Ever hear of the Khan Academy? It’s this huge educational website where people can go to see videos on pretty much anything to do with education in a classroom. From ancient history to calculus, the website has a video for it. It started with one guy trying to help his niece with her school work long distance, by creating videos for her. Now Bill Gates is funding the Academy and is wild about it.
That’s the way the world is going. Everyone hops on YouTube if they get stuck while trying to figure something out. Anything from fixing a leaky faucet to having trouble in their relationship – there’s a video explaining how to get unstuck.
So why should real estate investing be any different?
It shouldn’t! If you’ve got it, flaunt it. Bling it up, people…
Video is the new copywriting.
You’ve probably seen many ‘screen capture’ videos and MP3 tutorials here at Real Estate Mogul. People just seem to learn better these days through pictures, audio and video. Writing is so 19th century.
So, why not have people learn about:
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The rehab you just completed.
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The unit you have for rent.
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The lease they are about to sign with you.
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How to pay their rent online.
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Communicating instructions to your virtual assistant.
And why not have them learn through pictures and videos?
Sure you can buy Photoshop or Camtasia to make great pictures and great videos, respectively. But you’re looking at several Benjamin’s for each. Besides, most of the stuff you need to tape does not have to be that high of a professional grade anyway.
But how can you edit photos and capture screen videos for free?
Well, that’s where this lesson comes in. We found great screen capture/photo editing software. It’s even made by the same people who created Camtasia and Techsmith. It’s called Jing.
Jing is very simple to use, and it works very well. Once you have it downloaded to your computer, you will see a little yellow ball at the top of your screen. Hovering your mouse over it will show you three options:
The capture button will display two perpendicular lines with a center point, which you can move around the screen with your mouse. All you have to do is position the intersection of the two lines at the top left of the image you want to capture and drag them down to the bottom right of the image while holding down your left mouse button.
If you want to capture everything on the screen, start in the top left of the screen and drag the lines down to the very bottom.
When you release the left mouse button, a screen will pop up that asks if you want a photo or video. If you want a video, select it and start recording your screen cast. If you want a photo, you’ll have the options to save it or copy it.
The history button is a convenient way to see all the photos and videos you have used Jing to capture. You can quickly search for what you need and use it.
‘More’ has various settings to configure Jing, provide feedback to the company and turn Jing off. The default settings should be fine for what you are doing.
Do I REALLY need to spell it out for you?
Many good advertisers know the answer to this question for people who buy their product is ‘Yes!’ Same in real estate….
To help others see the value of what you bring in your real estate investing, you need to really emphasize the benefits of what you have to offer.
Jing can really help in this area as well.
Once you have your image captured, you can use Jing to edit the photo with the buttons on the left side of the Jing screen. The buttons (listed top to bottom on the screen) let you:
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Draw arrows
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Insert text boxes
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Draw squares around certain areas of the screen
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Highlight things on your screen
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Change the color of what you are adding and editing
These are great features to help you really emphasize certain features of your properties. Or maybe you want your virtual assistant to understand a key portion of the task you are giving them… Jing makes it very easy and quick to do.
When you post your properties on Craigslist, Zillow or one of the other sites to rent or sell your property, you can easily show people the reasons to buy from you instead of your competition.
Videos, however, have to be edited in another program, such as Camtasia. The videos can only be 5 minutes long, but that should be good enough for most of the screen capturing you’re trying to do.
Working with Screencast.com.
Techsmith, the makers of Jing, also gives you a free account with Screencast service when you sign up with Jing. Screencast is a very convenient place to store all your photos and videos. You can use Screencast to share your videos, embed them in your websites and decide who gets to view them.
We recommend you try Jing and Screencast. They are great, free tools that will make your life simpler and potentially more profitable.
At Real Estate Mogul, we even use Techsmith products to share information between ourselves to make our business run better. We also use their products in our personal real estate investing. Give it a go!
Make Yourself Stand Out – Real estate can be very profitable, so there is a lot of competition. Fortunately, a lot of the competition is lazy. Use technology such as Jing to set yourself apart from the competition.
Brainstorm – Think about new ways to make your investment success easier. Perhaps you can use these tools to simplify your life in your day job, leaving you more time for REI.
Show Others What You Are Doing – Take some videos of your Wordpress blog or your Craigslist ads using Jing and send them to other investors. Get their feedback on what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong. One or two suggestions can be worth thousands of dollars or maybe even huge time savers.
JP Moses
is a real estate investor in Memphis, TN, with experience ranging from land lording to note buying, rehabbing, and wholesaling. However, wholesaling is the area that he enjoys most and where he bring the most experience and expertise to his students.