My competitor and his One Shot Lens

A year ago we received a call from a competitor, stating that he may be referring about 6 tours our way per year. It seems that some of his agents feel it necessary to be able to see out the windows, and with his One Shot Lens system that's not possible.

Imagine that....calling us because you can see out the windows! Well, he's right, of course. One-shot systems can be (grossly) compared to taking a photo of the moon: Half is daytime, half is nighttime. Windows are blown-out (overexposed) because the camera doesn't know what to do. Our technology is known for its crystal-clear window shots, crucial when shooting the nearby Columbia River.

Those 6 referrals grew to well over 50 in a year and counting. The competitor has tried unsuccessfully to become a Real Tour Vision virtual tour provider in our town, turned down because we have the area saturated.

Check out the available technology, compare the differences, and then decide. We can help.

Dawn Shaffer
All About Virtual Tours
www.allaboutvirtualtours.com

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Panorama Jacks HOT Fire Cracker Snack

Hello Virtual Tour Providers, Panorama Jack here. It's a fact that when you're out there building 4-10 virtual tours a day you need a little something here and there to keep you fired up. It is also a proven fact that putting some spicy food into your diet each day stems off appetite. These fire crackers below are sure to keep you fit, trim and and moving quickly from scene to scene. They also make a great ice breaker or talking piece when you're on site shooting a 360 virtual tour. Enjoy!

Panorama Jacks Hot Fire Cracker Snack

Ingredients:

Large box Saltine Crackers
1 1/3 cups Canola Oil
2 T Red Hot Pepper Flakes (to taste) OR Parmesan Cheese
1 package of dry Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing

Directions:

Put crackers in a Gallon Jar.
Mix together Oil, Pepper Flakes (or Parmesan Cheese), and Dressing.
Pour over crackers.
Move jar from side to side so oil gets into crackers.
Let crackers dry and enjoy!

--Jack

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Curb Appeal on the Internet

Think good photos and an accompanying 360 tour don't make a difference when selling a property? Think again.

An recent article appearing in the Nashville Tennessean Newspaper supports the return on investment to be realized from the utilization of a virtual tour - emphasizing quality of photos as a key necessity successfully sell a property -

GOOD PHOTOS and VIRTUAL TOURS..."It's everything," says Trish Woolwine, a broker with Fridrich & Clark about posting good Internet photos. Last year she sold a house to a California couple, sight unseen, based solely on the Web photos. "People see the houses on the Internet, and a lot of them have told me if there aren't a lot of pictures they just pass that one over and go to the next. You have to compete, and you need to have the best pictures you can — and as many as you can — and just really showcase that property." If yours don't make the grade, potential buyers may never knock on the door. When the home looks photogenic and the professional-looking photos are posted online, sellers will reap an important benefit: Eliminating people who aren't serious about buying. And that means you don't have to pack up the family and leave every time someone wants to check out your digs. - Curb Appeal Moves to the Internet - The Nashville Tennessian - 05/20/07.

As the article states - "Potential buyers may never see house if pictures fail to impress"
This is why more and more successful real estate agents are turning to a professional online marketing expert and virtual tour provider to provide their listing shots and virtual tours.

Here is the full article: FULL ARTICLE

Quality Counts!
Jason Bennett
Nashville Virtual Tours & Photography
http://www.nashvtp.com

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The Rise of Baker B

Since 1997 BakerB Solutions (www.bakerb.com) has been providing technology marketing and business consulting solutions to our clients. About 6 years ago (during the real estate boom, my wife and I decided to sell our house. We were originally going to use a trusted Realtor(R) when I decided to give selling our home a shot myself. I told the agent that if I couldn't sell it with all of my marketing skills within two weeks, that the listing was hers.

That week I took a series of still photographs of our home and created a "mini" website for the house. This was before virtual tours were really overwhelming in our market. The first weekend the house was on the market I sold it for $20K more than the asking price. The buyer was from out of town and his cousin had come through right before the open house ended. He called his cousin and gave him the web address I put together. After looking at the pictures and description online, he flew in the next day and bought the house. At the same time, during the open house I picked up 4 new clients that were real estate agents. Overall the experience changed the face of the company and I didn't even know it.

After working with my new found real estate clients assisting them with their marketing, I began to earn a solid reputation for results and new ideas that worked. I also watched what was happening in the industry and saw an encouraging trend regarding virtual tours. So much so that one of the TOP local brokers asked me to assist them with some technology marketing for their entire brokerage firm (over 100 people). One of the tasks on the agenda was to identify the best virtual tour software available.

With my 10 years of prior experience in the telecommunications industry as a geek, entrepreneur that grew a thought into a $14M start-up to be sold to Real Networks, I knew a thing or two about what he was looking for. At the end of my search I recommended Real Tour Vision and encouraged the broker to hire their own photographer and bring the capability in house. He decided he did not want to have the ongoing overhead of the human resource. On an impulse I offered to do it for him. We came to a mutual agreement at a price that competed with CirclePix (the least expensive virtual tour company in our market). The difference is that CirclePix offered a "Single Scoop" solution (to use an ice cream analogy), whereas I was offering a "Triple Scoop" for less.

After a year of offering that service I raised my rates to nearly double that of CirclePix, but maintained my client's loyalty. What made this possible was delivering a high quality solution with unmatched customer service. We both knew going into the agreement that things would change as we went along because we were both discovering how this new venture would work. And at the end of the first year I not only raised my rates, but also added photographers to the business so I could "shift gears" (as mentioned in an earlier Blog). I stared marketing to other brokers and now am the only Interactive Virtual Tour Company that is part of the Long and Foster Home Service Connections program, along with serving many other large national to and small local brokers in our area.

The virtual tour business has enabled me to grow beyond offering websites and business consulting and has even introduced other facets of the business to those same real estate clients from before. But now instead of managing a couple hand full of clients, my repeat customer base is over 200 active agents! Who knew the power of the virtual tour could be so strong? Who knew that with outstanding customer service coupled with Real Tour Vision technology that such a thriving business could be elevated so quickly with so many HAPPY customers? I had no idea when I was selling my house that this would be the case. And I have Real Tour Vision to thank for enabling this rapid growth!

Alex Saenger
BakerB Solutions
Interactive Virtual Tours
& Marketing Specialists
www.BakerB.com

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Virtual Tours of Luxury Homes Only

I recently called upon one of our virtual tour providers to see how things were coming along. We regularly email or calls to providers to see what is happening on the front lines of the virtual tour industry. Often during a call, a Real Tour Vision dealer will also ask their sales rep how to handle specific objections they are facing in the field. Real Tour Vision uses this phone time and emails with our dealers to help educate as well as gain direction for our future developments.

It was during one of these phone calls that the virtual tour provider stated that the people in their town only use virtual tours on upper end homes and not on any of the others. The virtual tour provider was not yet able to break into more than a handful of tours each week.

What follows are some good reasons a real estate agent should provide or at least offer a virtual tour of every listing. These are some facts that you should arm yourself with and be prepared to use them if you are faced with objections. As a provider for Real Tour Vision or any other virtual tour company it is your responsibility to educate the real estate agents in your market. You must become the local online marketing expert that they look up to. Dive right in and start giving them the straight talk and facts that will sell more tours.

When a prospective home seller is seeking out a real estate agent would you like to get their business? If you would, then you should show them from within your online storefront aka “Your Website” that you care enough about each client to do a virtual tour of every listing.

Are you really prepared to explain to a client of yours that they don’t get a portion of your treatment that the “Jones’s” get because their home is not worth enough? I don’t know anyone who would take that very well. People like to feel important and if you make them feel any differently you WON’T get a referral.

Do you really want that level of inconsistency on your website? Ask yourself, “Who is the online you?” If the online you is supposed to be somewhat like the “In-Person You” you should strive to be consistent in what you do and how you market yourself.

Think GREEN! Showing homes all day long only to have an immediate “No!” when you pull in the driveway is not exactly the best way to spend your time or money. It is a HUGE waste of gasoline and our natural resources. Imagine for a moment if all real estate agents used some form of a virtual tour. How much gas would we save? How much time would we gain to sell more homes?

You have the palm pilot. You have the computer. You have the cell phone. You have all these tools that make your life more efficient and save you time yet you don't fully embrace virtual tours which would save you countless hours each month.

Point blank. It is a proven fact that nearly everyone gets online to shop for a home these days before they even pick up the phone to call you. Online shoppers enjoy looking at virtual tours. Just over half of American adult internet users (51%) have taken virtual tours of another location online, up from 45% in a previous Pew Internet & American Life Project survey in November 2004. So what are you waiting for? Start using a virtual tour on every home you list and not just the upper end homes.

These are all great facts to load into your aresenal of objection busters. Good luck out there!

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360 Virtual Tour of The Best Western

360 Virtual Tour of The Best Western Vero Beach

I was referred by a Realtor(R) customer to the owner of the Best Western in Vero Beach to do a Virtual tour of thier remodeled hotel. At first the owner wanted us to take some of the photos of their old virtual tour and use them in our tour, but after explaning to him that it was impossible to do that and seeing our work and technology he realized that a totally new tour was necessary.

We ended up doing 30 scenes, of which we did 360, 180 and still photos of the Hotel. http://ts.realtourvision.com/tour/RS/tour.view.new.php?utl=RS-7660-UFI72I-01

The Owner was very happy with the results and promised to reccomend us with freinds and coworkers.

Real Tour Vision Technology is the best out there it really makes the difference!


Claudia Jaramillo
Perfect Images
http://www.360perfectimages.com

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Tracking your 360 tour hits

When you're spending the advertising money, it's nice to know how many consumers are really taking the time to look at your advertising. Television has its rating system so they can know which shows are being watched and I'm sure their commercial advertisers keep up on that end of the business. On each of our virtual tours there is also a page where you can log in to see how many hits your virtual tours are receiving each month- it's nice to know how many people are checking out your listing! It's also something that can be printed out or e-mailed to the seller, who also wants to know potential buyers are looking.

Becky Miles
InSite Virtual Tours
www.insitevt.com

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Picturepath Certified Virtual Tour Photographer

The phone rang. I answered. On the other line was an angry real estate agent that barked out to me, “Ok, before you even go into your sales pitch just tell me if you have coverage in Tampa, FL. That is all that I want to know. Do you have a physical person in the city of Tampa that can come and do a tour for me? NO I don’t want to buy or sign up for a stupid slide show program and no I don’t want to mail you my pictures. I want to meet with and see a person right here in this town that will come to my listing and create a virtual tour for me!”

Where was all this coming from? What did I do today…yesterday…or last week to disrupt my karmic circle? Well, as it all turns out, it really had nothing to do with me. The real estate agent was upset because they had spent the last three hours on a website looking for a company that could offer a virtual tour service in their area. Here is the link to that site:

http://resource.realtor.com/agent/ShowCasePlus/FindTourProviders.aspx

Go ahead and give it a whirl. Put in your zip code and location and allakazaam. The great and amazing Realtor.com spits out a myriad of so called virtual tour providers for you that were supposed to match your search criteria right? WRONG!! You have been hoodwinked and bamboozled again. The tom foolery on this page is really astounding and almost makes me cry. I will fend off these tears thought while I tell you the rest of the story.

Now, here is where you will begin to see the truth. Repeat the process over again. Go back to that link above and put in your search criteria again and allakazaam, chitty chitty bang bang! (Cloud of dust lingers over your monitor) What you see in front of you now is the same exact list of picture path partners but it is arranged in a completely different order than it was before. This would be a great idea and one that I would give the Ol Tip ‘o The Hat to; if every company on that list had an actual rep that could come and do a 360 Virtual tour.

The problem herein is that most of the people and companies that you see on your screen are NOT national companies and they only service a city or two making it a complete waste of your time and the companies on that list. The list provides, at best, only slightly better odds than a vegas slot machine of giving you a virtual tour provider at the top of your list that actually offers service in your area. End the end…this is simply a disservice and the virtual tour provider shopper has better luck turning to google for the answer.

Yes we have called them. Yes we have told that they should have a software only list and a provider list. Yes we have told them that should could easily verify if a company has providers in a specific area by querying their data base of tours published to Realtor.com. And no they have never done a thing about it. Perhaps if enough people read this and email CustomerCare@REALTOR.com they will actually do something about it.

We have called our Picture Path rep several times regarding this issue and never hear back. Maybe with enough complaints someday this ol slot machine will have better odds of servicing the public than it does now. For now if you are looking for a virtual tour company that provides coverage in your area just go to Google or get Real, Tour Vision.

Enjoy your weekend!!

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Shifting Gears With RPM

Revving Up And Shifting Gears With RPM… No Matter What Gear You Are In…

I ‘shifted’ gears over a year ago and hired several photographers to shoot tours for me. Along the way, as with any business, there are decisions to be made, plans to choose, paths to follow and paths to create. What I have learned along the way is that everything is a process; a system.

Before becoming a RTV Full Service dealer, I knew next to nothing about the virtual tour industry. I knew marketing, I certainly had run a business before, but I didn’t know the virtual tour business. It was a challenge, but a successful one none-the-less. It took a little time and a lot of dedication to test different methods, systems and strategies that I had learned and apply them in the virtual tour business. I kept track of client response, watched my stats and planned my campaigns accordingly. Things that worked were carefully examined and filed away for future use and comparison. The approaches that did not work were evaluated for reason and then quickly discarded.

To date, I still own and manage my virtual tour company, but I do not go out on any shoots. None, zip, nada one… For those of you saying, “Good for you, I can never switch gears. I have to perform my own tours” or “I’m new, so shifting gears will take time” pay special attention to the following:

I shifted gears just 5 months after I started my virtual tour company. Yes, 5 months.

So, how did I shift gears so quickly, and more specifically how do YOU get there? Once you get there, how do you continue switching gears? Yes, the Real Tour Vision program comes with the business startup CD and lots of great information to get you on the path to success but, like anything else in business, things must be done in the proper order for you to actually see the results like I have.

There were many times that I found myself thinking how hard it would have been for me to go as far as I did in such a short period of time if I did not have the marketing experience or business knowledge that I did and had not chosen the software solution that I had. Then, it dawned on me that there must be other dealers are not quite sure how to rev up and shift gears. So I developed marketing solutions designed around the virtual tour model and ultimately created RPM.

No, not ‘Revolutions per Minute’,… I am actually talking about the company Rock Pointe Marketing and it is definitely not ‘just’ a marketing company. It is a virtual tour marketing company. The systems, the packages, the programs are all designed by a RTV Dealer, for a RTV dealer. But before I say too much, I have to ask:

Are you ready make 2007 your best year EVER as a RTV virtual tour provider?

Well, 2007 is already here and I bet you have some big goals for yourself and your virtual tour business. Am I right? The problem is that it is already half gone. Are you 50% closer to your 2007 goals?

Would you like to be even closer? Would you like to know how I ‘shifted gears’ in less than 5 months, and more specifically… do you want to know how to apply this knowledge to your own business?

It doesn’t matter whether you are just starting out and need marketing material, search engine optimization, and information on how to start your marketing, or you have been an RTV dealer for a while and need more advanced tips & strategies. Whatever the case, the Precision Marketing System is specifically designed by a RTV dealer for RTV dealers.



We, here at RPM are very excited about the opportunity to work with the entire network of Real Tour Vision Dealers. In fact, we want you to get started right away, so we are going to give you FREE access to a quick marketing audit (to help you identify areas of your marketing that can produce greater profits) and the first 22 pages of the Precision Marketing System FREE.

All you have to do is log into your Real Tour Vision dealer account. You will find a link to our website in the new Business Resource Center that we created for RTV dealers. When you complete your FREE marketing audit we will also give you a 22-page Sneak Peek into the Precision Marketing System, just for your time.

Take a look at all of the FREE material and when you are ready, we will be ‘standing-by’ to help you rev up your company and successfully shift gears.

Think.Shift.Grow – RTV/RPM

For those of you reading this outside of the Real Tour Vision network please note that this Blog submission references a marketing program we offer to RTV dealers only. We do not offer this program outside of the RTV community.

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Prescott 360 is Shifting Gears!

Prescott360 virtual tour company is pleased to announce the addition of Jody Miller of Millers Reflections Photography to our team. Jody has taken her place among the finest Arizona photographers offering striking images of horses, cowboy and cowgirl pictures, and Western photography.

She came to Arizona to leave the rat race behind, to revel in the visual beauty of open space, and to devote herself to equine photography in the incomparable desert light. For samples of Jody’s equine photography please visit www.millersreflections.com Jody’s real estate photography is second to none and, in combination with our proprietary technology, she produces outstanding virtual tours that will showcase 360 virtual tours, slide shows, and snapshots through her artful eye.

Also, Jody’s committment to superior customer service will ensure that our our client's needs are served in a timely and professional manner. Jody Miller - Creating the Images you need to Succeed!

Ken Williams
Prescott360
www.prescott360.net

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360 Tours on ALL Listings - A Realtor's Story

I am a Realtor(R) in the Orlando area and our market is very competitive to say
the least. We have an abundance of listings and very few buyers. I started
to shoot my own virtual tours which cuts down on my marketing overhead and
also time spend on appointments. I use the virtual tour as integral part of
my marketing.

All listings get a 360 virtual tour right away when they are
entered into MLS. That helps me to give agents and buyers a good impression
of the property and channel showings of qualified buyers. In our association
it takes many agents a week or so to post pictures of the listing, let alone
a virtual tour. By that time the listing is not new anymore and the
attention of potential buyers has moved to the latest postings.

I have established a routine that helps me to not overlook anything in my
marketing mix. I shoot pictures and the virtual tour when I take the
listing. If the house is in disarray, I shoot the tour as good as I can, and
later update it with additional scenes or I exchange the ones that do not
look perfect. Since I am able to re-work the tours myself fairly easily with the virtual tour software, this is not a very time consuming task.

When I have the 360 tour up an running I also place the tours and property
information on Homes.com and Homeseekers.com and I send out the link info to
our administrator to add the non-branded version in MLS. I personally
enhance the info in Realtor.com (I have subscribed to the cheapest Ilead
account that allows me to post tours, add pictures and change headline and
description)

Since I do all these tasks at the same time I rarely forget to place an ad
or post the info on a website. Then I send a confirmation email with all the
links to the seller so they can check it out and alert me of potential
errors. Now my sellers know what we do and how they get exposure to the
market place. They understand if we do not have enough showings it is
largely a pricing issue, not a lack of advertising.

I just closed a listing yesterday which had the original offer and a backup
offer in place. This is very rare in a buyers market and I contribute this
success in part to my extended exposure.

I do spend more time on the computer preparing the tours myself but I
am 100% convinced that using a 360 virtual tour on every listing is mandatory. Whether you decide to produce it yoursself (again, if you have the time!) or you pay to have one produced, virtual tours help all real estate agents maintain the competitive edge and sell homes more efficiently!

Malte Strauss
Southern Realty Enterprises, Inc.
Broker Realtor®
mstrauss@luxuryhomesinorlando.com
www.luxuryhomesinorlando.com
Longwood, FL Real Estate
Mobile (407) 416-9659

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360 Tours Bring Love

What was your funniest, most shocking or most crazy 360 tour making moment? Some of the stories I’ve heard have been bizarre even hilarious. Here is probably my favorite interesting story that has come from one of our RTV Full Service Dealers:

A love story blossomed during a 360 Virtual Tour shoot. While a photographer we’ll call Don was shooting a real estate home tour he met the daughter of the former owners. She let him into the home and followed him politely at a distance, watching his every move. During the shoot he stopped and admired a silver framed black and white picture of a young newlywed couple from the 60’s. They were standing in their wedding clothes barefoot on the beach.

“Must have been hippies” Don said smiling. To his surprise the young woman’s face crumpled and she started to weep. Don didn’t know what to do so he went to pat her gently on the shoulder as she cried, offering a tissue. He ended up sitting there with her for over two hours as she told him about how her parents had just died tragically and she was an only child left to deal with the aftermath. She had just moved back to the area and didn’t know anyone, they were all she had. Feeling sorry for her he invited her out for dinner that night. And they’ve been together ever since! That was 4 years ago and they are expecting a baby girl in July.

Real Tour Vision Tours do bring love and new life to the world!
Submission by Jacque Stephens-Burke
Your Friendly Tour Track Administrator

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Shifting Gears in Your Virtual Tour Company

There comes a time in the life of every virtual tour company that the owner must sit back and make the decision of how to take the next step in growing. You are out there on the front lines shooting x amount of 360 tours a month. Your overhead is low because it is just you, your laptop computer and trusty car. Your company has grown to such a size that you no longer have enough time to do additional sales. Life is good money-wise and you are spending your days shooting virtual tours.

Wait!! What is wrong with this picture? You stopped doing your sales calls that’s what! Remember in the beginning of your virtual tour business you would hustle all day long, doing a sales pitch here, and a cold call there. Now that you have taken the time, put in your hours, and sealed enough deals to get the engine running, you are stuck and unable to grow your company effectively. You need to shift gears and this is a move that is easiest with the Real Tour Vision virtual tour system.

First off let me tell you what I mean by shifting gears. Think about what happens when you shift the gears of any vehicle. A clutch is engaged. You take your foot off of the gas. Power to the vehicle is temporarily disabled. The RPM’s drop down slightly. Seconds later, a new gear is found, the clutch is disengaged, the foot is back on the gas, RPM’s start going back up and you are moving faster than you originally were.

If you were to slow the shifting process down you would see that that is the exact same process you must be ready to face with your virtual tour business as you grow it along the way. Almost every virtual tour company out there starts out as one single person and goes up from there. (I will address partnerships in another blog)

So, since you are unable to clone yourself you must take the leap here and bring on a new hire. Bringing on a new hire means that you will have to start cutting into your profits and instead of all of them going to you, you will now have what is called overhead.

However; bringing on a virtual tour photographer will free you up with the much needed time enabling you to get back out there, hit the bricks and bring home some fresh clients. Now once again you’re free to go out on a daily basis and put forth more sales and marketing efforts that you could not do when your entire day consisted of shooting tours for existing clients. If you play your cards right like you did the first time around, in no time at all you will find yourself in the field shooting virtual tours for most of your day. You have now just doubled your company and this folks is called shifting gears in your company.

Unfortunately in the virtual tour industry choosing the wrong technology or making the wrong move in the beginning means you will never see this stage nor will it ever be necessary to bring on a new hire. Even worse, there are many virtual tour business owners out there who don’t want to go through that slower period of making less income even though there is much more waiting for them on the other side of the shift. Finally there are those who build up the company and get it just that point where it needs to shift but alas there is not enough of the pie going around and money flowing into the system to allow a shift.

When you are looking to startup a virtual tour company, follow the lead of other smart entrepreneurs and take your time to research other national competitors. You will quickly find that the Real Tour Vision business model allows you the flexibility to grow your business by allowing you more profits, and enabling that shift into high gear. Imagine employing a system that only paid you $30.00 or $40.00 per tour. How would you, how could you, possibly perform a shift and stay in business? What good is owning your own virtual tour company if people are still telling you what to do, what to charge, and when to be where and why?

Perhaps that is why the Real Tour Vision network of virtual tour dealers have a lower attrition rate than the other virtual tour companies on the commercial market. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that Real Tour Vision allows our dealers to think for themselves, run their own company and set their own pricing based on local market conditions. Perhaps it is because we only attract the few that are true entrepreneurs. Real Tour Vision dealers are truly the local online marketing experts!

Think Shift Grow - RTV

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Virtual Tour of Restaurant

We received a call from a Realtor with a Restaurant/bar for sale. We were somewhat concerned that the restaurant would seem too dark, not only because lighting is inherently darker in bar/restaurants, but because it's located on the Oregon Coast, where the weather is impossible to predict but for the most part, it's raining :))

The restaurant owner LOVED the 360 tour. This gave us even more confidence that Real Tour Vision was the correct choice when deciding which virtual tour technology would work for every possible need.

http://ts.rtvpix.com/tour/RC/tour.view.new.php?utl=RC-7191-8XTJ4B-01


Dawn Shaffer
www.allaboutvirtualtours.com

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International Virtual Tour Service at Large

Real Tour Vision is proudly offering virtual tour services in 23 Countries around the world. Our virtual tour dealer network now services nearly 40 thousand real estate agents. Along side our new engineering team we plan on making our virtual tour software multilingual here directly after tour builder 4.0 is released later this year. A big thanks to all of you out there who have made our tremendous growth possible. The future of Real Tour Vision is very bright and we are a stronger company than ever before. Go Team RTV!

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My sample tour's evil twin

We used one of the very first tours we did (as RTV dealers) as a sample on our virtual tour company website.

I was not aware the agent we had done the virtual tour for had lost the listing until we received an email from the new listing agent. Their email to us stated that since our virtual tour company was not contracted by the new listing agent to do the virtual tour we had to remove the virtual tour from our website altogether. We were very surprised to hear this and decided to comply all the same so we removed the 360 home tour from our website.

Upon removal my team and I were very curious as to why the new listing agent was so adamant and hurried to get the virtual tour off of our website. We payed a quick visit to their website only to discover they were paying for a Visual Tour subscription. We quickly located the listing that we had done the tour for and found they had used visual tour technology on that listing already. It became very clear to us after looking at the tour why they wanted our tour taken down.

The virtual tour (if you could call it that) was of very poor quality and was not a good representation of the home at all. Because we wish to remain anonymous here on this submission we are unable to post the two virtual tours side by side for all to see. We are pretty sure that the listing agent felt embarrassed to see the old virtual tour hanging out there. They wanted it down as quickly as possible. The agent knew if they were to use the virtual tour they would never be able to go back to their DIY technology again. Everything in this situation has to do with the difference in quality of our original virtual tour and the visual tour which replaced it.

Thoughts?

A www.realtourvision.com Full Service Provider

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360 Virtual tour of a Church

A landmark church with a poor virtual tour contacted us to ask if it was possible for a virtual tour to show the peaceful serenity of a large church without "blowing out" the windows. It's a shame that the stained glass was barely visible.

We sent a copy of a virtual tour we'd done of a home with an indoor pool (the blue water is clear and bright), and their concerns were put to rest.

http://www.realtourvision.com/tour/RE/tour.view.new.php?utl=RE-8071-8OPSL1-04

Real Tour Vision technology is what makes all the difference!

Dawn Shaffer
www.allaboutvirtualtours.com
360.635.0111

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Shameful virtual tour sales tactics

You know, it has always just amazed me what some competing virtual tour companies will do just to try to compete with the Real Tour Vision dealers. There have been times over the last eight years that I have seen dirty tricks from struggling competitors. I have read false statements and outright lies on websites used to hoodwink unsuspecting real estate agents and prospects. But, never in history people, have I received a phone call from someone claiming to be the police informing me that one of my dealers was under investigation for grand theft auto!

For Chad and Becky Munsterman of Dream Realization Media, Inc in IL it came as a shocker. “I don’t steal cars! For crying out loud I don’t even download songs illegally!” Chad exclaimed, as I told him about the recent phone conversation I just had with a so called police officer.

No I did not think to get the police officers name, location, or phone number just in case I remembered something later, nor did he offer any of that information up. I sat there and listened to him as he asked me how I knew the Munsterman’s, if I knew where they were and if I had any idea of the kind of operation they were running. I did most of the talking and the call ended. I was shocked to think this could be happening. I am a great judge of character and Chad had been with RTV for quite some time now. This could not possibly be true. I scratched my head and decided it was time I did a little Sippowitz action of my own. It was just about then that the emails started coming in.

This so called police officer was on the virtual tour company website here: www.dreamrealizationmedia.com And was going right down the lists of testimonials asking each and every person the same string of questions he had asked me. With every phone call the client complied as they should, answered all of questions and hung up in a state of disbelief that their friendly virtual tour provider was just a front for a car boosting operation. Amazing!! What is this world coming to? Hmm….

Chad was just as surprised and right away he emailed me the stream of requests to remove testimonials from his site. He had no idea what was going on. Here is one sample request:

"Please remove my testimonial from your website ASAP and provide written
proof of completion. Thank you."

I picked up the phone and started calling some of the testimonials and within five minutes Chad went from being a car boosting front man for the mob to an all American good guy fallen victim to back alley black hat ruthless sales tactic. Someone was impersonating the police and calling all of his clients in an attempt to discredit Chad and his thriving virtual tour company.

Talk about grasping for straws here. Now I know the Real Tour Vision product is hard to compete with if you are out there on the front lines. And I know that it is hard to keep up with our virtual tour technology. It must even be agonizing when you see your numbers start dropping as soon as one of our virtual tour providers gets started in your town.

Does this pent up frustration and inability to compete with our virtual tour dealers fairly drive other virtual tour companies to turn to such shady tactics as this? We really are that good. Hats off to Chad Munsterman's has-been competitor for giving us all around the world a good chuckle. Apologies to the people who received the phone call from the imposter. We are terribly sorry that our product and industry strength drives people to such madness. Let's try keeping it clean out there folks! Stunts like this just sour the industry.

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Video Tours Exposed

Recently I have noticed that a lot of companies (large and small) are desperately trying to take advantage of the nuance of the video tour ‘rave' by offering slide shows disguised as ‘video tours'. It seems the Jack-in-the-box law is now in effect. ‘Virtual tour' companies are popping up all over the place offering ‘video tours' that are nothing more than glorified slide shows.

Here's the deal. Pretty much anyone can start one of these supposed ‘video tour' services using slide show software for next to nothing and charge whatever they want for it. That's fine. This is America.. whatever... but why lie?

I am going to go out on a limb here and let the secret out. I may get sued, but I think it is worth it if I can save just one agent form the death grips of a video tour bait-switch deal. Here's the secret that they DON'T want you to know.... If the image is static (no movement) it's a still picture, not a video. So, if the trees aren't moving and the dog stopped breathing, chances are you didn't get a video. So, what do you get when you take a bunch of images and make them fade in and out and side-to-side? Ummm, I am not sure, but I believe that may be a slide show. You can fancy it up any which way, but it is still not a video.

I was sitting here writing an article about the differences between slide show tours, virtual tours and video tours when it dawned on me... I have never had a real estate agent ask me if they could link their video tour to MLS. So here's my question...

Have any of you ever linked a video tour (not a slide show) to MLS and if so, have you ran into any problems with IDX rules?

With virtual tours and slide shows (depending on your virtual tour provider), you have the option of using a different link that automatically removes the branding and audio using the same tour. But with a video, this is not an option. It would seem to me that you would have to produce two separate videos (one with branding & audio and one without) in order to take advantage of full exposure for the listing. This would incur additional expense and time (even if you produced your own). Thoughts?

Cheryl Waller
TreasureCoastSolutions.com
Treasure Coast Virtual Tours

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Free Blogs for Realtors!

Blogging is not only a great way to keep a very large group of people up to date on your products and company it also drives mass amounts of traffic back to your website and business. If you are a Real Tour Vision provider and have a virtual tour company or, if you are an In-house virtual tour provider, you should all recognized the power behind the blog.

Be sure to encourage your customers to create blogs. If they do not know how to, take it upon yourself as the local online marketing experts to show them how. As an in-house dealer you should be able to read the article below and sign up for your free blogging software and start writing today. Whether you are an in-house provider or a full-service provider or someone out there reading this who has not signed up with us yet please take a moment of your time to read the article below. Showing your expertise in your field by blogging is proven to work which is exactly why Realtor.com is offering it now for free. The more you write on as an expert in your field the more traffic will be driven to your site. Now...if there were only more time in our day.

Here is the article:

REALTOR.COM ROLLS OUT FREE BLOGS FOR REALTORS


Friday, May 18, 2007

By Glenn Roberts Jr.
Inman News

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Realtor.com President Errol Samuelson today announced the availability of free blog sites for all Realtors and also announced several new and planned features for the popular property-search Web site, which is operated by Move Inc. and is affiliated with the National Association of Realtors trade group.

The retooled site, he said, is incorporating Web 2.0 principals such as consumer interaction, richer data and online video.

Realtors can sign up for a free Realtor.com blog at http://www.featuredblogsignup.com. A planned section at the Realtor.com site will allow consumers to view an assortment of blog posts individually chosen by site editors for inclusion on a featured blogs page at the site. These blog posts can direct traffic back to the Web sites of participating Realtor.com bloggers.


The full article is here

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360 Virtual Tour of Law Offices

We received a phone call from from an office asking if we could do a virtual tour of a law office for them.

Sure, I told 'em! http://ts.rtvpix.com/tour/BU/tour.view.new.php?utl=BU-3454-ZSXCBS-01

The 360 tour has only been up for 1.5 months and has received 149 hits (click the blue circle at the bottom of the tour)! Even if viewing the tour on their website only brings in 1 new client, it has paid for itself.

One of the real benefits of the virtual tours from our virtual tour company is that they are online an entire year. Most clients find that by preparing the offices beforehand (we send out tips to help people prepare), the same tour can be renewed seamlessly.

The internet is "where it's at" and a virtual tour of corporate offices can be done for a fraction the cost of an ad in the phone book or yellow pages!

Whatever you need, we can do it!

Dawn Shaffer
www.allaboutvirtualtours.com

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Virtual Tour Photographers are the marketing experts

Real Estate Agents have a bazillion things to do once they get the listing. They realize the importance of listing with photos, so they rush to get photos on MLS. Then they start putting flyers together.

Let’s face it, not all real estate agents know their away around their camera equipment. Unless you understand what needs to be done to make a property “show ready,” it will go on MLS with poorly-taken photos (too dark, or windows which are blown out/overexposed and don’t show the view) which do not help the home stand out from other listings. The flagship of your marketing is not the best arena to practice photography.

A real estate agent recently explained to me that he spends hours

· Photographing the property

· transferring photos to his camera

· cataloging/renaming/resizing them

· etc etc before he can even put them on the 'net

all to discover that the camera didn’t capture what he wanted it to, the lighting wasn’t sufficient, that he feels like he’s on a ship (or leaning over!), the house is a mess (because he didn’t want to hurt the home owner’s feelings) then having to start all over.

If real estate agents don't have the proper (wide-lens) equipment or an "eye for the camera" or the ability to "see what the buyer will see," chances are that their photos may harm more than help.
Dawn Shaffer
www.allaboutvirtualtours.com

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Virtual Reality Tour is Your Virtual Yard Sign

Your yard sign in the best internet neighborhoods.

I offer virtual tours in Bend, OR and some of my real estate clients have told me: "Some of my listings are not really worth of a virtual tour.” Many successful brokers that I work with initially felt that way, but what they are finding is that a virtual tour is like a virtual yard sign in the best internet neighborhoods (for example, Realtor.com) There are two goals of any real estate virtual tour.

1) To sell the listing.

2) To promote the Realtor(R).

Too often, we focus on only the first goal. Successful Realtors know that every listing is an opportunity to toot their own horn. To not shoot a virtual tour and show their accomplishment to as many people as possible is wasting a golden opportunity. Our tours allow ’branding’. That is, they have the Realtors email, phone number even their picture, right on the tour. Even those with absolutely no web expertise can gain INSTANT presence on the most important real estate websites.

A few months ago I was in a Realtor's office who got a call from an out of town buyer from one of her virtual tours. That particular home was not a good fit from that buyer, but she became the buyers agent for that caller. She now does a virtual tour for ALL her homes.

She turned that call from a virtual tour into a client. Some homes are not worth a virtual tour? Are you sure you can afford NOT TO get a virtual tour for all your listings?

Andrew Wood
Virtual Marketing Plus, LLC
Bend, Oregon Virtual Tour Company
www.virtualmarketingplus.com
Order Virtual Tours in Bend Oregon NOW! - 541-410-6030

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Virtual Tour of Vacation Rentals

Our virtual tour company recently created a virtual tour of a vacation rental. It has not opened its doors yet; the ribbon-cutting ceremony is a bit down the road.

However, the owner understands the value to the renter of experiencing what they'd "see out the windows." Is there a bay view? (yes!) do all of the bedrooms have their own private bathrooms? (yes) .. laundry facilities?

Well-taken photos are essential, but a virtual tour "teleports" the renter inside the property.

They may email a link to the virtual tour directly to a loved one. They may also download it to create a CD version of the tour for an off line presentation. We give it all to you.

Dawn Shaffer
www.allaboutvirtualtours.com

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360 Virtual Tours Daley Routine

A virtual tour is a tool that will help show off or write that million word picture. The camera is an extension of that tool but your vision is the key. You as the real estate agents are the key to success.

Daley Visual Development wants to express what you see. It is the articulate producer and cameraman that use angles and lighting to capture your vision. You are the expert that has the mental picture and knowledge to express the greatest qualities of any property. It is important to talk and reflect with the virtual tour provider on what is important to you and your client. Otherwise, the 360 virtual tour is just a conglomeration of digital bytes.

Real Tour Vision stresses and provides continuing education for their dealers. This professional coaching further enhances our knowledge allowing us to provide exceptional quality work. Our products become a reflection of your professionalism and talents. Our job is to make a tangible product from your minds eye. We wish to help you become the premiere Realtor(R).

I suggest you form a checklist of what you see in your properties. Start from the front entry and work through every room of the house. Taking time to do this will “stage” the property so the camera can capture its greatest assets. You will find that it will be time well spent.
The professional manipulation of 360 virtual tours, video footage, individual still photos and music will set you apart from the ordinary.

Greg Daley
Daley Visual Development
www.daleydvd.com

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NAR Survey Shows Demand for More Technology

The results are in and the spending dollars are up!!! You will find this recent survey from the NAR very interesting. Real Tour Vision's mission always has been to provide our virtual tour dealer network with the greatest and most cutting edge technology. As the need for real estate technology continues to rise Real Tour Vision will strive to stay ahead of the curve and fulfill the growing demand.

RISMEDIA, May 14, 2007-Realtors(R) invest heavily in technology with more than half of brokers, sales agents, associate brokers and managers saying they spent more than $1,000 last year, according to a new survey by the National Association of Realtors.

The 2007 Realtor Technology Survey, conducted by NAR's Center for Realtor Technology, also found that 25 percent of respondents spent more than $2,000 on technology in 2006. In addition, approximately two-thirds of those surveyed have a real estate business Web site, and a quarter spends more than $1,000 annually to maintain their site. Nearly all of these sites — 93 percent — provide listing search capabilities. Other than their own Web site, the most popular sites for Realtors to display their listings include the local MLS, their broker's Web site and Realtor.com.

"Realtors have invested a lot of time and millions of dollars in building and improving real estate technology, and the demand for additional technology is high," said Mark Lesswing, NAR senior vice president and chief technology officer. "While eight in 10 Realtors think the current technology supplied by their broker is valuable, two-thirds would like their broker to expand the amount of technology offered. Eighty-four percent of those surveyed were also interested in augmenting the technology and services offered by their Multiple Listing Service."

Read the full article here

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Chipping Away At Realtors' Six Percent

Here is a great article that we came across today from CBS News 60 Minutes.

Chipping Away At Realtors' Six Percent
Lesley Stahl Reports How Realtors' Commission Fees Are Under Assault


Even with today's housing slump, real estate agents will pull in about $60 billion this year. And the reason is, as any homeowner knows, they charge a six percent commission on the price of every house they sell. So, for instance, a home that goes for a half a million dollars will net agents $30,000 right off the top.

For Realtors, the six percent commission is sacrosanct. It's remained in place, even as the price of homes has quadrupled over the past 25 years.

But as correspondent Lesley Stahl reports, things are beginning to change. What happened to travel agents, stock brokers and book sellers – the encroachment of the Internet – is beginning to affect real estate agents. And the sacred six percent is under assault from online discounters.


Lehrer Willis and his fiancée Bridgette Takeuchi of Seattle, young and Internet savvy, took a big chance when they decided not to hire a traditional real estate agent. Instead, they both sold their old house and bought a new one online.

"What did you have to do yourselves that the traditional real estate agent would have done for you?" Stahl asks.

"Print out the flyers, you know, that would go on our signposts, and describe our house to potential buyers. And then we held an open house ourselves," Willis recalls.

What did they didn't get, says Takeuchi, was having a real estate agent to show the house and actively sell the property.

"Who’s out there, really pushing for us?" Stahl remarks.

"And that’s what I kept saying," Takeuchi acknowledges. "Those insecurities started to really seep in for me and I started to really question. It wasn’t until the ink was dry on the paper that I was a hundred percent sold, to be honest."

Willis says they saved $26,000 by not going through a traditional realtor and paying a commission. "Now we can walk down the aisle. Actually, pay for people to eat at the wedding," Takeuchi adds.

They used a real estate company called Redfin, an online discounter based in Seattle. It has a cadre of e-agents who, for the most part, do their work on computers and on phones. Rob McGarty says early on a number of people called who were skeptical about the whole idea.

"Are there real people there? Is this just some shop in Bangalore! A call center taking real estate transactions? And, you know, after they talked to us [they] realize we were real agents in the same city they were in … they were like: 'Whoa, this is for real!'" McGarty explains.

Willis and Takeuchi's agent, Kelly Engel, used to be a traditional agent. "I had done quite a few deals where I spent maybe five hours total working on the deal. I never saw the house. My client found it online and, you know, I would make $12,000 for four hours of work. And I thought this cannot keep going on like this. Someone, I felt like I was going to get caught! You know, someone’s going to see that this is happening and I think a lot of them hold that truth inside of them right now. They’ve got the clients that are finding houses on their own. They make $20,000 and did 10 hours of work," she says.

Read the rest of the story here

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Losing my One-Shot-Lens and Finding RTV

After living most of my life in New York and working for Verizon for 32 ½ years I retired. After having bypass surgery in 2001 I decided to retire and move away from the hustle and bustle of New York. I decided to move to Delaware although I knew my employment opportunity would be limited compared to New York’s.

When I put my house up for sale in New York I asked the Realtor(R) to do a virtual tour of my home. At the time I had no idea how the tours where taken, until I saw the person come in with a virtual tour lens or a one shot lens attachment. I was some what impressed that only one picture of each room had to be taken but not to impressed when I saw the final results of the virtual tour. In the end my house sold and I was off to Delaware.

I always wanted to try selling homes so I got a real estate license shortly after moving. I found out quickly I was not meant to sell houses. I then remembered the virtual tour that was done of my home in New York and started to surf the web for virtual tour software and virtual tour companies, I thought I’d give that a try. I started to read about virtual tours that had to be stitched together and immediately dismissed them. I was looking for the easy one shot method, and found and ordered a single shot lens attachment for my camera.

I paid $ 600.00 and to my dismay it turned out to be one of the worst investment I have ever made. I never even got off the ground with that attachment because of the lack of support from the seller. I had no choice, so reluctantly I started to check out the stitched systems and
surfed right into the Real Tour Vision site. I feel a guardian angel guided me to the RTV site after the bad experience I had with the other company.

The staff at Real Tour Vision had me up and working my own virtual tour company in no time. I was truly impressed. I immediately found out the difference of a single shot attachment to the stitched system. First a single shot lens attachment takes one picture at maybe 3 mega pixels, with the Real Tour Visions system I take twelve shots of each 360 panoramic view which equates to 36 mega pixels, no comparison in the final results. Secondly and most importantly I am able to use the cameras on-board flash when necessary as well as get perfect exposure for each angle of the room. Real Tour Vision images from their photo stitching software are also printable which was a limitation of the single shot system.

From the day I started with my first virtual tour I have gotten nothing but praises and compliments on how great the virtual tours look. I even impressed myself. I'm a person that is a true believer in providing the best customer sevice, and I'm so glad that I work with a
company that feels the same way, Real Tour Vision. The name of my company is 360 Delaware Orbit Tours and together with Real Tour Vision I don’t see any obstacle in the way of our continued success.

Tony Pastoriza
360 Delaware Orbit Tours
302-222-6343
http://www.360deorbittours.com/

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Virtual Tours = Fewer Showings

Virtual tours save home buyers countless hours driving around looking at houses. We value our time, and visit half as many homes if we take virtual tours first. When the virtual tour allows viewers to go between panoramas by clicking on icons, we've really done our job:

Selling the house with as few "curious viewings" as possible. It's frustrating to "pack up the family for half an hour" .. and then experience the roller coaster of feelings afterwards.

Research what's available and choose a tour you would have on your personal residence. Several Realtors have called us to have a Real Tour Vision virtual tour of their personal residences because they know they work!

Dawn Shaffer
www.allaboutvirtualtours.com
360.635.0111

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Slang Slinger on 360 Tours

Main Entry: 1slang
Pronunciation: 'sla[ng]
Function: noun
Etymology: origin unknown
1 : language peculiar to a particular group

I describe slang as verbal shorthand, a collection of acronyms and abbreviations that everyone uses during their daily lives. It seems like every field of human endeavor has its own collection of letters and nonsensical words that mean something to whomever works in that field. It may be words jammed together to shorten them, a group of letters that describes a procedure or sometimes to describe a boss.

As a photographer, virtual tour provider and real estate marketing consultant, I am as guilty as the next person of using verbal shorthand. I have also worked as a mortgage originator and real estate agent, so I have a large vocabulary of short words. Usually I do not think too much about the slang that I use around other real estate types, for the most part we share a common language. A conversation a few weeks ago reminded me that new slang is not picked up by all members at the same rate.

I was having lunch with a real estate agent and a local builder. The agent is one of my best clients and the builder had met me previously when I shot a tour of his home. We were meeting to develop a marketing plan for a subdivision that would feature his homes. While waiting for our food, I quizzed him a bit to get a feel for his knowledge of the internet, 360 virtual tours etc. I already knew the agent was trying hard to get up to speed and would not hesitate to have me explain anything that she did not understand. The builder turned out to be pretty knowledgeable.

Just as I was about to start on the basics of the marketing plan, our food arrived. In front of me was a beautiful heart-attack on a plate in the form of a double cheeseburger with half a pound of bacon on top, the gravy fries were just a great bonus. The agent (poking her salad) asked how people were going to find the information for the subdivision.

Eyeing my cheeseburger I said, “What I was thinking was a webpage added to your site, we will buy a URL, redirect at the domain provider with lots of META TAGS for SEO, hyperlink the VT on the page for more SEO thru RTV. We will use the URL in your MLS as the VT link; push the link to Realtor.com so we have the VT icon there. If you can afford it we could use a PPC campaign with its own URL and redirect to the webpage, track hits thru charges and compare it with hits on the VT to decide what works best. Of course a blog would be great, a blog with an RSS feed would be better. The basics still need to be covered; links should be included in your e-signature for your e-mails, forums, news letters and drip campaigns.”

I took my first bite of my cheeseburger as I watched them absorb the beauty and thoroughness of the marketing plan that I had devised. Sadly, that was to be the last bite for awhile as I explained what it all meant.

RTV dealers are more than virtual tour providers. In my opinion we have the best looking and user friendly tours available. But, there is more to a virtual tour than the end product. We have access to people within the company that are dedicated to seeing dealers succeed. The knowledge and training that the company provides so a dealer can succeed is also very relevant to help a real estate agent succeed. If that is not enough, in the dealer only forum we dealers share knowledge of current technology, agent concerns, marketing ideas, ways to improve our photography skills and much more. RTV dealers can provide more than virtual tour and directions on how to link it.

If you understood my marketing idea, you might want to consider shooting your own virtual tours as an in-house dealer. If you want a professional to assist you in showing a listing at its best, while maximizing exposure of the property, contact an RTV full service dealer today. You can add some more slang to your vocabulary.


Roger Hall
Sunwheel Consulting
989-277-1317

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360 Tour Market Awareness -- The Dawn of a New Age

We have experienced an exciting development in our Virtual Tour business. Our last four Virtual Home Tours came from Realtors(R) whose clients requested a virtual tour of their home. Homeowners are seeing 360 virtual tours on the internet and want their Realtor(R) to include this dynamic tool in their marketing packages. While many Realtors(R) seem satisfied with calling a slide show a virtual tour, homeowners are starting to know the difference!!

Realtors(R) need to become proactive in the use of 360-degree virtual tours so they will not be embarrassed when a client insists that a genuine virtual tour be photographed to sell their home. Realtors(R) who initiate the process and showcase their client’s home with a 360-degree virtual tour have the edge on property turnover and client satisfaction.

Kathy Dove
David Dove Photography
www.daviddovephotography.com

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Thanks RTV!

We received a call from a Realtor(R) with a restaurant/bar for sale. We were somewhat concerned that the restaurant would seem too dark, not only because lighting is inherently darker in bar/restaurants, but because it's located on the Oregon Coast, where the weather is impossible to predict but for the most part, it's raining :))

The restaurant owner LOVED the virtual tour. This gave us even more confidence that Real Tour Vision was the correct choice when deciding which virtual tour technology would work for every possible need.

http://ts.rtvpix.com/tour/RC/tour.view.new.php?utl=RC-7191-8XTJ4B-01


Dawn Shaffer
www.allaboutvirtualtours.com

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Real Estate Agents-Online Marketing is Key

Real Estate Agents are quickly learning that establishing an online reputation could make them or break them in today’s market. The days where families want to drive from house to house are long gone. With children schedules to coincide and gas prices quickly rising once again, shopping for houses online using virtual tours has become extremely commonplace.

When I first opened SLP Virtual Tours, my best friend was ecstatic. She told me that her and her husband wouldn’t even consider buying a home that didn’t have a tour. They spent a few hours a week online reviewing houses on the market that had virtual tours. They narrowed them down to their three favorites and then began calling real estate agents. From the three, they picked “The ONE!” and live in it still today. And what was the exact quote of my 32 year old best friend with a husband and four children? “If a real estate agent gets a listing and doesn’t think it’s worthy of a virtual tour, then why would it be worthy of my time to see in person and spend our money on?”

By using virtual tours on every tour, real estate agents are quickly seeing a rise in their client lists. Using a top leading virtual tour company such as Philadelphia’s SLP Virtual Tours-the real estate agent's reputation gets catapulted into a “who to use” real estate agent status. The agent’s photograph is included on every tour as well as contact information and company logo. It’s a surefire bet for a real estate agent to “Brand” themselves in today’s ultra-competitive market. And the tours offer top notch conveniences for each viewer including music, crisp clear images that rotate 360 degrees, with a zoom in and out feature that allow viewers to zoom in and out on the fine architectural details of a property.

Not all virtual tour companies out there offer top quality tours. It’s a buyer beware market. In fact, the newest game on the net is companies claiming to be virtual tour companies when in fact, they only make up a slideshow of still photos. There is no 360 degree “spins” that modern technology gives us and that consumers demand. That is why trusting virtual tour providers in the Real Tour Vision Network is imperative for a real estate agent who understands the importance of online presence and reputation. The tours are uploaded quickly, the viewing window is large, and they are true to life. Virtual Tours will get an agent every listing that comes their way. Consumers want to be in the “now” of technology and expect their properties to be listed with the top marketing pros who will save them money in the long run. The tours help to sell the homes quickly and warrant to be placed in every marketing budget of every property.

Jennifer Stiefel
SLP Virtual Tours

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The Realtor® Lowdown

Brand recognition is one of the elusive goals that all businesses strive for. The ability to bring into someone’s mind the image of a product or service by simply saying its name is a powerful marketing tour. Some brand names have become so synonymous with a product that the name is used to describe a product regardless of who makes it. When you have a runny nose, do you ask for a facial tissue or do you ask for a Kleenex®?

An organization that has beyond any doubt accomplished this goal is The National Association of Realtors® (NAR). Anyone looking to buy or sell a home will say they are working with a Realtor®. Rarely do they say they are working with a real estate agent. So what is the big deal with the word Realtor®?

The word has become such a part of our vocabulary that we forget that not all real estate agents are Realtors® and not all Realtors® are real estate agents. Confused? Here is the NAR definition of a Realtor®:”NAR is composed of REALTORS® who are involved in residential and commercial real estate as brokers, salespeople, property managers, appraisers, counselors and others engaged in all aspects of the real estate industry”. NAR is an organization that someone in the real estate profession can join.

So, what does this have to do with us? Many Real Tour Vision virtual tour dealers are participating in public forums and blogs that we fully expect to have people from the real estate industry read. We all pride ourselves in delivering that extra little bit that will make us stand apart from all others. One extra little bit that takes very little effort would be the use of the word Realtor®

I rarely use Realtor®; I prefer real estate agent or real estate professional. When I first started as a mortgage broker, I had a few agents correct me about the use of Realtor®. Several went to great lengths to let me know they belonged to NAR, but were in fact real estate agents. Some agents will not care one way or the other how the word is used. Others are like I was. When a service provider came into the office, the first question was always “Are you a Realtor®”. I would say “Yep, I am also a real estate agent”. That would always slow them down.

The point I am trying to get across is simple. Set yourself apart from others by using the word Realtor® correctly. When you write something that potential clients are going to read, I know you carefully craft the sentences and check for misspelling. Why not go that little extra distance and write the word as it is registered? One last little bit. Try not to pronounce it “relitter”. Think about how RTV is pronounced. Real Tour said fast sounds a lot like Realtor®.

Roger Hall
Sunwheel Consulting

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Virtual Tours Sell Homes -- A Real Estate Agent's Story

A Professional Realtor Knows that virtual tours do sell homes! I have a specific market area that I work as a professional Realtor and know my marketing area. I use several methods to locate homeowners that are looking to list their homes for sale. The high tech methods include a personal web site of No Stunts Realtor, mini CD’s advertising my services with old fashion techniques of direct mail, and networking to make personal contact. Real Tour Vision plays a role in the high tech and old fashion marketing methods that I use. Real Tour Vision virtual tour software and hosting allows me to show case my listings to potential clients selling their homes and the buyers looking for a home. Using sample and real tours on a CD that I hand out is a real plus setting me apart from other agents.

I became of full service dealer for Real Tour Vision in order to service my clients at a lower cost in the long run from hiring someone else to make the tours. My background in photography, marketing and sales has made this an easy transition. I transformed my marketing company to a Real Tour Vision dealer when I realized that offering virtual tours to the business community and other Realtors I work with would become a profit center while still working as a full time Realtor servicing my clients.

The current market for real estate has many doom and gloom prophets on the Internet, print media, and even within the real estate community. Let me share a story with you that show the power of professional marketing. Marketing is not selling, sales people do the selling, and marketing alerts prospects to the best of a product and entices them to contact the sales person.

I posted a tour on Real Tour Vision just prior to April 1, 2007 (the actual active listing date) and received 72 hits, 59 MLS hits and 8 fliers downloaded by April 27. Seven agents also visited Best Web Tour my Real Tour marketing website from the tour affiliate link. For a new home on the market this is a very good response as compared to what I see and hear in the local market. The marketing with the center point being a virtual tour brought in three times the amount of prospects to the open house and twice the number of agents showing the home, as compared to the normal market in the area.

You may have guessed it; the home is now in a pending sale status. Details of the pending sale cannot be given at this time, but further details when released can be found at 728 Clearview. I also have an additional site with a Real Tour Vision virtual tour at 7022 Flossmoor for your viewing pleasure and anyone looking for a home on a golf course.

When I hear agents say that virtual tours do not work, that they show things that should not be seen, and the dollars spent does not bring in prospects, I just have an internal laugh. My personal, professional and marketing experience tells me different! Homes on the market with a virtual tour will get additional traffic and it is up to the “sales” person to make the sale.

Stay tuned, as I will make additional posts of successful marketing using virtual tours in the current real estate market.

Contact Steve Knievel the “No Stunts Realtor” and owner of Best Web Tour
www.bestwebtour.com

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New look for the Real Tour Vision Blogging Grounds

The Real Tour Vision Blog went in for a face lift today and came out looking sharper than ever! At approximately 9:00 AM this morning our Blog went under the keyboard and awoke at 10:30 with a brand new look mirroring the Real Tour Vision 2007 corporate site. With nearly 100 posts in our rapidly growing virtual tour company Blog we felt it was time to shift gears. Dealers from all around the world are now publishing here so the Blog had to become a reflection of the company’s size and dedication to perfection and excellence. For all of you out there who read our Blog daily and contribute, thanks for your support. Enjoy!

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Do it Yourself Virtual Tours?

Times have changed; you knew it might come to this and hoped you would have retired before it was forced on you! Long-time Realtors are being asked to use our virtual tours as the flagship of their internet marketing...by their clients!

Fortunately, you don't have to "do it yourself." Surf MLS for a good chuckle by looking at the quality photos being posted. Would you put those on your own home? I doubt it. You'd call in a professional, because you want your home's first impression to outshine the competition.

You don't have to understand the internet. All you need to be able to do is place a listing on MLS and upload photos to it (or have someone do it for you ;). We do everything else.

We encourage Realtors to send our "tips" to clients prior to the shoot so that their home will have the best first impression, and the majority of homeowners "jump right in" to help.

Dawn Shaffer
www.allaboutvirtualtours.com

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PEW Research Stats

Here is an older PDF File full of stats relating to the virtual tour industry. It is from 2004 and the numbers are much higher now but still a great document to save in your archives to show the tremendous industry growth.

2004 Virtual Tour Research:
http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Virtual_tours_2004.pdf

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Virtual tour company - New Detroit Player!

Southeast Michigan - Real Vision Studio is becoming one of the major players in the Virtual Tour Market. When we decided to become tour providers in the SE Michigan market (Metro Detroit Area) we decided to use Real Tour Vision Technology, simply because it was and is the best! That's what keeps our customers coming back and keeps making our Virtual Tour client database grow. As of today, we are photographing 35 - 50 Virtual Tours a week, every week and it keeps growing. The bottom line is when you can give a customer a quality product at a reasonable price, the rest just happens. Thank you RTV for giving us the tools to help make our virtual tour company grow and the ability to provide our customers with such a great product.

Thank You
Michael Thompson
Real Vision Studio
www.RealVisionStudio.com

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Find your market

After a year of photographing Virtual Tours a couple things have become very clear. We started our Virtual Tour business from zero. There was one other person doing tours but they gave a whole new meaning to window blow out. After one year we hold 95% of the market only lousing out to those agents that are content on settling for the Slide Show Tours. (next project to take on).

What I have found, and all respect to Real Estate Agents my wife is one, they don’t like to spend the time nor possess the skills to photograph homes. Those that do, after a while appreciate the quality that we as Real Estate Photographers bring to the table. Having said this I find my best success for booking orders comes from just regular visits to the office. Find something new to share with them, offer to shot a piece of land for free. Help them with questions. I recently devoted most of my time to helping the agents understand how to put IDX compliant tours on our new MLS software. Over have the agents did not know what compliant meant. And the other group did not know how to cut and past. In short, when in doubt go for the low hanging fruit. Real Tour Vision Tours will sell themselves every time hands down.

David Shaw
www.realistic360tours.com

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Virtual Tour Production

I formed Round the Room virtual tours to provide local real estate professionals with quality virtual tours to better market their listings. I began in the Destin Florida area and have expanded to servicing Panama City to Pensacola. I am proud to help bring attention to the many outstanding properties available on the Emerald Coast.

I use Real Tour Vision software for producing my virtual tours. After my initial purchase of equipment, an inventory of virtual tours, and the production software, my costs are very affordable. The level of customer service provided by Real Tour Vision is outstanding. RTV offers a user friendly format that can easily be customized. Technical support has been quick and helpful. I would highly recommend Real Tour Vision to anyone considering producing multiple virtual tours.I would be happy to assist anyone considering producing virtual tours with Real Tour Vision. Please contact me for more information.

Producing your own virtual tours makes sense if you have the need for a large quantity of tours. Many real estate agents do not require enough tours to justify buying their own equipment. Some do not have the time, or just prefer to use a provider with more photography experience. Real Tour Vision has a national network of virtual tour providers capable of servicing accounts nationwide.


Joe Beane
www.roundtheroom.com

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Virtual Tours Are A Great Tool For Vacation Rentals

Virtual tours are quickly gaining popularity among real estate agents across the country. Vacation rental managers should not overlook this valuable marketing tool. Virtual tours of your rentals will not only draw potential renters, but will help to insure they rent again.

Having a website with virtual tours will enable potential renters to view their unit before they visit. A good tour should include all benefits of the rental. Proximity to local attractions, and amenities such as swimming pools, tennis courts, exercise facilities, and more should be included. This will enable your renters to to plan on visiting all you facility has to offer. Most importantly, this will get them excited about the vacation well in advance of arrival! Virtual tours can also be placed on rental websites for increased market visibility.

What about after the visit. Savvy rental managers can provide the renter with the tour on CD, or mailer invitation to view the tour on the website. The images will remind the renter of the great vacation, and all your rental had to offer. This will enable the renter to relive the vacation, and get excited about returning.

Joe Beane
RTV Virtual Tour Provider
360 Virtual Tours

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Is it “Snowing” Outside Your House?

As a real estate photographer and a virtual tour provider, I often peruse realtor.com and other sites where virtual tours and listing photos are posted to gage them against my own work and make sure that my offerings and services are of higher quality than that of my competitors.

One problem I notice again and again on the majority of pictures I view (both stills and panoramas) is “blown out” windows which make it look like a blizzard is raging outside! Since I’m not viewing listings in Antarctica, I know that this is actually because the photographer doesn’t know how to expose the scene for both inside and outside light.

The reason this happens, without launching into a full-scale lesson on dynamic range (the range between the darkest and lightest areas of a scene), is that exterior light (sunlight) streaming through a window is typically much brighter than the ambient light and/or the artificial lighting inside of a room. While the human eye is the most advanced lens on the planet and can adjust lighting levels so that you see more even lighting in a room, even the most expensive camera lenses don’t come close to duplicating this kind of dynamic range.

I live in Los Angeles and often shoot very expensive homes with great views of the beach or mountains, so it is very important for me to adequately capture the view. So, a few “tricks” are necessary to make sure that the end result is a scene or a photo where both the interior and the exterior are properly exposed.

First of all, choose your camera angles carefully. You can often choose camera angles that minimize window glare and still for the most part properly expose the interior. If you shoot a sunny window straight on (i.e. at a 90 degree angle) you will most certainly get a partial or total "wash out" if you expose for interior lighting. However move your tripod so that you are capturing that window from an angle of 10 or 15 degrees and voila!!

You can often capture the exterior scene with very little effect on the interior lighting (you may have to use the “dodge” tool for some minor tuning up around the window). Of course, you may have a window across the room that you are shooting straight on, so that may only solve your problem with one window. Also, sometimes we don’t have the luxury of total flexibility when choosing our interior angles due to room features, furniture or objects we are trying to shoot around. That’s when a little "Photoshoppery" comes into play. Yes, you’ll need a little bit of Photoshop knowledge to do this, and (duh) the Photoshop program itself.

There are a few ways to do this, but here’s what I do. First, you must have a camera that contains selectable metering spots or zones (not all do) and also you must use a tripod to match shots exactly. Also, if possible when lining up your shot, try to not have anything partially or totally in front of the window, because it may create problems for you later. When a window is partially or totally in the shot, you are going to capture two shots. First, expose for optimum interior lighting (the window will be partially or totally blown out to white). Next, without moving the camera, move the meter point so that it is exposing for the window. Immediately, the window scene comes into view while the rest of the room goes somewhat dark. You now have two identical shots, one with optimum exterior lighting and one that exposes the interior properly.

Repeat this process for all shots that include windows. Now, time for a little Photoshop magic! Open up Photoshop and pull up your duplicate shots. Now go to your picture where the window scene is optimum and push in pretty tight on it (200-300%) so you can be precise with your selection work. Now use the polygonal lasso tool (or if you have a more rounded or irregular shape to trace, the magnetic lasso tool) to trace the window. I usually trace outside the window frame, and then if necessary, use the “dodge” tool to lighten the frame up.

Now, select the “move” tool, which will automatically cutout your selection, and drag the window over to your “interior” picture. Push in again real close on this picture so you can place your window exactly where it should be on top of the “blown-out” window. Now flatten the layers of your image and VOILA, you have just “composited” an image!! You have a shot where both the interior and window scene are perfectly captured and exposed. If you are doing this for panoramas, I recommend stitching the scene first, once with the window shots and once with the interior shots and then compositing the resulting images. This is because if you choose to do it picture by picture before the stitch, you will find that you are often cutting out and replacing the same window twice or even three times due to the overlap of the pictures. If you are an RTV dealer and have any questions on this process, I’m glad to answer them personally, visit my website and drop me an email.

To Your Success,
Lawrence McBride
Virtually There Media
www.bevirtuallythere.com

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The Best Virtual Tour Needs Great Stills

Quality is a must when it comes to a product like Real Tour Vision virtual tours. Good still pictures are just as important as taking good panoramic images. I have noticed some tour track orders (National Accounts for Real Tour Vision), as well other tours have fuzzy stills. I have a feeling that many virtual tour providers are shooting their stills by hand. This may be ok for vacations but when it comes to shooting as a professional you should offer top quality stills. First of all, you need to make sure the camera is in focus. If the camera auto focus is not focusing well on a particular shot then use the manual focus mode and make sure the picture looks great. Next make sure that the camera is still and not shaking when the shutter is pressed. Property re-shoots are expensive so make sure to capture the images correctly the first time. Many digital cameras have either digital or mechanical image stabilization to aid in shooting. Do not rely solely on these features to shoot great stills.

The lighting conditions for virtual tours often force the camera’s shutter to stay open longer than normal to capture adequate light and if you are not 100% stable when you take the picture then your shot will come out fuzzy. The clearest pictures are taken using a tripod. When your camera is mounted on the tripod it sits completely stable and you are pretty much guaranteed to get a clear picture as far as stabilization goes. For the widest angle still the camera should be mounted horizontally, not vertically like when panorama photos are taken. If a tripod is too cumbersome for you to carry around the shoot or you would like something that is lighter and quicker to setup for each still shot then I would strongly suggest that you invest in a monopod.

A monopod is a single support leg that has a quick release plate that attaches to the bottom of your camera. The plate with the camera attached to it then locks in place on top of the monopod. The monopod stabilizes your camera from moving up and down and doesn’t require as much setup time as tripod does. You can extend the monopod out to the desired shooting height and you are ready to go. It has a light and slender design that makes it easy to carry from shot to shot. If you are interested you can search online for monopods. There are many different brands available but most will have the features listed above and would work for camera stabilization. Good luck on the still images and keep the great looking virtual tours coming!

By Ben Knorr
Real Tour Vision Lens Engineer

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Real Tour Vision Dealers Make More Money!

Did you know that all Real Tour Vision Dealers have the ability to resell our entire product line and earn perpetual sales commissions on their accounts? Do you have someone that wants to become a Real Tour Vision Dealer? Do you have a current client or a prospect in your area that might be interested in our national Tour Track System for their virtual tour requirements? Has anyone asked you if you could provide 3D Walkthroughs of a condominium complex that has not been built yet?

All these represent opportunities for you to earn extra money as part of Real Tour Vision's Referral and Reseller Programs. For more information and the latest policies and changes to these programs please visit your Real Tour Vision Tour Management system or if you are not yet a Real Tour Vision Dealer contact your sales representative right away.

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Real Estate Industry Stats

Here are some 2007 statistics that you might be interested in from the National Association of Realtors. www.realtor.org

- 84% of Realtors have personal website or plan to have one
- 77.1% of all Realtors own a digital camera
- Home sales are expected to top 7.7 million in 2007
- 173,281 Realtors own virtual tour software
- 228,836 Realtors plan to purchase digital cameras this year

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What A Real Estate Virtual Tour Should Be

I have been producing virtual tours in Destin and the Florida Panhandle for a couple of years. As my virtual tour business has grown, I have put a lot of thought into what makes a good real estate virtual tour. When a buyer or buyer's agent begins searching the Internet for a home, they usually start with criteria such as sq. feet, number of beds and baths, etc.. The nest step is to narrow the search by photos. The need for a good quality photo representation is crucial for the seller at this point. The search has now been narrowed to the point when a good virtual tour will set your listing apart from the competition. The lack of a virtual tour could also make your listing invisible, if the search has been limited to listings with virtual tours.

I strive to make my virtual tours as all-inclusive as possible. The viewer should be able to see all aspects of the property from the tour. When this is successfully achieved, the potential buyer should be able to make their decision, and only require a physical visit to inspect the fine details. Buyers are able to narrow their search to 1 or 2 properties, or better yet, fall in love with their dream home before ever visiting the actual property. For this reason, I do not limit the number of panoramic or still images incorporated into my virtual tours. I feel it is necessary to include every aspect of the property.

Joe Beane
RTV Virtual Tours
Virtual Home Tours

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