Ubertor Real Estate Blog

According to Joel over at futureofrealestatemarketing.com:

“Video Killed the Virtual Tour
I believe this is going to be the year that online video finally make an impact in real estate. The barriers to entry have largely disappeared and the reams of data that now exists now needs context. Video does just that. Realtors and brokers should start looking at how they can incorporate video into their marketing efforts, not only as a way to differentiate themselves from the competition, but as a way to bring greater value to their clients and to consumers.”

Interesting to note that our pals over at vOpenHouse.ca just announced a change to their pricing structure.

(would be nice to see them add them to youtube.com as well)

Patrick Nixon and Matt Hallaran are 2 of our experienced Real Estate Marketing Coaches that have been selling and consulting with our Realtors for years. Both Patrick and Matt have moved to Victoria to continue our expansion on the island. If your a real estate agent on Vancouver Island and looking to speak further with one of our team please feel free to contact Matt or Patrick directly.

Patrick Nixon
patrick@ubertor.com
250-893-9507

Matt Hallaran
matt@ubertor.com
250-858-3583

Their next real estate training session that they are holding is a Sutton Westcan in Victoria. If you would like to have them come by your office please feel free to contact them.

UPDATE - Just noticed that our pals at vOpenHouse.ca have an affiliate in Victoria as well. More details here

Stacy over at Video Openhouse emailed me a link to an article written by Georgie Binks at the CBC. The article talks about how doing video tours of your listings is a great way to showcase a property. I think that adding as much content to your listings as you can is important. Photos, Virtual Tours/Video Tours, Floorplans, Strata Documents, Google Maps, Neighbourhood Information, etc etc.

I think that you can take this one step further and include videos about the neighbourhood that your listing is in. The best part is, there is a resource out there on the web ready to help you do this,…. and its free.

TurnHere.com, created by Bran Inman of Inman News, “is a digital media company with a unique mission. TurnHere produces professional digital videos, accessible on the Internet, which convey authentic experiences of places and leisure activities in cities and neighborhoods around the world.”

TurnHere.com allows you to link to their neighbourhood videos at no cost. Here are some examples of their work:
Vancouver’s Main Street
Vancouver’s Davie Street
Toronto’s Kensington Market
Seattle’s Ballard Neighbourhood
Calgary Stampede
Chicago’s Wicker Park

Check it out, they might have a video that you like and that you want to use within one of your listings, or maybe, you want to get your own Video made for your own use.

I only wish TurnHere.com allowed you to embed the video instead of doing it as a pop up. I really like the way YouTube.com’s embedded feature works. (Check out MJ Ankenman’s “about me” video that she embedded into her site)

Seitz comes out with a 360-degree camera that will capture 470 million pixels worth of color and light. It will complete that task in two seconds flat. Now doesn’t that sound quick and easy? It will be available by early 2007.

Oh, and the cost, a mere $34,000!

If this is too long to wait for this gaget, or a little more than you wanted to spend, you could always hire a company to do it for you.

Just got back from the Vancouver Real Estate Board Trade Show at the Westin Bayshore in downtown Vancouver. Bit of a rainy day for the event so the view that the Bayshore has was nowhere to be seen. Here is what it should have looked like:

The event seemed to go well for everyone involved. We had a booth at the show. It was great to chat with many of our existing clients as well as meet many new Realtors. Dara from RealtySupport.ca and Darryl from MyHomeTours.ca were at our booth for a while showcasing their products and services. All in all, a great day.

Some of our approved vendors have added some new features or products to their offering and I wanted to take a moment to point out a couple of them.

RealtySupport.ca - Our pals over at RealtySupport.ca work with many of our clients that are looking to outsource the need for an assistant. RealtySupport.ca provides an on demand service that works very well for our clients. The big difference is that when you need some work done, they will do it, and when you don’t, there is no monthly salary to pay (like you would have to with an assistant).

Dara, the principal of RealtySupport has added a new service for her clients where she will brand your floor plans. This is a great added service and an excellent way to keep your branding consistent across your marketing material. I’m sure that this could be done on many of your other documents that you need to provide to potential buyers.

*plus with the new ability within the Ubertor software to rename the floor plan tab it makes your documents that much more accessible to your clients and prospects.

RealStock.ca - As usual, the photo team over at RealStock.ca has been adding tons of photos to their extensive library of stock photography. They have pictures of the Greater Vancouver area, Seattle, Whistler, Bellingham, Washington State, Fraser Valley, as well as many general shots that could be used on any site. The unique thing is that RealStock.ca works with many of our sites and their photos come in their original format as well as pre-sized to fit your Ubertor website.

I met with new clients of ours the other day on Vashon Island in Washington State. They were in need of a photo for their homepage and they had a pretty specific look they were going for. They ended up getting a photo from iStockPhoto.com (which is an inexpensive place to find stock photography) that looks great.

Then today, while reading some of my favorite blogs, I came across a post about SpyMedia.com. SpyMedia has a bit of a different take on the photo world, where a buyer can set a price for a photo they want someone to shoot - and sellers can set prices for the photo they want to sell. (SpyMedia also started a blog)

Anyways, if your in need of some photos for your websites, iStockPhoto.com and SpyMedia.com are 2 options. Plus our pals over at RealStock.ca also have quite a library of photos and they will crop them to fit your Ubertor website.

As some of you may have heard, Apple has launched their new computers that support Windows. Now you can have a Mac (which is a far superior computer to a PC) and still be able to use the real estate related programs that only work on PC’s.

Here is one of their new ads that promote the new products:

See all of the new ads here (they are quite funny)

Our friends at realstock.ca have created another version of our Westwood template that is available for purchase. If your a Seattle real estate agent and are looking for a turn key website then this is the a great solution for you. For only $995.00 you can own this website plus:

- Google sitemap created.
- Google Satellite maps enabled [API].
- Unique content added to blog & homepage.
- Agent Photo added with graphic enhancement on home and contact page.
- Agent signature added,
- 7 High Quality Realstock.ca niche images added to banner.
- 2 Graphical Headings on home page. - Custom Header [top of site]. - Custom title tags and label tags.
- Yaletown Buyers and Sellers content.
- Auto Fill Category added.
- Featured listing widget on the home page.

The monthly cost is $57.00

Click here to see the website

Our approved vendors offer quite a few services to our client base but I wanted to take a moment to point out one in particular. Jaret Forman has been working with Ubertor and Realtors for over a year now and he specializes in not only selling Ubertor websites, but will also working with you to fill your website with unique content.

Content, and specifically unique content, on your website to match the search words of people using the search engines, is very important and will help you get more traffic and improve search engine ranking.

Go to www.jaretforman.com to read more about what Jaret has to say about Ubertor Realtor websites as well as see some of his work at http://www.jaretforman.com/WebsiteContent.php.