Just Brilliant – makes you do a double take alright.
However after last years kerfuffle regarding the Open2view photographer (& not just them – everyone else does it too) mentioned in Wellingtons Dominion Post over making the blue sky in Real Estate photos, “blue-er”, or replacing the sky completely, I wonder how this would sit.
I certainly know one thing, this type of “tonque in cheek” stuff would find no flavor with this chap, who made the following comments to the paper re last years Blue Sky / Replacement Sky episode.
……who last year had his Real Estate Bill passed by Parliament bringing in industry reform, joked that Photoshopping photographs was good “if they could make me look slimmer and give me more hair”.
He said realtors should try to show a house “in its ordinary environment”.
“I just think it’s a bit on the nose. The more straight up you are, the better you are.”
I seem to think any property buyer will just not believe that your home in the suburbs has a ….
…..Formula One car……
……or a plane in their suburban garage……..
……or for that matter, a CAT Dump Truck parked there.
These clips and links are to a German site, and the videos are in German, but you don’t need language translation to see what it’s about.
Lets say one thing, if you’re the first in your neighbourhood to do something like this – you will get noticed rightly or wrongly………certainly by the media who would love to jump back on the theme I discussed at the beginning again. Perhaps a great idea for a business -- or even better -- a great way of beautifying what would otherwise be a drab view.
Surprising then with all the range available that there no. 1 is a Harley Road King motorcycle.
I can just visualise now the injured person explaining to the ACC case manager how they got their broken nose, black eye, and lost two front teeth…….
“by walking into a garage door in broad daylight” to inspect a Harley Davidson
I don’t actually think its got anything to do with pimping for sale either -- looks like its just an individuals point of difference for their home.
There’s also a sister site about doors called Style Your Door, with its own eclectic collection of doorfronts.
Could Imagine that some teenagers would think that this would be just want they need to personalize their bedroom?
CREDIT -- images & videos via http://www.style-your-garage.com/ (via http://www.powersiteblog.com)
Tonight’s Weekend edition of the Nelson Mail has the craft and its operator Craig on the frontpage.
You might be familiar with Model Remote Controlled helicopters, but I bet your one, unlike Craigs Skylark & Falco, doesn’t come with;
11 on-board sensors, three gyros, three accelerometers, three magnetometers, a barometric pressure sensor and a inbuilt GPS unit capable of holding the unit in a designated hover
Bit of a mouthful that lot but I really do believe this is the way of the future for real estate photography.
And as I had hinted its not a cheap exercise, the paper quotes Mr Craig Dickie;
It costs about $50,000 to purchase and fully kit out a UAV, but Mr Dickie said that was the price of innovation.
Its not just great for the different amount of angles/heights (CAA restrictions limit it to 120m but it can go higher) that the unit can get to & provide, but more importantly in the future as bandwidth on the internet gets better this will be the type of unit required to generate compelling Real Estate video……..
and HD video (might need to double click above Youtube video and select 720HD on the menu-line at bottom of frame) / videotours like this stunning example above from the States -- but imagine it with heaps more/higher aerial shots / flybys. (thanks Larry @ PFRE for the heads-up on this fab production -- full article here at Scott Hargis’s site. This video was actually completed by a Canon 5D MK II DSLR!)
Maybe that’s why as the article in tonight’s paper notes, Aerial Imaging have a “major car magazine” already signed up and a demo with the Nelson police next week.
You can contact Craig by clicking the link to Aerial Imaging above.
Sub-Heading: “Don ‘t show / tell them too much” that way they’ll have to phone
Got into quite a discussion with another agent re the age old debate that crops up when you talk about listings & # of photos on the internet.
Things like;
-> Only show a few photos, or even one like the $2.5m home above? so a buyer has to phone
-> Don’t publish the address, so a buyer has to phone
-> Don’t tell them the price, so a buyer has to phone
-> Use weird terms like Deadline Sale, because the general public usually don’t know what you mean, & they will call, etc, etc
This outdated mode of operation seems to be more about teasing potential buyers and they will phone, well come – maybe like in the Field of Dreams.
However I advanced that just like the Field of Dreams, Acre of Diamond, call it what you will, ………..that once you have it built, in todays crowded marketplace, you have to shout from the treetops and direct everyone to somewhere from whence they can view, at least initially, at their own time and place.
Following on from proven overseas experience it certainly seems that the richer any visually exciting photo experience is, home shoppers will be encouraged to view more details.
Crickey according to this March 2010 post on Larry’s blog, the listing agent stated this photo sold his San Clemente listing in 30 minutes, and in interesting circumstances because the buyer had already visited the property prior to seeing the photo!
In the mix it helps not to forget that your intended buyer is many times one half of a couple, and it definitely takes 2 to tango when it comes to buying a house. One buyer may be analytically inclined, whilst their partner may make most of their decisions based on initial visual inclinations. Visual always wins usually.
How can you possibly hope to excite both partners if you have only shown a couple of photos that “you thought” showed the home in its best light.
Worse still, what options are available to you to possibly refresh a listing that’s had little buyer enquiry for a couple weeks?
Take for example the new lifestyle property listing here, it has 20 photos on realestate.co.nz and also as you can see here, another 36 odd at Open2view – all up 56 photos.
Only built in 2008, on 19.9ha, its in a lifestyle rural location, so it needs to assist folk to find it, view it, and then decide. Crucial when you’re not just around the corner.
Eagle eyed readers will note a point of difference in the Open2view photos is the inclusion of a floorplan.
At this stage the representation on realestate.co.nz just depicts that, the actual floorplan.
However if you log onto Open2view and then have a look at the floorplan here, you’ll notice a substantial difference.
Not only the locations inside and outside from where each photo was taken and the corresponding image, but also the position from where the Quicktime Virtual 360° Tours were taken – and by clicking on those icons you’ll be taken to each correspondingly relevant tour.
Tell me that this sort of visually impressive info wouldn’t be compelling to a buyer from out of town or overseas, or a UK returning ex-pat who wants to live in another part of NZ.
Quite frankly a very likely scenario for our region, as we constant get buyers locally who originally grew up in areas further south. In many cases, the big OE “drifted” into a prolonged period outside NZ (remember my earlier stats on this) however ultimately they come back. And in just as many cases because they always dreamed of wanting to live/bring up a family in the Nelson / Marlborough, “the Top of the South” they show interest in that, certainly from an initial online property search perspective.
Now the old timer though this floorplan thingie actually wasn’t a bad idea after all!
Makes you wonder where in their own mind “do they draw the line?” between this new media and what used to be the priority just 10 short years ago.
And what point is there if your potential buyer is in London, or Dubai viewing the property online at a time when you are probably asleep & your mobile turned off.
You mo as well place a banner on the add that says “Overseas Buyers – Email only.”
So at the end of the day we begged to differ in our own opinions…..and it was a river I couldn’t bridge.
Local residents discover after residing locally for a period that they indeed take a more personal interest in the area, and no where is that more apparent that in wanting to recognise our surroundings. In Nelsons particular our case, that means a lot of hills and mountains.
After all the region is world renown for its 3 main National Parks, and many accessible peaks.
One of my colleagues at work has recently taken a local helicopter tour, well 6 folk all up it was, and one of the standouts for them was landing up on Mt Starveall.
Even the chopper pilot commented that he hadn’t experienced a better weather day to land up there than that.
While checking out some photography on Mt Starveall, like the example of the view above, I came across a website run by Markus Baumann, a local graphic designer and nature & landscape stock photographer. Markus it seems likes panoramas.
Mt Starveall is not on the range just behind Nelson in an easterly direction, its actually on the next mountain range over. That’s what helps to explains the elevation you can see in the above photo.
In fact that range thats directly behind Nelson, thats those hills with the dark green patches about centre of the above pic is the Barnicoat one.
CREDIT – Markus Baumann – Skylark.co.nz
Hmmm lets clear this up – the range directly behind Nelson (in an Easterly direction) is called the Barnicoat range and as another of his photos, above shows, it too is completely accessible as this mountain biker illustrates. He is looking out over Stoke/Tahunanui to Rabbit Island and onwards to Tasman Bay.
CREDIT – Markus Baumann – Skylark.co.nz (image size is 7200 x 585px)
So if you were curious about those peaks out there across the bay, here’s Markus detailed photo…..you’ll have to click the above photo to get it.
According to his site, www.skylark.co.nz, the mountain panorama’s viewing angle stretches roughly over 100°, from the Lookout Range in Kahurangi National Park all the way to Abel Tasman National Park, with Tasman Bay in the foreground.
Here is the another panorama taken from 1528m Mt Starveall showing and noting the other peaks up there. (you’ll need to click on it to see the full panoramic image)
Thanks again Markus for allowing me to show these photos here.
Just in case you missed it a few weeks back, at this months TED2010, in a demo that according to reports, drew gasps from the audience, and afforded the presenter a standing ovation afterwards, Blaise Aguera y Arcas, from Microsoft, demonstrated new augmented-reality mapping technology from his company.
Augmented Reality is very relevant to the future of Real Estate Marketing, I spoke about it here last June as a primer for readers.
Who is Blaise, well he just happens to be the architect of Bing Maps at Microsoft, and is working to build augmented reality into searchable maps.
Watch this and see if you don’t agree.
Certainly is a forerunner of what the agent in 2015 may be showing on his own website, perhaps broadcasting from his Open Day?
Or imagine a setup like this for an on-site auction, would it be helpful if out of town/overseas telephone buyers could see the other bidders?
You might recall I spoke last December about this wondrous aid to Real Estate Aerial Photography, amongst many other applications, called a Draganfly.
In this particular case, we’re talking about the Model X6, as used in the USA by law enforcement, government & quite possibly, though you may never know, the military.
Great shot, and definitely one with emotive content for a Kiwi.
Including images of NZ’s four-time World Champion Mahe Drysdale in the listing photos is sure to pip a NZers interest, credit to the agent for this creative stance. on property marketing.
Well over the next few days we will see, and some of us more than others, experience the highest tides of the year.
If you have a seaside property, or at the very least have sea-views, and same goes for estuarial ones as well, then you will want to get snapping at high tide.
An important thing, from a photography perspective, is that in some seaside regions over summer, the angle of the sun, well at least in Nelson, to the sea seems to produce a more pronounced turquoise, almost tropical, colour to the water.
This way, you will have a database of photos to show, if and when required in future.
With tight advertising deadlines imposed on most Real Estate agencies these days, you don’t want to find that you have to sell your home in the middle of a 3-4 day rainy spell. Better to have that shot taken in summer that you had saved for just such a rainy day.
Don’t forget to check back during the next 2 days and click on the Nelson Webcam images from Takeabreak on the top left of this page, there you can see for yourself. Its updated every 10 minutes throughout the day.
Just by the by another set of NZ records has the highest tide on Monday? Whichever is right the fact is that over the next 2 days they will be high.
Probably about as many times as I have seen answers from newspaper columnists.
And you know what? Has everyone got it right yet? Hmmm?
Is it time for a change to your way of thinking?
Property School 101 says of the volume of properties on the market;
Actually otherwise known as “Supply and Demand.”
Could 2010 be the year you take advantage of these seasonal cycles and make it work for you?
Have you heard of the contrarian theory?
Well two famous ones/individuals spring to mind. I’ll be upfront about this though, these two do conjure up different emotions in most folks.
At no. 1 is the Sage of Omaha.
His contrarian views have made him fabulously wealthy.
How wealthy?
…..your median priced NZ home will buy approximately 3.5 shares (based on tonights close) in his company Berkshire Hathaway, and Warren has 350,000 Class A shares!
As the worlds 2nd richest man, this is what Warren believes
Re read his number 1 point again. (click on image for larger version)
Maybe he could have slipped under the radar but for the billions he has made in the last few years, not by going with the real estate boom, but by betting against it.
How did both of these individuals achieve what they did, amass the wealth they have.
Well in both cases, they did it by taking the contrarian view.
How does this relate to Real Estate?
This chart shows the volume of sales nationwide for the last 3 years.
And this one, in a more pronounced fashion courtesy of the benefit of not being averaged out by “NZ Wide” figures”, shows the same time-frame for one of the regions, Nelson in this case. (actually it is Nelson taken out of the Nelson / Marlborough mix)
Not hard to spot a trend is it, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that higher percentages tend to place their properties on the market in late Feb to March and then again, in spring around the Sept / Oct time-frame. (this is for our Southern Hemisphere cousins obviously) The start of spring 2008, Sept into October was not normal for the obvious reasons.
So in saying it would appear that most people are following the pack, but are they doing themselves an injustice in the process.
I was once told, in fact had it repeated just 2 months ago by another investor, that;
“…the best time to go looking was when others weren’t”
and Xmas was perfect to get a bargain according to both of these buyers.
Maybe that was from a Nelson perspective, but really if you want a premium for your $399,000 property surely wouldn’t you agree that you’d stand a better chance of getting it, if your property was the only one in the suburb with its feature-set at that time.
Considering the above headline in tonights paper, then its even more prudent that you shouldn’t want your home to be competing for buyers with 3 or 4 other similar properties in the region. Look seriously to sell at a time of the year when your home faces less competition.
Whens that?
Simple, just look again at the charts above.
Or you could look at it from a contrarian view too – when would be the best time to be a CASH buyer in the NZ residential property market?
At a time when there is heaps of choice, in other words………
I was speaking to a local chap back in Oct/Nov who indicated to me he would have the first Draganfly to fly in New Zealand ………very possibly based in Nelson.
The what?
Cue the video……
Six months ago (with Oz support) I assisted a friend to complete a “business case” on importing one of these to aid with aerial photography opportunities ……now it looks like he mightn’t need to.
DraganFly Aerial Panorama
Now in what could only be described as a “killer app” for the Draganfly, comes news in the form of a 360° Panorama, from an aerial stablized platform! Click the above 360 Aerial Tour photo and you decide?
I also noted on their website, the other applications such technology would afford, and was surprised to hear the person mentioned tell me that he already has the “thermal imaging” kit on order.
Potential use -- Leaky Homes?
Crop Investigation
Know anyone who grows their own grapes, heres another thermal imaging potential use of the technology in a Vineyard application.
There are heaps more I’m sure.
After seeing the 360 panoramas now I can’t wait to see what it can do locally.
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