Brian Copeland does a great job on his videos at www.NashvilleandBeyond.com and includes lots of info on neighborhoods, attractions and even general living, adding lots of value to his website along the way. Mike LeFebvre’s http://www.TheUncommonAgent.com/VideoBlog.ubr is always cool too in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way. Also Dale Chumbley’s “Identity Crisis” on www.ClarkCountyRealEstateBlog.com is very engaging. All three of those make “Jim The Realtor” videos look second rate. I don’t see the difference in those opposed to every other Realtors videos…am I missing something?

My personal favorite? http://www.johncjones.com/Blog/John-Jones-on-The-Late-Show-Spoof but I’m obviously partial. Apart from that I think Dale’s ROCKS!

Why is that? It’s because nearly all real-estate video is the product of listing agents, produced in an attempt to get people to come see their listings. And this is a terrible use of video. These things take their inspiration from TV commercials, despite the fact that what they’re selling is far more complicated and individual than anything sold on TV.

A good video might be able to give you a better sense of a space than can most still photos, but that’s about the only thing listing-agent video has going for it. And what does that cost us? We get low-resolution pictures — in most real-estate videos, literally still pictures that have been Ken Burns’d — that we have to look at at the listing agent’s pace, not ours. All while listening to terrible, repetitive music. Phooey. Far better to offer good, well lit, high resolution stills.

I don’t think these things are all that useful from an agent’s perspective, either. What do they say to potential future listing clients? “If you list your property with me, I can make a video about it. If your house is as striking as this one, it’ll look as good as this.” That undoubtedly impresses some people, but what it really says to me is that the agent has a camera and a copy of iMovie.

Klinge’s videos, on the other hand, do a *lot* to sell him as a buyer’s agent. I might be wrong, but after watching some of his videos I get an impression of what it would be like to work with him, and I get the strong impression that he’d be particularly helpful for someone who needs to buy now but who is worried about the state of the market. I’m sure that most of the agents making these listing-agent videos are great ones; but Klinge is the only agent whose videos have specifically caused me to think well of *him*.