Do you know what your virtual tour is doing when you are not looking at it? Is it just sitting there waiting on your return, or is it out talking to buyers and drumming up interest in your listing. Yes, virtual tours can do that all by themselves; you just have to drop them off in the right spot.

The virtual tour should be out showing that listing 24/7 and providing prospective buyers who have never seen the home and know nothing about it enough information to make an informed decision about it. After a virtual showing the buyer should have enough information to decide if it is worth their time (and yours) to see the home in person. But there are a couple of secrets in doing this effectively.

Secret No. 1 is that the tour must be a quality tour with quality pictures which truly show the home. If the photos are washed out, or of the bed rather than the bedroom, or if they are simply a redundant slide show then you have not provided the buyer with useful information. It is imperative to present the buyer with information which they can use to make decisions about the home. The saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” still rings true. Maybe even more so in real estate internet marketing.

Secret No. 2 is that buyers will not magically appear on your website. You must tell them to go there. Buyers are not shopping at Joe’s Real Estate Shop where Joe stocks his listings. Buyers are shopping at ACME Real Estate Warehouse where they can look at everybody’s listings side by side. It is more important than ever that you get your listing out there in the places where buyers are shopping, then bring them over to your website. Get their attention with your amazing marketing package that includes all the information the buyer is looking for, clearly shown right in front of them. Then bring them onto your site for even more info and personal service. If you are the one they keep seeing, clearly presented with the information they want, then you are the one they will call.

So what is your virtual tour doing while you are not looking? If it is not out there bringing you clients, then it is not doing its job. Consider calling a professional virtual tour company and see what a quality virtual tour and proper internet syndication can do for you.

With over 84% of homebuyers shopping online, internet marketing has become essential to selling real estate. Homebuyers are demanding quick, digestible information at their fingertips. If this information is not there for the buyer to see, then the home is getting overlooked. In the frenzy to acquired these shoppers’ attention, virtual tours have become indispensible. The buyers and sellers in today’s market are demanding virtual tours, for many reasons, but foremost because virtual tours are a quick source of a large quantity of information. In competing for these buyers’ attention (and phone calls) it is important to consider what is being placed in front of them. Is the buyer being provided with the information they are seeking, or merely repetition of what they have already seen?

The term “virtual tour” is a murky one. It seems to include everything from pictures on the internet to slide shows to 360 interactive tours. So, why does it matter which one is used, as long as there is a “virtual tour” button on the listing. Because it matters to the buyers and the sellers, and it impacts the listing real estate agent’s image to both. The real estate agent who is willing to go the extra mile and put a quality product in front of the market is the one people remember. In looking for a quality tour there are several things to consider.

Pictures of a home placed online are important, but do not constitute a tour. The viewer is going to look first at the pictures to determine if the home looks like what they want to buy. If not, or if the photographs are of poor quality and the viewer cannot “see” anything in them, they will hit the dreaded ‘x’ button and move on to the next listing. Quality still images on the listing are a must for a timely sale.

Slide shows are a nifty way to show your still photos of the home, but still fail to provide a tour. If the slide show is composed of the same images as the stills already included on the listing, then it has provided the viewer no additional information at all. The listing agent has merely accomplished repeating himself. And if these photographs are of poor quality, then the viewer will not spend time with them.

The purpose of the virtual tour is to provide the viewer with additional information about the home and to actively engage them in the listing. The phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words” rings very true here. The virtual tour needs to be 360 if the viewer is to obtain real information about the room and the layout of the home. Still shots can’t tell the viewer what’s behind them, only a 360 panoramic photo can do that. Also, a virtual tour needs to be interactive. Engaging the buyer in actively touring the real estate listing keeps them longer and provides them more information. To set a real estate listing apart from every other listing the home buyer is viewing, the virtual tour provider should offer add-ons to customize the 360 interactive virtual tour. Additions such as narrative audio or scene specific text will engage the viewer further and provide a memorable impression for the seller. An impression that says, “I go the extra mile for my client”.

Lastly, the virtual tour provider should aide in syndicating the virtual tour listing. Internet marketing is the key to exposure of the virtual tour and the listing. Without exposure, the virtual tour is not doing its job. And if the tour is not working on behalf of the listing real estate agent, then it is time to reconsider your tours. A virtual tour which just sits on the listing and collects dust is ineffective, but that is another blog…

Ark-La-Tex Virtual Tours is happy to announce that our new PanoRider service has arrived in the Shreveport/Bossier City area to a very warm welcome. Many people have been very excited to try out this new service designed to complement our 360º interactive virtual tours.

The PanoRider offers a full color panoramic photograph of the interior of the home along with a dedicated, single property website. This combination allows real estate agents and For Sale By Owners to harness the power of the two most popular forms of real estate marketing today, the internet and the yard sign.

The dedicated, single property website address appears across the top of the rider, making it easy for drive-by viewers to see and remember. The drive-by viewer can then tour the interior of the home from their computer and view the MLS information and contact information for the listing real estate agent. The viewer is also provided a link to the listing agent’s website. The end result is high interest leads for the listing agent.

Ark-La-Tex Virtual Tours, in conjunction with Real Tour Vision, is happy to provide new and innovative ways for real estate agents to gain exposure for their listings utilizing the most powerful marketing options available. Ark-La-Tex Virtual Tours offers a wide range of services including 360 interactive virtual tours, real estate photography, website design, 3D animated walk throughs, and PanoRiders. Call today to enhance your marketing reach.

Ark-La-Tex Virtual Tours
318-572-1779
www.thevirtualtourpeople.com

Photographs are powerful bait. Good ones can lure buyers; poor ones can turn them away.

Spring is in the air and the real estate market is picking up. Buyers are scouring the papers and the Internet looking for the perfect home and sellers are cleaning, painting and pruning, all in preparation for another busy summer of moving.

House hunting and selling can be time consuming, expensive and stressful, particularly for those wishing to move to the Coast. Without quality, accurate pictures the search can be even tougher. Whether you use a Realtor or try it on your own, one of the most important aspects of selling your home are the pictures you use to represent it.

In today's real estate market, high quality photographs are the foundation of a successful marketing strategy. For a home to sell quickly and at top dollar, it needs to entice as many prospective buyers as possible. For this to happen, the listings must have a strong visual appeal.

A real estate photographer has an eye for composition, highlighting the homes best features. Equipped with a high quality camera, tripod, wide angle lens and external flash, the photographer will take many images and choose the best to optimize for colour, density, contrast and size. Lens distortion and perspective, created by the wide angle lens, are also corrected. The final image results are clear views through windows, a bright interior and a true representation of the property.

Professional real estate photography adds enormous value to a realtors marketing campaign, as well as their professional image. For sale by owners' (FSBO) can also benefit from using a professional photographer by having a single property web site created, complete with a 123yourstreet.com web address. High quality images that accurately represent the home combined with a Real Tour Vision 360° virtual tour is a winning combination for Internet marketing.

The Internet has become one of the leading choices for marketing homes for sale. A 2007 survey from The National Association of Realtors reports that 84 per cent of home buyers used the Internet in their search for a home, up from 80 per cent in 2006. The images a buyer sees online, are often the only chance to make a good first impression. They are looking for homes that have been well cared for, clean and bright and their judgment starts as soon as they click on a picture. Ensure you make a solid first impression.

If we can raise the bar on real estate photography, everybody wins. The client is impressed with their Realtors marketing platform (and will spread the word), buyers (who may also be sellers) are better able to locate their dream home and FSBO can feel confident in knowing they are using the best tools and resources to market their property.

Linda Sabiston
First Impression Virtual Tours and Photography
http://www.firstimpressionphotos.com/

Recently one of our Full Service Dealers contacted Real Tour Vision to let us know that our single property websites and PanoRider(tm) really work!

The Realtor who purchased the PanoRider for their property told our dealer that they recently had a buyer contact them to see a home they had on the market. After showing them the home and writing an offer, the agent asked the buyer how they came to this particular home without an agent.

As it turns out, they had driven by the house and saw the PanoRider. They went home and punched in the single property website address into the computer. The individual property website took them directly to the virtual tour of that listing. Since the agent's contact details were on the top of the branded interactive virtual tour and single property website used with the PanoRider, the prospective buyer had a DIRECT line back to the agent for the full commission.

So, not only do the statistics prove that the PanoRider works but now we are receiving RAVE testimonials from agents in the field as well!

Real Tour Vision
National Virtual Tour Service
Order a Single Property Website Today

Ever been on Realtor.com and noticed the little red spinning houses that show up on listings for virtual tours? If you haven't, it would seem you are in the minority!

I put a virtual tour up for a client (who happens to also be my spouse), for a moderately priced home. Incidentally, one of the other agents in his office also had a listing in the same area. Similar prices ($116,500 and $117,000), similar square footage (about 1500), and similar amenities. According to the Realtor.com control panel, my husband's listing, with the "SUPER-SPINNING-HOUSE" has been viewed, on average, 3100 times a month. The other listing, with no real estate virtual tour, has been viewed only 548 times a month. Therefore, the listing with "SUPER-SPINNING-HOUSE" gets as many views in ONE MONTH as the other listing gets in nearly 6 months.

My husband's listing got 4 offers in four months, all very good, but the seller has so much traffic she's holding out for full price. The poor seller with no spinning house on her listing took the one and only offer she got after six months on the market, and it wasn't what she had hoped to make on her house.

Honestly, I was stunned and amazed at the results when I saw them. Folks, if people don't look at your property, they are not going to buy it.

If you use a Real Tour Vision Full Service Dealer, like Home Tours of Oklahoma, your virtual tour goes not only to Realtor.com, but to more than 80 partner websites. You can also link it to the MLS, your broker's website, your website, or any other website you choose. So, skip the newspaper ads (cheesy and ineffective) and put your marketing where it matters!

That's the best tip you will get from this blog or anywhere else for that matter!

Cori Warner
Oklahoma City Virtual Tour Company
Home Tours of Oklahoma
Order a virtual tour - 405-408-6368
http://www.hometoursok.net

Right now the real estate market is a buyer's market. In a buyer's market you reach the buyers by giving them what they desire, which is convenience and information. Buyers are demanding 360 virtual tours so they can explore homes online at their convenience. Since there are so many homes on the market, a listing agent really needs to make their property stand out in creative ways. A few still shots of a home will not grab the attention of a tech savvy shopper.

The demand for virtual tours is a great opportunity for real estate agents to take advantage of a very cost efficient marketing tool. Virtual tours offer a 24/7 open house at the fraction of the cost of other advertising methods. The virtual tour also provides the agent with a pre-qualified lead that is interested in buying the home. Encourage real estate agents to go 100% virtual and maximizing their advertising dollars.

I hear stories time and time again of buyers that are searching for a home and have passed up properties that don’t have virtual tours. Then several months down the road the real estate agent will put up a virtual tour on the property and all of a sudden the property generates interest and sells. I had a broker tell me they were so glad they made the decision to put real estate virtual tours on all of their listings because their sales have been increasing and they love the cost efficiency of the virtual tours.

Ben Knorr
Real Tour Vision
Traverse City Virtual Tour Company
www.realtourvision.com

A seller’s point of view:

Some time ago my wife and I put our home on the slow market. We were prepared to wait longer for it to sell. Our realtor, who assisted us with the original home purchase, was chosen with utmost confidence to sell our home based upon his abilities. He told us his plan: to have photos taken and have a “Virtual Tour” done. Our realtor quickly went to work posting our property on the local MLS with photos that he had taken from a simple point & shoot camera. The photos posted were washed out, had bad angles, and were simply of poor quality.

About a month went by and we had yet to see the virtual home tour on our property’s listing. So, I picked up the phone to inquire. I was assured again that it was coming and it would be posted within a couple of days. He was true to his word! A virtual tour link was added to the posting very quickly! I thought to myself “WOW, they must have come to do the shoot when I was at work. I was disappointed however to see the link was a slide show with the same boring low quality photos that were already on the listing. Aren’t Virtual Tours suppose to “walk” you through the house?

This story wouldn’t be such a big deal had we been getting showings of the house. ZERO in six weeks time! I took my camera and started to take pictures of our house. I later provided them to our Realtor which he eventually posted to the listing. Lo and behold, we started to get a few calls and that’s when it hit me!

I started a little photography business a couple of years ago doing small jobs by word of mouth, and for friends and family. This seemed like something to look into. I started doing research on adding a virtual tour service. One of the very first web sites that I found was Real Tour Vision. Over the next couple of weeks I researched different companies narrowing it down to 4. Real Tour Vision (RTV) was the first on the list. I spoke to a gentleman by the name of Jason LaVanture. Jason answered all my questions without hesitation and made sure that I was well informed about RTV.

The main thing that I liked most about RTV was Jason never said, “you can’t” or “you won’t be able to.” Instead he gave me a list of improvements that were coming. He encouraged me to talk to other RTV dealers and see how they enjoyed it. After calling around to other RTV dealers (both veteran and novice) and receiving great feedback, RTV earned my business and I became an RTV dealer! During this time our property had not sold and after the contract was up we decided to find a new Realtor. My first Virtual Tour was our own home.

I provided this tour link to our new Realtor and within the first week we had 5 showings! That’s more showings than we had in 4 months with the “impostor” Virtual Tour. The showings began to increase and our house sold in 45 days! That was half the time that other properties were averaging in our area. Being a Virtual Tour Company owner for RTV is one of the best things I’ve ever done! From a consumer’s point of view there is no better way to market a home and there is no substitute for a Quality Virtual Tour.

In today’s market the Virtual Tour is expected by both the seller and the buyer. And I am proud to offer the best!

Jon McFarlin
Tucson Virtual Tour Company
www.realViews360.com
(520) 548-7782

The word virtual tour seems to be everywhere these days. Buyers are looking at them, sellers want them, realtors have them, but how effective are they really? Of course the answer depends on how well the realtor utilizes the tour, but here are some statistics that may surprise you.

According to a recent survey* conducted by the National Association of Realtors® 77% of all home buyers listed the internet as the most important source of information about a listing. Statistics like this show us that buyers are shopping the internet. And why not? They can view more homes in less time at their convenience by shopping online.

And that’s not the end of the story. According to the NAR®, listings that have virtual tours are 88% more valuable than ones that don’t. Not to mention that Realtor.com states that the “virtual tour” feature is selected more than 100,000 times per day**. Clearly, virtual tours are not just that new thing everybody is getting. They are becoming a necessary marketing tool. And all virtual tours are not created equal.

Everything from slide shows to 360 panoramas is being labeled as virtual tours. Some of these are high quality and some are not. But with 77% of all home buyers looking to the internet for information, the virtual tour should provide that information. It should effectively “show” the home with high quality, viewable photographs and panoramas that leave the viewer with a real sense of the property. It should provide all the information to the buyer that the realtor would provide in person. Not just the price and square footage, but information about the neighborhood, the community and the features of the house itself. It should offer the buyer with a printable flyer to easily remember the property. Give them a floor plan of home and a map to the property. It should offer them a mortgage calculator, information about the area schools and community links. All the information a buyer is looking for.

So, how effective are virtual tours – really? According to recent statistics, they should allow the realtor’s listing to become 88% more valuable with 77% of the buyers. Very effective. And if a realtor has a professional virtual tour company that can help them put that tour to work for them, the possibilities could be transforming.





*National Association of Realtors® Home Buyer and Seller Survey 2006
**According to Realtor.com Internal Logs

Are open houses outdated? Real estate agents who sit in the houses Sunday after Sunday afternoon could certainly tell you where they’d rather be. Will open houses soon be remembered as fondly as home milk delivery and telephones with dials?

It seems so.

According to a recent article published by RISMedia, "Open houses have been declining in attendance for several years - they’re a relic," so says Rudy Mayer, a Realtor of ERA The Masiello Group of Nashua, NH.

"With a record number of properties on the market, record gas prices and easier access to multiple photos and virtual tours online, buyers are less inclined to go out and drive around to traditional open houses," Mayer says.

360 Virtual Home Tours create the 24/7 open house. It is more convenient for everyone, from the home seller, home buyer, and the agent that is representing the property.

"Since attendance is down (or non-existent) at most open houses, many buyers are also weary of being the only open house visitor and being made uncomfortable by a potentially hungry agent following them from room to room," Mayer said.

Agents can create virtual open houses for all their listings, and take Sunday afternoons off, just by offering virtual tours on all their listings.

I am doing virtual tours in Lancaster, PA and I am waiting to see the first Sunday newspaper add that says something like, "Our Open Houses are always open because we always use virtual tours."

George Sheldon
VirtualToursCompany.com
Lancaster Virtual Tours
www.virtualtourscompany.com
Virtual Tours - 800-681-5095