When you think of your RealEstateShow.com account, you probably think of the benefits to your sellers first. After all, it is a GREAT tool for marketing listings!

But there are many, many more uses for your Shows!

One of my favorite ways to use my Shows is with buyers. When we look at houses, I make a reminder Show for each house they’d like to keep under consideration.

This is useful in many ways. First, I’m right there with my buyers, so I see what parts of the house mean the most to them. I can feature the beautiful back porch or gourmet kitchen as needed. Whatever aspects of the home call to them will be highlighted in their Show.

We often look at several (OK, sometimes LOADS) of houses in one day. After a while, too many houses begin to blur in our memories. Which house had the colorful tile backsplash? Which one had that ornate chandelier in the dining room? My reminder Shows will tell them.

Even if the houses already have Shows online, I’m still going to make a new one. My buyers might want to look at these Shows over and over while they make their decision. They may pass them to friends and family members to hear their opinions as well. Whose name do I want all those people to see associated with their new home??? MINE!! My branding on each and every Show keeps that top-of-mind awareness going with my clients.

My RealEstateShows.com subscription is for all the Shows I care to make, so making Shows for my buyer clients just makes good business sense. There’s no cost to me, and my clients feel like I’ve done something special for them. Additionally, I can view the Tracking Reports and I’ll know which house they liked best!

A couple tips about using reminder Shows:

• Always ask permission to photograph the homes. When you call to make the appointment to show the home, just ask then. I have never had anyone say no, because that puts their house at a disadvantage.
• Try to get your buyers in a couple pictures. This sounds wrong because we try so hard NOT to get people in the pictures we take for our listing Shows, but in this case we have specific people in a specific house, and we want to make it easy for them to picture themselves in the house. Actually seeing themselves in the house helps them visualize living there.

Make a few reminder Shows with your next buyers and see how effective it can be!

I believe you can use your RealEstateShows.com subscription to convey nearly anything to your intended audience. If you doubt me, just keep checking back in and I’ll try my best to make a believer out of you, too! ;o)

While trying to tell people about your local area, one of the main topics you’ll hit on is food. Think about that, we name the landmarks, the industry, schools, interesting places and where to eat. We ALL love food. Food also says a lot about a region. It becomes almost a culture of it’s own in some areas.

Coastal areas have fresh seafood, Louisiana has spicy Cajun, you’ll find soul food down South, lighter dishes in healthy California and Tex-Mex along our Southern border. Anywhere you go, you’re likely to find something special about the food.

Tell your local market and those moving in about the specialties in your area! Even people that have lived in your area for years might have missed a taste of something special.

This show by Sally Cheeseman of Century 21 Liberty Homes celebrates the food of Hawaii.

Sally packs a lot of Hawaiian food and culture in her 60 second show! Of course I’d love to spend a little time in Hawaii (who wouldn’t?), but Sally makes me want to go NOW.

Use your Shows to give us a little taste of what your community is cooking up!

Google launched a new map feature today.

It’s called Street View.

And it’s impressive.

And if you’re in San Francisco, New York, Miami, Las Vegas and Denver, you can start using it right now in your Shows at RealEstateShows.com. It’s now immediately available in those five cities and it allows you to take a 3D street level tour of major streets and points of interest.

The image to the right is taken from this google Street View map along South Las Vegas Boulevard. It’s right in front of my favorite hotel, The Bellagio. Unlike the old, now defunct A9 product, this is a truly interactive 3D experience. Not just static images. You can change your angle of view and move along the street while maintaining that angle. If you head north in my map example on the right, you can actually turn into the Bellagio driveway and go right up to the valet entrance.

While we can’t take any of the credit, local Real Estate Shows that highlight points of interest will get a nice boost from Google’s new feature. Just click on “Link To This Page” from the Google Street View and copy and paste the URL into the Location field in your Show’s “edit buttons” menu. This will link your Show’s location button right to the 3D view.

The consumer experience in these cities has been greatly enriched today. Go experience it for yourself. You can bet this kind of experience is only going to become more common.

Google already has this goofy YouTube video “tutorial” up as well.

Listings on Facebook? Don’t bet against it just because it’s a bit rough around the edges.

On May 14th, Facebook officially rolled out their new Marketplace feature. I joined the Los Angeles Region and started my search for a home. In just a few short weeks, there were 153 “listings” in the “housing” area, and 795 in the “for sale” area. It was painful wading through all of the rental properties in the housing area to find a single condo for sale.

It was even more painful trying to find a search term that result in an actual house for sale. For example, searching for “house” brought up $2 DVDs of The Adventures of Huck Finn and Frankenstein before a listing for a property titled “my house,” which was being sold for $385,000. There was no photo of “my house,” but it did say it was on the Westside. So… I know it’s got that going for it.

I did find a listing with some photos. It’s title was $259,000 - House In Paradise Valley. You’ll need a Facebook account to see it, but it will give you a good idea of what’s possible. I’ll bet there were more than just this one, but after 15 painful minutes… I just couldn’t take it anymore.

Will it take off? Only if they provide a way to flag listings as real estate for sale, or a real estate only search option. If they do, then probably. The network is growing rapidly (119,140 people in the Los Angeles, CA region) and it’s simple to put up the listings. Today, the search is just too painful. I wouldn’t personally take the time, given the myriad of other efficient ways to search for homes. But I wouldn’t bet against it if they get the search part right.

If you’re a Facebook member, try searching in your region and let me know what you thought about the experience.

Your Real Estate Shows can serve many functions, but the main reason you subscribed was likely to help market and sell your listings.

The titles you give your Shows can work for you in more ways than you might have imagined.

Since the links to your Shows are done by Show number rather than title, you can feel free to change your titles at any time, without creating additional work for yourself. Using your titles to give additional information is not going to mean you have to go around updating links or emailing new info to everyone. It’s a small thing, but it matters. Less work is GOOD, right?

You might want to consider changing titles to inform people or update information. Some examples might include:

• Announce an upcoming “Open House” in your Show title. Giving the date and time might bring in a few more shoppers. (Just remember to post a new title after the open house!)
• Let everyone know if there’s been a “Price Reduction”. This is big news and deserves to be an eye-catching title.
• Let us know if there are “Special Offers” with the house. Is there a Decorating Allowance? Are your sellers offering to cover Closing Costs?
• Is the house now “In Contract”? Let us know!

There are also lots of ways to use your Sold Shows as good marketing for yourself. When you check that Sold box on your show, make sure to make any needed adjustments to the title then as well.

• “Listed and Sold By” YOU is a very impressive title!
• “In Contract in 2 Days” shows you are a fast worker.
• Having a title like “Contact Me To Sell Yours, Too” is a call to action!

Just having a fresh title is enough to draw a few more looks from potential buyers. Change things up a little and make those titles work for you!