Gone are the days of homebuyers blindly relying on a real estate professional to choose the homes they should go see. “Today’s homebuyers are turning to the web first,” says Jorge Guerra, broker of Miami-based Real Estate Sales Force (RESF). “Then, they’re coming to us with a list of the homes they want to see based on the pictures they see online.” But, pictures aren’t enough. Today’s consumer is demanding video and Guerra is right there giving them what they want.
As a service to his prospective buyers and sellers, he uses cutting-edge videos for each of his listings—no matter what the listing price. “The truth is that most real estate professionals aren’t using videos to market their properties. We are and that makes us unique. And, we’re not limiting these videos to just luxury homes. Each listed property gets a video. Our sellers’ properties are getting more exposure, and our buyers are saving time driving from house to house,” he says. “And, it’s an environmentally responsible way to view properties, saving on both gas and time,” says Guerra.
Guerra is part of a new generation of real estate professionals who understand that high tech is just as important as high touch. “People are busy. If you can allow them to walk through homes virtually, they can save hours on their home search. When they finally do visit a property, it’s usually to confirm what they already knew—they’re ready to buy that property.”
Guerra’s hip videos are set to trendy music and shot in high definition using a glide cam. “It’s very “MTV Cribs,” says Guerra. “We design videos that make you feel as though you’re walking through the property, and we feature views of the outside and the neighborhood.” Because these videos are so well done, Guerra finds that “it lowers the time the property sits on the market and cuts showing time by 90 percent and the videos have viral reach, being shared via social media networks.” After all, buyers can weed out properties and hone in on the ones in which they’re most interested. In fact, he says, through his research he finds that the majority of prospective buyers view the property videos from a mobile device. “They may drive by a property and go to the video,” he says.
In fact, Guerra recently had a $3.4 million property listed that sold quickly thanks to the video he produced. “This particular buyer used his iPad to view my branded video of the property. He found the listing through Realtor.com, then called me and arranged to see the property,” says Guerra. “Within a few hours, he and his wife viewed the property and made a full-price offer. This was a foreign buyer who was looking for a primary residence in Florida and had only a limited amount of time to visit properties while in the United States,” he says.
More and more real estate professionals are hoping to serve tech-savvy buyers and sellers through a combination of professionally done videos and social media. Guerra is ahead of the curve.
Visit his website— http://www.resf.com/videos—to see his property videos.
Jorge Guerra, broker of Real Estate Sales Force in Miami, hopes to rewrite the way South Florida real estate is bought, sold and leased. By leveraging technology, Guerra aggressively markets properties on a world-wide platform with next-generation tools, such as social media, videos, virtual walk-throughs and online applications. A third-generation entrepreneur, Guerra opened Real Estate Sales Force (RESF) in 2005. The real estate firm has three offices in Coral Gables, West Kendall and Miami Lakes. Since its inception, the company has grown from 25 real estate professionals to over 270.
By Tracey Velt
