Lights! Camera! Real Estate! New Venue for Real Estate Listing Videos

You log on to the Internet, and what do you do? If you are like 70% of the U.S. Internet audience, somewhere along the line you’re going to watch a video. That’s an amazing reach for streaming video. In January alone, more than 123 million people watched 7.2 billion videos online!
Check out the March 21st 2007 press release of comScore®.

It’s probably no secret that the majority of those were viewed on YouTube.com, but there are many other popular sites for sharing videos. Funny, cute, or just plain weird, people watch videos online.

The popularity of online video is not lost on the real estate industry, either. If one picture of a home is worth a thousand words, what do you suppose a video with sound is worth? Many real estate agents are embracing video tours as a means of highlighting the features of a home with more impact than the standard slide show. Since the majority of home buyers now begin their search on the Internet, adding video capability is a natural enhancement to listings.

Realtor.com, the official site of the National Association of REALTORS®, is in the process of revamping its entire site to make it more helpful to consumers and to provide a place in cyberspace where REALTORS® and consumers can interact. Just this past Friday they announced upgrades that will include blog sites for Realtors® that will be able to host embedded online video.

Embedding videos in blogs is nothing new. Some people say that video for real estate marketing is a fad which is going to go away but my bet is the same as Joel’s: Video for Real Estate is going to stick around. YouTube.com may not be the best venue for video-marketing listings and the folks at Realtor.com recognized this possibility for being just THE venue. Any agent who is “enhancing” their listings on Realtor.com will now be able to add a property video just like they add multiple photos and virtual tours. Now that is pretty cool…

Brokerages around the country are getting on the bandwagon, and individual agents should get comfortable leading virtual video tours of their listings.

What does this mean for the Phoenix Metropolitan area? Well, I won’t go so far as to say “a star is born,” but I will tell you that a listing in an historic Phoenix building is the star of a Realtor.com video tour, and that I will be your host. Be sure to come back for the grand premier on Tuesday. Popcorn’s on me, but please, no autographs.