Making Localism Come Alive For Under $100

Web 2.0 Video Cowboy

The new web 2.0 world of real estate and blogging requires having lots of video on posts.  But it seems from most of the real estate broker posts I see, brokers seem to be stuck on writing about the common (all about themselves) real estate things like how great they are, years in the business, the best service  and how many years their company has been around! I think people would like seeing the broker in video participating in local area activities.  Actions speak louder than words. When it comes to blogging, people are starving for video.  They want to see what it's like to live in the areas they have interest in. They want to see schools, resteraunts, streets with pot-holes, kid's baseball games and interviews with local politicians.  How about some video on the real custom features of the home.

Finding The Simple Solution

There is no question that the "must have" tool real estate brokers will have at their side is a small video camcorder. To that end, we have been testing video camcorders and video editing software for use by real estate bloggers.  We had a few simple rules...bullet proof, idiot proof, practicle. The editing software had to be web based and simple to use.  Multitudes of features are nothing if they are not used. Since it is quite common that most tools in the real estate software and hardware world are used at about 10% of their real design capacity, we opted for simple. We want people to use them and get their film on the web. Our total Budget, $100.00 or less.

RCA Small Wonder is the Video Solution

We tested numerous camcorders.  However, keeping our price point at the $100 and below was a challenge.  The RCA EZ101 seemed to rise to the top. This simple, wonderfully easy to use camcorder worked great. With a price-point of  $75.00 on Froogle,  it just can't be beat.  You could also go with the EZ105 priced at $105.00, which is also a great deal and you get a full 60 minutes of video.  Also, coming in May of 2007 is the EZ201, you can look at this RCA Small Wonder link and check out it's features. This unit is priced at  $120.00 .  Same simplicity, but a movable LCD screen and the additional memory card can give you to 5 hours of video!   Regardless of the sub $150.00 price range, the RCA EZ shoot camcorder is one of the most easy-to-use electronic devices I have ever used. With only 6 buttons (on/off, play, delete, zoom in/out, backward/forward, and stop/pause) one is able to digitally record and save events with the greatest of ease. Very little instructional material is packaged with this device because it is simply not needed. Coming complete with batteries, I was able to start recording immediately out-of-the-box. For the price and convenience, this Point and Shoot camcorder simply cannot be beat. There are two drawbacks to the EZ101 device: memory and image quality. With only 512MB of unexpandable memory, the device only stores 30 minutes of footage. However, downloading footage to your PC or laptop is incredibly easy as the device has a built-in USB port that connects directly with no additional cabling needed. After downloading footage to computer, the memory can be cleared from the device and recording can resume. Image quality is decent but not like HD.   The EZ105 has up to 1 hour and the EZ201...5 hours.  By the way, the only software you need is loaded in the camera. It plugs and plays right through any USB port.  Like the camera, the software makes getting your video a brainless, painless procedure!  So, no software to load and we tested it on a vista box..no problem.

Jumpcut: Great Web Based Editing Solution

Shooting the video is the easy and fun part. Just like catching fish is fun, someone's got to clean them.  Video editing is like cleaning fish.   The choice of video editing software is vast.   Most of the  camcorders, including the EZ Shoot camcorder, comes with basic editing or movie making software.  However,  it is very limited .  Our original goal was to stick with a web based editing  solution and keep it all under $100.  So basically, we were looking for free.  Thank God for Yahoo and their gobs of money. Combine that with their wantingness to keep up with Google's YouTube acquisition and you have, Jumpcut!  Jumpcut was a great aquisition for yahoo, and its a great web based, simple to use and powerful video editing and publishing software. The best place to create, remix and share movies and slideshows online. There's nothing else like it. Jumpcut Makes Movies, Simple.  The cost is free and your media can be posted up on Jumpcut  as well as YouTube and embedded your blog post.

The video above was shot, uploaded and edited in a matter of minutes using the EZ101 and Jumpcut.

If you enjoyed this article, please subscribe to my Blog at www.realestatezealot.com or give me a call at 800.598.2083 or skype me at IM: markeibner. If you are interested in Local Real Estate in and around Parker, Colorado, then give mark a call at 800.598.2083. 

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Comments

[Ed Kohler]

Those meatballs look great! I may have to pick some up on the way home tonight.

[Larry Littlejohn]

I, to was bitten by your meatball ad. Being a famous pig, I went directly to IKEA without passing GO and ate a medium order of meatballs. UHMMM, ummm, ohm. O.K.. Went to get a birthday gift the next day and had their daily special for lunch, it was not food!(chicken parmisano), so I asked for it to be replaced with, guess what. Uhmm, UHHMM, ohmm. Jury is still deliberating. Thanks.

[Susan Van Ness]

you are too funny....I love Ikea but never ate at their cafe....too excited to check out the store...I am buying the camcorder today RCA small wonder we leave for the Mediterrean on Thursday...so excited to use it, if I can get it before then.

thanks for all your advice....Susan Van Ness

[Kerrie Rumbut]

Great site, love the video tips. I personally like the Aiptek so that I can have HD at around $200. I am just getting used to blogging and using all the new high tech stuff but I love it & real estate so... I'll let you know how the new camera works.

[Locate Homes]

Its amazing that once someone stops blogging about his high horse, and starts blogging on topic, how much better the blog is

-Thanks, great read