In part 3 of my series on the 10 ideas for real estate video, I give you two more content ideas for your real estate videos. Make sure you didn’t miss Part 1 and Part 2.

5. Real Estate Q&A

Create videos of the Q & A variety. Have some frequently ask questions that you want to address? Create a video that can answer those. You can also create call to action on your blog or website and invite your viewers and readers to ask you questions about real estate, the market, about your local area, anything. Then, create a video to take the opportunity to answer each of those questions to broadcast on your blog and YouTube channel.  It is a great way to showcase your knowledge and expertise about your business and local market. If you are not an expert when it comes to a particular question, or they happen to be  of a legal nature, enlist some of your professional friends and colleagues (attorneys, loan officers, etc) to speak on your video to answer those questions.

(As in your offline life, be sure that you make videos answering questions that you truly know the answer to. Make sure not dispense legal advice or give definitive answers to subjects you truly are not trained or experienced in.)

6. Interview Your Happy Buyer and Seller Clients

Ask your past and present clients to let you interview them a little bit and share their personal experience in buying or selling a home. Invite them to tell their personal story about the buying/selling process, their fears, their excitement, and what they had learned. With your buyers, you can try doing this immediately after the closing table while clutching their new house keys and filled with excitement about moving in to their new home.

You can ask your clients to add a little testimonial for you and the end, but it’s not totally necessary. Just showing real people that are happy with the outcome of their real estate transaction, and that you were the one behind helping them could be testimonial enough without actually saying it.

If you do one of these kind of videos, be sure to have a video release form getting the right to use the image/video of them with permission to use in your blog, YouTube channel and other marketing purposes. It’s good to have all of your bases covered.

Needing more ideas for your real estate video? Video is a great way to build your “trusted advisor” status, so here are a few more ideas to help you do just that. As a continuation of my series 10 Ideas for Real Estate Video, here we go with Part II which includes two more content ideas for your real estate video.

3.  Featured Business

Do a video featuring a favorite local business in your market area. You can do this by simply taking your camera to local restaurant, shop, or service provider in your town. Take shots of the scenery place of business, interview the owners or workers, and make mention why this is a favorite spot to do visit or do business. It is a great cross promotion tool, a great way to show off your neighborhoods to outsiders, and another way to show your area expertise. you can even consult with the business for them to offer special discounts and offers to your viewers.

4.  Highlight a Community Event

Show off a different side of yourself and your community. Highlight a special community charity you are involved in, or a special community event that speaks to you. If you are involved in something like Relay for Life, take along your camera and show highlights of the event, interview organizers and participants on why they are involved and show why it is important to you.

You could also take your camera along to special or unique festivals or parties that go on in your community. Whether it is a fall festival with pumpkin patches and scarecrows, or something that is unique to your community, show it off. It is another way to show how you are involved in your community,  show off why it is a great place to live, and again it helps to build your “trusted advisor” status.

Everyone loves a contest right? Since I’ve been talking about video a fair bit lately, I saw a contest for REALTORS from NAR that ties into video nicely. So you’ve been sharpening your video making skills lately, and making fantastic real estate videos, right? Well now you can put those skills into practice by entering the Win a Trip to New Orleans in the NARdiGras 2010 Video Contest.

All you have to do is submit a video that is 3 minutes or less, explaining why you should get an all-expenses paid trip to NARdiGras 2010, NAR’s annual conference and expo happening November 5-8. Looks like a fun contest and a pretty great prize as well. A few years ago I attended the NAR Conference & Expo in Vegas, had a blast, and met all sorts of industry greats.

Winner of the contest receives, full conference registration, round-trip airfare, hotel room for 3 nights, and $300 gift card for expenses. The winner’s video will also be displayed on the REALTORS® Conference & Expo home page.

Video submission deadline is August 15th, and the voting for the finalist happens August 23rd – September 13th. So get creative, show off you awesome video skills, plead your case, and be sure to include the phrase “NARdiGras 2010, the REALTORS® Conference & Expo in New Orleans.”

For more information on the contest and guidelines, check it out here.

Good Luck!

Image via Wikipedia

Video is becoming a popular tool in the real estate agent’s marketing plan. And why not? YouTube happens to be the worlds second most popular search engine. That is why it is a great idea to incorporate video into your real estate business. Not only do you get exposure on YouTube, videos make great content for your blog, real estate website, Facebook Pages, and more.

Many agents really want to start using video, but draw a blank as to what kind of topics to do real estate videos on. So here is my first installment of my 10 Ideas For Real Estate Video.

1.  Video Tour of Homes

One of the most obvious ways to use video for real estate is to do video tours of your listings. As a form of a virtual tour, simply take a video walk-through of the home. Take shots of the front and the surroundings on the street, then walk through the front door and take viewer through the home as if they were walking through it in person. This is something that can easily be done with your own camcorder if you have the right tools (a decent camcorder, a tripod, and simple editing software). If you are marketing a “high end” or luxury listing, or you just don’t have the time, then I recommend hiring a professional to make the video tours.

(No camcorder or budget for a professional? You can also make a video tour by stringing together still photos using such software as RealEstateShows, Animoto, and more.)

This is a great tool to use for buyers too! Take along your camera on showings to record the homes your buyers are viewing. Then you can email your videos afterward to remind your buyers about exactly what they have seen. Or you can send the videos to their far-away spouses or family members to take a look.

2.  Tour of Neighborhoods/Towns

Image by cobalt123 via Flickr

Build your trusted “local expert” status by taking a video tour of the neighborhoods and towns you serve. Show off the great neighborhood features, the local parks, favorite local hot spots and shopping. Highlight everything that makes that neighborhood unique and a great place to live. It is a great way to show those thinking of relocating to the area why they should move there.

Do you serve a selling area comprised of several distinct neighborhoods? Do a separate video for each of them. The more content you can provide, the better.

For an excellent way to do a call to action:  Invite your viewers and current residents to request that you highlight their favorite neighborhoods or parts of the area.

Image via Wikipedia

Have you seen my latest video posted to YouTube? You still need a great real estate website? Well now at BVAS, we are offering WordPress website design! Check out what I had to say about the recent development.

So if you are interested in starting a new real estate website and real estate blog using the WordPress platform, visit my  website for more info and contact us today!

Image by MegBarberVA via Flickr

Do you Poken? That question brings up the subject of my latest techno-gadget-geek obsession… the Poken. It was introduced to me at a recent DVVAA networking lunch by fellow Virtual Assistant, Kyna Baker, and I think it is just the coolest thing ever. As usual, I’m always looking for things to make the business life of real estate agents easier, and this fun little gadget can do just that.

What is a Poken, you ask? To put it simply, the Poken is a digital business card device. It provides you an easy way to share your contact info as well as all your online social network profiles with others you meet who have a Poken too. The exchange works by simply touching the palms together with another Poken user, or “high 4″ as they call it. And viola, the green glow means the information has transferred.

Later, you just plug your poken into your computer’s USB port and transfer the contacts of the new people you just met into your Poken hub(it’s web based). You then can easily download those contacts and put into your Outlook or other contact manager. And if you make changes your contact info, it updates your connections in their hubs and vice versa. There’s no more scribbling down your social network links, or new email addresses.  There’s no scanning business cards, no typing into a database.  How cool is that? (Scroll down for info on where to get one)

They have 2 products currently, the Poken Spark and the Poken Pulse, and I ordered both just to test them all out. So far I am liking them a lot for different reasons. Here is a video I made showing them off and talking about the differences between the two products.

The Poken Spark is the original incarnation, and come in all sorts of eye-catching designs. I think they live up to their name as they can really spark up a conversation when people see them. They are small and can easily clip to your key key chain. The Spark holds about 50 contacts (before you download them), but does not have additional storage.

The Poken Pulse is their newer product that works in the same way, but also has 2GB of flash memory. It’s plainer looking than the Spark. It looks almost like a standard USB memory stick, but it does have the little hand on it and can be ordered with designs on the inside. It interacts with all other Pokens just the same, and has the ability to hold more contacts. Again is is the size of a USB memory stick and like the Spark, can be hooked on to a key chain.

So where can you get a Poken? The easiest way is to purchase your Poken online, and here are a number of places that sell Pokens on US soil:

• Start Poken
• Poken Zoo
• Poken Girl
• findapoken

Some of these vendors also allow you to by them in bulk orders, and you can even get them with your own logo printed right on them. Great to hand out for networking events, REALTOR conferences and expos, or even Thank You gifts for referrals.

Hope you find the Pokens as cool as I do. I see lots of possibilities with them as they gain popularity around the globe. And if you ever run into me in person (it can happen folks), be sure to Poken with me.

Here we are 1/12 of the way through the year 2010 and boy has it been a busy month! Business is booming, and me and my clients have this motivational fire inside to make this the greatest year ever. So here is my latest video talking about it.

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Here I am having more fun with using video. Here is the latest video I posted just yesterday. It’s a little bit of a company intro giving some history on my business and why I became a Real Estate Virtual Assistant. Enjoy!