THURSDAY, MAY 10, 2007
-By Jennifer Davis
Ever-evolving technology has made it easier for people
around the world to connect to work from home and
even shop from home - not just for everything from
hardware to handbags, but for houses.
"Eighty-one percent of homebuyers start by searching
on the internet," said Patrick McLaughlin, and many of
the agents in his office, work with Hal Kench of HK
Web Productions and Virtual Video Home Tours in
Center Moriches. They have Mr. Kench create videos to
showcase their listings, videos they post on the web for
prospective buyers and window shoppers alike to peruse.
For the last year and a half, Mr. Kench, 32, has made
it his business to film, produce and upload virtual tours of
houses on the market for the benefit of both buyer and
seller.
A technology education teacher in East Islip School
District for the last decade, Mr. Kench launched his
business after returning from a three-year deployment
with the U.S. Army, where he served as a military
policeman at Fort Drum in upstate New York and
Canada.
"I would have a lot of time sitting in my patrol car
thinking about ways to make more money when I got
back home," he said. "I knew there had to be a job out
there that people needed doing, and that I could do."
He first got the idea for his business venture when,
shopping for his own house in February 2004, Mr.
Kench found himself using realty sites such as
Foxtons.com, an online realty site, to see what was out
there.
"They had the virtual tour. It got the point across,"
Mr. Kench said. Traditional virtual tours are compiled
with software using a series of digital photographs that
are put together to create the effect of streaming video,
but more elementary, he said. "It's very cartoonish,"
Mr. Kench said of the existing software.
"I found out that it just really didn't work. People
didn't like it. It's slow, froze computers, the images were
skewed," Mr. McLaughlin said, recalling how before
meeting Mr. Kench he used the traditional virtual tour
software himself. In many of the virtual tours, which use
a series of images, the footage can be grainy and it can be
difficult for viewers to gauge the size of the rooms of the
angles of the walls.
"It doesn't look right. I sue actual digital video," Mr.
Kench said.
For real estate agents, the software route is often the
most affordable option. Priced at about $100, the
do-it-yourself method was more reasonable than hiring a
film crew, until now.
A one-man show, Mr. Kench keeps his prices
competitive with the older software, charging about $200
per video. That includes filming, uploading to the site
and service work. On occasion, he enlists the help of his
wife, Rachel, a former NBC television journalist, to write
the narration for the sequence or to record the voice-overs
.
"It's a movie for your house," He said, adding that, for
a 3,000-square-foot house, it would take him about 40
minutes to film. "We work with the agent for the
narration."
The files Mr. Kench creates are smaller than an online
movie trailer and are designed not to slow down a
viewer's computer.
In addition to his own site, Mr. Kench posts videos on
other networking and broadcasting sites such as
YouTube.com or Wellcomemat.com. He also duplicates
the videos and makes DVDs to be handed out at open
house events.
More than anything, it is the convenience that
attracted Mr. McLaughlin to the streaming video tours.
"It eliminates the useless trips out here when {the
buyers} walk in the house and know instantly that they're
not interested," He said.
With many of the people on the East End looking to
buy second homes, he added, many of his clients are
from Manhattan and can preview his listings before they
travel here, saving him, and them, time and money.
Representing a number of real estate agents on the
East End, as well as throughout Long Island and
Manhattan, Mr. Kench has developed his technology
through trial and error.
In the beginning, he said, he spent endless hours
filming in his own home and creating test video clips.
"Now I've got the system, I know what looks good."
he said.
-By Jennifer Davis
Ever-evolving technology has made it easier for people
around the world to connect to work from home and
even shop from home - not just for everything from
hardware to handbags, but for houses.
"Eighty-one percent of homebuyers start by searching
on the internet," said Patrick McLaughlin, and many of
the agents in his office, work with Hal Kench of HK
Web Productions and Virtual Video Home Tours in
Center Moriches. They have Mr. Kench create videos to
showcase their listings, videos they post on the web for
prospective buyers and window shoppers alike to peruse.
For the last year and a half, Mr. Kench, 32, has made
it his business to film, produce and upload virtual tours of
houses on the market for the benefit of both buyer and
seller.
A technology education teacher in East Islip School
District for the last decade, Mr. Kench launched his
business after returning from a three-year deployment
with the U.S. Army, where he served as a military
policeman at Fort Drum in upstate New York and
Canada.
"I would have a lot of time sitting in my patrol car
thinking about ways to make more money when I got
back home," he said. "I knew there had to be a job out
there that people needed doing, and that I could do."
He first got the idea for his business venture when,
shopping for his own house in February 2004, Mr.
Kench found himself using realty sites such as
Foxtons.com, an online realty site, to see what was out
there.
"They had the virtual tour. It got the point across,"
Mr. Kench said. Traditional virtual tours are compiled
with software using a series of digital photographs that
are put together to create the effect of streaming video,
but more elementary, he said. "It's very cartoonish,"
Mr. Kench said of the existing software.
"I found out that it just really didn't work. People
didn't like it. It's slow, froze computers, the images were
skewed," Mr. McLaughlin said, recalling how before
meeting Mr. Kench he used the traditional virtual tour
software himself. In many of the virtual tours, which use
a series of images, the footage can be grainy and it can be
difficult for viewers to gauge the size of the rooms of the
angles of the walls.
"It doesn't look right. I sue actual digital video," Mr.
Kench said.
For real estate agents, the software route is often the
most affordable option. Priced at about $100, the
do-it-yourself method was more reasonable than hiring a
film crew, until now.
A one-man show, Mr. Kench keeps his prices
competitive with the older software, charging about $200
per video. That includes filming, uploading to the site
and service work. On occasion, he enlists the help of his
wife, Rachel, a former NBC television journalist, to write
the narration for the sequence or to record the voice-overs
.
"It's a movie for your house," He said, adding that, for
a 3,000-square-foot house, it would take him about 40
minutes to film. "We work with the agent for the
narration."
The files Mr. Kench creates are smaller than an online
movie trailer and are designed not to slow down a
viewer's computer.
In addition to his own site, Mr. Kench posts videos on
other networking and broadcasting sites such as
YouTube.com or Wellcomemat.com. He also duplicates
the videos and makes DVDs to be handed out at open
house events.
More than anything, it is the convenience that
attracted Mr. McLaughlin to the streaming video tours.
"It eliminates the useless trips out here when {the
buyers} walk in the house and know instantly that they're
not interested," He said.
With many of the people on the East End looking to
buy second homes, he added, many of his clients are
from Manhattan and can preview his listings before they
travel here, saving him, and them, time and money.
Representing a number of real estate agents on the
East End, as well as throughout Long Island and
Manhattan, Mr. Kench has developed his technology
through trial and error.
In the beginning, he said, he spent endless hours
filming in his own home and creating test video clips.
"Now I've got the system, I know what looks good."
he said.
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