don’t think there is a ‘how to’ get it right as it is too early in the game to know what people want (I don’t think the agents know half the the time, and why would they as this is all new to them). I think it’s great that there are a number of online video real estate companies out there trying this online real estate presentation product in there own different ways, and it is my guess that the different types of real estate agents will be attracted to the different types of video marketing tools that are available to them. I do know one thing, that when it does go off in a couple of years, there will than more enough work for all of us.

]]> By: Brett Clements http://www.business2.com.au/2008/02/online-real-estate-marketing-expert-speaks/comment-page-1/#comment-3435 Brett Clements Tue, 26 Feb 2008 04:54:54 +0000 http://www.business2.com.au/2008/02/13/online-real-estate-marketing-expert-speaks/#comment-3435 'Turn Here'. A lot of real cool NY film-makers Dave. We've been watching them for years. ‘Turn Here’. A lot of real cool NY film-makers Dave. We’ve been watching them for years.

]]> By: Brett Clements http://www.business2.com.au/2008/02/online-real-estate-marketing-expert-speaks/comment-page-1/#comment-3434 Brett Clements Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:33:25 +0000 http://www.business2.com.au/2008/02/13/online-real-estate-marketing-expert-speaks/#comment-3434 Hi Glenn. I'll have one of our Qld Producers, Daniella Atkinson phone you. Our Senior Producer Sarah Estela tried to email yesterday in respect to the streaming issue. RE: ZIP, we have been shooting lifestyle on the Gold Coast for almost two years, taking advantage of every fine day. We have extensive helicopter aerials and wide, establishing shots of most key locations. That, combined with some other techniques we're deploying, including blue screen, will see us roll out a bottom-end production over the next few weeks. My focus as Creative Director, however, will be introducing the next level of HDP technology into our offering and raising the production standards again. We are aiming squarely at meeting 35mm motion picture values. Our last three Platinum HD productions have all been top secret and we can't stream them in the public domain as the Vendors demand a great deal of privacy, however I will be able to show you 'selects' of the new footage, which now allows us to lift glossy A4 prints from. As for the uptake of video, when I started Smash! Pop! four years ago (which turned into Propvid) and rolled out video, initially for Laing+Simmons and then RW Double Bay, you could 'Google' property video and be lucky to fill a page. Today, many of our initiatives have been copied here and abroad - some to the point of cut and pasting our products and prices into their sites. At Propvid, we will continue to innovate. I don't come from a real estate background but from three decades of production so we're just scratching the tip of an iceberg in terms of what we have to offer. Best Regards. Hi Glenn. I’ll have one of our Qld Producers, Daniella Atkinson phone you. Our Senior Producer Sarah Estela tried to email yesterday in respect to the streaming issue. RE: ZIP, we have been shooting lifestyle on the Gold Coast for almost two years, taking advantage of every fine day. We have extensive helicopter aerials and wide, establishing shots of most key locations. That, combined with some other techniques we’re deploying, including blue screen, will see us roll out a bottom-end production over the next few weeks. My focus as Creative Director, however, will be introducing the next level of HDP technology into our offering and raising the production standards again. We are aiming squarely at meeting 35mm motion picture values. Our last three Platinum HD productions have all been top secret and we can’t stream them in the public domain as the Vendors demand a great deal of privacy, however I will be able to show you ’selects’ of the new footage, which now allows us to lift glossy A4 prints from.
As for the uptake of video, when I started Smash! Pop! four years ago (which turned into Propvid) and rolled out video, initially for Laing+Simmons and then RW Double Bay, you could ‘Google’ property video and be lucky to fill a page. Today, many of our initiatives have been copied here and abroad – some to the point of cut and pasting our products and prices into their sites.
At Propvid, we will continue to innovate. I don’t come from a real estate background but from three decades of production so we’re just scratching the tip of an iceberg in terms of what we have to offer. Best Regards.

]]> By: John Simon http://www.business2.com.au/2008/02/online-real-estate-marketing-expert-speaks/comment-page-1/#comment-3419 John Simon Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:58:48 +0000 http://www.business2.com.au/2008/02/13/online-real-estate-marketing-expert-speaks/#comment-3419 Hello all. Peter, I hope that deal from down in Melb turns out alright and is in your realm of expertise. I think video streamed within the real estate sector is here to stay. As an ex agent, video enables the agency to better market to 'out of area' buyers. This is where the money is regarding sales. Agents need to be educated on the benefits of using video. Anyone producing video content for the real estate space knows this. If the agent/agency sees the value, they will pass this recommendation onto the vendor. They usually foot the bill. Both agent and vendor must be convinced. Price points are also critical. We have not yet reached the tipping point from print to internet advertising/marketing; but we are close. So, how does the agent become educated on the benefits of video......statistics. What would the potential purchaser rather view, why, what age group, demographic,price range etc etc.Would it be more beneficial to market in print or on the internet? Who is being promoted better in each of these sectors? Agent or agency? I looked at the real estate portal idea. Its a waste of time. Too many big fish and extremely difficult to create traction. I left real estate sales and started LightsCameraSold because I believe that video is the most effective medium for marketing listings. The space will evolve quickly. Focusing on price is a mistake I believe. Some agents charge 2%, others charge 3%. It comes down to how much you believe in yourself, your company and your product. You then need to convince the agents! Regards John Hello all.
Peter, I hope that deal from down in Melb turns out alright and is in your realm of expertise.
I think video streamed within the real estate sector is here to stay. As an ex agent, video enables the agency to better market to ‘out of area’ buyers. This is where the money is regarding sales.
Agents need to be educated on the benefits of using video. Anyone producing video content for the real estate space knows this. If the agent/agency sees the value, they will pass this recommendation onto the vendor. They usually foot the bill. Both agent and vendor must be convinced. Price points are also critical. We have not yet reached the tipping point from print to internet advertising/marketing; but we are close.
So, how does the agent become educated on the benefits of video……statistics. What would the potential purchaser rather view, why, what age group, demographic,price range etc etc.Would it be more beneficial to market in print or on the internet? Who is being promoted better in each of these sectors? Agent or agency?
I looked at the real estate portal idea. Its a waste of time. Too many big fish and extremely difficult to create traction. I left real estate sales and started LightsCameraSold because I believe that video is the most effective medium for marketing listings. The space will evolve quickly. Focusing on price is a mistake I believe. Some agents charge 2%, others charge 3%. It comes down to how much you believe in yourself, your company and your product. You then need to convince the agents! Regards
John

]]> By: Dave Platter http://www.business2.com.au/2008/02/online-real-estate-marketing-expert-speaks/comment-page-1/#comment-3415 Dave Platter Mon, 25 Feb 2008 05:03:08 +0000 http://www.business2.com.au/2008/02/13/online-real-estate-marketing-expert-speaks/#comment-3415 Guys, have a read of <a href="http://venturebeat.com/2008/02/07/turnhere-raises-first-round-as-business-for-short-form-video-increases/" rel="nofollow">this story in Venture Beat</a>, about TurnHere's business model. They do on-demand video. Real estate was initially one of their primary targets (if not THE primary target) but they have very successfully diversified to higher-demand segments. Guys, have a read of this story in Venture Beat, about TurnHere’s business model. They do on-demand video. Real estate was initially one of their primary targets (if not THE primary target) but they have very successfully diversified to higher-demand segments.

]]> By: Glenn Batten http://www.business2.com.au/2008/02/online-real-estate-marketing-expert-speaks/comment-page-1/#comment-3429 Glenn Batten Fri, 22 Feb 2008 03:44:22 +0000 http://www.business2.com.au/2008/02/13/online-real-estate-marketing-expert-speaks/#comment-3429 Brett, Sorry, I have been tied up with meetings yesterday and only got a chance to check back on this thread today. I would love to take you up on the offer and will give you a call Monday. I am intrigued by your Zip versions and have a a question on that in a sec, but first, I am also confused slightly about the $100 you highlighted.. Is that the Zip version for that price? Surely you could not shoot on location at that price point no matter the length of the video could you? I am guessing your Zip is video of the salesperson talking about the property overlaid over the top of still shots (albiet you could still pan zoom etc the video frame around the photos) ... ala the weatherman? Also.. I always have trouble with viewing the examples on your website.. no matter which browser I use... it always has "communicating with database". I can see "this week's propvids" and "realestate.com.au profiles"... but not the examples. Brett,

Sorry, I have been tied up with meetings yesterday and only got a chance to check back on this thread today. I would love to take you up on the offer and will give you a call Monday.

I am intrigued by your Zip versions and have a a question on that in a sec, but first, I am also confused slightly about the $100 you highlighted.. Is that the Zip version for that price? Surely you could not shoot on location at that price point no matter the length of the video could you?

I am guessing your Zip is video of the salesperson talking about the property overlaid over the top of still shots (albiet you could still pan zoom etc the video frame around the photos) … ala the weatherman?

Also.. I always have trouble with viewing the examples on your website.. no matter which browser I use… it always has “communicating with database”. I can see “this week’s propvids” and “realestate.com.au profiles”… but not the examples.

]]> By: Philip Muscatello http://www.business2.com.au/2008/02/online-real-estate-marketing-expert-speaks/comment-page-1/#comment-3430 Philip Muscatello Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:37:41 +0000 http://www.business2.com.au/2008/02/13/online-real-estate-marketing-expert-speaks/#comment-3430 Well, while we're all promoting our video products, have a look at our latest for<a href="http://www.property-tours.com.au/tours/stone01/" rel="nofollow">Lend Lease</a>. We produce our Tours for $100 - $400 + GST, and while we use "nasty" stills, we do have professional voiceovers who give very classy soundtrack. Our composer has also come up with some pretty nice music as well. If it's good enough for Ken Burns... I am aware of 10 players in real estate video area at the moment. Hey Brett, I think there's room for us all - we all just need the market to grow. How about a peak industry body to promote the medium and to liaise with the portals on video integration? Our offer also goes out to all agents - a free trial Property Tour. Call me on 0438 044 022 Well, while we’re all promoting our video products, have a look at our latest forLend Lease.

We produce our Tours for $100 – $400 + GST, and while we use “nasty” stills, we do have professional voiceovers who give very classy soundtrack. Our composer has also come up with some pretty nice music as well. If it’s good enough for Ken Burns…

I am aware of 10 players in real estate video area at the moment. Hey Brett, I think there’s room for us all – we all just need the market to grow. How about a peak industry body to promote the medium and to liaise with the portals on video integration?

Our offer also goes out to all agents – a free trial Property Tour. Call me on 0438 044 022

]]> By: Brett Clements http://www.business2.com.au/2008/02/online-real-estate-marketing-expert-speaks/comment-page-1/#comment-3432 Brett Clements Wed, 20 Feb 2008 07:06:13 +0000 http://www.business2.com.au/2008/02/13/online-real-estate-marketing-expert-speaks/#comment-3432 And Glen. Gimme a call. 0433 407 039. And I'll shoot you a free one. I'll make it a Platinum too. Our creed at Propvid is "The Agent is the Star; the property is their stage." I've copped a bit of stick for that over the years but you have to have a philosophy and that happens to be our's. Anyway. Thanks again for everybody's comments about being 'professional'. That's the greatest compliment. Cheers And Glen. Gimme a call. 0433 407 039. And I’ll shoot you a free one. I’ll make it a Platinum too. Our creed at Propvid is “The Agent is the Star; the property is their stage.” I’ve copped a bit of stick for that over the years but you have to have a philosophy and that happens to be our’s. Anyway. Thanks again for everybody’s comments about being ‘professional’. That’s the greatest compliment. Cheers

]]> By: Brett Clements http://www.business2.com.au/2008/02/online-real-estate-marketing-expert-speaks/comment-page-1/#comment-3433 Brett Clements Wed, 20 Feb 2008 06:57:54 +0000 http://www.business2.com.au/2008/02/13/online-real-estate-marketing-expert-speaks/#comment-3433 Thank you Michael for that compliment. I really enjoy reading the discussions on this site and then halfway through the article, I started reading about myself. We're doing Propvids down around the $100 mark now, in studio, utilizing some blue-screen technology and a new camera rig. We're just doing a soft trial of what we're calling a ZIP. About 20-30 seconds and loaded with lifestyle. We're exploring inserting stills but there's no 'grain' in a digital photograph so you know its not film and it always jolts me and looks a bit...nasty. Anyway. Joel. Awesome comments about what a video should be - and not stating the obvious. I'm always saying to Agents the fridge in the corner usually means this is a kitchen....and please reserve comments like "awesome" for the Grand Canyon. One of the few things in life which doesn't disappoint. Cheers guys. Thank you Michael for that compliment. I really enjoy reading the discussions on this site and then halfway through the article, I started reading about myself. We’re doing Propvids down around the $100 mark now, in studio, utilizing some blue-screen technology and a new camera rig. We’re just doing a soft trial of what we’re calling a ZIP. About 20-30 seconds and loaded with lifestyle. We’re exploring inserting stills but there’s no ‘grain’ in a digital photograph so you know its not film and it always jolts me and looks a bit…nasty.
Anyway. Joel. Awesome comments about what a video should be – and not stating the obvious. I’m always saying to Agents the fridge in the corner usually means this is a kitchen….and please reserve comments like “awesome” for the Grand Canyon. One of the few things in life which doesn’t disappoint. Cheers guys.

]]> By: michael liu http://www.business2.com.au/2008/02/online-real-estate-marketing-expert-speaks/comment-page-1/#comment-3424 michael liu Sun, 17 Feb 2008 13:43:23 +0000 http://www.business2.com.au/2008/02/13/online-real-estate-marketing-expert-speaks/#comment-3424 Thanks again Glenn for spending your time giving us your sound advice. There are many ways we are going with this and the one that seems to be attractive at this point of time is an exclusivity agreement, some agents think that our product can assist them with getting listings over their local competitors, but now the market has changed over here (WA) and listings aren't so tight, I'm not sure if there is so much of a problem (lack of properties for sale) any more. We also have a model that includes a wider scope of interaction such as area highlight video tours, online consumer research, projecting property videos to the worldwide market through international real estate video companies and video hosting companies. We tailor these elements to the particular agents needs. Thanks to you sharing your insights with us Glenn, we will work on a model that gets us down to the $200 mark by supplementing our product with other forms of revenue, there won't be a probem for us getting a product out at that price level. We have in the past offered to give away a number of these video tours on personalised maps (with no strings attached) but only one agent took us up on the offer, that agent however was totally satisfied and at one stage was paying a lot more than the current price advertised, he swears by it and is now our biggest customer and advocate. The initial freebie offer was over a year ago now and we will take your point into serious consideration by looking at offering up some more 'no strings attached' freebies in the near future. We did have a meeting with one of the big online players last year who were very interested in what we were doing. The guy running the meeting who was apparently on the board, didn't give out business cards and didn't even look at our site before he met us, preceeded nearly everything with 'no offense but' post ceded everything with 'but we've grown from x amount of staff to xx amount of staff in a year' (at this point we were wondering why they were even bothering with us), then proceeded to tell us how they were going to launch their videos, then gave us an offer of 'we will take all your content, your operating system in exchange for a 'prefered provider' ad on our site, and even though they were a big player, they couldn't guarantee us a revenue stream of any kind. My business partner and I just looked at each other and said 'no thanks, we will just take royalty fees from you when you go public breaching our patent (watch this space)'. The point here is 'content is king' and we will never give ours away for ad space. We know that the bigger players come unstuck with low budget video content. Some of them already have a number of departments that have moving media resources and that all sounds flashy, now unless these resources are being utilised to their full 'production value' capacity, then anything else is an unneccesary overhead and these departments will be running in the red trying to compete with the likes of us. You look at Propvid, Brett has done a fantastic job with that, and I don't think any of the media big boys can compete with him and give as good a product as he is producing at the moment, and when the market says 'bring it in under $200' this is where we step in. The person that will get in under us is the real estate agent who goes and shoots his/her own stuff and puts it up on sites such as youtube & revver then links it into their own site (which can all be done now). Any way, enough of my ranting, but as you guys have been generous enough to give me your time, most valuable ideas and advice I thought the least I could do was return the favour for what it is worth. Thanks again Glenn for spending your time giving us your sound advice. There are many ways we are going with this and the one that seems to be attractive at this point of time is an exclusivity agreement, some agents think that our product can assist them with getting listings over their local competitors, but now the market has changed over here (WA) and listings aren’t so tight, I’m not sure if there is so much of a problem (lack of properties for sale) any more. We also have a model that includes a wider scope of interaction such as area highlight video tours, online consumer research, projecting property videos to the worldwide market through international real estate video companies and video hosting companies. We tailor these elements to the particular agents needs. Thanks to you sharing your insights with us Glenn, we will work on a model that gets us down to the $200 mark by supplementing our product with other forms of revenue, there won’t be a probem for us getting a product out at that price level. We have in the past offered to give away a number of these video tours on personalised maps (with no strings attached) but only one agent took us up on the offer, that agent however was totally satisfied and at one stage was paying a lot more than the current price advertised, he swears by it and is now our biggest customer and advocate. The initial freebie offer was over a year ago now and we will take your point into serious consideration by looking at offering up some more ‘no strings attached’ freebies in the near future. We did have a meeting with one of the big online players last year who were very interested in what we were doing. The guy running the meeting who was apparently on the board, didn’t give out business cards and didn’t even look at our site before he met us, preceeded nearly everything with ‘no offense but’ post ceded everything with ‘but we’ve grown from x amount of staff to xx amount of staff in a year’ (at this point we were wondering why they were even bothering with us), then proceeded to tell us how they were going to launch their videos, then gave us an offer of ‘we will take all your content, your operating system in exchange for a ‘prefered provider’ ad on our site, and even though they were a big player, they couldn’t guarantee us a revenue stream of any kind. My business partner and I just looked at each other and said ‘no thanks, we will just take royalty fees from you when you go public breaching our patent (watch this space)’. The point here is ‘content is king’ and we will never give ours away for ad space. We know that the bigger players come unstuck with low budget video content. Some of them already have a number of departments that have moving media resources and that all sounds flashy, now unless these resources are being utilised to their full ‘production value’ capacity, then anything else is an unneccesary overhead and these departments will be running in the red trying to compete with the likes of us. You look at Propvid, Brett has done a fantastic job with that, and I don’t think any of the media big boys can compete with him and give as good a product as he is producing at the moment, and when the market says ‘bring it in under $200′ this is where we step in. The person that will get in under us is the real estate agent who goes and shoots his/her own stuff and puts it up on sites such as youtube & revver then links it into their own site (which can all be done now).
Any way, enough of my ranting, but as you guys have been generous enough to give me your time, most valuable ideas and advice I thought the least I could do was return the favour for what it is worth.

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