Archive for January, 2008

Real Estate Technology Tips Series - How to create walk on videos for your real estate website -

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

Hey Everyone,

I just answered this question in depth so I thought I would post it here for all of you. This is exactly the process and what is needed to make walk on the screen videos for your sites:

This is actually very easy if you have the right equipment and software. Here is a list of things you will need:

1. A green screen set. Mine is a wall painted the right color of green, you could also hang a piece of green material on the ceiling to make this work. For information on the right color to use, do a Google search for Chroma Key and you will get reams of information about this.

2. Any common video camera, the ones with the DV port are best because you can capture professional audio at the same time with a simple cheap microphone.

3. A software program that will allow you to add a background behind you. There are a lot of these out there and they can be very expensive. For our purposes as Realtors the best and cheapest I have found is Vlogit. Not sure of the URL just type Vlog it into Google, it is like $40.

4. Then you need a way to encode the video and upload it onto your site. You could use FLV producer Lite for this. Our system at BusyAgentPro.com includes an encoder and a way to place it on all of your sites, etc.

That is really it, now the actual process is easy, here are the steps:

1. You stand behind the green screen and when you are ready to start the video just walk out from behind the screen, look at the camera and record your video. I use a monitor behind my camera as a teleprompter. You can find free teleprompter software all over the net.

2. Upload your video from your camera to your computer.

3. Load it into your VlogIt software or whatever else you are using. Make any edits you need here.

4. Replace the green screen with any color background you would like. If you want to make it look like you have no background just choose the same background color as whatever site you are posting the video on, or you can give it a transparent background.

5. Save the file and post it wherever you like

That’s it in a nutshell, it really is pretty easy with the right equipment and software.

Here is an example that a friend of mine did using this exact formula. Obviously the more time and effort you put into it the better your video will be. www.thepodcastbootcamp.com

If you have any questions, feel free to post them or drop me a line:)

Posted in Real Estate Technology | No Comments »

2008 Figure business Coaching Program with Brian Rodgers - Real Estate Technology

Monday, January 28th, 2008

Hello Everyone,

If you haven’t visited the BusyAgentPro.com forum in a while I have a special announcement that you are going to want to pay very close attention to. We are launching our much awaited coaching program for all BAP Platinum Members Valentine’s week.

And if you have no idea what BusyAgentpro.com even is, it is time to get over there and check it out. You can sign up for a free Gold Account.

There is no cost at all to Platinum members and this is going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity to receive one-on-one training from arguably one of the most successful real estate agents in the world. Sure, there are others that have sold more, but is there really another individual out there that has been able to do what Brian Rodgers has done over the course of his 14 year career? Maybe, but not many:)

All of the details o the coaching program are available over at the BusyAgentPro.com forum, just look in the main discussion area for a post entitled: “New coaching program launching Valentine’s Week”

If you haven’t accessed the forum in a while and have forgotten how to get there just go to: www.busyagentpro.com and enter your username and password. Once in the site, click on the red community icon in the upper right hand side and you will be at the forum.

If you have forgotten your username and password, you may send an e-mail to support@busyagentpro.com and we can help you find it.

You do not want to miss this, it will more than likely never be repeated and it is absolutely free to all BAP Platinum members. And if you aren’t a Platinum member yet, get upgraded right now, you do not want to miss this one time event that will take place starting Valentine’s Week and go for at least 12 weeks. Only those members who are on the first week of coaching will be allowed in.

Check it out, you will not be sorry!

Have a great evening!

Brian, Rich, Chrissi, Jennifer, Vlad, Dennis, Blake and the entire BAP Staff

Posted in Real Estate Technology | No Comments »

Advanced Access 4.0 … yikes..warning…long

Sunday, January 27th, 2008

Here is a reprinted post over at The BusyAgentPro.com Community from my friend and business partner, Rich Shaw who is arguably one of the most successful SEO experts in the real estate industry:

Go figure, but websites are a sensitive subject for me

Let me start by saying I am absolutely 100% biased because I’m intimately familiar with the website features at the disposal of our Platinum members. Whether or not users of other systems convert to BAP isn’t the point… It just urks me seeing overblown hype by company after company that take advantage of Realtors… This will come as no surprise to long time Agentsonline.net members

I’ve been seeing posts all over the net about AA and long time users that are waiting for this, so called, state of the art new AA 4.0 website offering while new users get to sign up for it right away…

4.0 ?? Sounds serious…I decided to take a closer look at this AA “Revolutionary System” and see how we measure up

First thing I did was go to their 4.0 page and look for their live client sites they offer as examples .. Surely they make sure these are good working 4.0 demos with a 60 person support team, right?

1st. example I clicked was this one: http://www.statecollegerealestate.com
(completely disfigured homepage)…. hmmm.. must be a mistake but the rest of the site is probably amazing….

Let me look at the state of that art listings module they claim to have in the new 4.0 system …
http://www.statecollegerealestate.com/Nav.aspx/Page=/ListNow/Default.aspx

WHAT??? _frame_S ??? this is freaking 2008…are you kidding me??? Notice the url… everything is still pulled out in _frame_s from a central data_base_ with horrible url strings that you can’t change???

But this is new and State of the art .. surely I must be missing something??? … maybe it’s just the listings pages and everything else is top notch ??? NOT…

The setup charge…all the add ons they try to sell you and their “marketing” packages are in my opinion, a very minor makeover of the old system….

The good news is that if you pay extra, you can get ecards, and for a little more, you can get drip emails … and you can have 1 whole site for many hundreds of dollars setup and more than the cost of BAP Platinum Monthly…

That explains it…Why would users want an unlimited number of 3 different types of websites with more features, actual hosted dns with cpanel & mail, more ability to be customized and optimized… all the other features, plus the community of BAP members ??? Beats me…

Now we’re not a quote/unquote, Website Company… Admittedly we are much more than that…websites are just a small part of what BAP Platinum is, but the differences are so clear they boggle my mind… The same goes for just about every other site system out there and most custom sites as well… Depending on the number of listings, an existing site from most of the majors can be transformed into a BAP site that smokes it in less than 4-8 hours including custom graphics.

Those of you that know me know that I’ve never been shy to call suppliers out publicly regarding their claims so I would never make claims I don’t believe to be true…

Make 2008 the year you take back control of your business and give BAP Platinum a try… We have NO CONTRACT!

We’re here to help our users turn BAP into closed transactions..Staff and Community alike….

There are no versions of BAP to wait for either.. we are a fluid system that develops and implements features and upgrades in real time to all users in the system… We don’t up sell and we don’t nickel and dime… we listen to our community,develop and implement… that’s how it works.

Try Platinum Risk Free Now

We don’t aspire to ever be the biggest… just the best will be good enough

Posted in General Shop Talk | 3 Comments »

ActiveRain is Partly Purchased by HouseValues

Friday, January 25th, 2008

By now you have probably heard that ActiveRain, a fairly popular community and blogging platform was at least partly purchased by HouseValues.com. Well, this is bad news and just another attempt for corporate America and fat cats to jump into our pockets as Realtors.

Over the past five years many large companies as well as certain inside people in the industry have made a consorted effort to encroach upon just about every major and minor real estate market in the country and they are even reaching smaller markets as of late 2007. Each and everyday that passes we are losing more control of our businesses to our brokers, companies, franchises and lead aggregation companies.

These companies and individuals have deep pockets and are using advertising space in our newspapers, magazines and particularly online to beat us as agents to our own leads so they can turn around and sell them back to us for large referral fees. I strongly encourage competitive marketing among national franchises as well as independent companies but i and my company BusyAgentpro.com are committed to defending ourselves as well as making pre-emptive strikes against these large companies known as lead aggregators and taking back control of our local markets one at a time.

Would you like to be a part of a Revolution that guarantees you’ll think bigger about taking complete control of your real estate business? If so, then you need to visit http://www.busyagentpro.com right now and get set up with your Free Gold account.

Posted in General Shop Talk | No Comments »

Real Estate Marketing Tips Series - Working Expired Listings With The Real Estate Coach

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008

Expired listing Tips part 2 by The Real Estate Coach

Here are the top four objections you will hear from expired listing sellers.

* We want to wait a while.
* We are going to list with our current agent.
* He/she is a friend or relative.
* We are going to try by owner for a while.

I will give you the scripts I use to overcome these objections in a future post.

Top Producer Tip of the week by Pat Guttery Baton Rouge, LA

* Pat does very well with keeping his advertising cost low, by running a one page ad in the Homes Magazine. He puts 4-5 indoor pictures of each home on his web site, his ad drives potential homebuyers straight to his web site. There they can at there leisure learn about Pat, see his listings inside and out. Pat uses his web site as a pre-sell package for him and he contributes 35% of his business to his web site that costs him a whopping $10.00 per month to operate.
* Pat runs a very efficient business, he closed 52 transactions last year, without an assistant, working with buyers, no weekends, and under forty-five hours a week, and he makes a six-digit salary on top of all of that. Not bad Huh?

If you have any questions about these quick tips please e-mail me or post your comments.

I hope these tips were helpful

See Ya Next week

Brian Rodgers
Real Estate Marketing Systems

P.S. If you have a good idea that you would like to share, I would love to hear it! Just email me.

Posted in Relevant Sites and Friends | No Comments »