YouTube: A Virtual Walk-Through for Real Estate

August 27, 2007

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Just moving into a new townhome, I just went through the pains of visiting and searching place after place before finally finding one that matched my taste.

During the process, I had a daily routine of watching Craigslist for the latest posting and the struggle of determining from a few words and pictures whether it was worth a visit. I set up appointments, visited, and realized quickly that most places were a waste of time by the time I rolled up. For the most part- it was hit or miss.

However, in an article I crossed, this same frustration has inspired real estate agents to respond - offering YouTube as a solution.

By creating “virtual walk-through” videos to sell houses, real estate agents can serve clients faster and more efficiently by giving a real view of a property. Only the extremely interested will proceed further. Not only does this save time for people like me, but it can also help real estate agents close faster.While still in it’s infancy, I expect to see this to be a differentiator in the competitive retail environment, and a much needed development in real estate advertising.Perhaps as this develops further there will be a better integration with YouTube and Craigslist to facilitate the search. At least, that is for me to hope.

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Posted by Lisa McNeill | Filed Under Social Media News, Blog, Advertising 

Comments

4 Responses to “YouTube: A Virtual Walk-Through for Real Estate”

  1. Brandi Royal on August 27th, 2007 4:04 pm

    I think this is an ingenious idea!!! Definitely on the cutting edge for Realtors, who tend to be “old school” marketers. However, I think it will definitely take some time to completely catch on, as someone who’s purchased a home in the last 8 months, I’ve seen people who still aren’t posting pictures with listings.

    And often times the virtual tours are not great either, they never really give you a “feel” for the place…they are too polished. I like that the videos are “raw” which is exactly what you get when you go to view the property in person.

    Personally, I find this much more effective and I suspect it’s much more cost efficient versus a virtual tour.

  2. Jim Tobin on August 27th, 2007 4:17 pm

    I agree Brandi. While this video got me a little dizzy in the kitchen there for a second, it was fine for figuring out if I wanted to waste time driving out there.

    Thanks for the comment. ~Jim

  3. Lee Odden on August 28th, 2007 3:26 pm

    Ha, taking a quick video with a regular digital camera and laying down royalty free music in the backround using free editing software is a heck of a lot less expensive than those 360 degree view apps normally associated with virtual real estate walk throughs. Plus, with YouTube and other video sharing sites, they can easily be found via niche search.

    Hotels would do well to the same thing. I recently decided NOT to stay at a particular 5 star hotel because a few people did walkthroughs with their cameras and posted to YouTube. It’s not that there was anything wrong with the rooms, but I could tell they were very different than the still shots posted to the hotel web site.

  4. Jim Tobin on August 28th, 2007 3:40 pm

    Thanks Lee Odden, of Top Rank Blog, for your comment. So much of this stuff is now cheap and pretty easy, but the vast majority of people I talk to are a bit befuddled by it all. ~Jim

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