Google has come a mighty long way regarding innovations pertaining to the World Wide Web.  They are much more than a search engine.  Thus far, I’ve divulged tips using Google applications such as Google Voice and Google Earth.

Today I’m going to focus on how you can utilize Google Maps when showcasing properties online.

These days it is typical for a property, especially one that is listed with a Realtor, to have a virtual tour of the interior of the house.  Google Maps will allow you to go one step further and create a virtual tour of the exterior of the house and it’s neighborhood.  I’ll show you how simple this is to add to your arsenal in the easy to follow steps below:

1. Go to Maps.Google.Com

2. Type in your address of the property for sale and click the “Search Maps” button.  For this example I’ll use a random house from good ole STL (1334 Brownell, Saint Louis, MO 63122), my hometown.

3. Once the search is returned, click on the red location indicator displayed on the map.

4. A pop-up menu will appear, you should have a “Street View” link available to you.  If you don’t have a “Street View” link, then this means that Google hasn’t sent their street van down that street to capture images, yet.  However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t choose a spot to showcase that Google does have imagery for in your neighborhood.  I imagine it’s not feasible for them to capture absolutely every street in the US.  That said, they do have an abundance of neighborhood imagery across the country.  (If your property’s street has no imagery, go to step 4a.)

4a. When you can’t get the street view of your house, you can drag the Street View mascot logo across your map to place him somewhere near your property, to showcase the neighborhood.  You may only drag and drop the Street View mascot onto a street that appears outlined in blue.  The Blue outlines indicate a Google-indexed street.

5. After the “Street View” link is clicked, you will be presented with the actual Street View of the property.  You can use your mouse to click around to get a panoramic idea of the property and the neighborhood as if your were standing there in person.  Below is the image for: 1334 Brownell, Saint Louis, MO 63122. You may click on the image to be taken to the actual interactive virtual tour.  Play around with this and get familiar,  you can click your way all across Saint Louis and further (just follow the arrows).

6. To find the virtual tour HTML source, once at the Street View of your property, you may click the “Link” link in the upper-right hand corner of the page.  You will then want to click the “Customize and preview embedded map” link.

7.  After clicking the “Customize and preview embedded map” link, you will be presented with 3-steps.  The First; customize the size of your Street View Map.  The Second; your preview of your map.  The Third; the raw HTML output that you can copy/paste into your MLS listing, eBay auction, blog, or even CraigsList (you will need to follow the same tutorial steps, except take a screen shot of the Street View image).  If you’d rather not embed the HTML of your virtual tour you can just grab the hyperlink.

Embed:

View Larger Map

Screenshot:

So that about wraps up another tip that can be used to give you an edge over your competitors.  Realtors, especially you should be using this extra bell/whistle to leverage your domination of the relocating-buyer niche in your market.  I broke this down so that it should be simple to follow.  If you think this is too difficult, get your kids to help you.  Or as always if you have any questions, technical or otherwise, leave a comment or hit me up at @Schwaps on Twitter and I’ll respond as soon as I can and am glad to help.

This Article is Copyright © 2004-2009 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Google Street View: Virtual Tours your competitors don’t use

A good number of Realtors are getting on the ball and putting up a blog. This is smart. It’s a powerful communication tool. It’s a powerful way to build your presence online. However keep a couple important points in mind:

• It will only serve as a powerful communication tool if you actively use it to communicate. It’s an ongoing process!
• It will only build your presence online if you actively build it!

In other words, a blog doesn’t build itself. Putting it up is step one. Step 2 through to step 10 million-bazillion are all up to you. And if you don’t do it, who’s gonna?

To put it better than anyone else I’ve heard…

One of the keys to blogging is to freaking post to your blog. – Grant Griffiths

When I read that in a recent post to his own blog, I knew I was going to have to quote him at least once, but that quote is awesome! It couldn’t be more true. This business is very simple.

It’s hard work to build your business online, but Realtors are already used to working very hard. If you commit yourself to the work that’s necessary, your blog can become the most cost-effective and powerful marketing tool you have ever used, period. And I mean that with every fiber of my being. I am 100% convinced your blog can change your business for the better a myriad ways, but you have to be willing to write regularly.

This is something many Realtors seem to struggle with.

An Unfortunate Trend in Real Estate Blogging

There’s a trend out there. And it’s a bad trend. The trend is that 99% of real estate blogs seem to be 99% listings. I’m generalizing of course, but this seems to pretty much be the norm. Why is this a bad trend? Because posting your listings is not blogging. Yes, you can share any information you want on your blog, and posting your listings to your blog is 100% valid. But trust me please…your readers (if you have any yet) and NOT going to your blog to see your listings. They’re not. They’re just not.

So if your readers aren’t interested in your listings, what the heck do they want from you? Believe it or not, they want to know what you think about the market! They want to hear from you…on a personal level…and regularly. And the more you can make your blog follow suit with this, the more success you will build over time.

For my post today, I wanted to share a few ideas and guidelines for the content every Realtor should post to their blog. Please comment and let me know what you think!

• Listings should be 10% of your content, maximum.
• Local stories, news, history. Do you love your town? Talk about it! What’s going on tonight? Are you going to a show? Are you meeting friends at a great historic pub downtown? Talk about what’s going down? As a committed and networking Realtor, you likely know a LOT of people and are very involved in your community. Seriously, talk about what’s going down in your town.
• Respond to inquiries. As a Realtor, inquiries come in from a lot of different places. You get inquiries on the phone, by text, by email. You get questions at cocktail parties. You get questions from your website. And if you’re new, you can find TONS of real estate questions on Yahoo Answers, LinkedIn and a million other places. Answer the question, and post it to your blog! It will seriously take you 5 minutes, and you’re sharing valuable expertise with your readers. When someone asks you a question, answer it, and then say something like “That’s a great question! Do you mind if I put that on my blog too?” Of course they’ll say yes, and guess who’s going to be stalking your blog for the next week, looking for their name in print?
• Have something go very wrong with a client lately? Lessons are learned every day in real estate. Share your insights. This is the GOOD stuff. Leave names out when necessary of course, but lessons are lessons. This is the foundation of your true expertise. If you’re not talking to your readers about these things, you’re withholding valuable info from them and practically begging them to cause the same problems with you in the future on future transactions
• Have something go very right lately? Put it on your blog. Success stories are awesome. Everyone loves them! If you’ve been in the business for over a year, I guarantee you have some interesting stories!
• Have a closing? Blog it! Congratulate your clients publicly and sincerely thank them for business. Also, publicly ask them for referrals! Email em a link to your post.
• What do you LOVE about real estate?
• What do you HATE about real estate?
• Do you think NAR has done something god-awful-stupid lately? I know, this NEVER happens, right?
• What challenges are you having in the current market?
• What problems are you having with clients lately?

See, Realtors often tell me two things:

1. I don’t have time to blog
2. I don’t know what to write

Here’s the answer…I’ve given you topics that will keep you busy for years. And any post in any of these categories doesn’t need to take you more than 20-30 minutes maximum. Many posts could be written in 5 minutes. Don’t have time to blog? Are you kidding me? If you don’t have 5 minutes to throw down a post every day, how are you possibly going to have time to answer the phone when those leads come in? Don’t know what to write about? Seriously, give yourself some credit. You’re in an industry that the majority of people out there find pretty fascinating. You have a LOT to talk about.

How’s your blogging going? Do you have a blog yet? Do you have any questions?

Photo: DeclanTM

This Article is Copyright © 2004-2009 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

What Realtors Should Put on Their Blog

Have you ever watched or posted a video on twitter? Many people on twitter post tweets to their videos in order to connect with their followers on a more personal level. A simple tweet that says, “Here’s a link to my youtube video…” Then it takes the follower to YouTube, so they can watch it.

But this blog post isn’t about posting tweets and links to YouTube. I’m going to introduce you to something a little more advanced. I’m going to show you two ways to show  your videos to your followers and keep them on your twitter page.  They’ll get to see video tours for your properties and videos from you.

Why Would You Want To Post Videos On Twitter?

First, let’s talk about why you would want to post a video on Twitter. The main reason is to connect with your followers on a more personal level. Sure you might post tweets letting people know what you’re doing and what you’re about, however, a video allows your followers to see you in person and hear your voice. They can relate with you better by being able to look into your eyes and see your expression. Video has been proven to dominate other methods of communication; this is the main reason why you’re seeing it being used more and more each day.

You want to tap into more than one human sense. When a follower reads your tweets you are only tapping into the sense of “sight”. If they can watch a video, you get to tap into sight and sound, which can trigger different emotions. (Hence you’ll be able to connect with them on a more personal level)

1st Method For Playing Your Videos On Your Twitter Page

The first site I want to introduce you to is called BubbleTweet. Bubble Tweet is a site that has pushed technology to the next level by integrating or syncing videos with twitter — meaning your followers can watch your videos on twitter without leaving the page.

Step1: Create your Video
The rules for Bubble Tweet are simple; you have to create a video in 30 seconds or less. This can be really simple or really difficult, depending on whether you’re a long winded person or you someone who can get to the point quickly.

Since I can be a bit long winded a times, what I did was type up a little script and practice it over and over until I was able to shave my message down to 30 seconds.

Step 2: Upload your video and Tweet it!
After your video is complete, you’ll have the option to upload it. The system will verify that it is 30 seconds. (or they’ll just cut it off at 30 seconds)

Then they’ll provide you with a unique link that you can tweet to all your followers.

What happens next:
Next, your followers will see your tweet update. They can then click your unique bubble tweet link and watch your 30 second video.

Why its called a BUBBLE Tweet:
The reason they call it Bubble Tweet is because your video will literally look like a Bubble. It will play, and after 30 seconds it will pop, letting your follower know that your video is complete. The video plays automatically when they get to the page and automatically disappears (or pops) when finished.

Here is a sample of a Bubble Tweet I did a while back.

But wait!
What if you’re not a big fan of Bubbles? What if you want it to look a little more professional? What if you want the video to be longer than 30 seconds?

Well, this actually brings me to the second tool . . .

2nd Method For Playing Your Videos On Your Twitter Page

The next site I want to introduce you to was actually created by the same people who created Bubble Tweet. Its called VidTweeter.

Step 1: Create your Video and Upload it to a Video sharing site
You can only post videos from third party video sharing sites. For the time being you can only use:

• Youtube
• Vimeo
• Hulu
• MSNBC
• Daily Motion
• Metacafe

As far as I know, you can upload your own video to all the sites above except for Hulu and MSNBC. But the neat thing about VidTweeter is the you can share your videos and videos of others too.

Step 2: Give your Video Link (URL) to VidTweeter
Next you need to go to VidTweeter, enter your Twitter username, choose which video sharing site your video is uploaded to, and provide the link to your video.

After that, Vidtweeter will create you a unique link that you can post to your twitter page as a tweet. When people click it, they can watch the video you posted on your twitter page without leaving it.

Also, they have the option to look at any previous video tweets you’ve done and its separate from your normal daily tweets.

Here is a sample of video tweet I did.

What Should I talk About or Share?

You can really talk about whatever you want, as long as it is within the guidelines of the video sharing site you use. Here are  some common topics you can use:

• Your Life – Just share some facts that your followers may be interested in.
• Real Estate Events- Maybe you have an event coming up or you want to invite other investors to tag along with you.
• Property Listings- Got a Good Deal? Do a Video Tour or Slide Show for your followers
• Joint Ventures- If you want to partner with your followers on deals or business ventures, then just post a quick update and let them know how that’s possible
• Share Content- Maybe you know something that your followers don’t. Share information that they can use and help them out.
• Funny Videos
• News
• Whatever You Want!

Can’t decide between using Bubble Tweet or VidTweeter?

I’d use Bubble Tweet for small personal updates on what I’m up to or if I just posted a deal on my property site and don’t have much time to do a video tour. I use VidTweeter to share content from others or from myself that provide value to my followers and help build that relationship.

I hope you use these tools to your advantage in your real estate business.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think about this method of interacting with your followers.

To Your Success,

J. Lamar Ferren

“New Breed” Investor

This Article is Copyright © 2004-2009 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

2 Tools to Embed Real Estate Videos on Your Twitter Stream

As an investor who desires to dominate their farm area, you need all the tools you can get to make educated market decisions.  If you’re like me and you like to crunch numbers and analyze statistics, the numbers never lie and they won’t steer you wrong if you read them right.

Stats tell stories

Google Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographic information program.  It maps the Earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite imagery, aerial photography and GIS 3D globe.  Multiple addresses can be plotted onto a Google Earth map and tagged with different categories, thus making Google Earth an invaluable tool that will allow you to analyze statistical real estate data graphically.

Google Earth can be used in conjunction with Multiplottr.  Multiplottr allows you to import address and category data into a map which can then be saved as a KML file.  Multiple KML files can then be imported into one Google Earth map.  These features are great for efficiency and data-map layering purposes.

How can this work for me?

Let’s say for instance that you are a real estate wholesaler and you would like to know where the cash buyers have been buying in the past 60 days.  Cash buying activity can be found on the MLS.  You could either gather these addresses through your own MLS access or have a Realtor provide you with this information.  You would then put the address information into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and perhaps categorize them with green flags.  Import that Excel file into Multiplottr and save your KML file.

You may then import your “Cash Buyer” KML file into Google Earth and viola, you have a map of cash buying activity in your area.  Each property bought with cash would be green-flagged in its’ geographic location on the map. 

However, it doesn’t stop there. This gets better!

Multiple layers can be created in Google Earth with various KML files.  You may create a layer that consists solely of MLS listed properties and/or FSBO properties.  Or you may create layers specific to each cash buyer.  With each layer, you would dedicated a different color flag.

Below, you will see an example that I created where two different flags are used to designate where each cash buyer is buying. Click on the image to be taken to the actual map.

I’m sure by now you can see how powerful this is.  By using Google Earth and Multiplottr, you will be able to stay abreast of trends in your market and ahead of the curve.

This Article is Copyright © 2004-2009 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Scout Investor Hotspots with Google Earth and Multiplottr

As a Real Estate investor, you will need to look to various nooks to find hidden gem properties throughout your career.  Of course properties can be found on the MLS, but that rules out the FSBO (For Sale By Owner) seller.  As the internet progresses and evolves, FSBO sellers are seizing the broad audience that the internet yields by posting their properties to various websites.

Just a few of these websites are:

• Craigslist.com
• Backpage.com
• FSBO.com
• ForSalebyOwner.com
• Trulia.com

And there are many more.  You can spend hours and hours of your time scouring these sites individually.  However, if you take advantage of the RSS feed results of your specific search criteria, you can save yourself some time.  While you could just throw each RSS feed into an RSS feed reader, it would be a step better if you aggregate each sites’ RSS feed into one.  This would allow you to check out one feed that contains it all.

A free service that allows you to aggregate your RSS feeds is xFruits.  xFruits is a site that allows you to really get more value out of your feeds. You can easily combine feeds into one, put a feed into a PDF, send feeds straight to your phone and more.

By using a service such as xFruits to combine RSS feeds, you will maximize your time (or that of your virtual assistant) spent on the web.  You could consider your custom feed an MLS for FSBO’s of sorts, as you’ll have an abundance of property information in a centralized location.  Add in the RSS feeds for your local newspaper classifieds to the website suggestions listed above and you’ll have the majority of your bases covered for FSBO internet listings.  Keep your eyes peeled while driving about town for “For Sale” signs in front-yards and no FSBO property will get by you.

This Article is Copyright © 2004-2009 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Use XFruits to Create Your Personal MLS for FSBOs

As a real estate investor or professional, you should know by now that Social Media is here to stay.  You don’t absolutely need to implement Social Media to be successful in this business, but why start a fire by rubbing two sticks when you can use a matchbook and can of gasoline?

Social Media for Real Estate

I’m going to cover just one of the many ways that you can use Social Media to bolster your Real Estate business.  And I’ll focus on…

Twitter is a great micro-blogging network that allows you to interact with people of all types.  I personally think of Twitter as a large party gathering where there are a plethora of conversations occurring at once and your welcome to butt in and join or you may just sit back, sip your patron, and take it all in while observing closely.

However you look at it, Twitter can be utilized as a great asset for your business. But I wouldn’t encourage you to just blast your listings, open houses, etcetera. If you do that, nobody will care.  Instead I would encourage you to engage in the Twitter community and contribute to it.  When you start contributing, you’ll be surprised what you get in return.  As not only will the leads eventually come, but you will also gain a substantial amount of insight as you stay abreast of real-time tweets.

Tweet vs. Time

To be effective at utilizing Twitter and any other Social Media platforms, you will need to dedicate time to make it worth your while.  Since there is no set-and-forget solution to Social Media, there is no getting around this fact.

However, those who are most successful maximize their resources available to them so that they can in turn maximize their assets.  Shortly you will learn a technique to maximize your time spent with Social Media.

Efficiently Engage

To engage in Twitter, you should follow people and interact with those who share the same interests as you as a colleague or end-consumer or whatever else.  A great way to interact is to “@ reply” your comments, questions, and thoughts to another Tweeter.  Chances are they’ll return “@ reply” you and or maybe another Tweeter will.

This is where your most valuable resource of time would normally be spent.  Typically, you’d have to read and scour amongst random Tweets.  Filtering all the tweets about how someone just ate oatmeal, got a parking ticket, hates Kanye West, and yada yada yada.  Who cares, we want to talk/tweet about real estate and things that concern it right now.

Tools to Automate

There are two tools that I personally utilize to automate some aspects of Twitter.  Those tools are Yahoo Pipes and Hootsuite.  Yahoo Pipes is a powerful composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web.  Hootsuite is a multi-column user interface for Twitter that is by far the best desktop Twitter client that I have come across thus far.

Tutorial

Follow my lead and I’m going to show you how you can create another pair of eyes for yourself on Twitter.  This second pair of eyes will allow you to “@ reply” and engage Tweeters who tweet about something very specific that’s of interest to you.

For this example we’ll say that your interest lies in Self-Directed IRA’s and you’d love to reply and engage with people who tweet about them.

Step 1:
Go to search.twitter.com and click on the “Advanced Search” link found underneath the search text-field.  Here you can specify the terms of your search.  For this example, “Self-Directed IRA” was entered into the “All of these words” search field.  On the results page, you will click the “Feed for this Query” link and obtain the RSS link for your search.

Step 2:

Go to pipes.yahoo.com and create an account.  You will need to clone the Pipe I created.  Once you have the Pipe cloned you will need to manipulate it to your specifics by clicking on “Edit Source”.  Below I’ll point out the areas that you can edit:

Once you’ve customized the Pipe that I’ve made, you will need to click on the “Run Pipe” link found at the top of the page.  You will then have the option to grab the RSS feed that is output by the Pipe.  You can do so by clicking “Get as RSS”.

*Due to the frequent overload status of Twitter (503 Service Unavailable), the Pipe feed will intermittently appear empty.

Step 3:

Go to www.hootsuite.com and sign-up for an account, if you don’t already have one.  You of course will also need a Twitter account if you don’t already have one.  At Hootsuite, you will need to click on the “Settings” button found in the lower-left corner.  You will then click on the “RSS/Atom” tab followed by a click on the “Add New Feed” button.

You will then paste in your Pipe RSS link and you can adjust certain settings to your liking, such as how often you want Hootsuite to check for new posts and how many “@ Reply” messages you want going out at once.  The two aforementioned settings play a big part in setting you apart from a Twitter spammer.  Nobody likes a spammer!  You will need to adjust these in accordance with the popularity of your keyword terms used for your Twitter search RSS feed.  For more popular keywords, set Hootsuite for less activity.  For less popular keywords, set Hootsuite for more activity.  Once you click “Save Feed”, you’re ready to go.

Summary

By implementing the steps outlined above, you will have created yourself some assistance for your Twitter activity.  This technique can reduce your time spent scouring Twitter for useful tweets.  It breaks the ice for you and once you have a conversation started you can override the auto-pilot controls and steer your way about Twitter as you wish.

If you have any technical questions when implementing this strategy “@ reply” your question to me on Twitter.  My name is @Schwaps I’d be happy to help you through.

This Article is Copyright © 2004-2009 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Four-Eyes for Twitter

A Great Web-Based Tool for Marketing your Real Estate Listings

When selling real estate in a buyers’ market of today, the more comprehensive your listing information is, the better. Whether you are a Realtor or an investor, payday comes once the property is sold, therefore it’s best that you do all you can to reduce it’s days-on-market. More is better when it comes to marketing!

A great tool that’s available can be found at FloorPlanner.com, an online application that allows you to create 2D and 3D floor plans complete with textures, floor types, furniture, etc. So, for an out-of-state, foreign or even a local client, the addition of such a rich media component to your property’s marketing package may help seal the deal.

The tool is very intuitive and the floor plans can be made to scale. You can drag-drop a door here, add a garage door there, input the measurements and before you know it you’ll have a complete plan that is visible in 2D and 3D.

How I used FloorPlanner as an Investor:

I personally came across the site about 4 months ago when assisting with the marketing of a property, in effort to build my buyers list. I was brainstorming ways to creatively market the house besides the ordinary methods. For the house, I had pictures, video, a dedicated website, and bandit signs, but I wanted to make sure I exhausted all of my options and took advantage of this opportunity to acquire buyers as best I could. I concluded that the only thing I was missing a floor plan.

I emailed the seller only to find out that he didn’t have a floor plan — I didn’t let that stop me! I rose extra early one Saturday, went to the hardware store and purchased a tape measure and some vitamin water (A/C not turned on), traveled to the house and measured absolutely every nook and cranny. About 4 hours later I had all of the measurements that I needed to make my floor plan to scale. Of course all of that work wasn’t necessary as I didn’t have to make the plan to scale; I just have a habit of going the extra mile.

Once I had my measurements down, I gave myself two options; redraw the sketch on some grid paper and scan it to PDF or use software to create the floor plan. Since we are in the era of web 2.0, I decided to find some software that wouldn’t break my pockets. I Googled “floor plan” and www.floorplanner.com was the first organic search result. I figured that was for good reason so I investigated.

After playing with their demo for a while, I signed-up for a free account. With a free account you are allotted one floor plan. It was very easy to use and before long I had the floor plan complete. I was most impressed by the 3D feature and it’s capability of displaying different views. When viewing in 3D, the viewer can use their mouse to rotate and change the vertical view.  Check out my floor plan and see for yourself, you can toggle between 2D and 3D in the upper-right hand corner.

If you have a website dedicated to a property, Floorplanner.com even supplies you with the code to embed a 2D/3D interactive view into your webpage (see below)

Since I was creating a comprehensive video (embedded below) that showed the interior/exterior of the property, Google-earth views, and a PowerPoint presentation disclosing the cash-flow opportunity, after finishing the floor plan I decided to take video of the 3D views of the property. They do not offer this as an option on floorplanner, so what I did is use CamStudio, a desktop recording software, to create a video file (AVI). I then inserted that video into my Windows Movie Maker project which was used to create the video brochure. I also embedded the video into a CraigsList post, by the way.

The Final Result

Overall, Floorplanner is a great tool to add to your arsenal if you are an investor or Realtor. By providing as much property information as possible to your potential buyers, you will reap many benefits. You may sell your property faster, eliminate inquiries and interactions with tire-kickers, enhance your brand quality, and more!

If you found this post helpful, leave your thoughts below!

This Article is Copyright © 2004-2009 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

More Bells and Whistles to get it Sold: Using FloorPlanner.com