One day after a showing I came home and a lady was sitting in front of the house in her car on the phone. I gave her a few minutes and walked out and started a conversation. She told me she was telling a friend that lived out of state about the appearance of the house. Her friend requested she check out the house and neighborhood. I asked her what brand of phone her friend had and whether she had an iPad or tablet. She said her friend was an Apple user and I suggested we do a FaceTime and show the house, the friend agreed and we started the call. We walked through the house, showing the rooms, the closets, the kitchen cabinets and even the view out the windows and doors. I was able to answer all her questions about the neighborhood, utility bills, HOA etc. We ended the call and I thought to myself, “Let’s see where this goes.” The next day our agent called – she had an offer from out of state, yes it was the person I did video conferencing with the day earlier. She bought the home and is still living in the home.
That all happened six years ago. We have made so many advancements in both technology and devices. Let’s talk devices first. Our cameras on all of our devices have greatly improved and will continue getting better. The iPhone 6 had an 8-megapixel camera, the iPhone 11 has a 12-megapixel camera. Our wireless networks keep expanding and becoming more reliable and faster and with 5G on the horizon we will see even greater advances.
What is the best video conferencing platform out there? First FaceTime and Skype are looked at as one on one versus video conferencing which can allow more robust features. I looked at 10 different platforms that offer a mobile app, very important feature that is needed in our lifestyle today (plus this article is about smartphones).
Here is a list of video conferencing platforms with mobile apps I looked at:
Ring Central Meetings
Intermedia Any Meeting
ZOHO Meeting
Click Meeting
Micro Teams
GoTo Meeting
Cisco Webex Meetings
Blue Jeans
Join Me
Zoom Meeting
The cost ranges from free to $30 to use these platforms and, in some cases, basic service is free and premium features are offered for a fee. I have used a few of these and had success with them. Currently at this very moment, subject to change tomorrow, I use Zoom. I do have a free account with them and use it for my webinars.
In today’s world, you need at least one video conferencing app, I have several which doesn’t hurt having them on your device. Out of town buyers, working with other agents, sharing your screen to review documents and the list goes on!
Now here’s an idea for you, I do webinars on Zoom which I offered folks to participate, I record them, edit and load up to YouTube. Once on YouTube you now have a link to post on your website, social media or any place you want. As a real estate professional think of webinars, you could offer and record and post. Years ago, I spoke about websites and web presence and advocated on your website to use both words and video so people understand who you are. Some people are word readers’ others are video watchers, using a video conferencing app you can achieve both! All this is absolutely free!
