And We're Back! Episode 2 of "Sell It Yourself"

Well I really can't believe it has been this long but I will say it is not from ditching this project. Far from it! I have been busy with working on things to incorporate into the www.coosbaytvhomes.com project in general as well as a project for the purpose of adding some promotion to it. I am talking about www.oregoncoastescapes.com. I started the site a year ago to bring more exposure to the Southern Oregon Coast. It is a video site, among other things, that shares our local beaches with folks across the globe.
Anyway, several other projects have been at the forfront as well, but since it looks as though the possibility of a financial "parting of the clouds" may be upon us, it is time to focus back on this project as well. So with that, Kevin Seevers and I are back at it again and we cover three main topics in this episode including:

1) Is this a good time to buy?

2) How to find properties for sale.

3) Attracting buyers in today's market.

In addition to this, we are now offering an iPod video version of the show that you can download and take with you. Or if you would rather, you can watch on line in Flash video. So, at the very least, grab the mp3 audio here (right click and "Save Target As" to download to an mp3 player) or watch us online at the site here: www.coosbaytvhomes.com. Whatever you choose, we hope that you find the info informative and a little entertaining as well.

Til next time, Enjoy... Jay

The secret to all sales? Sell the Experience!

In sales, the main objective is to get the prospect to a place where they can "experience" what it is you have to offer. What does this mean and how do you do it? Let's look at each of these questions individually.

What it means to get your prospect to experience what you have to offer is to do whatever it takes to help them imagine themselves using, owning, or experiencing the product. They have to actually get to this place in order to cross into completing a transaction.

Even though this is pretty much "Sales 101", it’s still sales whether it is a house, or this service. For you to buy my service, for example, you have to see yourself in the position of benefiting from the service. Selling your home and saving money is the ultimate benefit of this service. As a product, the same thing is true for your home. As we are all aware, there are plenty of houses on the market and buyers have many, many options. In order to increase your odds of selling, you have to have a "qualified" prospect. They obviously have to qualify financially but in order to get them to the point of making an offer, they also have to "experience" themselves in YOUR home verses the one across town. How do you get to this point?

This is where it gets tricky! It’s also one of the things that we are able to do well through our service.

Because there is more to a house than four walls and a roof, there is more to the sales approach than just pitching the idea of providing shelter in selling your "home". Real Estate agents are known for using the term "Home" instead of "House" for good reason. It is the difference between what the words imply here that make the difference. This same principle applies here as well.

In the video that we produce for a home for sale, there has to be an element of "something more" as well as focusing on the strength of this individual property. In the example of the Pigeon Point property, it was the potential of the property rather than just the structures that held the key in showing this property. I saw an opportunity to shoot a few extra scenes due to some great lighting of wildlife as well as a neighbor walking her dog out on the point. These extra scenes helped to convey the idea of the serenity of this location rather than just what you happen to see at the time that you tour the house.

Now, how you use this specific information to get an edge in selling your own home I have no idea. However, how I can help YOU in this process is another matter. What I do know is trying to use these techniques without MEDIA experience is tough. It also happens to be what I do. What I don't do is sell homes! What I do, is help you by providing tools to help you do it.

Finally, the toughest aspect of this process is getting the prospect to experience owning the home you have for sale. How do you do that WITHOUT the advantage of getting that prospect in your home by way of our "Guided Video Tour", I have no idea! But then again, it's why we do what we do, based on what I learned in Sales 101!

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION & BIT RATE, BIT RATE, BIT RATE!!!

What do these terms have in common? Well if location is the rule in real estate, then bit rate is the rule in streaming video (or video on the web). So, just what is bit rate? It is the mathematical rate that determines the amount of data to be transferred via the internet connection that the viewer is using.

A few short years ago, dial up internet made it all but impossible for video playback on the web. There just wasn't a big enough "pipe" for the video to get through. Today, with broadband connections being very common, the size of the "pipe" is much larger. Now, that same video or "data stream" can comfortably get through that "pipe" without all the stopping and starting. The new problem, which is actually a good one to have is that since the pipe has increased in size, so has the standard bit rate used. This is why the video that you see online today fills more of the screen than the postage stamp sized video of a couple years ago. Along with the frame size being increased, there is far better image quality with the newer software for playback. Flash Video is now among the best for this and is easy for the viewer to use and update if needed.

Lastly, the use of full 30 frame per second video is now also becoming the rule rather than the exception on-line with higher end services available. This is like the video you see on television where there is no jerky playback.

So, what does this mean in terms of using video to sell your home? PLENTY!

Just this last week, I saw two LOCAL examples of video on the web on the South Coast. One, on a real estate agency website turned out to NOT BE VIDEO AT ALL! It was just still images set to music. The other was another local real estate agent that had homes shown on You Tube. The bit rate was typical You Tube quality (poor) and it was amature handheld handycam work too boot! Both of these examples I'm sure meant well, but neither really understands media production as it is in today's marketplace. Yes, both of those examples may understand selling homes but they still charge six percent IF they sell it.

Once again, I've never claimed to be a real estate agent or have the inside track on that industry. What I do know is media and marketing on the web today.

So, if you need the tools to help you sell it yourself, there simply isn't a more affordable way to do it on the South Coast. With packages for every budget and the most expensive one still only costing you just over one percent, we can save you thousands of dollars.

The sales season is here!

Don't you think that if you are going to use the most effective tool to sell your home today, you should use the best possible representation you can to sell the largest asset you have?

Do something different from your competition and get in touch with us today!

The Free "Selling It Yourself" mp3!

By your comments and feedback you made it clear that the Southern Oregon Coast is interested in relevant information on How to Sell Your Own Home.
We listened to your desire and here it is;

Selling_It_Yourself.mp3

Enjoy, Jay

PS, don't forget to vote in the poll on the right hand column here on the blog!

For Sale By Owner . com said it! We couldn't agree more!

Here is what www.forsalebyowner.com has to say about using video for the purpose of selling your home!

OBVIOUSLY, WE AGREE!" Show Buyers Around

Video Tours are widely recognized as the new standard for marketing a property online. On average, listings with videos get 25% more e-mails than those listing that don't have one! Video is an effective way to capture more of your home's qualities than with photos alone. With our easy-to-use video management tool, you shoot your own video, upload it to your property listing, then customize it with captions and key points. Adding a video to your listing can greatly increase buyer interest."

Now it's time to do it right!

For less than what THEY charge to UPLOAD your own video that YOU have to produce, you can get our FULL BASIC PACKAGE! And, we're local!

So, what's stopping you from using the best tool that the largest FSBO website in the world just announced? Nothing!

Contact us today!

Selling Your Own Home Crash Course in VIDEO and Audio!

Thanks to your feedback, we are moving forward on this project but doing it one better.

Although the prospective sponsor backed out, we decided "Heck, why not do it ourselves and take the credit?" So that is what we have done. This premiere show will be just shy of a half hour broadcast and will be available locally on Channel 98, our own local Public Access channel.

As promised to you for showing your interest, we will take the audio portion of the video and create an mp3 for playback on your portable media player of choice! Once available (probably next week) you can go for your run, wash the dishes or whatever and learn something to boot!

So, thanks to Noggle Media, this content will soon be available. Who knows, it may even be the start of a series with more shows to follow.

Enjoy, Jay

MP3 Crash Course in "Sell Your Own Home" ?

If you were able to get a free mp3 audio crash course on selling your own home and what is involved in the process, would you be interested?
I have a client that has created a study guide resource of this material and think it would be great to offer it in a 1/2 hour to one hour mp3 file to take it on the go! Listen while on a commute or on a jog or workout or whatever you might do.
Let me know via a comment on this one and I will see if I can convince the client to make it happen.

Jay