30 second videos are free.  For a reasonable fee, you can upgrade your account.  This allows you to create longer videos and high definition videos as well as having more editing capabilities.  For me, the 30 second basic option works fine.

I think Animoto is great in that it provides a quick and cost effective solution that allows me to bring a little life to my listings.  Check out this 30 second video I created for 317 Coty Way in San Jose.  Note: it took about 5 minutes to create.

If you would like to further information about this and other methods to expose your home to the market, call me directly at 650 917-4250.

If you have a favorite “off street” location that you think is worth exploring, you can make submissions here. 

I submitted a recommendation for the Street Views trike to visit Rancho San Antonio.  Can you see Google’s cyclist climbing up the PG&E trail?  On the other-hand maybe walking the trike will work as well.

Joe is a fairly straight shooter and I hope the content is one of transparency and not just corporate spin.  Check out Joe’s weekly market updates and decide for yourself.  This week’s topic is “Economic Stimulus Package Could Bring Big Benefits For Real Estate Sector.”

On another Coldwell Banker/technology front, CB has started a technology advisory group and I am one of the 20 or so members chosen to check out technologies that have uses in real estate.  If you have any suggestions or know of technologies that might be useful to consumer’s real estate research/search/purchase or selling experience shoot me an e-mail at dblockhus@cbnorcal.com and I will try to check them out.  Thanks.

Promotional flyers are just that, 8 1/2 by 11 inch flyers that describe a property and it’s amenities.  They are targeted towards the real estate agent and are similar to the flyer that is handed out at open houses.

About 15 years ago, when the MLS consisted of a 1/2 inch thick book of homes for sale, I used to use a company to distribute promotional flyers about my listings to local real estate professionals.  This company would hand deliver my flyers to all the local real estate offices and they would be put in the individual agent’s mail box. The cost was relatively cheap (about $15.00 for 450 flyers) and, at the time, a relatively good method of keeping agents informed about my listings.

Today, this method of property promotion is about as effective as the using the Pony Express to deliver documents.  It’s extremely out-dated.  It is a huge waste of money, time and more importantly, resources.  Most active real estate agents have a network of e-mail contacts and/or personal contacts within the real estate community that makes paying for the distribution of information via a paper flyer useless. (picture courtesy of http://www.jankyvision.com/2008/01/this-day-in-history-pony-express-when.html)

Most agents who receive these flyers, either recycle them or throw them away without ever reading them.  They are the real estate equivalent of junk mail solicitations that we all receive at home.  No one wants them, they aren’t read and they’re thrown away very quickly.

In addition to not being an effective means of property promotion, they waste a lot of paper and other resources.  The minimum order quantity currently is about 400 flyers and the cost is about $35.00 per area.  If 10 agents mailed weekly (just to the Los Altos, Palo Alto and Menlo Park area), that’s over 16,000 sheets of paper ending up in the trash/recycle bin per month.  Multiply that by the 26 delivery areas and that’s a lot of dead trees.

If your real estate agent boasts about his or her marketing plan that involves the use of distributing real estate flyers to each agent, I would question whether the rest of the marketing plan was current and targeted for today’s buyers and their agents.

Photosynth creates a futuristic 3-d experience with user submitted photos.  Could this service replace real estate virtual tours and/or ad pizzaz to listings that only use still photos?   Take a look and judge for yourself.

According to it’s website, Photosynth allows users to: 

“Imagine being able to share the places and things you love using the cinematic quality of a movie, the control of a video game, and the mind-blowing detail of the real world. With nothing more than a bunch of photos, Photosynth creates an amazing new experience.”

The process to create a “Synth” is fairly simple.  Take a bunch photos of your subject.  Note: the more photos one takes, the better the Synth.  Unfortunately, the more photos one takes, the longer the download time.  In fact, It took me awhile to begin the process because Photosynth’s server was overloaded.  

I took 37 photos of my living room fireplace and mantle.  As recommended in the instructional video, I took the photos from a variety of angles and zoom positions.   Once the photos were downloaded, the Synth was created.  Below is my Synth of my living room fireplace and mantle. 

Thanks to Galen Ward of Seattle’s Rain City Real Estate Guide for alerting me to this service.  For an additional viewpoint, read Marlow Harris’ post on 360Digest.  Note: because this is their “beta” version, Photosynth currently only runs on PC’s (XP and Vista).

This morning I head to Bloggers Connect, a workshop that brings together top Bloggers, tech savvy and tech interested real estate professionals and “other” techies from all over the world to learn how to use blogging to make the business of real estate more efficient and to provide better services for our clients.  If this year’s event is half as informative as last year’s, it will be a day well spent.

One of the newer technologies that I am learning is Twitter.  I recently set up an account “losaltoshomes” and began to stalk follow other’s tweets.  The more I read the various tweets, the more I began to think “what a waste of time.”  Who cares whether I had steak for dinner or not?  The bantering back and forth among the fellow Twits (Is that correct?  Are we Twits for using Twitter?) is fun, but hardly developing my business.  I began to doubt whether Twitter had any value at all to my real estate business.  Yes, it was nice to follow what everyone was doing, but how could this median be useful?  My interpretation of the value of Twitter for me and my business has recently changed.

A week ago Monday, I received a tweet from InmanNews (no I didn’t win the free registration to Real Estate Connect San Francisco 2008.  Unfortunately, I was number 123 and Jason Sandquist, number 20 won).  Below is the tweet from InmanNews

InmanNews Breaking News: IndyMac halts lending, will cut half its workforce http://tinyurl.com/6xtup8 05:01 PM July 07, 2008 from twitterfeed

I read the link and realized that a loan on one of my client’s homes was in jeopardy.  Unfortunately, they got their loan through IndyMac.   My client’s were waiting for loan documents when the announcement was made and only had ten days to close escrow.  Instead of loan documents, my client’s had to go out and get a new loan.

In somewhat of a panic, I attempted to contact the loan broker to suggest that we might want to get a backup loan in place should IndyMac not perform.  As luck would have it, the loan broker was in the Caribbean sailing with limited internet access and no phone. 

The following morning, I called the loan broker’s office to see if anyone was following these events and to get a status update on my client’s loan.  I finally was able to speak with the managing broker, who, having no knowledge that his loan agent was in the Caribbean, tried to see if IndyMac would send loan docs and then fund the loan. 

Unfortunately the loan was dead.  At first, IndyMac said that it would honor all loans that had been locked.  But reality hit a few days later when IndyMac seized operations.  We needed a loan and we needed it fast. 

My client’s were able to submit a new loan to a different lender, who managed to get the loan through and they closed on time.  Had we waited a few more days, my client’s would not have had the time necessary to re-apply for a new loan and could have possibly lost their house.

Had it not been for the Inman News Tweet, I doubt very much that any loan would have been able to be secured within the time lines of our original purchase contract.  

I still haven’t grasped all the intricacies of Twitter and am sometimes bored to death by some of the tweets (some people have way too much time on their hands).   However, I have found Twitter to be useful and if you asked my clients who are new homeowners, I think they would agree.

MLSListings Inc. has released its latest version of its real estate Multiple Listing Service software called Pro MLSListings 3.8 this morning.  With it comes some interesting enhancements aimed at making it easier for real estate professionals to efficiently assist their home sellers and buyers.  All in all there aren’t too many changes of significance, but there was one enhancement that I liked.

Making it easier to search for “hard to find” properties is now a little easier.  Version 3.8 allows agents the ability to target auction, short-sale and REO (bank owned properties) with greater consistency and accuracy.  A new search field called “Additional Listing Info” allows an agent to search under any of the following parameters:

• Auction – Absolute

• Auction – Reserve

• Bank-Owned/REO

• Court Confirmation is Required

• Court Confirmation May Be Required

• Lender Approval Required/Short Sale

• Not Applicable/Not Disclosed

Release 3.8 also adds 2 digits to all listings, so all new MLS listings will now be eight digits long versus six.  There are also several new enhancements for horse properties as well as added fields for laminate flooring and craftsman’s style homes. 

One of the weakest features in the current promlslistings.com is its mapping software.  In an effort to upgrade this, we are promised that there are changes in the works.

“MLSListings will team with Microsoft Virtual Earth in late June to lay the groundwork for mapping enhancements later this year.  The initial switch to Virtual Earth later this month will include new Aerial and Bird’s Eye views not currently available in Pro.  In general, the new mapping software will reflect the same functionality currently available in MLSListings Pro and MLSListings.com. The screen layout and maps themselves will change somewhat in appearance, including the addition of street labels not previously available in the TeleAtlas maps.  Subtle changes to Optimized Directions (My Route and Quickest Route) will also be noted.  The mapping change will be part of the 3.9 release of MLSListings Pro, scheduled for late June. ”

FYI, MLSListings Inc. provides its 21,000+ subscribers with technology-based MLS products and services exclusively for licensed real estate professionals.  The public access to this site is mlslistings.com.

After breakfast Friday morning, we wondered over to look at this one camp site.  It turns out that we camped just a few yards away from one of the best triathletes in the world, Chris Lieto.  Chris offered us a cup of freshly brewed Major Dickasons coffee and we sat down for some conversation. 

Chris recently started the Green Athlete blog, where he provides resources and ideas that support athletes in their effort to live green.  As part of this effort, he drives around in this tricked out vehicle that is a cross between a monster truck and a R.V..  It runs on biodiesel, is solar powered, has a kitchen, plasma TV, stereo, and looks as if it can run through (or over) anything.  Unfortunately, I did not have my camera, but pictures are on Chris’ Blog. 

One of the companies that Chris is involved with caught my eye.  It is an eco start-up solar power company called Sungevity.  It made its initial launch on Earth-day and promises to make the purchase and installation of solar power easier and cheaper than ever before.  The web site is pretty straight forward and provides information about solar powered energy for the home.  Just click on the icons on the bottom of the page and get informatin on how solar power works, its cost savings, its environmental benefits and Sungevity’s benefits. 

According to Sungevity’s website, going solar is faster, easier and affordable!

“Enter your address on Sungevity’s website, and satellite-imaging software zooms in on your home, calculates the roof’s dimensions, selects appropriately sized solar arrays, and shows what they will look like installed — while computing your return on investment. Once the order is placed, an off-the-shelf prepackaged solar array is shipped to the customer’s door, and an installation crew is dispatched.”

So I thought I would get a free solar IQuote, using my home in Los Altos as the test case.  I entered my address and a satellite image came up asking me to center the circle on the roof of my home.  Within minutes of giving my contact information, I received the following e-mail from Sungevity:

Dear Homeowner,

Thank you for your interest in Sungevity!

We currently serve the greater San Francisco Bay Area, but we are rapidly expanding our service and hope to be in your area soon.

We will contact you once we are able to help you go solar.

Shine on!
The Sungevity Team

Quite a disappointment!  I think Los Altos is still considered part of the greater bay area, yet I didn’t get a quote.  I didn’t even get a time frame on when I would get a quote.  If I had been a real customer, I would be looking elsewhere for my solar power needs right about now.  It appears they may have jumped the gun and got the web site up without having the ability to service the customer.  I think it would have made sense if the web site had a map or something indicating Sungevity’s service areas and/or future planned service areas.  

I’m still not quite sure whether they can assist me with an estimate or whether they truly don’t service Los Altos yet.   Also, should I have received a quote, I’m sure I would have had further questions about the process like:  How big should my system be? Why they recommend one system over another?  Who are their installers?   But for now, I’ll just wait for my quote.   I’ll keep you posted.