Spread The Word

I've had many businesses in my life time, but none that I've enjoyed more than making Virtual Tours, and what makes it more enjoyable is working with a GREAT company that is on top of everything. Their staff is always there when you need them with the best customer service you can find. Knowing that if you have an issue or a problem they will take the time to help you solve it quickly is very reassuring.

We are like a big family in Real Tour Vision. Virtual tour providers from all over the world are in constant communication with each other through the inside Real Tour Vision dealer forum and inside there we share tips and tricks of the trade with each other to make sure we knock out the competition and stay ahead in the race. It's just great!!

I believe this person in Indiana was very happy with what I said to him and very soon we will see him showing us his 360 virtual tours and leadership within our great network.


Thank You

Claudia Jaramillo
Perfect ImagesTreasure Coast Virtual Tours
www.360perfectimages.com
772-532-4860
info@360perfectimages.com

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CirclePix Virtual Tour VS The B

Okay, so I'm sure some of you in major markets have had the question, "So how do you compare to CirclePix virtual tours?" Well, price IS certainly a factor, but take a look at this example and price suddenly no longer becomes part of the conversation.

What do I mean? Well, recently BakerB Solutions had a "summer shutdown" to let all of our people have a vacation. One of our clients hired CirclePix virtual tour photographer during this time. Upon the completion of shutdown, we received an order from them with the following in the comments section of the order: "VT done by CirclePix during shutdown - CirclePix Virtual Tour is no good! MUST HAVE it replaced with BakerB VT ASAP!"

After completing the "redo" of this property I discovered that, while the property is certainly a challenge to do a premium tour, the CirclePix tour lacked some basic elements of a good 360 tour (regardless of the subject). Here are just a few examples of what I found:

1) The broker's name was not spelled correctly, they called it "Llewellyn Real Estate" when it is actually "Llewellyn Realtors"

2) The street name was spelled as "Briar Wood Terrace" when the actual street is "Briarwood Terrace"

3) The front shot highlights the dead tree stump in the front yard. It is fairly unavoidable, but look at the BakerB/RTV tour and you will see how the interface allows us to "crop" that portion of the image out.

4) Just take a look at the bathroom shots in the CirclePix virtual tour. Is that what you would expect after paying $120?

For more examples, do a side by side comparison for yourself, and you will see why our client demanded our virtual tour replace the the CirclePix tour.

**Note: Please note that while our tour was done on an overcast day after some rainfall (per the agent's urgent request), we were still able to get "light" into the rooms by overexposing some shots. The CirclePix tour was done late in the day/early evening.

See the Baker B Virtual Tour Powered by Real Tour Vision HERE


See the CirclePix Virtual Tour HERE


YOU DECIDE!

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

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Ready Set Tour

After my official “go live” date of 1 September 07, I will be using the Pay Per Click Advertising service offered through Rock Pointe Marketing to further improve my site’s visibility. And, of course, I will continue to contribute to this blog, which is having some amazing results so far! My goal is to have a Page Rank of at least a “3” and be on the first page of Google’s results inside of six months. Locally, I want to be THE go-to website for real estate listings and virtual tours in Oklahoma. As one of only two RTV Full Service Dealers in the entire state, ( and nearly no other competition) I think I’ve got a pretty good shot!

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Quality Virtual Tours Do Sell Homes

For all my fellow REALTORS(r) – and specifically listing agents:

Interesting thing happened to me on my way to show some homes. As I perused our local MLS searching for listings to show my buyers, I came to the realization that 360 virtual tours actually do sell homes. Perhaps, I should qualify that – QUALITY virtual tours actually do sell homes (funky virtual tours and slide shows do a listing an injustice.

O.K, granted, I didn't have quite the epiphany I describe above, since I must admit I have come to this realization before. Moreover, I understand, too, that once you know that I'm a real estate agent as well as a virtual tour provider you may think my positive view towards virtual tours a rather biased one. I'd need to stop you right there, though. Providing a virtual tour for each one of your listings is a no-brainer. When you look at the sheer numbers, and I swear it seems to go up a percentage point each month, there's no disputing the fact that more buyers start their home search on-line than not. The actual figure was way past 70% at last glance. That's a phenomenal amount of prospective buyers out there in cyberspace searching in earnest for their next home. I know this to be true since I work with buyers on a daily basis; they are extremely tech-savvy and ever searching.

So, here's the deal – with my market experiencing a buyer's market, there is entirely too much inventory to focus my searches on listings with no pictures, let alone no 360 virtual tour. And interesting thing is, my buyers feel the same way. The fact is that houses with the most pictures will generate the most interest and will get the most showings while those listings that have no pictures will get placed at the very bottom of the "to see" list at warp speed.

Case in point – on a recent weekend, I showed 31 houses to a buyer who was only in town (from Japan, I kid you not) for an extended weekend. There was absolutely no interest on his part in seeing anything without pictures (and believe it or not, there were many). Imagine if your picture-less listing was on our list and, therefore, at the bottom of the 54 that met his search parameters. What's the likelihood of him seeing your listing? You don't think he would've found his dream home among the previous 53? (His better half was searching homes from Japan on the internet and directed us to physically see the home they actually closed on last month. BTW, I just happened to do the virtual tour on it! I didn't tell them until settlement, though.)

All that to say, the buyers market that we are experiencing right now will absolutely separate the wheat from the chaff. It's time for you to be the best listing agent you can be, pull out your bag of tricks, rev up your marketing, call your virtual tour provider, and get your listings sold. Spend the marketing dollars necessary to get your listings in front of all those web-browsing buyers, then experience the return on your investment many-fold.



Lanette Branch
Lanette Branch Virtual Tours

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Think Verticals!

So who do you sell your virtual tours to: real estate agents and brokers? Who else? No one yet? Well, that's not a surprise really. Most virtual tour businesses are focused on the residential real estate side of the business. But just think of all the other possibilities...

As BakerB Solutions branched into a totally different market place we discovered that there is a lot more opportunity to make larger dollar (or Euro) deals with other types of tours. Specifically, in Europe, residential real estate is a difficult target market. However, Hospitality, Travel, Shopping and other non-conventional tours are where the money is. The typical 360 virtual tour can range from 500EU to 1000EU (which is around $650 to $1350). But the sales cycle is also much different. In the European market we have had to create "Practice Tours" to "show" our prospective clients what they can expect. The sale is much more of an educational sale on the capability as virtual tours are not as pervasive in that market.

The upside is larger deals that can lead to nice revenue. In fact BakerB Solutions has secured one Q19 shopping mall as a client. We have also secured an Interspar super market. And now we are talking about doing all 14 of the Q19 shopping mall locations and doing all European Interspar grocery stores as the company expands into other countries such as Croatia. The implication is huge! How are we selling this? Well a shopping mall has many stores. And the manager responsible with filling all of the spaces doesn't always have time to travel to Spain or France to meet with clients. So we can give them the opportunity to present all the spaces available in a virtual tour. We can even change the tour as spaces are consumed or open up, or for Holidays like Christmas, Easter or even Oktoberfest. Each time we redo a spin it only costs 100EU. And that is a lot less expensive than spending hours walking through malls figuring out that a space will not work for a prospective tenant.

Oh...and on a recent trip to Vienna, Austria, I met with a general manager of the Interspar grocery store. We talked about adding their weekly sales flyer to the virtual tour for as little as 35EU per week. This is a simple upload of a PDF to the tour as a "Brochure" link. Although we might need to look into other options there, but the idea is sound. Each mall represents great opportunity for recurring revenue if you think outside the box and how you can help to satisfy a need. And as a side benefit, we recommended that the store put something in their print flyer that directed people to the virtual tour for more information on specials and coupons. After all, it costs money to print and mail, but an online flyer can be as big as you want! So instead of spending $25,000 each week mailing something to 120,000 people, reduce the size of the mailing (not the quantity) and push people to the tour. The side benefit is that everyone will see what we are doing and other businesses start to think about how BakerB Solutions can help them too!

As a result, we have put together an EU site for all of our prospects over seas. If you haven't been to Europe, you might get a kick out of these tours and maybe even some ideas on how you might be able to bring in some extra deals. Just visit us at www.bakerb.eu and browse our sample tours! And be sure to send us your feedback at eu@bakerb.com!

Alex Saenger
Baker B Solutions
www.bakerb.com

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Word of Mouth

I've done presentations, fliers, cards, emails; all the advertising out there, but the best and more efficient advertising is word of mouth. Word of mouth has been Perfect Images best advertising campaign. And what makes this work?, Being always on top of the game. Working with a company that is always up-to-date with the latest virtual tour software and offer the best customer service out there. In the last couple of months Perfect Images has received over 10 new orders from customers that have heard about our company and the efficiency with what we work, and they have been all recommended by other Realtors. This is only possible with the support of a company like Real Tour Vision.

I am very excited about all the new services Real Tour Vision is offering to us virtual tour providers so that we in return can offer to our customers. We can now offer floor plans with our tours and with the new TMS system. We can now offer a much faster 360 virtual tour turnover time here in the Treasure Coast and much more is on the way. All of this combined gives the Real Tour Vision provider the very best in virtual tour technology at a faster pace than ever before.

We get a lot of compliments for our tours, but the best part of it is that we work with a company that is always there for us and is always improving its technology so we can be the number one virtual tour company!

Best decision I have ever made! Real Tour Vision thank you for your support.

Claudia Jaramillo
Perfect Images
Virtual Tours of the Treasure Coast
www.360perfectimages.com
info@360perfectimages.com
772-532-4860

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Simple Solutions for Today's Online Marketers

I am brand new to the virtual tour software. I am a Realtor, and had six new listings to do virtual tours on. After looking at the cost involved to pay someone else to do my virtual tour, I would be better off purchasing the software myself to do my own since I have enough free time to do my own. At first I was a little hesitant as to if I would be successful. My concern was soon gone when I went through the training session on using Real Tour Vision virtual tour software. They were able to walk me through the 360 tour software, giving me the confidence I could do this.

Virtual tours are becoming necessary with today’s market. We as Realtor's are becoming not only Realtors, but also a marketing agent. With a lot of buyer’s relocating across this great country, with the use of virtual tours, families are able to see and make decisions about the biggest event in their life, with less stress and more confidence.

One of my clients was being transferred from Toronto, Canada. He would bring his video camera to record the homes we went through to show his family upon his return home. Well needless to say, the videos were very hard to show a true picture. The homes with virtual tours were much more true pictures. The home that was finally decided to purchase was the home I had listed with a 360 virtual tour.

Thank you Real Tour Vision for being there for agents in needed of a usable product. I look forward to the future updates and the magic of the virtual tours in the future.

Dan Hammar
Remerica Country Homes
Detroit Area Realtor
www.remerica.com

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Got Memory?

Hi Guys and Gals! I just wanted to share a quick tip with you that was given to me be by our good ol friend, Panorama Jack at Real Tour Vision. I've been using the Real Tour Vision virtual tour software dealer since June, 2004. I bought my laptop (HP Pavilion) about the same time. It came with 512mb of RAM. At the time I was using an Olympus C-5060 and taking my pictures for spins on 1280 X 960 (about 1mb each). It was taking approximately 2.5 to 5 minutes to stitch a full 360 spin. Not ridiculously slow, but still drove me nuts having to wait that long.

Recently I purchased a new camera (FujiFilm S6000fd) recommended by Ben, Jason and Mike and Joy Thompson www.realvisionstudio.com . The new camera requires that I take my pictures on 1600 X 1200. When trying to stitch spins using the new camera it was taking me approximately 5 to 8 minutes per 360 spin! Now that was enough to drive me over the edge! Stitching a 6 or 7 spin tour was running an additional 20 to 30 minutes!

Finally broke down and bought some more memory (1GB or SODIMM) for $119. It effectively increased my RAM from 512MB to 1.280GB because I had to remove one of the existing 256MB cards. It was very easy to install and WOW what a difference!! I can stitch a 360 spin about one minute! SWEEEET! I wish I would have done this years ago! Just wanted to throw this out there for those of you getting frustrated like I was....Go buy some memory!

Dan McAllister
First Coast 360
Virtual Tours First Coast
www.FirstCoast360.com
Ranked #1 on Google and Yahoo for "Virtual Tours FirstCoast"

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Starting Our Virtual Tour Business

We started our Virtual Tour business in a relatively small market in Montana.

The virtual tour business took right off after our initial marketing campaign. Our repeat business is sensational. Many of our Real Estate clients have ordered at least multiple virtual tours monthly. In the past 2 months real estate sales have slowed drastically but we remain quite busy.

However we have found a market that gets really “jazzed” when they see what our interactive virtual tours can do for their business (lodging industry).

In just 2 months we have produced Virtual Tours for (2) of the most popular resorts in Montana.

We are excited about our future as a Real Tour Vision dealer!



Monte Jenkins
www.e-visiontours.com

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The POWER of the Virtual Tour

This Blog is for Real Estate Agents who want to have the POWER of the Virtual Tour in their corner. [say the word POWER like Darth Vader].

What slump in Michigan? Mom [Carol Gillentine] and I are experiencing a huge upswing in sales here in SE Michigan. Why? Buyers are saying it's because of our 360 Virtual Tours.

We had a Buyer of a home on Brittany St in Canton tell us she had never seen a more complimentary Virtual Tour. Why? Because WE had the power to go back 2 times to re-shoot 3 rooms [the Dining Room, the Living Room, and the Kitchen]. We had the POWER to get it right.

I'm not saying that any of our esteemed VT Vendors would not re-shoot a few rooms if asked.

But when a Real Estate Agent has the camera, the Stick, and the Base in her hands, then that Agent has the POWER to do it herself. I readily encourage Real Estate Agents to create and take the pictures for their own Virtual Tours.


Gena Giannuzzi
Real Estate Professional
Keller Williams Realty - Plymouth
www.genasdreamhomes.com

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Improving the Virtual Tour Experience

Take the next step in the virtual tour experience and add an interactive aspect. Some virtual tour providers allow comments or recorded voice-overs to guide viewers through a non-interactive presentation. But, if you added an interactive aspect to it, you now get the complete package. So, why not add interactive hotspots on the tour and allow viewers to become immersed in their ‘own’ interactive tour of the home? With a simple point-and-click of a mouse, viewers can ‘walk’ from the kitchen to the family room.

Not only do you give potential buyers full control over their own ‘personal tour’ of the home, but you can also allow them to hear a professional pre-recorded informational message highlighting key features of the home. Want to see it? Just point-and-click!


The pivotal key to any business is the ability to bring in customers and keep them happy. Giving your potential clients the ability to not only view, but also ‘control’ their own tours gives you the ability to ‘personally’ introduce homes while allowing clients to ‘walk’ through the home at their leisure. Once they find their dream-home, the next step is to refer their friends! The question is, to whom will they refer them?

Cheryl Waller
TreasureCoastSolutions.com
Treasure Coast Virtual Tours

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Glass Half Full

I have been a fan of watching the news for many years now and am aware of how certain issues can be spun. There are many important issues being reported in the news lately, including one subject of interest to me; the housing market. It seems to me that we are only getting one side of the story.


Now I haven't been accused of being a glass half full person by any means, but it occurred to me as I added my third new Realtor(R) client in a month, that maybe things aren't as bad as the news is reporting.

I began to ask my clients how the market was. Much to the contrary of the national news reports, all but one real estate agent told me the market wasn't what it was 3 years ago, but homes were selling and buyers were out there. The buyers were just a bit more particular about the properties they were buying. All of them said it is now a buyer's market.


This buyers market should be considered an opportunity to sell our tours. We provide the first look most buyers will get at a property and with a buyer's market; the property needs to make a great first impression, especially with a near record number of listings in many areas of the
country.

One of my clients pointed out that the market they had 3-5 years ago was a booming market, not a normal market and a lot of Realtors got spoiled by the line of impatient buyers and full price plus offers. He explained that the market we are now in is a little slow, but is expected to grow steadily,this according to the NAR (National Association of Realtors).

Remember there are always two sides to every story and the housing market is no different. This is a great time to be a virtual tour provider with all of the homes on the market. Many real estate agents may have tight marketing budgets, but with a strong tour portfolio and a little salesmanship, you can take advantage of this buyer's market.

Curt Richard
Launch Marketing
www.321Launch.net

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Extended Camera Warranties

RTV offers camera warranties for any camera purchased from Real Tour Vision for only $100. The warranty covers the camera for 3 years and the broken camera will either be repaired or replaced, no questions asked. So what are the pros and cons to getting an extended warranty?

Pros
• The warranty is cheap insurance at only a fraction of the cost of the camera.
• 3 years coverage no questions asked.
• If anything happens to your camera it is fixed or replace for only
hundred dollars instead of paying $400 plus for a new camera.

Cons
• If you don’t use the warranty your out your $100.

If you figure that you spent $400 or more on your camera and would spend about that much to replace the camera if it broke then a $100 warranty is a great deal for 3 years of coverage but how likely is it that you will need to have your camera fixed?

The shutters on a Canon Digital Rebel are rated for 50,000 cycles. This means that you should be able to take 50,000 pictures before you start having problems with the camera. For the standard consumer the average number of pictures taken a year is about 900 photos. At this rate we can see that the shutters on this camera will last the average consumer about 50 years. As Tour Builders we use our cameras much more heavily. It is our livelihood. If you factor that you shoot at least 4 pans (at 12 pictures per pan) and 10 stills per tour you are shooting 58 pictures per tour not including retakes and additional pictures. Now if you shoot only 4 tours per day for 5 days a week you are taking 1160 pictures. This is still not shooting any extra pictures for retakes. Now in 51 weeks, leaving you a week for vacation, you will have taken 59,160 pictures. At the Canon Digital Rebels duty cycle of 50,000 cycles there is a very good chance your camera may last you only a year. The Canon 20D has a duty cycle of 100,000 cycles which allows us a twice as many pictures and at the current rate of use we would reach the rated number of cycles in about a 1 year and 7 months. In light of this information I would recommend the warranty.

I know that this information is only based on the duty cycle of the shutters and there are many other things that can go wrong with a digital camera such as the LCD screen dying, the card slot stops working, etc. What I am trying to get us to think about is the fact that we use cameras at a much higher rate than most cameras are designed to handle. The warranties can help to greatly offset the cost of getting a new camera or getting your current camera fixed, due to the extra wear and tear they get from our high rate of use.


Ben Knorr
Real Tour Vision Lens Engineer
Real Tour Vision
Northern Michigan Virtual Tours

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The Big 200 Mark

The Real Tour Vision virtual tour company blog has hit the 200 mark! That’s right everyone, we now have over 200 virtual tour industry related articles and stories from all around the world from within our virtual tour company blog. Not only does this give the world a tremendous wealth of information regarding the virtual tour industry it also shows the world just how large and powerful the Real Tour Vision dealer is.

The Real Tour Vision blog along with our dealer network and technology continues to get stronger with every day. We are very excited to hit the 200 mark and hope that all of you out there have been able to make connections and utilize the information within this blog to your benefit. A very big RTV thanks to all of you who are demonstrating leadership within the network. Keep up the great work.

Have a great weekend using your new TMS!!!!
www.realtourvision.com
We have the technology....and the network.

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We LOVE the new Tour Manager!!!

RTV – We just uploaded our first tour with our new virtual tour management system – it’s FABULOUS – very simple to walk through (well, I did use the info you sent to help me, to make sure I did it correctly).

VERY WELL DONE – thank you for making our business up to date, user friendly and allowing us to stay AHEAD of the competition – we appreciate you.

Paul and Jane

locally owned and operated offering Austin Virtual Tours and digital marketing services. As a Digital Marketing company featuring effective and value priced marketing solutions including Virtual Tours, Media Exposure and Mobile Web Sites we offer unequaled property marketing solutions. As a centrally located AUSTIN TEXAS Virtual Tour Company we also support the communities of the Texas Coastal Bend with our virtual tours, and all of Texas with our Media Exposure and Mobile Web Site products.

We are dedicated to providing our clients with high quality, cost effective products with an emphasis on customer service. Our Internet Marketing includes full utilization of cutting edge digital text marketing, virtual tours, video tours, and the usage of our Turbo Charged Media Exposure Engine to create visibility of our clients properties to prospects around the world by harnessing the power of the internet.

Alan Fon

Austin Virtual Tours

http://www.IslandDigitalImages.com
Local - (361) 749-0901

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Virtual Tour Management System 2.0 Now Live

Nearly one year ago seven new engineers came through the doors of Real Tour Vision, looked under the hood to see what the future had in store for them. What they saw was a system built upon several servers, performing hundreds of operations, written in 1999 by eight previous engineers no longer on staff and in multiple programming languages. It would not be easy to condense the existing system down to one universal platform allowing for a more scalable environment for all future updates. With over 1000 active providers in 24 countries the task would not be easy to go from start to finish with minimal down time and disruptions for the existing network. The new team smiled and signed up for the challenge of a lifetime.

In August of 2006 they began to stride forward with confidence and coding agility Real Tour Vision had never seen before. The entire time with one common goal running through their mind; they would deliver each and every Real Tour Vision provider the very best in virtual tour technology at a faster pace than ever before once a new foundation was in place. Real Tour Vision would not only have the largest network, they would deliver the best technology.

To date the new Real Tour Vision engineering team has not only picked up the ball and began to run, they are stampeding towards the finish line with what will be single-handedly the biggest accomplishment in Real Tour Vision history; the delivery of TMS 2.0. TMS 2.0 is the framework from which all virtual tours are deployed from. It is the backbone of our architecture and it is where all virtual tour back office work takes place. Without a solid TMS, RTV would simply be another shelf product on the market unable to withstand any amount of volume ordering.

To date Real Tour Vision has the World's largest active virtual tour photographer network and we stand together today to salute our new engineering team for the accomplishments they have made in their first year with us. A new virtual tour layout was first on their list to keep our virtual tours looking competitive in the marketplace. Next, the new Real Tour Vision corporate website was launched and to date it ranks higher than any other virtual tour software or virtual tour company website in the world. When Real Tour Vision decided that it was best to take our dealer website development in house the new engineering team did not falter and had a brand new template based system up and running inside of 20 days. The integration of our new flash viewer now permits anyone and everyone to view our virtual tours worldwide. Accomplishment after accomplishment the Real Tour Vision system continues to grow and respond to the needs of the virtual tour providers all over the world.

From everyone at Real Tour Vision and the new engineering staff we would all like to thank you, our virtual tour dealers and providers, for your patience and continued dedication and support throughout the programming of TMS 2.0. We hope that you all love the new interface as much as we do and we also hope you are ready for the battery of great and amazing updates that are still to come this year at Real Tour Vision.

Thank you!
www.realtourvision.com

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Virtual Tours and Real Estate Marketing

Today people are so busy that they don’t have time to do anything. Between job, volunteer, and home responsibilities, people have limited time to complete even the smallest of tasks. From bill management to real estate searches, everything they do is done online. In fact, the Real Estate profession is coming into its own when it comes to 360 virtual tours.

Marketing real estate is not an easy job, especially when people are trying to juggle personal and professional responsibilities in the shadow of having to move. Just ten years ago, the only ‘shopping’ options for those in the market for a new home were limited to a review of still pictures of houses with limited written descriptions, followed by actual visits to dozens of properties. Having an interactive virtual tour in your marketing strategy brings a whole new level to the industry.

Look at your local competition’s marketing strategy. Do they consistently offer virtual tours for all of their listings? If more real estate companies provided virtual tours of homes for sale, then they would increase their sales exponentially. The use of virtual tours not only helps potential buyers narrow down the homes they want to see but it also helps to free up the real estate agent’s time. Agents can use virtual tours not only as lead generators for future listings, but also to weed out people who are not interested in some homes that the agent may have otherwise spent time introducing them to in person. Potential buyers have 24 hour access to all of the agent’s listings and when they finally call the real estate agent, they have a list of the houses they want to see up close. Less showings? Yes. More productive time management? Definitely.

Cheryl Waller
TreasureCoastSolutions.com
Treasure Coast Virtual Tours

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SOLD! Sight Unseen....Physically

In an internet driven world consumers are looking to purchase online and virtual tours are extremely important to their selection.

Recently, my clients sold their condo based on my virtual tour and photos alone.

This 360 virtual tour helped their condo stand out amongst the many others on the market.

Both the seller and the buyer benefited from the tour as one party was in Hawaii and the other in California. The Buyer purchased the condo without ever setting foot on the property.

To view the tour go to: www.FairwayVillasCondo.info

My clients were so thankful that they treated me to lunch at the Marriott on the beach. Well, I’ll never turn down a free meal especially after receiving a paycheck! Thanks again to Real Tour Vision and their incredible virtual tour software for providing the best system on the globe.

Aloha from the Big Island of Hawaii,
Brent Williams
Hawaiian Virtual Tours
www.HawaiianVirtualTours.com

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Haunted 360 Virtual Tours

Three years ago I signed up with Real Tour Vision with the idea of developing a web site featuring virtual tours of my favorite Southwestern Colorado ghost towns. I learned the virtual tour software and bought 30 virtual tour credits. Two weeks ago I completed my 28th ghost town virtual tour and sent an e-mail blast to my personal mailing list telling everyone that http://www.hauntedattimberline.com was complete. July brought the heaviest traffic to the site so far, with an average of 30 visitors a day and a total of nearly 8500 hits. August is off to an even stronger start.


At first I made the mistake of taking all the photos in my spins at a reduced pixel resolution. I figured I could get more spins on a single memory card and that the additional detail wouldn’t matter because the photos are reduced in size for the tours anyway. But I should have taken them all at the full 5 Megapixel capacity of my camera. I found that oftentimes, after I looked at the spins, I could create great still images just by stitching together a couple of the 12 images used to create a spin. At the reduced pixel rate I lost too much resolution for full-sized images. So somewhere around my 10th tour I got another large memory card and started shooting all the spins at full resolution. Some of my best stills have come from the spins.

Another mistake I made early on was doing too many spins. Just two or three great spins of the best ghost town remains have the greatest impact. There is plenty of detail in these deserted buildings and streets, and you don’t want a lot of icons interfering with the picture content. When you have such a wonderful “field” of data, there’s no point in trying to capture too much. Just capture the best.


At some of the ghost towns I also took video and created short “video tours” of mines, old houses and brief walks around town. You access most of these by clicking on an icon from within the virtual tour. Looking back, I should have spent time creating more of these. The virtual tour provides the “big picture” of the town, and the videos allow you to “zoom in” and really explore the details with a related technology (though you lose control of the navigation with a video). I haven’t tried using Flash video yet, but it looks like RTV now lets you combine a virtual tour with Flash video, which opens some interesting possibilities. Flash video provides a lot of resolution in a small amount of bandwidth.

So far I’ve only done a single virtual tour for a real estate client, but I haven’t pushed for lots of clients yet. I have a full time computer job that keeps me really busy. But I plan on ramping that business soon.

Brad Harrison
Timberline Virtual Tours
www.timberlinemultimedia.com

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A Day in the Life of a Virtual Tour Provider

Often times Realtors(r) don’t attend the shoots for virtual tours because they trust our judgment. This is perfectly fine with us if the owner is home. Homeowners (99% of the time) cooperate by following our “tour preparation tips” and staying out of view of the camera. They are curious about the virtual tour process and share any concerns they may have (will you make sure to show THIS?)

Recently a homeowner explained they are moving out of the area shortly. They had found a stager to investigate the cost. It was extremely expensive, and they were disappointed this would not be an option.

I asked if they had been offered partial staging, and the homeowner explained they were told “all or nothing.” I’ve seen partial staging so I know it can be done, and I supplied them with contact information of 4 stagers in our greater metro area.

At the next virtual tour appointment, the homeowner had followed our “tips” and the house was spotless. We recommended rearranging the living room furniture somewhat to make it feel more open, suggested moving a couple of items out of the way which would have distracted the viewer, and adjusting blinds so that they were at the best angle. Homeowners seem to appreciate that we are not in-and-out “in a heartbeat” want the home to look its best.

We are all about creating masterpiece virtual tours which will help sell your listings because like you, we want to develop long-lasting, repeat business relationships.

Dawn Shaffer
Virtual Tours

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Baker B's 1000th Virtual Tour Camera Blowout

I absolutely love my Olympus C-7070 for taking virtual tours. It is light weight and compact for the results it produces. And it is a powerhouse camera producing crisp images with a long lasting battery life. But what happens when you stress out a compact zoom to its limit? BOOM - the flash blows! It scared the crap out of me with an explosion merely inches from my eye ball! Yup, finally happened to me this past week. But realistically its not like I didn't see it coming - after all, on that camera I have probably shot over 1,000 virtual tours with shots blasting out one after the other non-stop, and most using the flash.

So if you add in that each tour captures at least 100 photos with 1000 tours, that's roughly 100,000 photos taken with that flash. Now I'm no light bulb scientist, but if you stress out any bulb that hard and nearly every day, its bound to blow. And it did. Luckily I had taken all 5 tours for the day and only had 1 panoramic and 2 stills left to take. I simply set up the camera on the tripod and used existing light. But what would have been better is to have an external flash! So now my hand is forced to have one. But realistically I am glad. The external flash gives much more control of the lighting with angles and also has a separate power supply. Sure the camera will not be as nimble, but at least I had my camera up and operational the next day. Although I do have other cameras as backups.

The moral of the story is use the flash on your camera as a backup, not the primary flash. Then if your external flash runs out of juice or breaks during a shoot, you at least have the built-in flash as a backup.

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

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The RTV Network Shares the Best Marketing Ideas

I am a new Real Tour Vision dealer but not new to business in general. Previous experience told me that marketing was the key. I learned a great technique in the Tour Talk Newsletter called the "subtle tour" (Devised by Panorama Jack himself I do believe). Those of you privy to the Real Tour Vision newsletters and insider network tips know all about this!! This is at once good marketing and a way to help promote the local community.

I had a couple of obvious scenes finished (public square, etc.) and then I decided to pay a visit to the local Chamber of Commerce to see if they had any ideas for scenes that I hadn't thought of.

Little did I know that the Director of Operations and the Membership Coordinator had just finished a conversation about how they could offer a value-added service to their Real Estate agent members. In fact they had been discussing the issue off and on for several weeks.

When I walked in and announced that I had started a virtual tour business and began describing the subtle tour. . .well let's just say they were excited to no end! My timing couldn't have been better.

They immediately hired me to create a tour of the Chamber office

Virtual Tour of Chamber of Commerce

And as "luck" would have it the Director's house was for sale and on the market. The listing agent was a family member of the director in this case and I was also asked to shoot that property. Since this was my first 360 virtual tour I added extra scenes just to show all the great RTV virtual tour software features. Now I can't wait to finish my subtle tour.

The clients were delighted with the quality of the 360 tours. The RTV system has all the tools I needed to create impressive virtual tours right away. I have also learned much through the community on the dealer forums. There is a wealth of knowledge there about everything from how to shoot better photos to how to better serve customers. I just hope I can repay the favor and pay it forward as I learn the craft.


Thanks RTV!


Brett Weaver
SpotLight Virtual Tours
http://www.spotlightvt.com

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Raising the Bar with Image Editing

I've recently started experimenting with exporting my pans into Photo Shop (PS) before adding them to my virtual tour. After exporting and saving, I click cancel, then add the spin later as an image, when I'm finished editing. I spend so much time editing and perfecting my still photos; brightening, color, contrast etc....why wouldn't I do the same for my spins?! I know, I know..it takes more time, but...it's worth it.

I have a favorite button in PS. It's the shadow highlight button. All those dark corners and far away rooms just come alive with a click of the mouse! And the overly bright skies are toned down and deepened. Although, a few extra flashes on tripods set in inconspicuous areas would work even better, but this works great for my current budget.

I use a Panasonic FZ 50 with a wide angle (WA) conversion lens and an external flash. I find with the WA lens on, my images tend to be a bit...lifeless. Almost dull or flat. That's when I fire up PS. First I hit the shadow/ highlight.... till it looks close to like it did through my eyes, then I bump up the contrast and saturation a bit and finally go into DCE Tools and correct any perspective or distortion issues and finally bump up the exposure. I never have felt the need to correct any perspective or lens distortion with the pans though...not sure why, they just don't seem to need it?

Here is a recent tour with every pan and still edited with the above mentioned steps .

PHOTO EDITED 360 VIRTUAL TOUR

I will continue to pursue excellence within my tour building abilities and my photography, because that's what keeps clients coming back for more!

Thanks RTV!

Linda Sabiston
First Impression 360° Virtual Tours and Photography
www.firstimpressionphotos.com

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One Hour Production and 120 Virtual Tours Later

It seemed so far away but it happened in only a few months. So far my company, "Perfect Images" has done 120 360 virtual tours! We've done virtual tours for 42 Realtors(r) in 20 real estate companies, some commercial business and 10 for sale by owners. Does this make us experts on Virtual Tours? I believe it does. I remember the days when our first virtual tours would take us about two to three hours to finish. Of course, it did not take us very long at all to bring our virtual tour creation time down to one hour or less. I am talking about the whole process of taking the photos, photo stitching the images together, compressing, hot spotting, exporting high resolution images for print and publishing to the Real Tour Vision servers.

Taking the pictures takes approximately 30 minutes and the rest of the processing with the virtual tour software takes about another 30 minutes or less. The new TMS that Real Tour Vision is releasing tomorrow allows for INSTANT approval process of our virtual tours, agents and owners so there is even more time that we will be saving on our virtual tour production.

You know, that what's so great about working with a company like Real Tour Vision. The process is simple and fast. Their customer service is outstanding, and for that reason we can guarantee our customers the links the same day of the photo shoot! Isn't that incredible?

It's amazing the horror stories I here about other virtual tour companies. Some take a whole week to send the links out and some just don't do it at all.

Real Tour Vision is an example of what a virtual tour company should be, outstanding customer service and a pioneer in virtual tour technology. I see myself and my company being a part of Real Tour Vision for a very long time. Great Job Real Tour Vision!



Claudia Jaramillo
Perfect Images
Treasure Coast Virtual Tour Provider
www.360perfectimages.com

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Rock Out With Your Pod Out

Attention RTV Dealers...DO YOU ROCK OUT??

One of the first tours I did, the Realtor(r) unlocked this huge home, turned on some music, and let me "work my magic." Here I was in my socks (I always take my shoes off when I go into homes...it's a Northwest custom). I whistled... I danced... and put together a hot tour!

The other day I was on the phone with another RTV dealer (hi, Linda!) talking shop, and this very subject came up. She laughed out loud and said that she does her best work when she listens to music, and that she thinks she's going to put her IPOD on (I think that's what she said) and get to work. She said that she it would probably discourage people from disturbing her during the photo shoot. She would not be able to hear them anyway. In my case, they would stay away because I whistle LOUD!

Whistling while you work or having some music going does tend to influence the creative side of your brain that you use during your photo shoots. Are there others in the RTV network doing this? We would love to know.

Dawn Shaffer
Real Tour Vision Provider

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The Impact of Virtual Tours on the Commercial Industry

Virtual Tours are a necessary investment in the world of travel. Think about it, If customers and potential vacationers could see what your hotels look like before planning their vacation it would make choosing your hotel much easier. On the majority of hotel websites, there are pictures of the rooms but they only show the sleeping area and not the rest of the room. If there were virtual tours of the rooms it would allow potential travelers to get a virtual in-person view of your accommodations.

Another profitable addition would be to add 360 virtual tours or still shots of the local area. Suppose that someone were to plan a vacation to the Caribbean and they have never been there before. Give them a sneak peak that could seal the deal over other hotels that opt to not provide virtual tours of the area. The hotel and tourism industry is always booming. This is one industry that will never die out. People will always take vacations but what would enhance the vacation process is to see a bit of where they would be staying as well as local virtual tours of the area. If you took a poll and asked 10 people if having seen a virtual tour before making reservations would make them reserve their vacation faster, 8 out of 10 would say yes. This only furthers the proof that virtual tours are becoming the norm in the commercial travel industry.

There are people who are going to plan a vacation regardless of what the accommodations look like, but if they had a choice to see a virtual online tour or while at the office of the travel agent they would, more often than not, opt for accommodations that have a virtual tour. It, obviously, would not entice anyone to change their destination, but it would increase the amount of travelers who have never thought to take a vacation in an unfamiliar (and not yet popular) vacation destination. Virtual tours are the wave of the future of commercial travel. Give us a call now and let an RTV virtual tour provider help you increase your revenue through the use of virtual tours!

TreasureCoastSolutions.com
Cheryl Waller
Treasure Coast Virtual Tours

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Just How Hot are the RTV Hot Spots?

Pretty Hot!

Loop Photography is proud to be one of the only major Virtual Tour Providers in the Minneapolis area to utilize Hot Spots in their 360 Interactive Virtual Tours. Real Tour Vision's virtual tour software allows for these custom .gif images called Hot Spots to be imported directly onto the images or scenes within the tour. Hot Spots allow a fully interactive viewing experience for online shoppers.

Engaging the online shopper with your real estate listings or business sets your virtual tour apart from those that require or call for no activity other than watching. Online visitors navigate through a home or a business by dragging the mouse and looking for the visual indicators that are built into each virtual tour scene.

Real Tour Vision Hot Spots allow potential buyers to get a better feel for the homes layout without getting "lost" in the experience. Hot Spots can also draw attention to unique home features such as fireplaces, built-ins, upgraded appliances etc. If you have never seen a virtual tour with the unique RTV hot spots check out some samples on our website: www.loopphotography.com

The fact is virtual tours with "hot spots" keep buyers looking at your listing longer as they have fun navigating from room to room. To order the best Virtual Tours in Minnesota produced by the worlds finest virtual tour software visit www.loopphotography.com.

Jeff Bartol
Loop Photography
Twin City Virtual Tour Company
www.loopphotography.com

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Real Estate Photos and Wide Lens Cameras

We are in our third year as a virtual tour provider for the Vancouver/Portland metro area and frequently chat with Realtors(r) about additional services they would like to see us provide.

A Realtor emailed her photos to us. We were to use them to create a slide show. One photo was labeled The Couch. I asked her to rename all of the still photos how she wanted them to appear in the slide show (Was the couch in the living room? The family room?) and resend them to me.

The Realtor understood that the greater question here was not what room the couch was in, but whether she wanted to post a photo of a couch on the internet.

To make a long story short, she had us retake all of the photos, and put them in a slide show...and she uses us for everything now—virtual tours on some properties, slide shows on others.

Make sure the property is ready (visit our website and click on “tour preparation tips” at the bottom) and use quality equipment. Your marketing reputation is on the line.

Dawn Shaffer
I love Real Tour Vision!

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Virtual Tours Picking up in Florida!

Well RTV I have got to tell you all, Florida is waking up again. It seems like after 6-8 weeks of sluggish business Realtors(R) in the southwest Florida area are starting to wake up again. Every time I worry about not getting enough work, I start looking for a part-time job. Then, as soon as I do that I get a call for lots of virtual tours and I realize I don't have time for another job. This is my opening year for my virtual tour company and I know that it will take some time.

I'm sure business is going to get very busy, very soon. I've definitely noticed an increase in calls just in the last week. I started working on my own dealership full-time about 2 months ago. Since summer is typically slow for Realtors - because kids are out of school and family vacations are taking place - I decided not to panic and just keep plugging along.

Besides, the market in Southwest Florida has been in the headlines lately. A 2 year surplus of houses and no one buying homes created a serious slump. Some realtors here are even working as waiters and waitresses just to make ends meet. But somehow, things seem to be turning around. In the last week alone I have had at least SIX new clients!! I'm shooting 4 tours a day over the next 2 days. It just goes to show, if you make it through the dry season there is always an abundant season that follows. The slow season served me well because it gave me time to go through my learning curve on the virtual tour software and figure out which parts of the tour building process I was good at and which parts I needed to improve upon.

It gave me time to experiment too with manual photo stitching and lighting techniques. Now that business is picking up I can go forward with confidence. If Florida waking up is any sign to go by, the rest of the country should be waking up soon too. Good luck to all in the network!

Go Team RTV!

Yvonne Kurtz
Quantum Views Virtual Photography
Authorized Dealer for Real Tour Vision
www.quantumviews.com

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How Was Your Virtual Tour?

Panorama Jack is ALWAYS on the lookout for great testimonials like the one below! Keep up the great work RTV!!




This is simply the BEST virtual tour I’ve ever seen! The response from corporate was immediate and the service from the virtual tour provider was spectacular. It is one of the fastest loading, straight forward virtual tours I’ve experienced.

I’m just glad that the virtual tour company I called first did not call me back for 3 days----Greg Pierce is a wonderful photographer. The view counter and hit tracking for the virtual tour was a complete surprise, but what a terrific tool. It made my client’s feel like something was happening.

I do credit the 360 tour for the increased activity. The house sold the next weekend. Feel free to use any part of this as a testimonial. I couldn’t have been more impressed!

Thanks!!

Jo Ann Gilles
Broker
The Realty Network GMAC R.E.
www.gillesworks.com

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