From Homescape

written by Amy Le on Friday, March 14, 9:26AM

Amy Le

About four months ago I wrote a blog about YouTube and its growing popularity among real estate agents across the country as a platform to showcase their stock of homes for sale. With over 40 million visitors a month to the site, YouTube allows home owners to feature their property to a wider audience of potential buyers, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without even having to leave their home.

Blazing a trail for the housing industry, real estate giant Century 21 has decided to embrace the digital revolution by launching its own branded Century21 Channel on YouTube. The channel will give customers and agents the opportunity to create and submit their own user-generated content. While uploading home video tours onto the site is nothing new to tech-savvy agents, the separate Century 21 Channel on YouTube is the first of its kind in the industry.

Instead of the traditional approach of using photographs and virtual tours, videos give buyers a more realistic look and feel of a home. While nothing beats the actual experience of visiting the property itself, video tours can help potential buyers narrow their search. Attending open houses can be an all-day event, but if a buyer can quickly narrow their searches, it will give them options more aligned with their needs. The video voiceovers can highlight areas of interest in the home, as well as showcase recent home upgrades or renovations to the potential buyers.

User-generated video contest
In order to engage both consumers and agents, Century 21 is hosting a user-generated video contest where home sellers can work with their Century 21 agent to create an “open house” video for submission on youtube.com/century21. The videos should feature a 60-second clip of the seller and home, accompanied by a 15-second introduction or closing by the agent.

Contestants are encouraged to conduct an emotional walk-through of the home, using humor and creativity to provide an entertaining tour of their homes. They should be mindful of appropriate language, dress and topics in order to qualify for the grand and runners-up prizes.

The winner will be selected through a popular vote on YouTube, where voters will select the top 10 entries, and the grand prize winner will be selected by an executive committee within Century 21 Real Estate LLC. Voting is open now through May 9, 2008. The Century 21 System will announce the winners via YouTube on May 13. First prize-consumer winner will receive a $21,000 check and a high definition television; the accompanying agent will also receive a HDTV. The second through tenth prize winners will receive a digital video camera.

This contest is brilliant! Century 21 really gets it when it comes to understanding how consumers are using the Internet to look for homes. A word of advice to the other real estate franchises out there: Jump on the video bandwagon, if you don’t want to get left behind in this rough-and-tumble market.

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Got hot local housing tips or a story you want to share? Contact Amy Le at openingdoorsblog@homescape.com.