On this REAL Trending special edition, we’re speaking with Joseph Poduslo senior vice president of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty and team leader of the Poduslo Group in Washington, DC.
Want to learn from the brightest minds in real estate, then you’ll love our real trending special edition podcasts. Editor and chief of content, Tracy Velt interviews brokerage leaders, top agents and teams, and industry experts on leadership, recruiting, marketing, and more subscribe today at realtrendsinc.podbean.com.
Tracey Velt:
This is your host Tracy Velt editor and chief of content for REAL Trends. Today, we’re speaking with Joseph Poduslo senior vice president of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty and team leader of the Poduslo Group in Washington, DC. The Poduslo group is founded on the principles of exceptional customer service, superior market knowledge, and effective marketing. So welcome Joseph.
Joseph Poduslo:
Thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Tracey Velt:
We’re very excited to talk to you about marketing since it sounds like you’re doing some really innovative things with video and some of your programs. So first, we’ll just talk about your current real estate practice in your team. So tell me a little bit about that.
Joseph Poduslo:
Yeah. I have a three agent team. We’re very agile and we really are striving to create really, really engaging content to sell our homes using video. And also we have incredible international expert reach with the Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliation.
Tracey Velt:
Okay. And tell me about the brokerage. You’re senior vice president of the brokerage, tell me in what capacity you’re working and how many offices do you have in the DC area?
Joseph Poduslo:
So TTR Sotheby’s, we are licensed in Maryland, Virginia, and DC, and we have numerous offices. We basically cover all Northern Virginia besides the [inaudible 00:02:06], Arlington, Alexandria, the Plains, Annapolis, Downtown, Georgetown, and it goes on and on.
Tracey Velt:
So the pandemic obviously has been horrific, but it’s really allowed a lot of agents and brokers to slow down and rethink their businesses, try out some new things, adopt some new technologies. So how has COVID-19 changed your business?
Joseph Poduslo:
Well, first and foremost, we’ve had a record year sales that have spiked. People are looking for more. If you recall in 2008 with the housing crisis, people were rethinking their lifestyle and going from McMansions and selling their McMansions and the modernity or the mentality was living within their means.
Joseph Poduslo:
Well, today it’s quite the opposite with people working from home, people schooling from home, everybody is on the search for looking for more space. So quite the opposite of 2008, when everyone was downsizing now more, more matters.
Tracey Velt:
That’s interesting. And one of the things you mentioned was you were launching your Poduslo pivot program, and it sounded like it was really an innovative mix of video and email. And so tell me about the program. Did it come around? Was this something you were planning before COVID or did you amp up the program because of COVID? Tell me a little bit about it and what some of your goals are with it.
Joseph Poduslo:
Sure. Well, prior to doing real estate in 2003, 2004, I worked for discovery channel doing video production for them. And when I saw COVID hit, I knew immediately that with the world quarantine behind the computers, that this was the best time to really double down in video and not just the scrolling of the kitchen and scrolling of the front yard, but creating innovative, viral videos, partnering with Instagram, creating fresh content because now for the first time with people working from home, stuck behind the computer screen, we finally have their attention.
Joseph Poduslo:
So the pivot program is a program that we’ve created for agents as well as buyers and sellers to learn how to adapt in a mid pandemic area to advance their digital footprint using social media, using viral short form video, YouTube integrative email. And we even created a glimpse video tour, a brand new type of tour where viewers get a glimpse of the life they want to live.
So first you had the virtual tour, then you had the 3D tour, and now you have the glimpse video tour where we put a model into the property and we watched them interact with the property.
Tracey Velt:
Yeah. And I watched one of them that you sent over to me. So tell me a little bit about how you are specifically using it with your team to reach buyers and also sellers?
Joseph Poduslo:
Absolutely. So we just released the new glimpse video aimed at buyers, showing them how we can find them off market properties. Properties that are not on the market that… And these videos, they really help us find new inventory. Sellers are contacting us saying, “Hey, we love your videos.
We want to be a part of this revolution, be a part of the change.” And we’re also creating videos that showcase our listings and the viewers… We’re getting about 300 times more views from these glimpse videos than you would a traditional boring scrolling kitchen, long form video, right?
Tracey Velt:
Now, where are you placing them?
Joseph Poduslo:
So we’re sponsoring them all over. So YouTube, Instagram and Facebook are our top three places.
Tracey Velt:
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Tracey Velt:
Okay. So with the glimpse, is that a specific product or is it something that your company developed or tell me a little bit about that?
Joseph Poduslo:
Well, it’s actually our team created this concept, where you really, really do get a glimpse of the lifestyle. And the fun thing about these glimpse videos is we had two, three-year-olds running through the common amenities of one of the condo buildings we were selling and we were sharing with our online audience.
Yeah, there’s a pool. Yeah, there’s a front desk. Yeah, there’s a community room, but it was through the eyes of these little three-year-olds that were running around, causing and we set some internet records.
Tracey Velt:
Oh, that’s great. And where did you get the most views? What platform?
Joseph Poduslo:
Oh gosh. Well, I think Instagram and Facebook we’re very successful.
Tracey Velt:
Okay. That’s great. So you’re able to offer this, to reach buyers and sellers and then also offer this to team members as a added service.
Joseph Poduslo:
Absolutely. And now we’re really helping other agents in different cities and teaching them how to create this short form video. Because at the end of the day, the attention span of a human these days is very, very small. We get their attention for maybe 30 seconds to maybe a minute.
So a lot of the long-term showing videos, if you actually look at the data, they’re not actually watching it all the way through to the five minute marker. So these glimpse videos really are working to help sell real estate.
Tracey Velt:
And so tell me some of the other ones that you’ve done. I saw the one that was someone who was working on a property and then it flashed to that same person when the property was done what it could look like. What are some other ones that you’ve done?
Joseph Poduslo:
So we’ve done a glimpse video for a large commercial builds or large residential building. We’ve done another one down in Old Town, Alexandria where the lifestyle was really being on the water. So we got to see the model interacting with the shops and the restaurants and the water, not just the condo.
We showcased another, we did another video where it showed you that the subject would be living with her kids and exercise room and just living the way the home should be living, right? With the teaching room, with that exercise room, which is what a lot of people are looking for these days.
Tracey Velt:
Yeah, definitely. I mean, there’ve been a lot of studies that shown what people are looking for in a home is different just like you said than even a couple of years ago, even a year ago, really. So it helps you market those amenities or those rooms or that space that people are really looking for today. So they realized the possibilities of the home, it sounds like.
Joseph Poduslo:
Absolutely.
Tracey Velt:
Okay. So let’s talk about some tips and strategies for other agents or teams as it relates to marketing. What are some new marketing opportunities you’re seeing and what are some ways that people can be more innovative in their marketing?
Joseph Poduslo:
Absolutely. So if you go to Poduslo.com/pivot, you’ll find out how we rethink selling real estate in a mid pandemic era. And a lot of it has to do with right brain and left brain marketing. Right now the industry is so focused on data, data that we’re starting to lose sight of what I call right brain, left brain marketing. And I like to adhere to the Amazon rule, which Amazon with their decision-making, 80% of their decision comes from data and 20% comes from human intuition.
Meaning they’re using the left brain, right? And what we’re finding in real estate now is there’s been this huge shift to data, but we’re not really able to connect these emotions and these feelings. And video is one of the many ways, email is another way, social is another way, but we want to be able to harness this creativity while leaning on data so that we can create emotional and engaging content. So you can stand out as a real estate professional in your own market and in a very much a saturated market, right? Because there’s a lot of real estate agents.
Joseph Poduslo:
So really leaning in on this right brain, left brain marketing and teaching you how to harness what your strengths are. Is your strength data more right brain? Is it left brain? And teaching agents how to get more creative and how to… And if they are creative, then how to lean more on the data side or partnering with another agent that’s the strength in data and finding how to harness left brain and right brain through partnership.
Tracey Velt:
Yeah, definitely. Now, what are some ideas you’ve got coming up? Anything new you’re planning on starting?
Joseph Poduslo:
Sure, Well, I think what I’m really, really excited to see is how commercial real estate, how these big companies are going to redraw its footprint on the cities and how as residential professionals, how we’re going to react accordingly. I think that there are a lot of opportunities within cities and outside cities, as we will learn over the next two years, how companies are going to redraw their footprints and how they’re going to rethink their offices.
Tracey Velt:
Yeah, definitely. That’s going to be a huge thing. So finally, Joseph, why don’t you tell me a little bit about where… That sounds like it’s one opportunity. Where else do you see opportunity in the real estate industry, maybe in the next six months to a year?
Joseph Poduslo:
Well, I can’t say for the next six months or two years, but what we’re seeing right now is a massive land grab. So if you’re living in a city and there’s a three hour perimeter around the city, because people can’t travel, because people can’t go overseas, we’re seeing just a massive land grab, a massive land by. My colleagues down in West Virginia, Delaware. They do not have enough land to sell.
So it’ll be interesting to see in two years times whether or not those people hold onto those properties, or if those properties that were purchased right now, because people can’t travel and they want a second home and they want more land, whether or not that that popular purchase continues or whether or not people will start selling immediately in two years as travel restrictions get better.
Tracey Velt:
Right. Yeah. That’s a hard one to know. So, yeah. Well, Joseph, thank you so much for joining the Real Trends podcast. We appreciate all of your insight and your information about marketing. Your pivot program sounds really interesting and the glimpse videos, we’re excited for you.
Joseph Poduslo:
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. And if you want to learn more about the pivot again, go to Poduslogroup.com/pivot.
Tracey Velt:
Okay, sounds good.
Joseph Poduslo:
And we’ve got a bunch of information. Thank you so much.
Tracey Velt:
All right. Thanks, Joseph.
