Taos Real Estate

Posted by Jim Kimmons, Broker/Owner • June 7, 2008 • Printer-friendly

There are dozens of vendors selling software, hardware and online services to Realtors to create virtual tours of their listings. The solutions range from panoramic views of rooms, with links through connecting doorways, through slide shows of images, to full motion camcorder videos.

Levels of quality are all over the place as well, usually depending on the photographer or videographer. Arguments rage over speed of web posting versus quality, and whether there is value in do-it-yourself solutions. Obviously, a Hollywood style production video would be awesome, but is it affordable, fast and is it even necessary?

With video taking over the Internet, and YouTube hosting millions of them, including a lot of real estate, it's also obvious that your listing broker should be using video in some form. I've taken the approach that it's all about exposure, just like any other marketing. I use a camcorder, do motion video with voice and music background. Then I use a service that places the videos on multiple sites, including YouTube, Yahoo Videos, and Metacafe.com.

I also get, and copy my listing clients with, graphs and reports of video views via email. It's all about exposure, and you don't know how well you're doing unless you track results. As I've been concentrating on buyers lately, and turning down overpriced listings, I don't have a current listing video to show you. However, I've done more than 80 videos of the area, business and the arts. Just check out the Taos Videos tab at the top of this page.