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By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Esq., FrontDoor.com | Published: 12/01/2008
1. Ever-better real estate video. Always on the cutting edge of marketing, a few brave Realtor souls have been experimenting with video property tours for years. Historically, though, video tours have been tough for a Realtor to do well on their own, resulting in grainy, low quality, painful to watch video or slicker, but expensive, professional productions.
Enter Giroptic. It's a 360-degree panoramic camera -- literally a still/video camera with a lens that does a spin on top of a tripod for seamless (not seasick) virtual tours. The kicker? It captures a full motion 360 of the room IN A SINGLE SHOT, and it's digital, so it uploads super fast. Why do you care? When Realtors can quickly and inexpensively get high-quality panoramic video shots that are easy to download themselves, you will get vastly increased numbers of good video tours!
And, as this sort of thing gets easier and easier, the agents using these technologies will drive the agents who post those listings with no pictures at all (don't you hate those?!) out of business.
In 2009, we should also see a massive increase in the number of YouTube videos posted for home sale listings. These can take various formats -- sometimes they are home tours posted by agents, other times by the sellers themselves. You'll even see neighborhood tours on the video sharing site. Try it now -- when you find listings of interest on FrontDoor.com, search YouTube for the property address and the name of the neighborhood or area -- you might be surprised to find videos that give you a richer sense of the property.
2. Search tricks and tips. Tired of going out to see a home that looked incredible from the listing, only to find out it is next door to the busiest mall in town or on a crazy, busy street? In 2009, buyers will learn to use little search tricks to rule properties in -- or out -- virtually. For example, when you narrow in on a listing at FrontDoor.com, click Map View, then Satellite View for a real-life image of the property and neighborhood, from space! Zoom in to see how close the property is to potential traffic generators, commercial properties, or thoroughfares, if that sort of thing matters to you. From there, go over to Google maps and enter the property address, then click Street Views. Amazingly, you'll see the property itself, from the curb, then use the left and right sweep arrows to see the neighboring homes. Many a house hunter's carbon footprint will be lightened by tricks like these in 2009 and beyond.
3. Webcasts. The market is changing so fast, and our lives are so impacted, that it only makes sense to look to the Web for answers to your real estate questions. In 2009, FrontDoor.com will sponsor a webinar, FAQ Fridays, in which you can submit your own pressing real estate questions to FrontDoor.com real estate guru Tara-Nicholle Nelson. Get on the FrontDoor.com newsletter mailing list, and be one of the first to know where to submit your questions, and get your answers!
4. Mobile search tools
Real estate listing mobile search. Increasingly, when you sign up for a property search at your Realtor's website, you will be given the option to search a stripped-down listing database from your PDA. So, when you are driving around your dream neighborhood and you see a house for sale, in 2009, it will be much easier to find the price and specs of the home on your PDA. And MLS organizations are making it easier for Realtors to search for listing information online, too, so if you happen to see a new yard sign while you're out house hunting with your Realtor, it will be easier for them to access and show you the property on the spot.
Text message real estate marketing. Riffing off of the Talking Home technology, new technology will allow Realtors to add a number to property yard signs which passers by can text for a text message/SMS description of the property.
Real-world tagging. On a super-cool note, the Sekai camera is an iPhone applet which promises to allow homebuyers to use their phone camera to "tag" the homes, streets and neighborhood hot spots they see in the real world, and (someday) link in real time to other users' tags of the same things, and even listing data. Imagine that. You take a picture of a house on your phone, and a second later, the property listing details, online value estimates, and even YouTube videos of the property's interior show up on your screen. This may not be fully enabled in the year 2009, but it's coming, and well worth waiting for.
