Lynn Minnick
By Lynn Minnick
It wasn’t that long ago that my partner and I were kicking around ideas for a spring marketing plan on our big listing on the Connecticut River. After all that snow and a wet early spring we were looking for fresh ideas and an approach we hadn’t tried yet.
Enter the live webcam: A fun way to share, not just the view of the deep-water dock, but for potential buyers to check out the boats gliding by, or the peace and tranquility of the river! It’s one thing to show photos, but this is “real-time, live, unedited, what it’s like at Knowles Landing right now.” Our first weekend of promoting it via the website and social media yielded a big jump in web activity.
Here’s the skinny on what you need to make it happen. In our case, my partner is the tech genius who figured it all out.
We’re using a Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910 which priced out at under $100 and will be used again for other projects: http://www.logitech.com/en-us/webcam-communications/webcams/devices/6816. It is being encoded using Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder and streamed via www.Stickam.com. We have a Gateway laptop (we switched out the netbook because was too slow) situated in the boathouse using a wifi connection to the main house. My partner can also control the laptop remotely using www.logmein.com which is a remote access program from any laptop (and his iPhone) for when the cam goes down (Stickam times out after 24 hours) – Stickam is normally used to broadcast short live shows, not 24/7 streaming but it had the quality we were looking for at the price that was right for us. It sometimes runs ads first before going to the live view, but the quality really is excellent. You can check ours out here http://www.knowleslanding.com/live.html. (I don’t have the flash to play it on my iPhone, but to check it on my iPhone I downloaded the free Stickam app and searched Knowles and can view it that way.) Continue reading »
Lynn Minnick
By Lynn Minnick
I’ve been marketing the crazy out of a high-end listing. (Yes, I’m fairly sure I just made up that expression…but this is about getting creative, right?) This is easily the hardest I’ve ever worked to sell a listing. In this market, I went in knowing it would be a challenge, armed with an arsenal of creative ideas and a full social media marketing plan. Taking a partner on this project was necessary because I knew I would be traveling abroad for an extended time during the listing period, but it has been great to have someone to bounce ideas around with. Because of this, we’ve done some interesting things that might give you a few ideas.
Monica Seles
We started off with hosting “An Evening With Monica Seles” in NYC through the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I., and by sponsoring the Campbell Tennis Tournament. We did this because the property has a Har-Tru tennis court overlooking the Connecticut River. (See, Monica is such a good sport – having her picture taken with our sign!) Sure, we had broker tours as well as the requisite broker’s open house, but we made it memorable by creating a micro-cocktail named after the property (we called it “The Knowles”), sushi and seafood appetizers, a wine and dessert tasting by the river, and an amazing door prize giveaway (tickets to the U.S. Open!).
We’ve been in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and on every online venue we should be. We’ve targeted the agents selling high-end waterfronts with glossy mailers and e-mails. Continue reading »
Subhi J. Gharbieh
By Subhi J. Gharbieh
Many times agents are quick to use the “client” title for someone they are working with or representing in a real estate transaction. There are so many people out there nowadays trying to scam others, and it happens every day in our industry. My friendly advice to real estate professionals: Get to know the person you are representing before you call them your client.
Example:
A practitioner sends me an email one Friday, letting me know that her client from Waco, Texas is interested in viewing a $3.5 million listing I have in Plano, a suburb outside of Dallas. She said that this client owns a sports merchandising company and that he was only in town for the weekend. She wanted to bring him in that next morning, on Saturday. As any luxury home owner would, my client requested that I make sure that any potential buyers were qualified to purchase a home within this price range. So I simply asked the agent for a pre-approval letter, or some document to show that this buyer was well qualified. I would hate for my client to have to leave their home for a few hours on a Saturday morning for someone who has no real interest in purchasing their home.
The agent soon called me back and said that her “client” does not wish to share any of his information, and that if we wanted to “sell” the house, we would let him view it. A thought came to mind when she said that: “What if this is a high profile celebrity, professional athlete, CEO or such, I cannot let this buyer slip away. ” So I quickly asked her for her clients name, and she hesitantly gave it to me. For confidentiality purposes- we’re going to call him ” Mr. Joe Blow.”
Not knowing where to start, I simply Google searched “Joe Blow Waco Texas.” Continue reading »
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