Home : Blogs : Missy Caulk-Ann Arbor- Realtor(R)- Ann Arbor Real Estate : Ann Arbor and Saline Michigan Real Estate

Mixpo to the Rescue

Today my daughter and I went out and shot a video of a home listed at 409 Fountain in Ann Arbor, MI. We are working with a client who is interested in this house and lives out of town.

We found out another person is flying in on Monday to look at it and we need to have her take a look in more detail, if she is going to purchase sight unseen.

I have been trying for an hour to get OUTLOOK to send a wva file out at 77MB.

The video of 409 Fountain would not post on YouTube because it is 19 minutes. So I thought MIXPO !!

So I went to Mixpo, created the video and told her to log on and watch.

Thanks Active Rain, Thanks Brad for the tutorial today.

VideoAd by Mixpo

Posted by Missy Caulk-Ann Arbor- Realtor(R)- Ann Arbor Real Estate on 04/26/2008 02:48 PM

Comments (58)

409 fountain, ann arbor, mi

58 Comments on Mixpo to the Rescue

APR

2008

This is 19 minutes long, it took me 8 hours to get it uploaded. I learn a hard lesson, don't do a 19 minute video and try to upload to ANYTHING. I was only going to email it, it jammed up my outlook. I also learned to walk away from the computer, I finally went to bed last night at 11:30 turned it off.

And this morning it was finished.

Are you suggesting that we do shorter video? I would think 2 miunutes is long enough.

Isn't technology wonderful? Now all I need to do is learn how to use it. :-)

Don R.

Oh my goodness, it took that long???

Missy, I do love the idea of shooting the videos for your out of town clients. That is going to be so helpful! (Can you shorten it though so that it doesn't take that long for your client to download?)

Missy - Great job on the video. I am watching it as I comment here. It's always great to hear a new voice for one of my AR friends! Have a terrific weekend, and great job on using technology to provide top-notch service. I think the church next door is very cool!

Missy - I tried to send a video yesterday, its much shorter than yours and had the same results. I walked away and 3 hours later it was still all stuck. It took me about 3 tries to get it unjammed and deleted from the outbox. Outlook just isn't going to cut it with video. I am glad it jammed on my end though - I would hate to think of doing that to a receiver. I am now sold on having some type of player.

I am so excited! I am going to do this. Great job!

Missy, what a fabulous tool for out of area buyers! This is the very best kind of house alert! I just got a cute little tripod for mine, but I'm still waiting to get some time to sit down and really use my Flipper.

Missy - I know the videos are the wave of the future, but I would have done it in a slide show with a audio narrative. IMO it would be easier to divide it into segments and make the emailing so much easier. But - keep in mind - I have not played with the video aspect yet, so my opinions might change! LOL You did a great job and the house is just adorable!

I use skyalbum.com for my slide shows, but don't know if you can upload video there or not. Might not hurt - if you can, then your client could just log on with the file ID and check it out. No sending it through Outlook.

Missy~

Looks like the tulips are thriving in Michigan...and your photo shoot tells a great story about the potential there. Thanks for the heads-up on MIXPO,,,

Everyone:

She is thinking of buying this home, site unseen. We wanted to make sure she got every nook and cranny. Yes it is too long, but not for the person buying the house without ever seeing it.

Steve, Outlook made me so mad last night. I couldn't delete it, finally Todd on twitter told me what to do.

My client had me download, http://SendSpace.com. It was also too big for it. But, I was determined to get this to her. Anyway, whenever you are learning a new technology it takes time to figure out what works.

If you remember I did a video of Paul Bunton the Chief of Police in Saline.

He is now on page 1, number 1 on Google for the AR post and number 5 for YouTube page 1 and my personal blog is number 6 or 7, page one.

So I am committed to the process, everyone.

Missy.... what is youtubes max? 10 minutes? 12? That is a good idea.. and I agree, the house inside looks to be in very good shape. What is that? never judge the book by it's cover? Everything looks new or updated...overall, very cute house. What does a house like that go for?

Jeff, YouTube wants video's no longer than 10 minutes. It is a really cute home in great shape. It is walking distance to the new YMCA, downtown, parks, campus. The closer they are to downtown the higher price they go. Ann Arbor people like to walk. This is listed at 174,900.

Hi Missy, This will get easier and easier as we learn things about it and there has to be other software that is better suited for your intended purpose. Mixpo for AR is good though. The thing I wanted to know is are you using a special handle for video camcorder available through camera stores. It would help bring to a minimum the camera movement? I bought a flip 2 days ago, I did buy a handle and I am investigating the varied software that is available. One of the software components supposedly is to help stabilize the finished edited product to a more smooth movement? At least that is what I have been told, I am still looking around and will let you know what I discover. Jeff Turner said that 60 to 90 seconds is about as much as someone would want to watch as an internet ( You Tube) video for home tours.

William let me know. Did you get the video handler for the flip. I agree with Jeff on home tours for the casual looker. But, Todd Waller who has been doing video closed on one that was long, he said the clients kept looking and looking because they were interested in purchasing and not casual observers.

Is the handle on the flip web site. I'll go look, I know they have assesories.

Buying a house unseen! how cool is that. Will the buyer be using PayPal to purchase the home? Can you imagine a transaction like that! I doubt it will ever really get to that point but video tours will go a long way to make it so people can see what a house looks like from wherever they are online at. We need to find a way to make the uploading more streamlined though. I know if I would of gone to bed and let it upload I would of not slept all night!

Best,

Scott

Thanks for sharing my friend but I could never get the video to play even after refreshing my screen and trying again. I hope all is well.

George, hummmm I logged back in and it worked for me, but no worries it was done for the client.

The learning curve for most technology makes us all a little crazy. Imagine if we did not have the experts working on these tools so we can all learn from them.

Missy~You have done such an excellent job on your video. I can't wait to get back into AR more often to figure out how you are doing this.

Missy great job that is awesome! I really need to start using my flip camera.

O.K Missy...I came back and it started working for a little while and then stopped. I logged out and then came back and it started again and went a little farther and then stopped again. I got to see the street views and homes across the street and it is exactly like many homes in our older parts of our towns here in Idaho!

Hey missy for a 19min video you could of condensed the video to a smaller format for your upload..try converting it to different formats wmv, avi, flv....overall the best choice imo is avi. Avi encoded with Xvid codec and reducing the bitrate will have a great quality video while maintaining a small size to upload.

Also to comment on the YOUTUBE limit - There are 2 current limits for youtube the old standard of 100mb (which could explain if you had a LARGE video file to 19 minutes) and just last year Youtube released a whopping 1 Gigabyte with the new youtube multi-video uploader. Hope this helps

Hi Missy - all this technology is really cool, especially for long distance clients, and yours who wants to purchase sight unseen. Better that it jammed on your end and not on your clients' end. I wouldn't want someone sending me a file that big. Is there such a thing as pdf files for videos, so they can be compressed?

I don't have a video camera YET, but hope to soon. Just a thought, if you do this again, maybe break it into 2 videos - one of the inside and one of the outside. They'd be shorter videos, easier to email, and might help with smoother movement of the camera..? I'm learning from all of you for when I do get my own camera for videos.

Did mixpo allow you to upload this video somewhere and then allow your client to view it on a server somewhere? I don't know much about mixpo yet.

Good luck with your client buying this cute charming home!
Ann

I have not ventured out to do the videos yet. I am just watching to see when to jump in. I am researching some different companies to see what I want to do. I think I need more than a tutorial.

Hi Missy,

Great job. Did I tell you the clients of mine from Ann Arbor bought the home in Cary sight unseen? I took several hundred pictures and put them in a slide show. This would have been helpful.

Does it cost anything? Did you use your camera to shoot the video? Please let me know.

Every single time I put some time into AR I benefit. Mixpo sounds like a great option for some of my "techy tools".

Justin the format is AVI from the flip. You said, "vi encoded with Xvid codec and reducing the bitrate will have a great quality video while maintaining a small size to upload.

What the heck does that mean, you lost me !!! How do we upload into the larger 1 G of YouTube?

Kimberly, I am learning as I go and Active Rain gets to be the testing ground.

Anne, You can break it down and them movie mix them together. But, it would have still been too long. I think next time I will just walk through the house. This was a little different as it is a FSBO and it took longer.

Julie, what's up, girlfriend. Hope it is all good !

Missy - lol sorry sometimes I get too carried away...well check out this link for a quick reference in reducing AVI file size http://www.deskshare.com/Resources/articles/dmc_ReduceFileSize.aspx

Tracy, did you get my emails I sent on Thursday ?

Justin, Thanks so much, you geek you!!! I'll go check it out.

Hi Missy and others, this is Anupam from Mixpo. Glad you are finding Mixpo useful and we find your comments certainly very helpful so we can keep improving the service. A few tips: (a) Mixpo compressed videos on your PC and uploads compressed versions to the server unlike Youtube, so the process is much faster. And we don't have size limits though we do know that generally people watch shorter videos online, and of course in the Dashboard, Missy will be able to tell what % of her 19 min video is being watched. (b)For every video in Mixpo, we create dynamic landing pages like the link here. http://www.mixpo.com/videoad/Acadia-Estates-Vacation-/CnMAIBMVRZepnYw3FynypA. You can mail this link out to your buyers -- no need to try mailing large files in email.

Thanks for trying Mixpo.

the video turned out fine!

Anupam, thank you so much !! It took time to publish and then to save to your servers, a 2 step process.

Any hints would be appreciated. I'll check out the link. I know I'll get better and RARELY will I need to do 19 minute videos.

Missy, I did a video for an out of town client. I'm not sure how it was uploaded because my husband handles the technical stuff but my buyer bought and is closing in June. She still hasn't seen the house and won't see it until she gets here for the closing in June.

Missy - the answer to that question would be no. My walk through is scheduled for tomorrow at 10am...

Have you checked out WellcomeMat.com? There's also MediaMax.com for large files. Also, if you own your own domain, which I'm sure you do, you should be able to upload it to your own domain. You might want to buy a domain on GoDaddy just for large files. Great video!

Thanks Tamara, I will visit MediaMax !! Always good to know new information.

Missy - It seems we will be seeing alot of video from you. Great job and I hope this will give your client the edge.

I have yet to try this great tool.... someday soon

APR

2008

Wow, 8 hours to upload. Can see the advantage of video, but not sure that everyone has the equipment to handle it. Thanks for sharing.

Missy - What a great tour. It felt just I was walking through the house with you guys. Another good option for doing these types of tours is to segment off each room. Making individual room videos would give them the same view but wouldn't be anywhere this large. Just a thought.

Missy,

I to have been expiermenting with video. What I have found that works for me is that I run the video through my Power Director Software. While there I can create the one Long File. I can then edit portions of the longer file into Chapters of samller snipets. There by the client can choose to look at the long video but if they want to review they can go back to the much shorter version.

Cost of Mixpo?

I have not ventured into the realm of the video stuff yet, but I have been wanting to. I think I am waiting for everyone else to get it down and make their mistakes so I can sail in and learn from their lessons. :o )

Herb, $299.00 or 29.99 per month. If you pay up front you get 2 months free. Just email Bob or Rich at AR

Jessee, good idea, but I don't plan on making any this long again.

Bob and Carolin, it was the length, a normal 10 minute video would take about 30 minutes.

That is a great idea. It definitely helps to be able to tour the home via video. It makes it almost like being there!

Missy, I love my Flip Video camera. I need to use it more.

Missy, you did goooooooood. I've been practicing as well on mine. Now I know what your voice sounds like - a bit of a southern accent. ;-)

Teri, yes I was born and raised in the South, and miss it like crazy. When I go back to visit, it all comes back, but haven't been home since October.

APR

2008

Hi Missy...I read the post but not all of the comments so this may have been suggested before.

What about taking more than one video, say two or three, making each one much smaller than 19 minutes? Would that help?

I like Carol's suggestion also...the slide show. It is easy to edit the photos. Is it easy to edit the video if you mess up?

However, if video is the way we are going I guess I'll have to jump on board with you.

Liked hearing your voice.

Kathleen

FANTASTIC idea! I love it! It is amazing how far our profession has come!

Missy, you constantly astound me how cutting edge you are with technology. It's great Mixpo worked out for you.

APR

2008

I saw a funny cartoon in the paper (yes, in the archaic NEWSPAPER) the other day - I think it was Zits. The dad was talking to his son about blogging, and on to video blogging and the dad said "STOP THE INTERNET, I WANT TO GET OFF!" LOL

It's overwhelming at times, the technology we have at our fingertips to serve our customers. Way to Go Missy, you are definitely a MOVER and a SHAKER and on the ball!

APR

2008

The video quality is very good... yes... video files are gigantic... thank goodness there are companies making it "play nice" with files size and quality.

Missy I have been doing quite a few video uploads to you tube. I always keep them under 10 minutes or make 2 seperate videos of the same house. You can reduce time by uploading to you tube by opening separate internet explorers and going to you tube on each one and uploading different videos on each one. I have had 3 different uploads to you tube going at one time. Saves times to split the videos up. No compressing.

AUG

2008

Missy - Here I am searching for info on videos and there you are with a perfect post! I can empathize re: Outlook - I'm moving to Mozilla Thunderbird.

SEP

2008

That is a great idea for people who live out of town. We do a lot with adult communities. Now I am thinking of doing videos of each community so that when someone out of town asks for info on the community, we can not only send them a package in the mail, but can also send then the link to the video of the community. Thanks for the great idea.

Leave a response…

Name:

Email:
(optional)

Comment:

What does the graphic say?