The Power Broker Roundtable is brought to you by the National Association of REALTORS® and Jeff Barnett, NAR’s Special Liaison for Large Firm Relations. Watch for this column each month, where we address broker issues, concerns and milestones.
Moderator:
Jeff Barnett, Liaison for Large Residential Firms Relations, NAR
Participants:
Therese Swan, Alain Pinel REALTORS®, Palo Alto, Calif.
Rob Wiebusch, NP Dodge Real Estate, Omaha, Neb.
Sherry Chris, President & CEO, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, Parsippany, N.J.
Jeff Barnett: What’s up next from Silicon Valley is more than a point of interest. It’s a bellwether for the way we’ll be doing business in this industry with the next generation of tech tools. Electronic signatures, lifestyle videos, and a host of other innovations are already making our daily tasks easier and sales efforts more productive. For today’s discussion, we’ve invited a cross-section of active, inventive industry professionals who are technology-savvy and always at the top of their game. Therese, you’re experienced with lifestyle videos. What are they doing for your business?
Therese Swan: Today’s buyers want to know more than the square footage or the number of bedrooms and baths. They want to get a feel for the neighborhood, the lifestyle, the vibe surrounding the property. I’ve been answering that with “lifestyle videos” to market my listings for more than seven years. Buyers can simulate walking through the home and get a good look at the surrounding area—and, rather than just walking through a house, we are using “cinematic style,” where we mix it up with interesting close-ups, such as water running in the bathroom sink, etc. Adding audio then helps capture a mood, explain features of the home, or provide additional community information. The videos get better and their appeal broader as Internet speeds get faster.
