Posts Tagged ‘marketing’

Unique Sign Riders Get Attention

Monday, July 12th, 2010


Panoramic Sign Riders Stand Out and Grab Attention

Panoramic sign riders are a great innovative marketing solution for real estate agents or For Sale By Owner properties. These riders are designed to capture the attention of passers-by and to stand out from the crowd of other real estate riders.

A drive through any neighborhood in the Shreveport/Bossier City area will reveal a host of real estate signs and their respective riders. Most of these provide information such as the listing Realtor, a phone number or maybe a website address. However, PanoRiders are not your typical sign rider. A PanoRider offers a full color, high resolution panorama of the interior of the property. Text alone is not enough any more, this sign rider will capture interest with a glimpse inside the home.  This is exceptionally great if there is a competing sign in the yard next door.  Our sign rider will make your yard sign unique and attention grabbing.Panoramic Sign Rider in Action

Once interest is peaked, a buyer can gain the information they are seeking with the single property website located on the PanoRider. This single property web address is the address of the listing itself. Once online, the buyer will see a virtual tour of the entire interior of the home along with lots of additional photos, detailed text description and the listing agent’s or owner’s contact information. But wait, there’s more.  The website is accessible from your smart phone!  How awesome is that.  It’s like marketing – with superpowers.

Next, of course, the interested buyer calls the agent and offers double the asking price for the home, then requests to bring a check by that afternoon……Ok, no, that part doesn’t really happen. But, this sign rider does generate highly interested leads.

This innovative marketing tool harnesses the power of the internet together with the power of a yard sign to gain exposure for real estate listings. If you are a real estate agent or an FSBO who wants to stand apart from the crowd while maintaining cost effective advertising, this is worth your time to investigate.  No more soggy flyers or empty flyer boxes.  Panoramic Sign Riders are full color and weather proof.

Contact Ark-La-Tex Virtual Tours, your Shreveport/Bossier City virtual tour company, to learn more about innovative marketing solutions for your property.

Sign Rider on a Rainy Day

Photo of Panoramic Sign Rider on a Rainy Day


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Real Estate Photo Tips: The Most Important Picture

Friday, July 2nd, 2010


In today’s real estate market, approximately 90% of home buyers start their search online, looking at dozens of photos of homes.

The photo of the front of the home is the single most important photo on the listing.  This photo is the buyers very first impression of the home.  It is the one that helps determine if the buyer will continue to look further into the listing or move on to the next one.  It is important to spend the extra time and energy to get the “perfect” shot of the exterior of the home.

Front of Home Photo
Whether you do your photos yourself or hire a professional photographer, here are some important things to consider in photographing the front of the home:

  • Straight on is not always the best option.  Try photographing from one side, especially if there are interesting architectural features.  Also be certain to include all of the home in the frame.Front of Home Photo
  • Choose your time of day.  Photograph when the sun is on the front of the home, not behind it.
  • Choose your day.  Don’t photograph on dreary, gray, overcast days.  Bright and sunny is preferable.
  • Properly expose the photo.  Make sure the color balance is correct – a strange blue or gray cast is not good.  Make sure the photo is bright and cheerful and competitive.

Remember that your photo will be compared to other homes of similar size and price.  If your photo is dark, awkwardly colored or generally uninviting, then it may leave the buyer feeling less than impressed with your listing.  Possibly for reasons they can not even identify, they will just know that the house seems dreary.

Great photos should help bring buyers to the property.  If you do not have the time in your busy day to take competitive photos, you might consider hiring a professional photographer.  This is a small expense that can be recouped in freeing your time to actively sell homes.  Not to mention that your seller will be very impressed with how their home is being marketed.


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How to Hold a Digital Camera

Saturday, June 5th, 2010


Working as a real estate photographer, one thing I often see is blurry photos.  Blur can be caused by several factors, but often the culprit in real estate photos is camera shake.  This is the result of the slow shutter speeds necessary to photograph home interiors.  The longer the shutter is open, the more likely it is to record every little movement, no matter how small. 

The best answer for eliminating camera shake is a tripod.   But when that is just not a feasible answer, there are some other things you can do.  This article from Darren Rowse at DPS has several tips for reducing camera shake when shooting hand held photos.

How to Hold a Digital Camera

One little trick I use when I don’t have a tripod available is to place the camera on a firm and level surface such as a table top.  Just be careful not to move the camera when you press the shutter button.

Living Room Photo

Ark-La-Tex Virtual Media is located in Shreveport/Bossier City, La and provides real estate photography, virtual tours and website design to real estate and commercial clients.

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Tip for Great MLS Photos

Monday, February 1st, 2010


When photographing still images for MLS, shoot on small size.  Today’s modern point and shoot cameras can shoot in excess of 10 megapixels.  This giant megapixel digital image on your camera is a poster sized photo.  Bigger is not always better.  If you ever wonder why it takes 5 minutes to upload a single picture to your listing, it is because the server has to reduce the size of your picture to a smaller use-for-web size.  This process can cause a loss of image quality resulting in a blurry image.

High Definition Photo

If you must shoot large images, consider resizing the image width to 512 pixels in your favorite photo editing software.  You will get some blurring if you do this.  To correct this after reducing an image’s size, we recommend a “Smart Sharpen” (in Photoshop) around 40%, and then “Save for Web” at “High” quality.

Now you have a clear High Definition photo that loads very fast thanks to its small size!

Want more tips on real estate photography?  Sign up for our newsletter and get photo tips, marketing ideas, website design info and more.


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Visit the 1920 Woodberry Property Website

Friday, November 6th, 2009


Ark-La-Tex Virtual Tours had the pleasure of photographing this incredible New Orleans style townhome located in South Shreveport’s new Provenance subdivision.  This home is just awesome!  It features a courtyard entrance, pine hardwood floors, remote master downstairs and a loft and 2 additional bedrooms up, and a beautifully landscaped rear courtyard.

This unique townhome has windows in every room of the home, many overlooking the courtyards.  Take a look at the single property website below to learn more about it!

Welcome to the 1920 Woodberry Property Website.

Virtual Tours Give Internet Marketing a Power Boost

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009


Ark-La-Tex Virtual Tours is pleased to announce that our realtors’ virtual tour galleries have now been SEO optimized, making it possible to reach a bigger internet market!

Your Virtual Tour Gallery

A link to your tour gallery is located at the top right of all your virtual tours.  The gallery includes all of your activeTour Gallery Page tours.  This link can be utilized on your website and in your emails to allow viewers to see all your listings right from their own computer.

SEO Optimized

What is SEO optimized?  This simply means that you have now gained more online marketing power to boost you and your property to the top of the internet search results – a process which is key to getting noticed on the web.

So, don’t hesitate to take advantae of your new marketing power boost and increase your online exposure.  Contact Ark-La-Tex Virtual Tours today!  Whether you need a virtual tour, still pictures, or added internet exposure for your Shreveport/Bossier City area property, we are here to help you get noticed on the internet.

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