YouToo can YouTube for more effective real estate marketing

Don't look for Frank Rao's name in the list of nominees for next year's Golden Globe or Academy Awards. Yet there is something about the gritty, unscripted quality of Rao's YouTube productions that draws you in and holds your attention. Frank Rao, 29, and his 27 year old brother, Michael, are principals of New York Commercial Realty Group in Harrison. I'm one of thousands of contacts on the e-mail list that they have meticulously built. It was in one of Frank's e-mail blasts that I spotted: "See my listings LIVE" - NYCRG & YouTube - press the link." Since I am currently teaching a course at Fordham University on how marketers need to learn more about social media tools, I paid a visit to Rao's site and watched a video on 55 Lafayette St., White Plains. In a few days of having the property listed, 79 people had visited Rao's YouTube link. When was the last time you showed a property 79 times, in person? Or how do your in person showings compare to views of Rao's YouTube video exclusive listings in Wappinger Falls (375 views), Sleepy Hollow (745 views), and Dover Plains (306 views)? Plus, all three of these geographically diverse locations can be viewed in about 15 minutes! Rao's been in this business for only two years but was quick to learn that there are more tire kickers than there are serious customers. "When you have a lot of properties on your hands, you have to do a lot of showing. Most of our day is a waste of time running around with people," said Rao. "So, I figured, let's show people property from their desks before we take them there." Rao conceded that his "sneak preview" unedited video tours, showing properties with all their warts, occasionally turn off a prospect to a property. For the most part, he says his YouTube postings have been very well received. Every real estate agency with a website has photos of its listings. I know that residential agents, in particular, often employ virtual tours of their property listings. Or so I thought. I visited several Westchester agency sites, looking for video examples, and was surprised by how little video I found. By Googling "real estate videos" I found some professional real estate video production companies. While their cinematography quality is higher than what Rao produces on his $200 hand-held video camera, I didn't find them any more compelling than his. I also visited "Google Video" and www.metacafe.com, a site similar to YouTube. By searching "real estate 10801" I found several residential properties for sale or lease in or around New Rochelle. Try replicating this search using a zip code of your choice. Although Rao says he is pretty tech-savvy, YouTube videos and regular e-mail blasts are about the extent of his use of social media tools. Neither of the Rao brothers use either Facebook or MySpace for their business and he said he is not particularly familiar with Twitter, a cross between Facebook and e-mail. Each Twitter posting is limited to 140 characters. According to a February 16th New York Magazine article, Twitter has six million subscribers. It was a "Twitterer," sending out a "Tweet" and "Tweet pic," who first reported the safe Hudson River landing of the U.S. Airways jet, scooping all traditional media. Twitter was also used by many professional and citizen journalists, trapped inside the Oberoi Hotel, to file reports instantaneously during the Mumbai terrorist attack. A really organized real estate agent could send out a Twitter "tweet" to his or her "followers" every time he or she gets a new listing or visits a new site that he or she wants viewed. I posted a Tweet looking for real estate applications. Minutes later another Tweeter responded that he offers a three-hour online course on Twitter for real estate agents. The Rao brothers have built their business one contact at a time. "We're constantly hustling and working the street. We're doing all the things that the older brokers in the business don't want to do and who just rely on referrals," said Frank. "And I like to co-broke. I enjoy splitting commissions, a piece of the pie is better then no pie. A lot of brokers don't want to co-broke. They just want to keep the whole pot to themselves." Now there's an honest real estate agent! Rob Seitz is a commercial real estate agent at Goldschmidt & Associates, Scarsdale, N.Y.