International Herald Tribune
07-13-2007
House and apartment listings that are read aloud so they can be loaded onto an iPod player for the morning commute. Video tours of faraway villas, accessible with the click of a mouse. The video and audio file-sharing technologies already so popular for entertainment and communications also are giving real estate buyers and sellers a host of new tools for finding and marketing properties.While the sharing of audio and video files over the Internet has caught on most quickly in American real estate, with video tours of homes now widely available, property markets in the rest of the world also are beginning to embrace the idea.The popularity of Apple's iPod and other digital media players has gotten consumers comfortable with the idea of carrying their favorite audio - and, more recently, video - selections wherever they go. At the same time, the growth of Web sites like YouTube and of Internet podcasts of radio, television and online content has made uploading and downloading files routine for many people.Real estate professionals say it is only natural that those selling and buying property - an activity that places a premium on obtaining and distributing information - are making use of new ways to reach out.''You're able to impart quite a lot of information in a podcast, and when it comes to property you need to do your research,'' said Felicity Quigley of the British Web site buyassociation.co.uk. ''It's a very personal medium, it's like radio, you can listen to it while you're doing something else; you feel like they're talking to you.''The sluggishness of the U.S. real estate market may be one reason why American agents have embraced Internet video so enthusiastically, Quigley said. In markets like Britain, where sales are booming, few see the need for an additional marketing tool, she said.Also, the U.S. Multiple Listings System, which gives lots of agents access to the same properties, means promotional videos will reach wider audiences there, making the investment worthwhile, she said.''I think we're going to see an explosion in the next 18 months of podcasting, videocasting'' in Europe, she said. ''People are just going to have become much more aware of online and use it as a tool, to see it as another way of marketing themselves, because that's where things are going.''Already sites like buyassociation and the British-based nubricks.com offer downloadable, radio-style discussions of issues like the booming London housing market, buying retirement property overseas and ''fly to let,'' the purchase of faraway homes for vacation use and rental. In segments that are generally about a half-hour long, experts and journalists discuss the markets in places like Spain, Turkey, Morocco and Thailand for those who are thinking of buying there or are just curious.In London and its suburbs, the Foxtons real estate agency offers daily audio downloads of an automated voice reading new listings so would-be buyers can save themselves the trouble of trolling through the company's Web site.And in many markets, agents and private sellers are offering video tours of properties for sale or rent, helping potential buyers and tenants to narrow down which homes they want to visit, to get a good idea of the housing stock in remote locations and even to share images with family or friends who cannot visit in person.Salespeople or owners trying to snag long-distance buyers use Internet video to promote entire regions, towns or neighborhoods, posting short clips designed, for example, to inform those in Europe about the advantages of investing in a particular part of Latin America.A Place in the Sun, a Web site (a-place-in-the-sun.com) that offers homes for sale or rent in France, charges 500, or $657, for a professionally made video or allows owners or agents to post their own for free.Steve Carroll, a programmer for the site, said customers love the online tours and homes that include them in their postings usually sell or rent more quickly than those that do not.''There are so many rental properties available that you have to use something interesting to stand out a little bit, a picture just doesn't say enough when there are so many pictures,'' he said. ''The video, it stays in people's minds.''Mark Jones, of Staffordshire, in central England, was so impressed with a video on Countryside International's Web site two years ago that he bought a vacation home in Orlando, Florida, through the international real estate agency without ever visiting the place.Soon afterward, he set up his own Web-based business to help fellow Florida homeowners rent their properties, and he plans to start posting podcasts.He said he and his wife had wanted to buy overseas but ''weren't really sure where, when and how to go about it.''''We found it really useful to actually hear somebody talking about what we were thinking about doing,'' he added.The technical hurdles for getting started with podcasting are low. Adam Samuel, managing director of nubricks.com, said that once a would-be podcaster has a computer and an Internet connection, all that is needed to make audio shows is a microphone and headphone set, available for as little as $40, along with editing software that can be downloaded free.At the other end of the spectrum, making sophisticated videos can require technical expertise and thousands of dollars in equipment and production programs. Some, like Jones, contract such work out to professionals.On the user's end, a click is needed to watch or listen online and just one or two more will download a file onto a computer and handheld MP3 or video player. Many sites also let users subscribe to an RSS (Rich Site Summary) so they will get new podcasts automatically.Podcasting is most popular among the young, but enthusiasts say they have had little trouble getting over-35 consumers - who are more likely to be buying and selling real estate - comfortable with the technology.''People who are pretty switched-on computerwise, they're the ones who are finding'' podcasts on their own, said Graham Pyle, managing director of Countryside International. ''But others see it if they're pointed towards it.''''Once you explain it, even the middle-aged and older people become a little bit savvy, they like the idea,'' he said.Not everyone is sold on the technology, though.Leo Lapworth, Web manager at Foxtons in London, said he has heard a lot of unjustified hype about video tours, which his company is not planning to add when it makes improvements to its site soon.''If I'm a buyer, I don't really need to see someone opening a cupboard door, what I need to see is the floor plan, the room-by-room descriptions, and that's what's going to help me decide whether I want to see the property or not,'' he said.One region where podcasting has yet to catch on is Asia, which is often ahead of the rest of the world in embracing new technologies.Most Hong Kong customers still prefer more traditional sources of real estate information, like newspapers, magazines and visits or phone calls to agents' offices, said Gordon Tse of the Midland Realty agency in the city. Many buyers think personal contact might help them get a bargain, and a large network of agency offices encourages personal visits, he said. Also, many Hong Kong people believe in the Chinese idea of feng shui, the harmonious arrangement of space, so they want to see the actual property rather than just see video, Tse said.The South China Morning Post, an English-language newspaper in Hong Kong, has just added a weekly property podcast to its Web site, but is one of only a handful of outlets in the region to use the format. The paper's technology editor, Michael Logan, said the podcast would likely include video tours of particularly impressive homes and segments in which experts answer readers' property questions.Logan said there was a wealth of property information available in Hong Kong, including on specialized cable television channels. ''That type of (property) video already exists, it just doesn't exist on the Internet,'' he said.
2007 Copyright International Herald Tribune. http://www.iht.com
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий