The simple fact that Apple and Samsung have enduring court challenges going on in several countries is enough to let us know that the future of mobile technology is vast.

A recent survey indicated that the fifth most popular thing to do with a mobile phone was... you guessed it, make a telephone call! So what else do we use them for?

In 2011 over one trillion consumers watched a YouTube video! That is almost 140 videos per person alive in the world. Bearing in mind that many video hosting companies exist outside of YouTube, you can imagine that the real number of views is even more staggering. Interestingly a massive proportion of those views were on mobile devices.

We also know from research that most real estate consumers start their research online and of those, the majority are looking at video to “pre-qualify” their decision when they contact a REALTOR®.

The problem is not where to look, it is the content that is getting uploaded. As is typical with a tech-savvy segment of the population (including myself), attention spans are short and if you don’t engage the consumer quickly, they are gone. So what do we like and what don’t we like?

We do not like:

• Poor quality sound
• Animated slide shows
• Bad quality images
• Walk-throughs with music

We do like:

• Professional sound
• An engaging story
• Narrated video

With that in mind, as REALTORS® we need to understand that our job becomes a lot easier when a client has almost sold themselves on a property because of a well produced video. From a clients perspective, it can cut down on the number of homes that they wish to preview and even lead to a situation that they make an offer subject to viewing in person, which has happened to me personally a few times in the past.

In short, the use of video’s is growing rapidly from a consumer perspective but the industry is slow to catch on. That is the world we live in now, a truly consumer centric environment where it is hard to be proactive from a marketing point of view, but we need to keep our ears to the ground and see what you, as the consumer would like from us as the service provider.