YouTube: helping some realize
'Cribs'-style living?

Some brokers and landlords are taking advantage of the video upload site to conduct walking tours of homes.

Wired reports on firms like RentThisJoint and reelProperties, which have begun videotaping rentals or homes for sale in order to give property seekers a real sense of environment.

"I was inspired while watching VH1's Pop-Up Video and MTV's Cribs," said Michael Hoy of reelProperties. "Combining these two formats — showing a cool house and having info pop up — seemed like it would be a very efficient and fun way of seeing a property before having to actually leave your house."

Asked whether the video element actually helps land contracts, Hoy recalls, "I did a double rental for my first deal. The video helped me rent one of the places in less than a week after listing it."

Hoy calls his videos Pop-Up Properties or PUPS, and he produces them exclusively for Prudential Douglas Elliman at $150 per video.

While YouTube empowers others to profit from its platform, the company is itself still searching for a winning financial model. Yesterday it began testing "transparent" ads, or 10-second Flash spots that run across the bottom of a playing video.