Ken’s Sandbox

Power is back on. I was out of the office when it went out (my office neighbor said it was about 9:00 AM). The city said it was a fire on a pole near a substation.

The battery backup carried everything very nicely for the expected 45 minutes but that was about 45 minutes short. Guess I either need to beef up the battery backup system or buy a generator.

Note to Joe Whitsett: The modifications to my cpe worked great. Both internet and phones stayed up fine. But you need amend  my testimonial ad to say no unplanned downtime due to Comspan.

Right after I posted about hosting video tours, I see where Marc Andreessen posted this about how the real estate downturn may be permanently changing where and how agents advertise their listings. Read it here.

The other day Hope MacManus at Old Town Realty in Florence asked if I could (would) host a video tour for her. It seems that linking the tour from the office web site was in violation of the RMLS rule about branding tours (more than a little ridiculous but I don’t make the rules, I just have to listen to the complaints ;-).

So far, this is the second video I have seen that client agents have had done for their listings. Now, two video tours out of 2,400 listings does not necessarily make it a trend. But throw in a couple of comments from other agents and there may be some interest. Maybe a few others would like to try it. Add the fact that I take pride in keeping ahead of other real estate sites in areas such as this* and well … you never know where an idea is going to come from.

So, beginning immediately, RealWorld will host your video tours at no additional charge. If it looks like we are going to become the youtube of real estate, I may have to rethink things. But for now, I would like to encourage the use of video as much as possible.

A couple random thoughts:

Video tours will have the virtual tour icon on RealWorld. If videos become popular enough, I will add a video tour icon and add an upload function to the on-line menu.

I recently purchased a Cannon digital camera that takes beautiful 640 X 480 video. A camera like this would allow you to shoot your own video. It would be great if someone offered the service of editing raw video into a nice looking tour with music and or voice over.

If you have a video produced, you should ask for two versions. In Hope’s case she had to have her producer go back and cut out the title segments with the office name and contact information. This unbranded video is the tour she will enter in RMLS.

Are video tours a good idea or a waste of time? Post your experiences and thoughts in the comments below.

If you know of someone who produces video tours or can help with production, post their contact information in the comments as well. I would like to provide a resource list.

* The end of August RMLS will be expanding their photo capabilities to allow 16 photos per listing and the photo size is being increased to 640 X 480. RealWorld has supported up to 25 photos and 800 X 600 for over a year.