"I look at myself as a media company," says Bacal, who credits his time as an assistant at Warner Bros. and Sony for his innovative sales techniques. He claims to be the first broker to have used drone video to market a listing — for a house in the Bird Streets that sold for $19 million. In addition to a current batch of stellar listings (including another Bird Streets perch for $18.4 million), Bacal is prepping the launch of his Roofshoot app, which will allow agents to create high-quality marketing videos with their iPhones: "I'm always pushing my peers to enter the digital realm."

www.thehollywoodreporter.com

Ben Bacal Named Inman Innovator of the Year

An Inman Innovator in 2016, Los Angeles agent Ben Bacal is founder of the Roofshoot app, an eagerly awaited social media platform that allows agents to upload home videos with music, storylines and themes to create more shareable listings for buyers. The Rodeo Realty agent has a degree in electronic film arts and is at the forefront of video, using quality camera work and home narratives to help him sell as much as $300 million in real estate per year.

www.inman.com/benbacal

Rihanna’s former Pacific Palisades home sells under its $15M asking price

Rihanna just can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to her Los Angeles real estate holdings. In 2009, the pop star paid $6.9 million for a Beverly Crest home that turned out to have a major leaking problem(don’t worry, the “Umbrella” jokes have already been made) and eventually sold it at a nearly $2 million loss.

www.la.curbed.com/benbacal/rihanna

This Video Advertising a $48.5m Home Could Be a Sign of Things to Come

The real estate industry has changed dramatically in recent years, mainly due to technological advances. Video tours are replacing brochures, text messages are replacing face-to-face meetings, and companies like Zillow and Trulia are reinventing the way prospective buyers find their future homes.

www.thehustle.com/benbacal

How an L.A. Realtor Turned Real Estate Listings Into Cinematic Art

Dusk in the Hollywood Hills. A melancholy piano fills the soundtrack with Debussy’s haunting “Clair de Lune.” The camera focuses on a man in a blue blazer as he enters a stunning glass-box-style modern house. He heads straight into the sleek all-white kitchen and pours himself a tumbler of booze from a crystal decanter. Then he strolls onto the wrap-around terrace and stares moodily at the city lights for a bit until climbing upstairs to the spacious master bedroom, where he encounters his wife applying makeup in their enormous luxury bathroom. “I want a divorce,” he tells her, delivering the line so woodenly he’d have Keanu Reeves slapping his forehead.

www.hollywoodreporter.com/benbacal

Producer Megan Ellison Sells Off Entire Bird Streets Compound

Young Megan Ellison is one of the few interesting film producers working these days (her company Annapurna Pictures has worked on The Master, Zero Dark Thirty, and Spring Breakers) and the daughter of Oracle chief Larry Ellison, from whom she has picked up the practice of buying real estate in bulk (Dad owns an enormous percentage of Malibu's Carbon Beach and most of the island of Lanai). From 2008 to 2011, she put together a three-house, very glassy compound up in the Bird Streets, paying a total of $32.6 million.

www.la.curbed.com/benbacal/meganellison

Ben Bacal of Rodeo Realty on house tours

by drone and that divorce video

While it was no “Lemonade,” a high-production video about a troubled marriage made viral rounds last month among L.A. real estate types. In the film, set hauntingly to Debussy’s “Clair de Lune,” a well-dressed man enters his uber-modern home, pours himself a glass of brown liquor, and ends his marriage.

www.therealdeal.com/benbacal

Watch the Elaborate Short Films

Ben Bacal Uses to Show Off Homes

www.la.curbed.com/benbacal

One Los Angeles Agent Finds Success Marketing Multi-Million Dollar Listings Through Feature Films

With more than 105,000 Instagram followers, Aqua the Corgi is a social media sensation. Now, the four-legged fur ball stars in a short film to promote an $18.5 million Hollywood Hills home.

www.mansionglobal.com/benbacal

HOWARD HUGHES' BEVERLY HILLS PARTY PAD IS FOR SALE - HERE'S THE PHOTO TOUR

This gorgeous mid-century modern home in Beverly Hills used to be the 'ol party pad of filmmaker and aerospace tycoon Howard Hughes way back in the day. If ever there was a perfect multimillion dollar home for a bachelor to buy in the Los Angeles area, it's this one. For those with $11.5 million laying around and a desire to regularly throw pool parties, hang out on a beautiful rooftop deck with views of the city, and live the best kind of life--you can purchase via Ben Bacal of Rodeo Realty. Hat tip to the LA Times for the find.