Listing Videos: They’re That Easy

By Robert Freedman, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

Making informative and even entertaining videos of your listings seems like a complicated undertaking involving a professional camera, lights, editing equipment, and a lot of knowledge of how all that equipment works, but in fact you can be uploading videos tomorrow without too much trouble.

I’ll be talking about this at 1 p.m. today at the NAR Expo booth at the 2009 REALTORS® Conference & Expo in San Diego. Maybe you won’t be posting videos tomorrow when you’re back at the office but you’ll certainly see that it’s pretty easy to do. Read more

The Socially Networked Neighborhood

By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

If you want to become recognized as your neighborhood’s real estate expert, you should create a fan page for it on Facebook, advises Max Pigman, vice president and national speaker at REALTOR.com®. Pigman talked about how to get some marketing traction via social media in a Friday morning session at the 2009 REALTORS® Conference & Expo in San Diego.

He said that real estate pros can “take over” their neighborhoods if they create a fan page, invite residents to join it, and post updates regularly about community events and local real estate and development trends.

“This becomes the perfect place to assert that you’re the real estate expert for your area,” he said. “Every time you send an update, everyone can see it. If you get strategic with this, you can connect with your sphere at an unbelievable level.” Read more

All Things Tech at Inman Real Estate Connect

By Katherine Tarbox, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

The mood in the Grand Ballroom of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, the site of the 2009 Inman News Real Estate Connect (August 5-7) conference, was remarkably upbeat. With this week’s encouraging news about the housing and job markets, the atmosphere was palpably different from just six months ago at RE Connect in New York. At 1,800, attendance was notably up from last year’s conference, and most sessions were standing-room-only.

Presenters seem to concur that signs point to a slow recovery, but recovery or not, the industry still needs to adapt to a different environment. Sherry Chris, president & CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC, argued that the average office space will need to decrease from 124 sq. feet per practitioner to 49 sq. feet and that newer associates will demand more technology. Read more

Thought About Lease-to-Own Transactions?

By Robert Freedman, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

The news on housing has been good lately, with existing-home sales up for the last several months, but we’re still in a very difficult market, particularly with move-up homes. Not only have prices not recovered but financing remains a challenge and appraisal issues continue to pose hurdles to getting transactions closed. One quick look at the comments generated by our post a few days ago on the home valuation code of conduct (HVCC) makes that evident. (More than 135 comments have been submitted so far.)

For these reasons and more, it makes sense to start looking at lease-to-own transactions. In putting together a webinar on that topic to be held later this month, I talked to two specialists in the niche and what they had to say was eye-opening. Read more

Authenticity and the Social Web

By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

In the September issue of REALTOR® magazine, we’re bringing you a cover story on the realities of doing business on the “social Web” — i.e., the vast array of sites that allow people to communicate, collaborate, and network online. Our aim for that article is to help you sift through the constantly changing tools, terms, and techniques in social media and uncover some core characteristics of this extraordinary new virtual world.

One of the more significant bits of advice that I came across in my research and writing was the importance of being genuine. To use social media successfully, you have to be yourself. This sounds easy, but there’s always a temptation to project an image of yourself that overstates your abilities or experience, or perhaps alters your demeanor to fit a potential client’s perception of an ideal real estate professional. Read more