With the iPhone, Blackberry and Nokia new cell phone technology, real estate agents now have a great tool for virtually showing properties anywhere they meet a client.

Many cell phones have picture-taking capacity, but the iPhone, Blackberry and Nokia’s new phones allow real estate agents to create libraries of photos to show off properties in their listings. These are not grainy photos, but, in a benefit for real estate technology, very clear photos that easily convey the features of homes for sale in the best light.

You can quickly scroll through your entire collection or homes for sale images. With your phone images, you have the choices of e-mailing pictures to clients (yes the phones can go on the Internet) or adding them to your contacts. With iPhone, if you rotate the phone sideways, the image automatically changes to landscape mode, which comes in handy for outside pictures of homes. By using your fingers on the screen to pinch in, an image zooms in or zooms out. Nice for checking details when you are dealing with an approximately 3″ viewing screen.

Recently, one iPhone owner showed off a property, inside room photos and outside photos of house, garden and pool area. All the pictures were clear and left no doubt as to the quality of the property. All the photos were also taken by the iPhone!

All the cell phones have 2 mega pixel cameras as standard. That allows real estate agents to take very crisp pictures both for the cell phones’ screens and later when placed on the computer. This means that in the field of real estate technology, these “business ready” cell phones roll a real estate agent’s camera and computer (for emails, Internet connection and slide show presentations) into a very small package.

The Blackberry still dominates the corporate market, but with higher user satisfaction ratings, iPhone is making inroads into the commercial market. The mobile office keeps getting more mobile, smaller and able to handle several tasks. Now if our cell phones would just connect to a printer.

The good news is that real estate agents can edit their real estate video material with inexpensive, readily available software. Free programs such as MS Movie Maker and Apple’s iMovie can make entry level video editing very inexpensive. Some newer PCs come with Muvee editing software (Start > All Programs > Movie Technology > muveeproducer) or you can purchase it for under $100 online. Once you have worked with editing software, you are better able to pick a professional application, such as Apple’s Final Cut or Adobe’s Premiere Pro CS3, depending on what features you want or what platform (Apple or PC) that you want to use.

If you are editing your real estate video for YouTube, they recommend you encode your video in MPEG4 format, size it to 320 x 240 resolution, set your framerate to 30 frames per second (30fps), and use MP3 audio. Since YouTube’s player really uses a 425 x 318 resolution, you may only want to shrink your video to that size. The benefit of the smaller resolution is that the file size is smaller and uploads faster to YouTube. Unfortunately, if you send the video at the recommended size, YouTube “upscales” your video to the 425 x 318 resolution, which degrades the quality of your images.

YouTube officially accepts uploaded videos in AVI, WMV, MOV, MPEG and MP4 formats. Newer uploads are encoded by YouTube to support the AppleTV and iPhone.

When editing your shots, always place your best shots at the beginning of your movie. Given the “jump to hyperspace” nature of website visitors, they may never get to the end of the virtual tour movie.

When doing the voiceover, speak conversationally and clearly. Leave quiet time at the end of a view so your website viewer can view the shot while thinking over what you have said. If you do use background music to add a sense of continuity to the video, make sure it is in the background and not competing for your viewer’s attention. Your voice-over is your opportunity to replicate your walk-through skills of creating a picture in the viewers’ minds.

Visually, to keep the continuity, do not use jarring transitions. Simple transitions are more natural. Also you can do some sharpening and color correction before exporting. FLV compression (used by YouTube) tends to soften an image’s edges. Experiment with your setting to find the amount of sharpening that looks good. If you do add too much sharpening, don’t worry, YouTube’s encoder blurring images will save you.

With practice, editing and adding virtual tours to your real estate website will go faster and better. There is no better time to enter the video space of internet marketing of your real estate properties than the present.

In today’s competitive real estate market, virtual tours of homes for sale are fast becoming a real estate agent’s technology tool for capturing website visitors’ attention. Virtual tours can range from a slide show of a home’s interior and exterior photos to a movie of 180 degree or 360 degree panoramic view of different rooms in a house. Virtual tours can also be effective sales tools by capturing a 360 degree panorama of a house’s exterior and the nearby neighborhood, especially if all the neighbors’ flowering bushes are in bloom.

What does it take to set up a virtual tour? There are several ways to start using virtual tours in your Internet marketing program. The first decision to make is if the tour is a slide show or movie.

For creating slide shows, you (or your real estate website designer) can use Adobe’s Flash software. Less expensive software, such as GIF Construction Set Professional allows you to turn your photos into a slide show using animated GIF technology. This technology can also be used for spicing up the images on your website’s homepage.

Creating panoramic videos needs software to “stitch together” a series of still photos. One option is to use application service providers that hire the photographer, process the photos with their software, and post the panoramic pictures to sites like Realtor.com. Another option is to buy monthly subscriptions that allow the option of the real estate agent providing the pictures to a company that processes the photos and posts the virtual tours to various real estate websites. A third option is to buy the software, take your own pictures and create and post your own virtual tours.

Software such as PTGui Pro allows real estate agents to stitch together their photographs and make color and angle corrections. This ability to make corrections in the software comes in handy when you find that you forgot your tripod when you are at the house ready to shoot.

Just as with most technology, there are ways to get extra mileage out of your virtual home tours:

• Give CD-ROMs with the tour to the home owner to hand out to interested people;
• Send a collection of different home virtual tours to other real estate agents so they know what to expect when showing the house; and
• Have them available at your open house;

Virtual tours of the downtown shopping area and any of the area‚s picturesque city parks can also add extra pizzazz to a real estate websites.

As more of the real estate market migrates to the Internet to view property, the bar is being raised on the visual information real estate website’s provide. Being an early adopter of the video technology has a great upside for your real estate website and internet marketing strategy - less competition, more visibility. Besides virtual tours on your own real estate website, using video to sell property on the Internet has ventured into the free for all world of YouTube.

Even though YouTube is known for postings of amateur videos on an astounding array of subjects, it has become an avenue for showcasing real estate. The reason is simple, less competition on keyword searches. For example, to use the keyword search “colorado springs real estate” on 21-Feb-2007 on Google shows 526,000 results. The same search on YouTube.com brings only 337 returns. On Google Video, the keyword search brings 523 returns, which also includes the YouTube videos.

YouTube.com, the free video streaming service that lets people view and share videos online, also has a feature that lets real estate agents embed their YouTube real estate video on their websites. By copying code provided by YouTube, Real estate website designers can easily place YouTube videos into the layout of your real estate website. This allows real estate agents to maximize their video advertising investment.

Recently, YouTube announced an upcoming feature that benefits real estate agents - a new analytic tool that gives agents the ability to see where their viewers are located geographically. Hopefully the analytics will go so far as to present a differentiation of embedded views vs YouTube views, bounce rates, average time spent on the video, as well a list of embeds driving views to your video. These analytics should be similar to website page tracking software.

A 40 second video can feature the attractive selling points of a property with a voice-over as well as prominently positioning the agent’s contact information. By simply changing the voice-over track, real estate agents can use the same video for both English-speaking and Spanish-speaking website visitors.

As more Internet users change to high speed connections, videos will be faster and easier to download, thus paving the way to the growing use of video presentations becoming the new standard for property descriptions.

As video presentations of communities and real estate property become more the standard for real estate website property presentations, real estate agents doing their own filming may want to review some filming tips from the pros. The camera is an unblinking recorder and often little technicalities can ruin an otherwise superb shot of a home for sale.

The first step (similar to writing) is outline and plan your shots of the real estate property. This keeps the time it takes to video the property down and doesn’t leave you short of material when you are editing. After videoing several properties, this outline can evolve into a simple checklist. By turning your outline into a checklist, you can check off and keep track of the property shots as you take them.

In your planning, think about any “perspective on the property” shots, such as a nearby tech park, school or playground. These features can quickly enhance a property’s value beyond the intrinsic value of the house itself. Something about location.

The second tip in filming is to expand time. Did you suffer through the Super8 home movies that were shot trying to get as many vacation shots on one reel? Maybe that was the forerunner of the fast edit music videos. To video a home for sale, avoid “ocular whiplash” and mimic a live presentation by consciously holding a shot for 9 to 10 seconds. Turn off the part of your brain that says “Alright, enough already” when it seems like a long time, but only 3 seconds have passed.

Similar to holding a shot, always video more than you need. With more material, you are better able to pick the best shots and have a very good overall presentation. Plan for a two and a half to five minute video, depending on the property and the file size you want. You can always create a 40 second overview video for YouTube or Google Video that directs the viewer back to your real estate website for the director’s cut version.

Use a tripod. Shaky videos inherently are agitating and mark your shots “unprofessional”. When buying a tripod, test it to make sure the panning (side to side movement) is very smooth. Cheaper tripods may have a stutter step panning that ruins the smoothness of a pan shot.

Frame your shots. Between your video appearing on a small screen and your large nature of the property, make sure your perspectives are correct. Don’t make something look too far away or so close that you don’t capture the entire house or room.

As with any new skill, practice first. Video your own home or office. While editing you can see how lighting affects shots, how furniture placement may change the feel of a room or that next time you will look for the dead plant or odd sock that appeared in the shot. Also check real estate videos online with a critical eye. Note what type of shots made you like a property and what shots left your mouse click finger itching for exercise.

Your real estate website’s neighborhood news tool helps make you a more valuable, visible and trustworthy real estate agent. With a few adjustments, it can make you invaluable. Just as in real estate “location” is important, in your website “positioning” is the key to high returns.

How to adjust your neighborhood news tool? Improve its perceived value. To improve perceived value, consider these three questions:

• Is your news specific to your real estate market, instead of generic information any buyer anywhere could use?
• Is your information specific to the buyers and sellers in your market, and
• Can the information you offer be found anywhere else?

Create an evaluation. Instead of offering a “this is what you can find in this neighborhood” information, evaluate schools, coffee shops, or tech centers. Make sure your real estate website gives both your insight and the insights you glean from area residents and business entrepreneurs. Quotes add both local flavor and third party credibility to your news. A little bit of controversy (as long as it doesn’t alienate your market) is a time honored advertising technique to getting attention. (I know honor and advertising aren’t two words you usually put together.)

Show you are active in your market. By giving news such as a new business opening, a school adding a new program or tracking successful “alumni” of a neighborhood, you convey the idea that you have your finger on the pulse of the neighborhood. If you are in a military market, add news of troop deployments or coming home celebrations.

Introduce a neighborhood through the eyes of a recent satisfied client. Report those items that attracted your client to the neighborhood and what makes them happy about their move. This conveys two marketing items at once: that you care about and like to help your clients and seeing a neighborhood through the eyes of the client has the power of a testimonial.

Turning the articles you post on your neighborhood news tool into invaluable aids for your real estate clients builds your “call to action” case to contact you, the knowledgeable and personable expert.

Your real estate blog entry is your fastest, most cost-effective way to get your real estate message out to as many of your clients as quickly as possible. If your blog has RSS feed subscribers, they receive notice of your blog entry very quickly. With this tremendous communication tool at your fingertips, remember these blog basics for making the most of your real estate blog entries.

Put your expertise into your writings. As an experienced real estate professional, you are in the best position to educate the home buying and selling public. By using your blog as an educational device, you position yourself both as an expert and as a thought leader. Real estate expert status is quickly translated into boosting your trustworthiness with people who are virtually introduced to you through your real estate website.

Your real estate blog creates a history of all your teaching lessons. With the ability to sort and archive your entries by topic, build your “knowledge Base” library to educate your current and future clients. Many companies, such as Microsoft, have found their websites’ searchable “knowledge base” to be the best way to provide their customers answers around the clock. Your real estate website’s visitors will benefit from your blog’s knowledge base.

For cost effectiveness, a blog utilizes space already included with your current website and your real estate web design consultant has templates available. Your main investment is your time. Fifteen minutes a day or a few days a week helps you consistently keep your brand active on the Internet. Your thoughts and insight uploaded on your site will instantaneously be available to the people searching to buy their next home in your market.

Best of all, you are your own boss! You can set the amount of time and when you want to unleash your real estate writing muse. You can address topics that arise that day in the real estate market news or typical home buying or selling concerns of clients. The conversational format makes it natural to bounce around between different real estate or mortgage topics.

If you have not added a blog to your real estate website, now is no better time to increase the benefit your clients’ receive from using your website. Once your website company sets you up, it is no harder than sending an email. Only you are sending it to the world.

Writing entries for your real estate blog or neighborhood news articles for your website can remind you of writing papers for school. The similarity is not far off, since the same keys that applied to writing a good paper apply to your entries and articles.

Outlines are a key tool to your blog writing for several reasons. Outlining your real estate blog:

• Keeps your entries from trying to cover too much ground (and sometimes losing the point),
• Creates a road map for several articles in a row, and
• Shows you when you’re initial subject is evolving into a second or third.

The trick of using outlines effectively is to trust that you can always write more on a real estate subject than you think you can. Take any real estate topic you can write about and write down three headings of areas to cover. Then take each of those headings and create three subheadings. Each of these subheadings can be turned into a real estate blog entry or article on your website.

Effective real estate blog entries convey one thought to your website readers. Have you ever noticed what happens when you ask someone more than one question in an email? Personal research has shown, that no matter how brilliant your email recipient is, 92.36% of the time, they will only answer the first question. Similarly, on a blog entry, keep in mind that once you present your great idea, concept or insight, your reader’s eyes may continue to travel down the text, but their mind stepped away to chew on your idea.

The blog writing guidelines of being informative, on topic, unique and keyword rich always apply, but the hardest task is staying focused and creating bite sized pieces of information. Since the nature of real estate blog writing is that you sit down, let loose with stream of consciousness writing, and capture your thoughts as they come. This is excellent for getting the creative juices going.

Once all your thoughts are out, tighten them up, check that the verb tenses all match and that you aren’t switching between first and second person. Then, even mentally, outline the entry. You may have two or three entries. Once you do your outline, you can see if there are areas to flesh out better, get background data on, or to add a story to illustrate a point.

A little school-like discipline in your blog writing should reward you with increased traffic to your real estate website due to higher search engine ranking.

The portable real estate office technology just got smaller, lighter and more impressive. Fujitsu has unveiled their new travel laptop and a portable printer/scanner that, together weigh less than seven pounds! This allows real estate agents to take a full computer and printer setup on the road in one computer case.

At Macworld San Francisco Apple just announced its new MacBook Air ultra thin laptop which runs Mac OSX, Windows XP and Windows Vista (Business or Ultra) using Apple’s Boot Camp software or an emulation program like Parallels or VMWare. So now many real estate software programs can run on new Apple computers.

The Fujitsu ScanSnap S300 scans up to 8 pages a minute and prints color and black and white at a respectable 600 dpi. Perfect for the real estate agent and mortgage broker is its ability to print legal size paper as well as the standard size. At just over three inches tall and deep by 11.2 inches long, this printer is the size of some laser print cartridges. NewEgg carries the ScanSnap for under $250.

The LifeBook Tablet PC boasts a battery life of 11 hours and Intel’s Duo Core Processor technology. The Fujitsu tablet PC has apparently learned from the Lenovo ThinkPad X60 Tablet PC, with its pointer stick mouse and shock resistant hard drive. As with the lighter tablet PC’s neither the Lenovo or Fujitsu has a DVD drive and both use the standard 12″ screen. Fujitsu has taken advantage of Intel’s ultra low voltage processors to gain the additional battery life, which is 6 to 7 hours longer than Lenovo’s.

For portable real estate website presentations and working on documents away from the office, the ScanSnap S300 and a tablet PC may be just the technology ticket to make your real estate office more portable. Now, if real estate agents could just get all their computer hardware and software to run under Apple’s OSX operating system, that would be a real estate technology heaven - light hardware combined with software that doesn’t crash.