High gas prices + Open Houses = NO CUSTOMERS

Stephen:  Video online is fairly new - you couldn't do it three years ago. And if you did it was small as a postage stamp, blurry, and viewable by only a few people who could figure out how to see it!

People will always buy homes by seeing a home in person - although there are many reports of people buying homes strictly online.  Makes no sense to me, but it HAS happened on more than a few occasions.  

My point is that with gas prices soaring, and so many properties on the market, the internet presentation is KEY. It's the new 'curb appeal'.  If your presentation online isn't TOP NOTCH, they will hit the NEXT button, not pick up the phone to call you in order to find out more.  People are eliminating properties based on what they see online, whether you want to admit it or not. That means GREAT PHOTOS, LOTS OF PHOTOS and VIRTUAL OR VIDEO TOURS.

Many of my clients can definitively say that they have sold houses based on video.  In fact, many buyers watch the video over and over and over again - and literally talk themselves into falling in love with a home!  And video is the absolute best, slam dunk listing tool out there.  If you show a video to a seller, you will get the listing - it's almost a guarantee.  It sets you apart from literally everyone else, as everyone else is doing the same old thing - they have the same spiel, the same marketing 'presentation' the same B.S.  You don't stand out from everyone else at all - you just blend in.  THIS makes you stand out and it shows that you're doing something different in what sellers KNOW is a slow market. Sellers LOVE video.  BUYERS love video.  It's the realtors (not all, but most) that 'don't get it'.  To many, it's just another expense. They don't understand the benefits.

I have a client down in the Hingham/Cohasset area.  He's selling houses - lots of them - pretty regularly and pretty quickly - sometimes under agreement within days -  in a very slow market. He's getting listings like there's no tomorrow.  And he markets himself with his video tours, which he does for almost every single listing he takes.  He promotes them in his advertising, his signs - everywhere. He stands out among his competition - big time.

Is it THE reason he's so busy when everyone else is not?  Who knows?  But it's a very strong component of his marketing and business strategy - there's no question about that. Even though he's only been in real estate a couple of years, he's very good at what he does.  He's different.  He stands out.  And he's getting some very pricey listings as well - I just did 3 videos for him last week - 2 at $1M and one at $3M that he's putting on the market in a few days.

He just told me that he is listing another million dollar house that was sandwiched in between two smaller homes that were dumps - the paint was literally pealing off.  He actually paid to have the neighbors' houses painted so his listing stands out. And he is replacing the neighbors decrepit metal shed.  Whacky?  Of course!  Stupid?  I don't think so.  I bet there are three people talking him up and telling this story every day - day in and day out. 

In a business where everyone seems to have the same advertising and marketing strategy, the same websites, the same listing presentations, the same business cards (does everyone buy them from the same company or something?), and selling the same inventory - if you don't step outside the box and do something different, you just blend in and disappear.....   

Right now video is that difference.  In a few years it will be the norm. 

Stephen:  Honestly, I personally have never heard that, which doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't said, but it's never, ever come up as an issue.  With video especially - it's about as close to actually being there as you can get - nothing is distorted, you can see the relationships between rooms as you walk from one to another, etc.  It's probably the most realistic, transparent view of the home that you can have virtually. 

Photographs only show what YOU want to show.  Wide angle lenses make rooms appear to be cavernous when they in fact are not.  You can crop out the hole in the wall.  You can wait until all the tons of traffic has passed by the window so it doesn't look like the house is on a busy street (which it is).  You can crop out the rusted car on the lot next door.. etc.  A photographic viewpoint is just one view chosen by one person - the view they WANT you to see.  With video, you can't doctor up the images, you can't "not" shoot negative parts of the house - it's ALL there.  

The comment that one hears more often is "I feel like I've already been here".  They already KNOW their way around the house.  They already KNOW they like it, or they wouldn't be there in the first place.  They  may have seen the cars  driving by the window on the video, so they KNOW it's not located in a secluded  forest!  They already SAW the ugly house next door - it's not a surprise. 

With video, it's truly a real, representation of what the home and neighborhood REALLY look like.  Do some people dismiss it because they saw it's on a busy street?  Of course! But the fact that it's on a busy street is a FACT - it won't change.  If they have an issue with what they see on the video, they will have an issue seeing the traffic in person.  This way, you eliminate people who waste your time and your sellers time.