Jim Reppond and the Reppond Team discuss the vibrant, changing Seattle Real Estate Market. Whether your a seasoned investor or a first time home buyer, Jim\’s vast knowledge of the Seattle Real Estate Market will captivate and educate…
I’m a big fan of Google Maps, especially since Street View came to Seattle. But I’m an even bigger fan of Google Earth because of the fantastic 3-D and detailed rendering that can be done. THIS is the future of real estate mapping and video marketing. Having great video of a property’s interior is huge, but putting it in context of the city, neighborhood, and surrounding amenities takes it to a whole other level. We are getting closer and closer to the holy grail of virtual reality. This is the biggest step so far. And with the growing addition of photo-realistic modeling that is being added at a feverish pace, Google Earth is making the experience pretty close to the real thing.
If you are starting to get serious about doing your own video you probably have a video camera, some software for editing, and maybe have published some stuff on YouTube, Viddler, Vimeo, or maybe WellcomeMat. Some people prefer to find a host where they can send videos privately to clients and control it more, like Screencast.com. Wherever you are in this process, you probably have at least thought about integrating Google Earth into your videos. Google Earth Pro allows you to make a movie that follows the camera viewpoint to and from multiple locations - I call these “fly-throughs”. Then once you finish recording and have saved your fly-through movie file, you can integrate it into your listing or neighborhood video with whatever video editing software you are using. Here are a couple of rough examples:
…..
Perhaps you dismissed this as too technical or overly ambitious. Well, it’s not that tough if you have the stomach for a bit of a learning curve, and a fast computer with lots of RAM. But if you don’t want to spend the time and money (you really should purchase the “professional” version of Google Earth - Google Earth Pro), then make sure the videographer you hire includes it as part of their package. It adds an important perspective and upgrades you to a more comprehensive and quality video product.
I’ve come up with this list of tips of things to keep in mind if you decide to create Google Earth fly-throughs and integrate them into your real estate listings or neighborhood videos:
Download the Google Earth Pro 7-day free trail version, then spend the money if you see the value. (currently $400). It can be done with work around software and techniques. But you are adding WAY TOO MUCH hassle onto the project. Remember - you will probably be doing this on all you real estate listings from now through the foreseeable future. If this is not your cup of tea and you decide it’s not worth it for you, then don’t buy it!
You can only install your licensed Google Earth Pro version on two machines. Think this through - perhaps you will want a technically savvy assistant to produce these for you - so don’t install it on both your personal office and home computer unless you plan on purchasing more licenses.
Spend the time following the tutorial. The official Google Earth tutorial teaches you to create a great fly-though movie of Mount Everest. This is going to give you the basic skills you will need to create your own movies.
The video will “hop” from placemark to placemark. While you can control the speed of the hopping, you should think through any synchronized narrative you might want to add to the audio track when creating the movie (this is often referred to as “storyboarding”)
Become familiar with the Navigation Control in Google Earth that gives you the direction, zoom, and tilt in the 3D Viewer. The more proficient you become at this, the more fluid your movies will turn out. If you are keyboard command geek, take the time to learn those too.
Record your movies in high-quality, at the same size as your final movie output size (I recommend WMV9, 30fps, 640×480).And turn off all unnecessary layers (I recommend only 3D Buildings and Terrain (if they exist), and maybe Roads if you think it will help orient people.
Break up your listing location and neighborhood amenities clips. Remember this should not be a self-contained movie, its best used as just one or two scenes of the overall video project.
I’m by no means an expert at this and I’m still having fun learning it myself. But I’ve found that my past experience as an executive producer of a real estate television program in the early 1980’s and computer graphics applications instructor has helped me see the potential of this medium. And WOW, is it cool!
Here are some examples where videographers have begun to integrate Google Earth fly-throughs into their videos, along with with photographic stills, music, and narratives.
Nashua Video Tours near Boston Orange County agent’s simple self-promotion with Google Earth
Property management slide show using Google Earth
COOL NEW EFFECTS
I expect we’ll see more fun new features and effects in the near future from Google Earth and Maps. One great example is Seero.com. They use real-time GPS positions to create a course in Google Maps for synchronized playback with video. Here’s one that I just love. If you are old enough to remember, you probably were like me and wondering where exactly this this Steve McQueen scene took place in San Francisco.
I can imagine this will soon be used by real estate agents for neighborhood videos. I haven’t yet because both the vertical and horizontal formats don’t work with my layouts and because Wordpress is so restrictive. But let me know if you do. I’d love to see it. Anybody have any other tips or tricks on using Google Earth for real estate they want to share?
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I saw a press release the other day talking about the increase in online video viewing for October. As I looked at the numbers I realized how dramatic the shift in video viewing has become. According to ComScore, an online data measuring company, October was a banner month for online video viewing with YouTube videos outpacing all the other sites combined. Over 13.5 BILLION videos were viewed in October and more than 147 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 92 videos per viewer.
What does this have to do with real estate?
Marketing! I believe it’s no coincidence that newspaper circulation and advertising is rapidly dropping off as this online video takes off. We are in a full-blown information age now and broadband is finally becoming mainstream. This means as people become more internet savvy, they are going to expect more digital photography and video online of properties. Those who embrace this early will be the dominate players in the market.
How will agents use video?
Referrals and repeat business have been and always will be the best source of leads for agents. But in a world where online video is so prevalent, agents would be missing the boat if they don’t adapt to that reality to get in front of perspective clients.
Most agents that utilize video now have a narrow vision and not much imagination. The videos are either virtual tours of their listings, or self-promotional videos trying to sell themselves. I’m guilty of this as well. But we are starting to see the emergence of other real-estate-related videos. Take Ian Watt in Vancouver. Here’s a real estate agent, usually driving around in his car, giving you his point of view on everything from Realtor ethics to low-tide tunnels. And it’s really interesting stuff!
Other examples include “Neighborhood Profile” videos. This is where an agent can really add some personalized style and flair. You want to make a kick-ass neighborhood video that reflects the style and culture of the area, and of you. Linking to other videos is okay, but you won’t communicate anything about yourself if that’s all you do. Here is an example of TurnHereFilms‘ Ballard neighborhood video, which I think captures the essence of Ballard really well. Coldwell Banker has used them in the past for neighborhood informational videos, but they are quite expensive and not practical for most Realtors, or even brokerages.
On Seattle-RealEstate.com’s Neighborhood Descriptions page I have attached several neighborhood videos for people to get a flavor of the areas. Some of these I created myself, and some I linked to from other sources. If I had more time I would do this for every area and personalize each one.
Where to go for help? Let’s be realistic. Not all Realtors are going to have the skills to pull-off quality, compelling videos. Hiring someone else makes the most sense and there is already a cottage industry of small production companies offering services around. WellcomeMat.com is a real-estate-business-specific website where local personalities and professionals connect and discuss the use of video to highlight real estate, cities, neighborhoods, parks, schools, events and local businesses. You can even request bids on projects. I find that the quality of videos produced and posted here to generally be a step up from what most Realtors are capable of producing themselves. Jeff Turner of RealEstateShows.com offers a unique package of coaching and video production. He has a great system for taking photos and creating simple videos with pans and zooms so that you don’t have to have actual video footage to come up with a pretty decent video. Jeff also offers great on-line tips for agents that are determined to do it themselves, regardless of their lack of skill (that’s my category).
One of the first places an agent should check into is their real estate brokerage. Many major real estate companies are actively promoting video these days and encouraging their agents to jump in while the industry is just taking off. This is a great place to look for local talent who can shoot the footage as well as do the production for you. My company, Coldwell Banker Bain, has made a major push to get agents to make promotional profile videos and consider using video for luxury property listings. They have already made arrangements with several videographers that offer reasonable rates and are experienced with working with agents (meaning those who have no acting talent). While these cookie-cutter videos may not be the best approach, they will at least get your feet wet and get you thinking about what’s possible.
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Seattle’s condo development community is all a buzz about the possibility of a new condo skyscraper to “Trump” all others. In fact, at 82-stories it would become the tallest building in Seattle surpassing the 76-story Columbia Center, according to Spencer Albert of Albert International in his exclusive interview with the Daily Journal of Commerce. Albert has been working with Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter and Vice President of Real Estate Development and Acquisitions for the Trump organization, to find a suitable location for Trump’s foray into the Seattle real estate market. Tentative plans call for a dual-tower project: one about 40-stories, and the other 82-stories. The taller tower would include upscale offices and condos, retail and a private club. The smaller tower building would be only as tall as the office phase of the first so as to not block the views of condo residents in the taller structure. A sky bridge would connect the towers at the club level. Parking for the tall tower would be underground. Parking for the smaller would be an automated valet system. (it seems strange to refer to a 40-story building as a “smaller” tower)
To construct an 82-story building you would need to build in Seattle’s DOC1 zone, situated west of Interstate 5, between Union and Jefferson streets. Heights in the DOC1 zone are unlimited if developers can meet certain conditions, depending on the building use. The next tallest downtown zoning area limits heights to 500 feet and would require major variances or zone changes, which are highly unlikely.
Preliminary plans include a three-story private club as an amenity in lieu of a hotel for condo residents. Office tenants could join the club, which would be along the lines of Club Cielo, the private social club planned for the Escala condo project currently under construction. That facility will have private dining rooms, a restaurant, spa and fitness center, steam room, spa services, exercise classes and personal trainers, theater, garden terrace and a wine cave. Alpert envisions the towers being “very green” while being high-end. Sustainable features may inlude rain water recycling and energy efficient windows so condo owners could opt out of air conditioning.
So let the speculation begin! Where do you think the site will be?
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It use to be difficult to detect water intrusion in the walls of homes. To really tell if there was an issue you often had to drill holes into the walls. And Sellers were loathe to allow buyers do such an invasive testing when they might just walk away from the transaction if they found something they didn’t like. These days some inspectors are carrying expensive, but very accurate, thermography meters to check for water intrusion.
These sophisticated devices use high definition thermal imaging for finding hidden water issues as well as discovering details about the heating systems. And it’s all done without any damage to the home. The main company that manufacturers these thermal imaging cameras is called FLIR Systems. There are many other applications for these devices, and they sell them to a number of other industries, including the food industry, law enforcement, marine surveyors, just to name a few. They often cost from $15,000 up to around $60,000. So not many inspectors carry them. I suspect some inspectors may try to charge a premium to test with them. But at least one inspector here in the Seattle area uses them regularly without charging extra.
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I’ve been waiting for service to come out that will put together the best of all the real estate web services out there that doesn’t come with an agenda. There are a number sites that specialize in various kinds of information about real estate, such as Zillow.com for valuations. WalkScore.com for the proximity of a home to “walkable” amenities, etc. Well, Dwellicious bookmarks listings and puts all this and more together in a way that agents, buyers, and sellers can all access and discuss properties for sale in an open environment. I first heard about this over at Agent Genius, who have been working closely with Dan Woolley and Greg Robertson on this. Dan and Greg have a long history in real estate software design and marketing, most recently at eNeighborhoods.com. For details of how to utilize this great new tool you should read Agent Genius’s extensive review.
I’m not going to repeat what Benn from AgentGenius said here. But I want to point out that there is a lot of thought put into these tabs, and what they can do. Even in beta Dwellicious makes it very easy for sharing on Facebook, MySpace, and publishing on WordPress blogs. I’ve heard Twitter and other social sites are on the way. I would guess that embed codes for Postlets, Point2Agent, and Agent e-Flyers will be coming soon as well. By integrating Panoramio geo-coded area photos under the listing photos, relocating buyers can get a visual flavor of the neighborhood. Google’s Street View is front-and-center. As I mentioned in my “Street View Comes to Seattle” blog, Google is taking understanding the neighborhood to a whole new level.
Dwelliciousworks with this impressive list of real estate portals already, and more are bound to jump onboard.
To add your listings they’ve make it as easy as bookmarking the property details page for agents, an important factor for most of us agents, who are not all that technology savvy.
I think this may become the hottest new real estate web application around. And it could be the best integration of real estate marketing and social media created so far. It’s still in beta phase now, but expect it to go live around the beginning of January during the Inman Connect NYC 2009 Event, SO WATCH FOR IT!
After a few hiccups getting Apple to post the newly announced Google Mobile application on iTunes, it’s finally here! There are a number of cool things you can do with Google Mobile. Any of motion and/or GPS related applications will create a “wow factor” response. But the the new Google Mobile app is going to blow those away. Just look at the video below and imagine how non-iPhone owners jaws are going to drop when they see this.
The integration of the iPhone’s GPS and Google Maps makes it particularly useful when looking for local locations. There’s no need to specify where you are because Google Mobile App now has Search with My Location. Search for “movie showtimes” or “Japanese restaurant” and you’ll automatically see results based on your current location. For this to work, Location Services must be enabled on your iPhone and you have to opt-in to let Google Mobile App use your location. Another slick integrated feature is the way Google Mobile app uses the iPhone’s motion sensor to start recoding your voice when you lift the phone to your ear.
Google is not the first to offer cool voice recognition features on the iPhone. Jott is a voice-to-text application that can do a number of tasks for you, including updating your Facebook and Twitter accounts, seting appointments on your Outlook or Google Calendar, and even post blogs to Wordpress, TyperPad or Live Journal blog accounts .Recently Jott added Zillow to there list of cool services. With the Zillow function you can just say the address and within a minute or so you receive an SMS showing the Zestimation of the property. How cool is that?
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Welcome to the #116th edition of CoRE hosted by….me! I’ve been looking forward to this for sometime. I know some people like to do this just for the link juice. But the truth is, I would do this just for the fun of it. This is my first time to host the Carnival, and I hope I get an opportunity in the future to do it again. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Carnival of Real Estate showcases blog posts submitted by the best of the nation’s real estate bloggers. It’s on a different site every week, and this week TheSeattleSpecialist is honored to host it.
I did not set any advance criteria for bloggers to strive for, so tough trackbacks! I wanted to spring it on you without any pre-set conditions. I decided to stay mostly focused on content, but visual appearance and humor also played a roll. In short, I think blogs should be interesting and have a “stickiness” factor - meaning people will want to stay around long enough to read the whole thing and feel there is value in doing so.
I decided on 3 top winners and I would also like to give honorable mentions to 3 other blogs that I thought stood out. Let’s start with the honorable mentions: The first was to Jim for his Seller Tips for a Slow Real Estate Market blog that talks about the back-to-basics pointers that Sellers need to hear. The next was to Mike Price for his Book Report - Reality Check by Guy Kawasaki. I’ve been a fan of Guy’s since his Apple days. His fresh approach to marketing has made “evangelism” a good word again. After reading Mike’s review I will definitely be reading Guy’s new book. And my final honorable mention is to Doug Willis for his Wal Mart’s Real Estate Influence blog. Both Realtors and consumers need to re-adjust their antennas in this foreclosure-saturated market. Knowing when properties are distressed or in foreclosure up front can save you hours of headaches and wasted time.
Below is the list of the top 3 winners and at the bottom is a link to all the blog submissions.
This was posted on Zillow’s blog. This topic was just too fun and timely to resist. Like everyone this week, I am drawn to Obama press coverage because of the historic significance, as well as a burning curiosity about what changes are coming. Green and solar related real estate articles are definitely hot topics these days, and this one was well thought out. Diane’s credit of the article and graphic from the TreeHugger’s blog illustrates a great way for bloggers to post mashups with their own spin and not step on the original authors.
“Social Media” is all the buzz but few agents really understand how works, much less how to use it in their business model. James Shiner does a great job on Geek Estate of showing how Facebook can be a place for spreading real estate information and branding, not just a place for college kids to hit on each other.
And rounding out the top three is a mortgage-related blog. I thought this short article posted on ActiveRain by Melissa gave a good overview of how and why LIBOR affects ARM mortgages. Without going too deep into it and causing the average reader to get lost, she explains (with a great chart) how the crazy spike in the LIBOR happened, and shows how it’s somewhat stabilized.
Thanks to all who participated and here is the list of all the submissions that I read and evaluated. Lots of good, thoughtful stuff. I look forward to hosting again sometime and feel free to subscribe here or drop by anytime! That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of real estate using the carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on the blog carnival index page.
- Jim
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The area covered is significantly larger than just Seattle. It stretches form north of Everett to South of Tacoma and as far east as North Bend. While it doesn’t cover the whole Puget Sound area, it does reach over to Bremerton and tries to include the most traveled areas.
This may be of immense help to buyers and real estate agents to help give people the trouble of physically going to the property when they can do a “virtual drive by” to get a pretty good idea if it’s the type of neighborhood they are looking for.There is so much to be said for this type of perspective. Here are a few instances when someone might want to use Street View to find out information not readily available in the listing or elsewhere:
Is it a busy street? You can tell if it’s a major arterial on atraditional map. But Street View will show you now many lanes, if it’s yellow-striped, etc.
Is the neighborhood kept up well? I always tell clients to look around and see if neighbors keep up their yards, mow the grass, keep their houses painted, etc. Pride of ownership of the neighbors says a lot about what kind of people they are.
Does the house have privacy? Often when I take a client to a home, they can tell before we get out of the car that the bedroom looking over the street, or exposed windows next to a nearby street corner is not going to work for them.
These are just a few examples of where Google Maps Street View is redefining the term “curb appeal” for real estate. Next comes the 3-D integration of Google Earth! I can’t wait!
UPDATE:
It appears that Apple and Google will enhance the Google Maps to include the Strret View functionality on the iPhone with the upcoming iPhone 2.2 operating system update. (see screenshot of beta below courtesy of iphoneyap.com)
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The Seattle Specialist is hosting the Carnival of Real Estate this week. The goal of the Carnival is to bring together the best real estate bloggers from around the country (and world) to share information about real estate. This is intended to be a forum that everyone can participate in.As you may know, each week the Carnival of Real Estate is hosted at a different blog/website. I am fortunate and honored to be the host for the week of November 3rd through the 10th. It is my hope that this will give TheSeattleSpecialist readers exposure to a variety of real estate bloggers that they may not have run into before. I will be judging based on content, interest, and relavancy to the real estate community. Humor and style won’t hurt either. I hope to have at least 5 to 10 great submissions to talk about. So please feel free to submit your blog posts at the Carnival of Real Estate website and remember to check back here on November 10th to see the results.
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Talk to any mortgage broker around Seattle right now and they will tell you they are doing way more FHA loans than they did before. Many mortgage people are doing exclusively FHA. Why? Because of low-down payments, less restrictive credit requirements, and increased loan limits that finally work in our market.
Now if only agents realized that Buyers are actively looking for FHA approved properties. Many condos are not approved for FHA and that can kill the option. Spot checking can work for up to about 10% of units in a non-approved condo project, but requirements might make that impossible as well.
I think it’s amazing how many agents do not know if their condo listings are FHA approved or not. We used to just enter “cash out” or “conventional” for financing options in the listing and not worry about it. No one was doing FHA loans so we didn’t need to bother. But times have changed and now it matters. ANYTHING you can do to promote and market your listings that might create a sale MATTERS.
Just for fun I just did a search of the Northwest Multiple listing Service area 390 condos actively for sale under $567,500 (the current FHA loan limit) and came up with 275. Only 75 listed FHA financing as an option. So I did some random searches of buildings that I know are FHA approved. Within a couple of minutes I came up with a half a dozen that were approved, but not listed in the NWMLS with FHA as a financing option. What a missed opportunity for those Sellers!
To find out if your condo is approved, go to the HUD website below, enter the city, and then enter the condo name. If it doesn’t come up, it’s not been approved. Many condos have not bothered with this process because it is costly and has a lot of bureaucratic red tape involved.
I’m a big fan of Google Maps, especially since Street View came to Seattle. But I’m an even bigger fan of Google Earth because of the fantastic 3-D and detailed rendering that can be done. THIS is the future of real estate mapping and video marketing. Having great video of a property’s interior is huge, but putting it in context of the city, neighborhood, and surrounding amenities takes it to a whole other level. We are getting closer and closer to the holy grail of virtual reality. This is the biggest step so far. And with the growing addition of photo-realistic modeling that is being added at a feverish pace, Google Earth is making the experience pretty close to the real thing.
I saw a press release the other day talking about the increase in online video viewing for October. As I looked at the numbers I realized how dramatic the shift in video viewing has become. 
Seattle’s condo development community is all a buzz about the possibility of a new condo skyscraper to “Trump” all others. In fact, at 82-stories it would become the tallest building in Seattle surpassing the 76-story Columbia Center, according to Spencer Albert of 
These sophisticated devices use high definition thermal imaging for finding hidden water issues as well as discovering details about the heating systems. And it’s all done without any damage to the home. The main company that manufacturers these thermal imaging cameras is called 
The integration of the iPhone’s GPS and Google Maps makes it particularly useful when looking for local locations. There’s no need to specify where you are because Google Mobile App now has 
Google is not the first to offer cool voice recognition features on the iPhone. 
Talk to any mortgage broker around Seattle right now and they will tell you they are doing way more FHA loans than they did before. Many mortgage people are doing exclusively FHA. Why? Because of low-down payments, less restrictive credit requirements, and increased loan limits that finally work in our market.
I think it’s amazing how many agents do not know if their condo listings are FHA approved or not. We used to just enter “cash out” or “conventional” for financing options in the listing and not worry about it. No one was doing FHA loans so we didn’t need to bother. But times have changed and now it matters. ANYTHING you can do to promote and market your listings that might create a sale MATTERS.
