My respect for Eric Blackwell is, well, simply beyond my ability to wordsmith. This guy is not only smart, but he’s fun (in a funny way), creative, and shaped in the mold of Jeff Brown’s cat skinners.
So when Eric penned a post recently on how one might be a Bloodhound if……and then showed us a superb video by a cool guy right up the road from me, I decided it would be appropriate to thrown down a glove in the challenge and see whether I win the prize (get the princess) or am sent to the guillotine.
You be the judge. Joe Post and I have worked together for a long time, and our goal is to create a video site where we are THE go to guys for finding info other than square footage and HOA fees. Enjoy…..cause I might be a Bloodhound if this makes you feel like you’d like to get to know us better.
Eric Blackwell says:
Don- Nicely done! I really like the blooper reel at the end. 😉
May 17, 2012 — 2:05 am
Scott Cowan says:
Don- Nicely done. You have such a warm genuine personality that simply jumps off the screen. The bloopers at the end were quite enjoyable as well. I am looking forward to seeing your future videos of the neighborhoods etc. You sir are indeed a Bloodhound!
May 17, 2012 — 6:47 am
Nick Curcio says:
Hey Don, I’ve seen so many of these videos in the past, but your’s stood out for me because:
1. Both of you seem genuine.
2. Both of you make an attempt to actually connect with your consumers by allowing them to get to know who you are.
3. THE BLOOPERS REEL!!!
A+ on the video. Stay true to yourself and your homeowners and buyers will trust doing business with you. Best of luck!
Nick
May 17, 2012 — 8:45 am
Jay Wojnas says:
Don – you come across as a very happy person and a very genuine person, and someone I would want to work with. That is if I was in your part of the country. The only part I did not like was Joe kept looking off camera. It reminded me of an SNL skit where the host keeps reading off cue cards. Overall a very nice video.
May 17, 2012 — 11:01 am
Tom Lipinski says:
Don and Joe, your video looks great! I have been planning for more than a year to do something similar, but have not gotten to it. After viewing your work I am motivated to actually get started. Did you hire someone or are you handling the production yourself?
May 17, 2012 — 12:34 pm
Don Reedy says:
Eric…bloopers are what I do best. 🙂
Scott…We’re doing our first week of videos next week. Stay tuned.
Nick….Thanks for the compliment. If you can see we had fun, are real, and that bloopers are a natural part of life….then we may not be A+, but we’re going to keep going.
Jay….We did all of the video stuff ourselves. Cost was $0, unless you measure our time. We’ll get better, and perhaps we should improve by emulating some of the SNL good stuff.
May 17, 2012 — 12:46 pm
Greg Swann says:
That was fun. Loved the blooper reel. I’m not crazy about the green screen, though. I was aware of it from the first, and that had me looking for studio production tricks. You and Joe Post both came off very well, though.
May 20, 2012 — 6:44 am
Jeff Brown says:
Hey Don — Think I have a client for ya. Gimme a call, OK?
May 17, 2012 — 6:15 pm
Dylan Darling says:
It turned out great. Video is the wave of the future in the real estate business. Did you shoot it with a DSLR?
May 21, 2012 — 6:36 am
Don Reedy says:
Dylan, thanks. Yes, shot with an Olympus DSLR, which I’m slowly learning to use more effectively.
Greg, thanks as well. It’s my hope that as I learn to use the camera I will feel more comfortable shooting raw footage, and not relying so much on the green screen. The green screen does give a control that’s not easy to duplicate in an unregulated setting.
May 22, 2012 — 3:32 pm
Stan says:
I’m in the minority. I don’t like it. Don’t get me wrong, the two of you are quite charming, but it comes off fake and “pitchy.”
I hesitated writing this but then I saw the comment that stated video is the wave of the future in the real estate business and got a shiver up my spine. Like the gazillions of awful real estate websites out there, now we’ll be subjected to equally awful videos? Lord help the real estate consumer.
Greg Geilman CONNECTS with his audience. His intro is short and sweet “My name is Greg Geilman and I’m a real estate professional in the south bay.”
He resists that tendency – one that so many real estate agents have — to tell the consumer their life stories, either on the front page of their websites or, in a video. We don’t care. Really, we don’t.
He then goes on to contrast himself to the perception that real estate agents are slimy. He got into the business to change that notion. Aha. . .right there we see he’s different. While he is doing this, the two of you are still giving us your bios. As in, you’re not different.
Then he empathizes with the homebuyer: “This is not going out and buying a car.”
I’m thinking: this guy gets it.
At this point you are talking about how YOU look at houses and how YOU came up with your website. So far, I know nothing about how you will help me or that you even care about any concerns I might have about purchasing a home.
Geilman then launches into how he can help me. He’ll ask a lot of questions to determine what my goals are. He knows the value of communication (one of a homebuyer’s biggest agent complaint is lack of communication) and then he let’s us know how tech savvy he is. Now THAT MATTERS to clients. It truly does. And Geilman puts it in a way that tells me how his technological know-how will benefit ME.
At this point, you’re getting into your hard sell pitch: “Looking to buy a home? Looking to sell a home?” I feel like I’m watching a used car commercial.
What’s Geilman doing? He’s telling me that real estate is about relationships, about families, about memories.
Copying Geilman’s music and showing similar photos isn’t cutting it for this video. I say it’s back to the drawing board for you. Drop almost all of the personal info. Drop the hard sales pitch, lower your voice, talk TO me, not at me. Make me like you and trust you. You do that and you can play AC/DC in the background and it will still be a winner.
May 26, 2012 — 8:41 pm
Don Reedy says:
Thanks Stan. Good input. I had actually hoped that someone would take us to the woodshed if you will, just to see how it felt, and also to see how I felt.
Greg Geilman is clearly a good guy, but the point of doing our video was very much to show that he’s different than us. We are free wheeling, fun loving, filled with a zest for life, and we honestly believe that our passion flows over into our real estate dealings in a very positive way. And, pitch or not, we are in fact very, very good Realtors.
By the way, we didn’t copy anybody’s music or pictures, and although we also believe that real estate is “about relationships”, this video is intended to weed out clients so that the ones who THINK they might want a relationship with us understand something about us. Videos don’t make a relationship…they simply disintermediate having to guess what kind of people we are.
Stan, again, thanks for your input.
May 27, 2012 — 8:34 pm
Susan Zanzonico says:
That was great, I loved the blooper ending. Don it doesn’t hurt that you look like Kenny Rodgers either!
June 4, 2012 — 4:00 pm
Don Reedy says:
Susan…..ah shucks. If I’m back in NJ I’ll pack up the old songs and sing for ya.
Interesting that the bloopers are the most popular part of the video.
But just for you, I’m happy to remind you of how I used to look. I’m at the 45-60 second part of the video…..
June 4, 2012 — 4:13 pm
Susan Zanzonico says:
That is another great video you did! 😉
June 6, 2012 — 11:09 am
John says:
Good video- enjoyed the bloopers… hmmm, maybe there is something with real estate bloopers!
June 6, 2012 — 8:40 pm
Al Lorenz says:
Bloopers are great! I think having George Klooney and Patrick Dempsey play Don and Joe really turns it out! 🙂
Actually, you guys do come out looking great.
Okay, I like the video, but I think you could give folks a compelling reason to choose you. C’mon, I know why I would choose you (not because you like S.D. or were a Marine) if I was shopping for a home in S.D, but I didn’t see it in the vid.
I can’t throw too many stones though, I haven’t even tried to do one yet!
Thanks, I really enjoyed it!
June 11, 2012 — 5:57 pm