I’m always on the lookout for interesting Shows. When I saw the Real Estate Shows Chris Kealing of OwnerWillFinanceHome.com has made, I knew I’d found something great!

Many home buyers have trouble seeing what isn’t there. Chris obviously doesn’t have a problem imagining what could be, and he can make you see it, too. He takes houses in ROUGH condition and transforms them into the beautiful homes they were meant to be!

Real Estate Shows are a great way to showcase your specialty.

Chris can transform an abused house into a beautiful home and he can prove it through his Shows. His work can and does speak for itself. He’s using Real Estate Shows as a very effective way of illustrating his expertise.

Whatever your specialty (new construction, first time homeowners, commercial, acreage, area, etc.), why not make a Real Estate Show that can be featured on your website or blog to show off your skills? You can even add a link as a part of your signature on your emails.

Please let me know if you give it a try! Thank you for letting me share your Shows, Chris!

One of my friends just subscribed to Real Estate Shows. His name is Dale Chumbley and he co-writes a blog called Clark County Real Estate Guide with Chris Hyde, who is in the mortgage industry. (Dale, along with his Mom, Tracy, and wife, Bridget, make up the Chumbley Team at Prudential Northwest Properties.) Together Dale and Chris cover many issues in the real estate market, but what I really love is when they write about local stuff in their city of Vancouver, Washington.

I wasn’t surprised at all when Dale’s first Show was amazing – fabulous pictures, great titles and an overall feeling of “love of place”. He loves where he lives and it shows!

But what really got me was when they worked together on a post. They visited a new restaurant just before the grand opening. Dale took pictures and whipped up a Show while Chris wrote the text.

And it was WOW!! I read this first thing in the morning and was ready for some Mexican food before breakfast! Click here and read, you’ll see what I mean!

OK, let’s talk about why this is so good. First of all, it’s great to blog about local stuff. People are going to see this new restaurant and want to know more. They look in a search engine and this post pops up. Now they’ve found a couple guys who know all about the area they’re living in – and how about that, they’re real estate guys! If they like the blog and keep coming back, who just became their go-to guys? You guessed it! (Hint: This is why you blog!)

Also, they wrote just in time for Cinco de Mayo and people might be looking for local stuff in connection with that, too. Give people what they want – they like that! Keeping up with events as they happen in your community can lead readers right to the welcome mat on your blog. (Dale does not seem to have a problem testing out restaurants and showing them off, as evidenced here.)

And the Show, this part is magic, too! In the place of one picture, they now have nine. This gives their readers a little power, if they want to see more pictures, they can push that little arrow button. If not, they don’t have to. People like to have choices … and they’re curious so I bet they push the button! RES Shows great way to show more of something without overwhelming your words or creating a post that looks so long it scares off a casual reader.

They’ve realized right from the start that Real Estate Shows are for much more than just showcasing listings – they can help illustrate nearly anything you want to say. If you have a website or a blog (and you should) RES may turn out to be your favorite tool.

Thanks to Dale and Chris, I look forward to seeing what you do with your Real Estate Shows next!

How long has it been since you looked at your inventory of Real Estate Shows? Hopefully you aren’t using RES just for listings – haven’t I taught you better by now??? (If you’re feeling nosy, please feel free to peek at my Shows. My active listings are now on my team’s Real Estate Shows account, in case you wonder!)

If you’re like me, you’re not “just” a real estate agent. You’re probably also your own marketing department. I bet you have a website and a blog, or at least you’re working on getting there. Can I guess that you wouldn’t complain if someone handed you a little more time and money? Doesn’t it just make sense if one thing can work for you in many ways? Wouldn’t that lower your stress level a little?

Yesterday I scrolled through my Real Estate Shows library and realized that I have some great stuff in there. I thanked myself for that earlier work, then resurrected an old Show and wrote a post on ThePutnamScoop.com to go with it.

I love this! I got a chance to talk again about a cause I believe in. I had not just pictures, but a beautiful Show with words and music to get across to the reader just the feeling I intended. I was able to use something I already had in a new way – recycling! Not just good for the environment, it’s good for the budget.

And even better, I have more Shows in there that will be inspiration for posts for a long time to come! The next time I’m stumped for a topic, I know just where to go. What a relief that is!

This is an idea you might want to think over and shape into your own style.

Yesterday Chris Griffith of Keller Williams Elite Realty in Bonita Springs, Florida wrote a post titled “Why Your Bonita Springs Home Is Not Selling.” (Chris is a prolific blogger whose whole blog Life in Bonita Springs is informative, fun or just flat out brilliant, depending on her mood that day — what I’m trying to say is that she’s 100% FRW, Feed Reader Worthy.)

Last night while I was trying to fall asleep, I was thinking about what good advice there was in that post. (Yes, I do dorky things like that.) That led me to wonder why, when it all seems to make perfect sense, so many home owners have trouble with the basics of selling? And then after they overprice their house, put off showings and don’t want a lockbox, they wonder why their house isn’t selling. What???

It occurred to me that different people learn in different ways. We sit down with our clients and tell them these things when we list their house, but after we leave, how much do they remember?

Some people will retain what they read or see better than what they hear. (Count me in this group.) Would it help if you made a “reminder” Real Estate Show and emailed it to them with a little note letting them know you discussed a lot while listing their house, here’s a little refresher of the basics?

The Show below uses the ideas from Chris’ post in a visual way, in the hopes that it might help a “visual learner” seller. Your mission: watch the Show and try to think of a way you could use your Real Estate Shows to help your clients benefit from your experience.

You could make a Show about how you work, such as what you’ll do to market and sell a house. You could illustrate what sellers can do to help their house sell faster, like accepting showings and keeping the house fresh and clean. Would it be in the sidebar of your website or do you want a blog post you can refer to clients over and over again? Think on it and let me know.

I research at a lot of different internet technologies. Some of them are useful.
Most of them are simply silly.

Occasionally, I run across a new technology that immediately jumps out at me as being truly beneficial. It ignites a swarm of ideas and makes me wish I had thought of it first. Eyejot fits the bill.

Eyejot is a robust video messaging platform.

As such, it can be used in a number of different ways, including recording videos for email distribution, but I’m going to focus on one specific aspect of their service, the “Eyejot This!” bookmarklet feature.

Eyejot This! allows you to send video messages attached to specific web pages. So, for example, you can comment directly on the web page you are viewing and have your video travel with that web page to family, friends and most importantly, to your clients, prospects and other real estate agents you may be working with.

How can this help you and your business?

I’ve done a sample using one of our RES Flyers to illustrate one of the ways you can use this to further enhance communication and connection with your clients. As you will see, the video message conveys more emotion, and more of your presence than words alone could convey. Using the video over the web page you’re talking about, another agent’s listing, for example, your clients will be able to “see your energy, passion, concern, interest, excitement, humor” - whatever you choose to convey. When they see it and hear you, it will feel more like you are in the room telling them in person. Your message becomes more personal.

I initially presented this to Teri Lussier from TheBrickRanch.com, Daniel Rothamel from RealEstateZebra.com and Andy Kaufman from MyEastBayAgent.com. They immediately began exclaiming their enthusiasm and pointing out specific ways they would use the Eyejot technology.

Andy Kaufman: “Wow, this is way cool. I can’t wait to play around with it and brainstorm how to incorporate it into our business.”

Daniel Rothamel: “This is freaking awesome. We have so many out of town clients that are always calling me to visit a listing web page. With this, I can visit the page, record comments, and they can have it all the time.”

Teri Lussier: “This is a great way to communicate with an out of town seller as well. They’ve moved and you are the listing agent. I can simply see this a great way to put people at ease. You know how looking someone in the eye is so key to communication… As I was watching your demo it struck me how important it is to see people.”

Watch the sample Eyejot I put together and let me know what ideas you come up with!