Reel Tours gives realty a little "reality"

Realtors, buyers and sellers benefit

by Dave Young, News2

February 21, 2008

ENGLEWOOD (KWGN) — How do you get someone to give your home a second look in an already saturated market? One Colorado entrepreneur says he has the answer.

The concept has been around, but the execution is new and eye-poppingly different. "The technology that we used in programming our website," said Al Goldsmith, inventor and owner of Reel Tours, "makes it as fast as possible on the internet."

In today's brutal real estate market, Goldsmith wanted an idea that would appeal to both buyers and sellers and give them a little extra edge. Using 2700 professional videographers like Chris Atkinsin, the Englewood based company creates video tours, with lots of added features on their interactive website. "You can search for homes that are available anywhere in the country," said Goldsmith, "and you can see the homes in true streaming videos in reality."

The website takes you room by room. "So it allows you to instantly jump, right to the kitchen area," he explained. "That's a place where people spend most of their time," said videographer Atkinson, "So kitchens tend to be a very important part of the video because that will really sell a home if you have a really nice kitchen."

Working with the seller, the video is shot, a script written and edited. "You don't have to upload anything," Goldsmith said. "We do all of the work for you to create that virtual tour, then we distribute it across the internet so that you get hundreds of views a week on your video tour."

The service sends video flyers to 34 major real estate websites and even notifies you when a home is available in a selected area. "I said this is perfect, this is the ideal way for them to see this," said Pam Hester. Hester's friends in California fell in love with a home near hers in Bailey, after seeing the tour on the site, and came to Colorado to buy it. "So now they've gone back to California," she said. "They're very excited and they can look at the video and buy their furniture, so they can see each room, put their furniture in it mentally and actually see what they think it's going to look like before they even get here."

"The contact information on the seller," said Goldsmith, "all the details on the home and you can also open our video player from here." You can also download the videos to a cell phone, ipod and other devices to take with you. "I mean I've gotta do everything I can think of," said Jan Carr, a Colorado real estate broker for 40 years. "It helps the realtor, it helps the seller, it helps the buyer," said Carr. "In my opinion it's the best marketing tool I've ever seen."

Goldsmith aims to make Colorado a frontrunner, in the real estate market turnaround. And so far, several national real estate companies have asked for a presentation by Reel Tours. Some are already recommending it as a helpful edge for their clients.