Up in the sky, its a bird, its a plan, no, its a hover-craft-camera...

If a home is for sale in Avondale or Riverside, don't be surprised to hear some buzzing overhead. It might be a remotely controlled, camera-equipped miniature aircraft sent aloft to photograph the sale property.

Videos and photographs set marketing of the property apart from the competition.

Halstead Property, of Connecticut, uses an insured, contracted vendor to provide aerial photography services for high-end properties in Connecticut, New Jersey, the Hamptons and the Hudson Valley for about four years.

"We've used it on properties as low as $1 million, as well as a $30 million home on the water in Darien," said Halstead spokeswoman Robyn Kammerer. "The buyers think it's great, and the sellers think it's a lot of fun. We've been a firm believer in it. We've sold houses with it. It works."

While home buyers still scan newspapers' real estate sections to gain a sense of the housing market and the availability of properties, they now can use their computer to take virtual tours of a home.

"Today, Realtors think outside the box. It's not like when I started -- with the Sunday paper," said Mary Ann Hebert, president of the Connecticut Association of Realtors. "Our goal is to expose a property to people any way possible. They want to take a good inside tour before they pick up the phone."

For sale signs now include QR codes that people can scan with their smartphones or tablets, bringing them to a website that describes the property, she said. The technology supersedes the "talking house" that featured recorded messages about a property that could be heard on a car radio.

Selling houses in today's economy is challenging. In order to sell quickly and for top dollar, you may need more of an edge. An aerial video with shots, may be in order.

#LizBobeck