How it Works
Animoto allows real estate agents to combine high-quality images and short video clips with music to create beautiful slideshows. Best of all, Animoto is inexpensive and easy to use. You start by uploading photos and video clips, or sync Animoto to your Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, Photobook, or SmugMug account. Then, you choose music from Animoto’s large music library, type in the text you want included, and Animoto produces a beautiful video slideshow within minutes. If you aren’t satisfied with the result then Animoto makes it easy to resubmit the video until it meets your expectations. You will find this part somewhat addicting as you resubmit to see what new combination Animoto will come up with.

Create Featured Listing Videos
Imagine using high-quality photos complemented by rhythmic music to showcase a featured listing. Animoto offers an excellent way to make a seller’s listing available to a lot of different people. Agents even have the option of making a branded or unbranded video. An unbranded video is preferred when you want other real estate agents to make it available to their clients. This will increase the number of viewers and sell properties faster. If you choose to include your contact information, Animoto offers a customizable button that can be displayed at the end of the video to give viewers instant access to you.

Create Neighborhood Profile Videos
Animoto videos are the perfect way to introduce a neighborhood or community you serve. They give you the opportunity to show a large number of pictures in a short amount of time.  Writing neighborhood profile pages is a great way to educate your visitors, but taking it a step further and adding video is a  fantastic way to really engage your audience.

View the example Sonoma  neighborhood video at the top of this neighborhood profile page. We specialize in real estate WordPress add-ons and found Animoto to be a perfect fit with the neighborhood profile add-on template. Animoto videos have the potential to make your real estate site more appealing and hands-on than other sites.

Create an Agent Bio Profile Video
What better way to introduce and promote yourself as an agent then to show potential clients a personalized video of all you have to offer. This personal video could include the area you serve in, homes that you have sold, testimonials from clients, family images, hobbies, extracurricular activities, and more. A personalized video will allow potential clients to “connect” with you before they actually meet you in person, making it a great addition to your website. There is no substitute for writing a real estate agent bio, but adding the video touch adds that personal touch. View some of Animoto’s real estate videos and get your creative juices flowing.

Sharing your video with the World
Animoto videos can be viewed in HD from Animoto’s website, posted to a website or blog, shared on Facebook or YouTube, or burned onto a DVD. These videos are unbranded, meaning Animoto does not put their logo in the video or anywhere else, so your clients will never guess how easy it was to create this stunning presentation.

Animoto App
Animoto also lets you share videos on the go. With their Animoto mobile app, you’ll be able to create, share, and watch your videos everywhere you go. The app will easily let you share your videos via email, Facebook, Twitter, text, or save to your Camera Roll. Go Animoto!

With more and more people spending their free time on the Internet, real estate agents have the opportunity to look for creative ways to reach potential clients. Animoto offers real estate agents a creative and simple way to promote featured listings, the area in which they serve, and themselves. All it takes is a few clicks of the mouse and Animoto will add a great deal of spice and creativity to your real estate marketing campaign.

Step 1: Include Professional Experience
A well-rounded bio will inform clients about your skills, expertise, education (certificates, degrees, diplomas, classes taken, etc.), experience, and awards. You want to be careful not to bore your readers with too many facts, so if you find yourself with a long list, it is a good idea to only include the most important facts in your bio. Then, you can either provide a link to a more complete list of credentials, or list them at the bottom of the page.

Step 2: Provide a Personal Touch
Adding some insight into your personal life away from work is a good tool for connecting with clients. Include your family, pets, hobbies, or extracurricular activities. This is what will bring you down to earth as a real person. And, who knows when someone might contact you simply because you have something in common with them . On this same note, keep the details about yourself light and to the point, and certainly don’t get too detailed about your personal life.

Step 3: Link Yourself to the Real Estate Area
Be sure to include information about where you live or have lived, and how long you have been an agent in the area. This will demonstrate your knowledge of an area. On the other hand, you might be new to an area. In this case, be sure to mention why you moved to this area and some things that you love about it.

Step 4: A Bio is NOT an Advertisement
Keep your bio simple and honest—you don’t want it to come off as an advertisement (there is a time and place for that) because you will just turn clients away. Keep in mind that your bio should show how qualified you are, but also reveal you as a real hard-working person that can relate to someone’s wants and needs.

Step 5: Do Some Research
Knowing what sounds good and what will catch your reader’s eye can be hard to figure out on your own, so take a look at what other agents have done. This will give you some great pointers on what works and what doesn’t work. It can also help you develop a good outline for your own bio.

Step 6: 10-minute brainstorm session
If you are writing your own bio, it might be a bit intimidating to get started, so it is best to just start writing, ignoring the spelling, grammar and sentence structure. You can write a list, make a mind map, or just fill up a page with your thoughts. The point is to narrow down what it is you want to cover in your bio, and get it put into words on the screen (or on paper).

Step 7: Just the Right Length
Your bio should not be too long or too short. Aim for two to three paragraphs, and about 250 to 300 words—any longer and your readers will lose interest.

Step 8: Proofread and Review
A bio is a great opportunity to demonstrate your professionalism, so your writing must be error-free. Spelling and grammar are a must! When you think it is perfect, follow these three steps: take a 12 to 24 hour break so you can look at it with a fresh mind, read it out loud to yourself, and then have a trusted friend, family member or colleague read it and give you feed back.

Step 9: Don’t Use too Much of a Good Thing
Exclamation points, italics, bold, and underlining are great tools to emphasize a point, but should be used sparingly. When used too much, they can have the opposite effect and distract the reader.

Step 10: End it Right
Be sure to include your contact information at the end of your bio. This gives your potential client immediate and easy access to all you have to offer.

Writing or maybe rewriting your real estate agent bio should be at the top of the list of “to dos.”  It is inexpensive and effective, but the best part is that you can use it over and over again—on your website, blog, in your listing presentation, brochures, Facebook, LinkedIn, and any other place where you have made your online presence known. Just make sure to review it every six months to keep it up to date. Once you’ve created a bio you will have a great tool that will help you bond with potential clients before you even meet them, making you a step ahead of competitors.

If you are in need of professional copy writing services for your agent biography or just need someone to proof your work, please feel free to contact us. We have the resources to help.

The Apple Card app offers many beautifully crafted letterpress designs to choose from so your card is sure to make a lasting impression. The process is rather simple. After taking the photo select your card design, type out your personal message, choose the recipient and send it on it’s way. Within days your client will have a personalized card in their hands and photo moment to treasure. All this done using your iPhone or iPod touch. The cost of each card is just $2.99 anywhere within the United States and $4.99 when sent to or from anywhere outside the U.S – postage included.

Take a few minutes to review the new Card app from Apple and you might find other great reasons to send a personal photo card to clients, friends and love ones. Remember, it’s the thought that counts. For other great ideas like this, visit our real estate marketing tips.

Looking for suggestions on what to write about? Take these items into consideration, but don’t feel like you have to do them all. Start with the basics and follow up with additional posts to give more information and fresh content.

Demographics:
Extremely helpful neighorhood information would be the local demographics i.e. unemployment figures, population, seasonal climate, and so on. Look to your local government office for this type of information or better yet, look for websites online that offer demographic information.

Market Data:
Include some basic information about the average cost of homes in a neighborhood. This will give visitors an idea of what homes typically sell for and helps give them a better idea of what to expect. For example: Homes in this neighborhood typically range from $250,000 to $500,000. Instantly a potential buyer would know if they see a home for sale at $800,000 – they may want to research it further as it appears that home is at the top of the market. For more information on the benefits of adding more complete market reports, visit our article on The Value of Writing Market Reports.

Informative Maps:
Adding graphical maps is also a great way of offering more information. If you can, include a small map showing the neighborhood in relationship to other places that your audience may or may not know about i.e. the beach, ski resorts, downtown, shopping etc. It is another great way of giving your audience perspective. Google Maps is a good source for mapping. Take a screenshot of the map once you are zoomed into your desired location. Save it to your desktop (using Print Screen). You can then resize, crop and dress up the image using Picnik, a great online photo editing web site. Another idea is to use Google or UMapper to create an interactive map that can be added to your page.

Include Photos:
Photos of homes, hot spots and landmarks will give your audience an even better idea of the neighborhood. Consider not just images of local homes, but also hot spots i.e. beaches, ski resorts, shopping centers etc. I recommend using The NextGen Gallery plugin that helps create a stylish photo gallery of images as demonstrated on our demo site: Heavenly Valley Neighborhood profile.

Don’t under estimate the value of neighborhood profiles. They are one of the best subjects you can write about. It is a great way to demonstrate your knowledge of the area, increase your visibility in the search engines and keep people coming back, as you continually provide fresh content that relates to the area.

The following are stock photograpy sites that professional web and print designers say offer “the best selection” of images are :

• Getty Images – www.gettyimages.com
• iStockphoto – www.istockphoto.com
• Veer – www.veer.com
• Corbis – www.corbis.com
• Jupiterimages – www.jupiterimages.com

Other sites designers feel offer photos for “the best value” are :

• iStockphoto – www.istockphoto.com
• Shutterstock- www.shutterstock.com
• Photos.com – www.photos.com
• Dreamstime – www.dreamstime.com
• StockXpert – www.stockxpert.com

Once you have your photo, be sure to check out our tutorial on using Picnik to help put a professional drop shadow or edge effect on it to make it pop!

Keep in mind, you don’t want to just use any photo you find on the web without getting permission first. In general, using images from another website without permission is illegal.

Offering real estate market updates is one of the best ways to communicate to your audience that your are an “expert in your region” and know the market. It might be boring to you, but it could be valuable information to your buyers and sellers who “want / need” this type of information to make an informed decision. Your ability to serve up this important information could get you new buyers and sellers who are looking for a agent who demonstrates their knowledge online.

Where to Find the Data:
Your multiple listing service is the best place to start. Typically you can run reports from you MLS software and get exactly what you need. If you can’t find what you are looking for, contact your local Association or MLS tech support.

Setting Up the Data:
Start with developing an Excel spread sheet that can be easily updated each month. To really define each area, set up a separate spreadsheet for every zip code or neighborhood that you work. Think about the different categories you will want to set up that and are going to be of most interest to your audience i.e number of “Units Sold,” “Days on Market,” average “Sold Price,” median “Sold Price,” and finally the Sold Price vs. List Price.

Communicating the Data:
If your not savvy with creating graphs and charts then convey the information in simple narrative copy. Take the time to interject your thoughts giving your knowledge and opinions. Again, engaging the visitor and demonstrating your professional expertise on the matter.

If you are looking for graph formats then check out MS Excel’s “the graph wizard.” Other resources for creating graphs is using Microsoft Word or Microsoft Publisher. There will be a learning curve, but the visual rewards could be worth it. I will say it again, offering real estate market updates is one of the best ways to communicate to your audience that your are an “expert in your region.”

To further your knowledge on creating Blog market reports we suggest you read “Why Bore Blog Readers With Statistics?” By Margaret Woda. Be sure to read the comments from other agents and their experiences.

Things to consider:

• Stick to one or two font families.
• Stick to one or two complimentary colors.
• Keep in mind, consistency is key and less is more!
• Avoid underlining text. This may lead the reader into thinking it is a link to another page.