Happy New Year From RTV

Happy holidays and warm wishes to all of our Real Tour Vision virtual tour dealers. We hope at this time of year that you have the opportunity to spend time with family, friends, and loved ones.

This is a great time to reflect on the past year. We feel we've made some very great strides in 2009 with the explosive growth in our Tour Track department and some technical enhancements too. We look forward to even more Tour Track growth along with major updates and enhancements to our virtual tour system in 2010.

Thank you for choosing to do business with us and be a part of Team RTV as you build your virtual tour company.

Real Tour Vision
National Virtual Tour Company
www.realtourvision.com
Contact us about Virtual Tours - 1.866.947.8687

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The IMAGE Testimonial

Dear RTV,

Brad and I were extremely impressed with Ben, the content of the IMAGE webinar last night and the communication of the information over the webinar format. Although we felt most of the content we had heard before, we again learned by listening and picking up new pointers. The presentations were clear, easy to understand and very impressive. I liked the simplicity, yet the complicated ideas that were conveyed. We're looking forward to our next webinar and are rapidly reviewing past webinars. Thank you for providing this content to us.

Suzanne Feinberg
Scottsdale Virtual Tours
www.PowerVision360.com - Coming Jan 4th 2010!!


Dear RTV,

I was pleased to participate in the Webinar last night, the IMAGE, about lighting and framing. Ben Knorr was extremely helpful with his tips about lighting and looking for artistic framing of our shots. As a new RTV dealer who has not done any Tour Track jobs, knowing settings of the camera that others use for these Hotel/Hospitality tours is very helpful. I enjoy learning something new from each of the webinars I listen to. I hope that my images quickly reflect that.

The Faststone Image viewer seems very helpful as well. What a great piece of software to get for free. I might need an entire webinar on how to use it. I think that RTV does a great job of keeping its dealers educated. New technology and techniques are shared freely and that makes RTV a truly unique experience. Thanks for welcoming me into the RTV family.

Mary Jane Salopek

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RTV Dealers Helping RTV Dealers

Greetings from Supernova Studios, Nova Scotia. My last blog; at Thanksgiving, I gave “thanks” to David Hall of Listing Solutions in St. Augustine Florida, for sharing his insight and sales success with the TxtConnect program. Since then I’ve connected with Buffy Crosby of Middleboro, MA, on facebook. Buffy is a newcomer and anxious to network with fellow RTV dealers.

The RTV blog (www.virtualtourprovider.com) is a great way to stay connected with your fellow dealers and get ideas on how to build your virtual tour company. Also I've found that if you're blogging somewhere else and NOT posting to the RTV blog you're really missing out on the google juice as they say. This is seriously the very BEST pumper site on the planet if you have a VT company. Anyway here in the blog you will find that other virtual tour providers from all over the World share their insight, words of wisdom, encouragement, tips & tricks and success stories.

If you aren’t reading RTV’s daily blogs you are not only missing out on some great information, but excellent networking opportunities. Go ahead and do a google search for “Nova Scotia virtual tour company”. The first two hits are my RTV blog. Third in line is my competitor. Were it not for the RTV blog this provider would be hard to find.

I made good of my plan to take advantage of the Txt Connect demo codes and contacted 8 top agents to email me listing information of a “high visibility” listing. I ordered 8 panoriders from a local sign company ($6 each) and chose generic company codes like “REMAX” and “EXIT. I contacted TxTConnect who were happy to provide me with a jpg image of the panorider shown on the how it works page. http://supernova.txt2look.com/howitworks.php It was important to me that I be consistent when establishing my brand. (when ordering your signs, be in touch with TxTConnect – they will share the RGB values of the blue and orange colors used in the sign as well as the font)

Signs in hand and listing information entered, I tested each code and “proofed” the listings. Worked like a charm – it was time to visit the real estate companies! I brought my cell phone, the panoriders, my business cards and a brochure with “how it works” also pointing them to my website in case they “forgot” as soon as I walked out the door. Fellow agents – when entering the listing information for you demo codes be sure that you click on the little phone to confirm all relevant text is captured. There is a maximum amount of characters allowed and you may have to abbreviate some words.

Each of the agents told me they had seen my print advertising and were curious but unsure. Each of the agents LOVED the technology and were very excited about capturing a lead. The “lead” was my largest selling feature, causing a certain “sparkle” in the eye of the agents. I explained that the first code was a “variable” and could be changed. Example – EXIT could be their “own” name - Text John to 25665. (they loved that too) But the second code 25665 was constant. I explained that every time someone texted “John” to 25665 they would get a lead to their phone, email or both.

Shortly after returning to my office I had a call from one of the “keener” agents I had visited. They had been “playing” with the technology at his office and he was not getting the “lead” information to his cell phone? It was then that I realized that because I had set them up under my demo codes that the “lead” was coming to MY cell phone. Do not make the same mistake I did. When you teach/show the technology using your cell phone (with the listing information that YOU have entered and proofed) be sure to also show them (using your cell phone) what the lead will look like. When they activate their OWN account and make a purchase the lead will go to THEIR phone. In the meantime I have promised to email daily reports with the lead information.

One final observation I would like to share. Of the 8 agents I visited, 5 of them preferred to have ME enter the listing information. The other 3 agents were thrilled about having an opportunity to update their listing information on their own, as often as they wanted. When a client purchases a code for 30 days, that code is not necessarily “married” to a specific property. The agent COULD put the panorider on one property for two weeks (change the information to reflect a new property) and put the sign on an entirely new property for the remainder of the month. An excellent idea to showcase an upcoming open house. My point is this- you may want to consider offering the “service” of entering the listing information for your client. I will be.

I invite you to send me (Nancy Elizabeth Bain) a friend request on facebook. I’ll send you an invitation to my group “Supernova Studios” and you can see how I am marketing myself on there. We can learn from one another.

In the meantime tell all your friends, family and business associates in Nova Scotia to contact Supernova Studios for all their Nova Scotia virtual tour and text message marketing needs!

Book your Nova Scotia virtual tour today!

Supernova Studios
www.supernovastudios.ca
159 Alexandra Ave.
Bridgewater, NS B4V 1H6
Phone: 902-543-2185

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Need White Balance?

Hello everyone out there in RTV Land! I wanted to share this White balance information with you and maybe it will help you build a better 360 virtual tour.

I’m sure you know the importance of white balance and while the automatic settings are somewhat acceptable the best and most accurate White balance is a Custom White balance available only on SLR type digital cameras such as the Canon Rebel Xti. Creating a custom white balance setting has always been a bit cumbersome to do and it needs to be change with each room setting & lighting.

If set for a small room with incandescent/daylight & flash lighting it wont work in a larger room with say, A florescent & flash lighting set up so it needs to be set again; Very cumbersome and time consuming. However; I just found a new white balance lens cap that makes Custom White balance 10x easier! I saw this on someone’s camera and inquired about it, got the info and headed for the camera shop. They had 2 types ranging in price from $60- over $100. A bit pricey so I thought I would look on E-bay. As it turns out they had a similar product for $4.95 with FREE shipping! Could it be as good? I thought, Hmm? It was worth trying for 5 bucks.

I received it in about two weeks and it works like a charm, color is now spot on! Best 5 bucks I ever spent on photo gear. It is now just $4.55 if you login to Ebay and search for a
"White Balance Lens Filter Cap With Filter Mount.

Hmm, now if I could only figure a way to get a piece of the action when hundreds of RTV virtual tour dealers scramble for this...LOL Happy to share a $95.00 savings for everyone!

Dale Hart
Office/Cell 505 962 2207
Dragon Fly 360
Albuquerque Virtual Tours
www.DragonFly360Imaging.com

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Albuquerque Virtual Tours Expanding

DragonFly 360 Imaging, an Albuquerque virtual tour provider and iindependent RTV full service dealer continues to offer a vast range of property marketing tools to the Real Estate Professionals here in New Mexico.

Since setting up shop in Albuquerque, NM a little more then a year ago, DragonFly 360 imaging, an Albuquerque based Virtual Tour Company, has continued to strive to bring the local Real Estate industry products that enhance the marketing of your listings and personal Brand.

Starting with cutting-edge, fully interactive, 360 Virtual Tours custom branded for you, These SEO powered and Google linked Virtual Tours are the most important tool in your marketing arsenal given that 80% of home buyers start the search for their new home on the internet first.
Virtual Tours such as these offer the potential buyer a Virtual “Open House” 24 hrs a day and allow sellers a bit more peace of mind not having curiosity seekers traipsing through their home.
http://rtvpix.com/RE-5700-AI11JS-01
http://rtvpix.com/BU-7495-TZ48WB-01
http://rtvpix.com/BU-7095-48VOXD-01

To further enhance your 360 Virtual Tours DragonFly 360 Imaging offers syndication services through Realtor.com and other venues such as YouTube allowing for greater exposure of your listing and additional back linking to your website.

In August we introduced Text Message Marketing with our new DragonFlyTxt2look service offering property specific text messaging service with up to 10 photos to interested buyers and giving you, the Realtor exclusive lead capture! http://www.dragonfly360imaging.com/

As of November, you can now bring Properties to Life with Interactive Floor Plans that are easily integrated directly into your 360 virtual tour. This technology leapfrogs the competitors with the unique ability to add photographs, panoramas AND move furniture around!

Now, as we approach the end of the year, DragonFly 360 imaging is proud to offer you a Video Channel for your website. This very inexpensive service will allow you to have professionally produced, high quality videos with fresh industry relevant content directly on your Website automatically updated every month! These entertaining and informative videos will keep clients coming back to your site, increasing website optimization, building powerful links to your site and reducing bounce rate.

This, along with all the all of the tools provided by DragonFly 360 imaging will help position you as the industry expert clients keep coming back to. As we proceed into the New Year, DragonFly 360 imaging, Your Albuquerque, NM Virtual Tour provider, will continue to bring you, industry leading, cutting-edge technology that not only enhances your listings but allows you to shine as a leading Albuquerque Realtor.

Dale Hart
DragonFly 360 Imaging
Albuquerque Virtual Tours
505 962 2207
http://www.dragonfly360imaging.com/
Using the finest Virtual Tour Software!

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Virtual Florida Tours Announces TxT Connect

The new Miami-based mobile marketing and real estate agent lead capture system provide by Virtual Florida Tours is the best marketing service provided to Real Estate since the introduction of virtual tours.

The Realtor® creates his/her advertising campaign for the property places it on one of his listings page at miamidadeconect, and places a rider on the for sale sign. The customer sees the rider sends a message to obtain more information and receives immediate feedback on the property, at the same time the Realtor® receives a phone number that will allow her/him to contact the prospect.

This system is extremely affordable 2.95 per listing per month with up to 100 text messages free when you buy our 10 listings plan. Just imagine how this tool will help you to promote your business. You will be the realtor that is willing to go the extra mile for your customer. You can offer your customer this new text messaging system that not other one is offering. Your competition will not stand a chance.

For more information on how to obtain this new tool contact Virtual Florida Tours at (305) 331 8960 or see our add at www.virtualforidarealtours.com.

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Photography Tips From the Pro

Well here I am reporting from beautiful Spokane Washington folks. I'm staring at another week's virtual tour blog entry and thinking what could I write about this time. It seems to be quite a trick to come up with something on a regular basis. Especially when I'm so busy putting together my virtual tour company here in Spokane.

I had a newbie photographer ask me the other day, "how do you operate the exposure settings" he just could not get the light operating controls on his camera whether it be analog or digital. I pointed out that you have to think of it like a water faucet. The shutter on your camera lets light flow just like a water faucet lets water flow. The aperture is like the wheel handle on that water faucet and you control the amount of water pressure that flows through that faucet. It is the exact same thing for the aperture, you control the amount of flow. Together these two items give you the proper exposure for you shots. Try this next time your on a virtual tour shoot!

It seems to make sense to them when it is explained this way. Cameras have become increasingly automatic, often including automatic exposure and focus so that not too many people actually get to get creative with their cameras controls. Nevertheless, this Spokane virtual tour photographer prefers to use manual operation in order to make my own exposure and focusing decisions.

Whomever may be reading this, you might consider operating the camera manually for your first exposures to help you learn basic camera controls. Then once you have gotten the basics down, you can move on to become a better "artist at your craft" Most people want to know what to do after that to become a better photographer and my answer is always surprisingly consistent. "Take more pictures." "Shoot, shoot, shoot." "Persevere." Just keep after it; you can't help but improve if you do."

I know this sounds kind of obvious but it is advice that has worked for me and others in the business. It's not rocket science, no secrets or inside information. Just simply shooting a bunch is how I have improved my skills and I know that this will work for you too.

See if you can apply some of these techniques to your local virtual tour business. Good luck out there! Good luck all of you out there with your virtual tour business!

Steve Stephens
www.digitalshowcasevr.com
Spokane Virtual Tours
Order a virtual tour - 509 868-4043

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The FORMULA 19 | Become a Social Bookmarking Expert

Welcome FORMULA fans and Happy Holidays to you all. Are you ready for The FORMULA 19?

If you're out there screaming "Teach Me Teach Me!" then let’s kick off 2010 and learn a little something about the power of social bookmarking sites. Please join myself, Jason LaVanture on Tuesday Jan 5th 2010 at 7:00 Eastern for an hour of social bookmarking excitement.

For those of you who are wondering how the little Traverse City virtual tour company, BlueLaVaMedia has been able to make their virtual tour videos, www.TourGrandTraverse.com blog submissions, and virtual tours rank so well in the search engines, you need to attend this next show. I will be discussing how you can setup 20-30 of your social bookmarking sites and finally fully automate the entire social bookmarking process down to three minutes per tour once you have all of your accounts setup and in place!! Yes that's right...3 minutes!

BlueLaVaMedia customers have come to love the fact that they can key in their property addresses and INSTANTLY find their listings on PAGE 1 of the search engine results page. Moreover 97% of all BlueLaVaMedia customers can type in their name (Agent Name real estate) and see the impressive work that we’ve done to get them MORE 1st page impressions.

To fully prepare for this webinar please be sure that you’re already taking our Social Ignition course by sending an email to rtvsocial@aweber.com.

See you Jan 5th on the show!

Happy New Year!

Jason

Reserve your Webinar seat now!

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Traverse City Real Estate Sponsors Hospital

Century 21 Northland a Traverse City Real Estate brokerage is proud to be a sponsor of Munson Healthcare’s Healthy Futures program. Over the past two years our agents have donated more than $10,500 to promote the health of area mothers-to-be and young children. The program provides valuable health information and in-home nursing visits to new families.

Community involvement is a major goal of Century 21, and our agents are proud to support an area organization that focuses on children. A portion of an agent’s commission at each closing is donated to this worthwhile cause and specifically to help families that find themselves in crisis situations. Healthy Futures can provide financial relief for unexpected hospital stays, transportation and home safety items.

The Healthy Futures Program begins with support during pregnancy and continues through the child’s fifth year. During this time families have access to support groups, educational materials and valuable information about immunizations and nutrition. During these tough economic times, families are surprised and relieved to find out that help and support are available at no cost.

Please keep in mind; next time you buy or sell a house with Century 21 Northland, you will help to give one more child in our community the shot at a healthy future.

C-21 Northland
Traverse City Real Estate
Using only the finest property marketing tools to sell your home!

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The IMAGE | Lighting and Framing Class

Sign up for the next episode of The IMAGE!!

Join me, Ben Knorr as we take a look at the advantage and outcome of using additional lighting beyond just the flash that is built into your camera. You will see how to get the lighting just right by adding some of your own.

On Tuesday December 29th at 7:00 Eastern I will go over some tips on framing a shot to make it sell. So if you're tired of always struggling with lighting and you're looking to make the ordinary room look extraordinary this is a show that you won't want to miss out on. Join me for an informative evening all about multi-flash photography and framing.

Sign up now in your TMS!

Ben Knorr
The IMAGE

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Office Space for Rent?

Does your virtual tour company have a desk, cubicle, office or suite that is generating dust as opposed to revenue? Have you recently downsized your workforce resulting in an abundance of unused office space? Is your company locked into a long term lease and could benefit from an additional revenue stream?

In today's economy, many companies of all kinds are downsizing their workforce, resulting in a growing inventory of unused commercial space. At the same time, a large number of entrepreneurs and small businesses are looking to reduce their overhead by re-negotiating their existing commercial leases, or finding new space altogether.

Open Office Space, based in New York City, has launched a new website to facilitate the interaction between companies burdened with carrying the cost of their unused office space and small businesses/entrepreneurs looking to streamline their expenses.

A shared space is the perfect solution for a small business or entrepreneur looking to cut costs while providing a revenue stream to a space holder when they can use it the most.

Openofficespace.com was designed with ease of use as the number one priority. "We set out to create an extremely clean and user friendly experience that is unlike any other typical real estate or classified website”. As we continue to grow we are finding that more and more of our customers see a large need to do virtual tours of their office space for rent.

The comprehensive “Evolving Guide to Leasing” alone is worth a visit to the site. The interactive guide explores the “Top 10 Mistakes” made by companies during the leasing process with and outlines in layman's terms “The 4 Steps” it takes to be successful every step of the way. From finding the right space and negotiating the lease to planning the layout and creating an eco-friendly work place, the sites powerful interactive tools and easily understandable content simplifies the leasing process for everyone involved.

One of the most common mistakes made during the leasing process is estimating how much space your business will actually need. Getting too much means unnecessary additional costs while too little means growing out of it before you are ready to move. For entrepreneurs and small businesses (even you virtual tour providers that are out there!!) that are unsure of how much space they actually need, the space estimation tool can be used to calculate the right amount of square footage based on a company’s specific requirements. With options ranging from a single desk, a cubicle, a shared office, a private office, to a co-working space or an executive suite, the calculator and check list take visitors through the entire process.

“It is an excellent resource, not only in this economy but in any economy, for small businesses with limited budgets, looking to create the ideal working environment,” said Spector.

Users can design, find or post available office space at no cost, anywhere in the US and Canada. With the help of the RTV Virtual Tour Network users may also order full service open office space virtual tours for their listings at a very reasonable price! Featured cities on the site include Austin, TX; Charleston, SC; Los Angeles, CA; San Francisco, CA; Toronto, Ontario; Baltimore, MD; Chicago, IL; Miami, FL; San Jose, CA; Vancouver, British Columbia; Boston, MA; Dallas, TX; New York, NY and Seattle, WA

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Ask Jack - Panorama Jack

Dear Jack,

I really love the hit reports from RTV because they go out to my virtual tour customers once a week and keep my clients thinking about me. I'm wondering if you have any other suggestions that work in a similar fashion.

Not a sales guy -

Lance

Dear Lance,

You bet I have some ideas for you. In fact this is a question that comes up quite often. "How do you stay in front of your clients without coming across like you're always selling them stuff?" This is a question that has driven even the brainiest of men to drink over the years. Have you thought of writing a series of follow up emails? I know the team over there at BlueLavaMedia have a pretty nice "Tour Follow Up" program in place.

They send a follow up email when a customer's virtual tour has been published. It is easy to arrange these emails so you are progressively training your customers on your products and services as they make repeat orders with you. For example, your very first email might look something like this:

Dear Customer,
I just wanted thank you for your continued support in our product line. I also wanted to make sure that your needs were met and your expectations surpassed. Please let me know if you were happy with the services that you received when you get a moment of free time. We just love testimonials!

Once again, I would like to thank you for your business and let you know that you can contact me anytime with questions that you might have.

Best regards,

Your Name

PS. Did you know that you can run an INSTANT on demand hit report by clicking on the little "Eye" at the bottom of your tours?

Most of the time your customers will reply back with glee over the novelty of the "on demand" hit report button they did not know about. As your customers continue placing orders with you, simply repeat this process of making sure they are happy with your services followed up with something new that you have just rolled out. By keeping your emails short and to the point, yet personable, you will find that a tour follow up is just another GREAT way to further establish better relationships with your customer base.

If you're an inner circle member with RTV you can now login and download your first FOUR tour follow up emails that have been prewritten for you. Enjoy!!!

Click Here to Download Follow Up Emails

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Island Digital Images Offers New Features

This is an exciting time for our Corpus Christi virtual tour company, Island Digital Images as we prepare to add a new product line to our company. This new product line is designed to help our clients to further market their businesses and listings while generate sales leads. With an anticipated fall 2009 introduction we will be sure to keep you informed of its release through this newsletter and online through Facebook.

This additional virtual tour and property marketing product line creates an opportunity for us to start working with some independent contractors to help us grow our company. Specifically we are looking for a couple of individuals who present themselves professionally, are bondable, have an eye for detail, have access to dependable transportation, and a willingness to work a flexible work schedule. If you think you know someone that we should talk to please have them contact Alan by emailing their resume to Alan(at)IDIVirtualTours.com.

In our previous blog we covered some exciting new virtual tour options including the $29.95, You Film The Corpus Tour, virtual tour. This is a low cost full feature virtual tour uses your photos along with our tour assembly and publication expertise to create tours for homes that in the past you may have shied away from or viewed the home as unworthy of a virtual tour. This option allows you to have all of your listings represented in your tour gallery.

We have also added a new option for each of our virtual tours the "Agent Voiceover". This option allows you to add a new personalized dimension to your virtual tour in your own voice talking about the attributes of the listing.

Have you noticed that we have made some changes to our Media Exposure Engine?

We now include your MLS Public Remarks within your virtual tour under the images, an area that we call Spinfo. This helps to further inform your prospects of key features of the home as they are watching the virtual tour. Another key reason for us including this information in Spinfo is that our virtual tours are SEO (Search Engine Optimized), the additional text provides information for the search engine robots to see and include your virtual tour in its search engine results.

When we email your Media Exposure Engine notification to you it now includes a docx file along with the PDF copy of your online listing attached to the email. The docx file is editable by MS Word 2007. With this document you can easily make any changes to the flyer prior to printing it for distribution. Keep in mind that the email itself can also be used with the CCAR List Serve system. With the Media Exposure Engine you have flyers available to you for digital and print mediums without any additional effort on your part.

Also we have changed our video production software so we now include panoramic scenes within the video tour that we upload to You Tube. We have also added some additional excitement to our still images within the video by showing movement within these photos. Make sure you check out your video link on your next Media Exposure Engine purchase.

Even as we introduce enhanced features to our virtual tours we also continue to hone our virtual tour product line. I invite your comments and suggestions; feel free to use the email link on the right of this column to send us your thoughts.

Alan Fon
Island Digital Images
Corpus Virtual Tours
Order a Virtual Tour: (361) 749- 0901

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Special Holiday Virtual Tour Promotion

Hey there dealers! Our 200 Pack is back by popular demand. After receiving 7 inquiries about it in the past 3 days we put our heads together and came up with an end of the year special just for you to help you kick off 2010.

From today until the end of December, anyone that would like to commit to a purchase of 200 virtual tour credits at the $10.00 rate will receive a bonus of 50 free virtual tour credits. The best part is you don't even have to call in and wheel and deal for it.

Log into TMS and order as usual by clicking on the Buy Tour Credits button on the left nav bar and use the IHD form. We will process the order and credit you with 50 bonus virtual tours. It is that easy!

A big thanks going out to all the dealers that called in and asked for this. It goes to show that it never hurts to ask!

Happy Holidays,
Team RTV

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The FORMULA 18 - The Agent Video Channel

Please join FORMULA host Jason LaVanture and guest Tara Jones on Tuesday December 15th for an episode of The FORMULA you won't want to miss! The FORMULA 18 is all about helping your real estate customers put video onto their website. Best of all anyone that is an active RTV provider will get a FREE video channel account to put onto their site! This show is open to the entire RTV Network.

What is the video channel?? As you already know, everyone wants video on their web site, but who can afford it? Especially video that is professionally scripted and filmed! Beside the expense and the expertise needed to create the video, who has the time to research and develop the material your clients are interested in learning about, much less keeping the content fresh each month?

The Agent's Video Channel, a brand new and exciting technology that brings FRESH video content automatically to your website is the easiest way for you do this. Each month they will provide you with new and entertaining content fed direct to your web site. They literally take the burden off of you and allow you to do what you do best. Sell Virtual Tours and additional property marketing services to your ever growing customer base!!!

It's as easy as copy and paste! Each RTV dealer site will receive a unique code and a reseller promo code. All RTV virtual tour providers can place this code onto their site and each month new exciting (professionally made) real estate related videos will appear automatically.

Because of our special arrangement any active RTV providers will be able to resell this technology and receive 15% commissions or simply leave the product on your websites to keep people coming back for more month after month. It's that easy!

See you on the show!

Best regards,

Jason

See how easy it is to apply "The FORMULA" to your business!

Title: The FORMULA 18 | Agent Video Channel
Date: Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Time: 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM EST
Sign up Now! http://tms.realtourvision.com

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Are Virtual Tours Worth the Expense?

East Bay CA virtual tours cost anywhere from $100 to over $400. Whether you are a seasoned real estate professional or just getting started, you watch every penny you spend on a listing, right? And what about Short Sales and REO listings, do you spend money to advertise these? So why should you spend the extra $100-$400 for a virtual tour or professional photography???

Many real estate agents might answer... to make the seller happy or to show the seller what you are doing for them to help sell their home, right? Or, you may (rightfully) believe that the virtual tour will help sell the house by giving both local and out-of-town relocation prospects the opportunity to walk-through the house (in their pajamas) to see how beautiful it is, what the layout looks like, maybe you even include a floor-plan!

These are both good reasons, but let's not forget the third and I think, most important reason... marketing and exposure for the AGENT! Getting YOUR NAME out there in front of potential sellers and buyers, getting exposure for yourself and your property! Moving your name up in the Google Search and to show your sellers as well as potential buyers and sellers how professional you are!

East Bay Virtual Tours Promote You!

If you are hiring a virtual tour company to photograph your listing, create a virtual tour and then send you the code to include in your listing, that's great, but what about EXPOSURE! When you look for a virtual tour company to represent you and your sellers, ask these questions:

1. Are they a local company with an actual person you can call directly or do you go through a national number to schedule an appointment?

2. Where is the virtual tour hosted and how long has that company been in business?

3. What is the marketing background of the company, do they understand real estate, social media, property and personal brand/name marketing? Yes, this is photography, but marketing is what it's all about, right?

4. Where will they distribute your virtual tour and/or do they just send you a "link" and you have to distribute it yourself?

5. Will they create and distribute a YouTube presentation for you?

6. Will they create and post a Craigslist Ad for you?

7. Will they blog/Twitter/promote your virtual tour/listing?

These are just a few of the questions you will want to ask before you decide if it is worth the expense. And then, ask yourself, where else can I spend $100-$200 and get all of the above marketing and exposure for my listing and myself?

A newspaper ad cost at least this much and will only be in front of your potential prospects for 1-2 days and you what about post cards? You will spend about $1 per post card so you can send about 100-200 post cards which will probably go into the trash! East Bay Virtual Tours are one of the best cost/benefit options available today for the real estate market but only if you find a provider that provides all the benefits mentioned above!

To learn more about Virtual Tours in the East Bay and all over the San Francisco Bay Area, visit Property Marketing Studios located in Dublin California. Better yet, sign up for our trademark "Brokers Pajama Tour" and see the latest property listings in your pajamas... :)
East Bay Virtual Tours and Property Marketing Studios welcome your comments and opinions...

Best Regards,

Tim Denbo
Property Marketing Studios
Dublin Virtual Tours
www.PMStudios360.com
Order a virtual tour: 925-549-0714

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Bring Properties to Life with RTV Interactive Floor Plans

RTV is pleased to announce that they've gone live with their new Interactive Floor Plan System powered by Icovia. Icovia is the industry standard for online space planning.

The Interactive Floor Plans are launched directly from your client's online property listings, their buyers browse detailed floor plans branded with your client's corporate identity. And coming this spring your agents will be automatically alerted when users save, print or share the floor plan.

You have a couple options to choose from when using your floor plan software:

~Draw your own floor plans in minutes by tracing over a sketch or starting from scratch.
~Or have Icovia draw the floor plan for you ONLY TWENTY BUCKS!!! Just email or fax your floor plan sketch to them and they'll do the rest.

The RTV Interactive Floor Plan is an amazing online tool for planning and designing spaces. The floor planner makes it easy to recreate an entire house or you can create professional floor plans in minutes.

Easily Create Floor Plans

Point and click to add walls and drag-and-drop windows, doors and other items. Plans can be added by your agents, a measuring service, or by the Icovia design team.

Integrate Photos and Tours

The RTV Interactive Floor Plan combines function and finesse to make your property shine. Include photos, panoramas and virtual tours of your properties and watch your listings come to life.

In addition, an integrated reporting tool gives you real-time access to user registration data and performance metrics. Identify top properties and help your clients reach new buyers.

Features Include:

~Launching directly from online property listings Branded with your client's corporate identity, both in the viewer and the printouts.

~Easy to use – no software to install.

~Link to photos and virtual tours.

~Integrated collaboration tools for prospects and agents.

~Capture detailed buyer information – Coming soon!

~Powerful reporting tool identifies top properties and interested buyers.

Benefits Include:

~Generates registered contacts for your agents – Coming soon!.

~Engages prospects and creates excitement about property listings.

~Gives agents another way to identify and collaborate with prospective buyers

~Differentiates your company and your client's company.

Help bring your client's properties to life with interactive floor plans. Join the list of leading companies that use the Interactive Floor Plans powered by Icovia to convert web traffic into contact lists for your Client's potential buyers.

This technology leapfrogs the floor plan technology of your competitors with its unique ability to add photos, panoramas, AND move furniture around! Take a test drive of the new RTV Interactive Floor Plan System today!

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Are Social Sites Costing you Money?

Imagine your virtual tour customers seeing an embarrassing photo of you. How would you feel? Do you ever want a business client to read your comments about a bad day at work? How about your personal problems?

If you use Social Media for both your virtual tour business and personal life, you need to be careful! Here at Real Vision Studio, a Detroit Virtual Tour Company in South East Michigan, a full service virtual tour provider for RTV, we need not only maintain a level of business decorum for ourselves, but for the reputation of RTV.

RTV is a global company and maintains several national accounts that they are affiliated with, hence the need for professionalism on both your part and corporates.

Below are some excellent articles that provide examples of how (not) to use social media appropriately, while maintaining your reputation.

~How to tweet your way out of a job

~Social media can get you in trouble!

~How not to embarrass yourself when using Facebook

~Be careful what you post

Mike and Joy Thompson
Detroit Virtual Tours
www.realvisionstudio.com

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November Marketing Pieces

This month we decided to focus on our new Interactive Floor Plan Software & Space Planner technology program that we are thrilled about. This amazing program is just one more service that will expedite sales and enhance your virtual tour business over any other competitors out there offering just plain old floor plans.

There is a brand new 2 page floor plan flyer as well as a interactive floor plan postcard connected to this topic to help you spread the word to your clients.

With the holidays are rapidly approaching, we created a simple “we’ve missed you” postcard that can be sent out to previous clients that you haven’t heard from in awhile. It is always a good idea to keep your company name fresh and in front of potential clients.

Lastly, dance studios are another business that you may have overlooked. This is a great example of a business that could benefit from a virtual tour. Take a moment and look in your local phone book, you will be surprised how many studios there really are.

Real Tour Vision Marketing "We've got the goods!"
Interactive Floor Plan Software
Virtual Tour Marketing

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The FORMULA 'Setting up Shop' Outline

Tuesday's Show "Setting up Shop" was a fantastic hit altogether! Nearly 100 RTV providers joined us for what it now going to be a two part series. Four of RTV's top virtual tour providers had a round table discussion on how they setup their successful virtual tour companies and why they have remained dedicated to the RTV virtual tour technology for so long.

Stay tuned for part two of "Setting up Shop" sometime in early January. The line in the outline below indicates how far we made it during our first show.

Recruiting Your First virtual tour Customers
learn about your customers needs
learn about your competition
form your customer advisory board
attend weekly sales meetings

Setting up shop
Selecting the right name
Logo design
Website and hosting
Brochures
print yourself vs. local printing vs. Vistaprint
Computer hardware
what hardware is suggested -> best pricing
Software
suggestions on what to buy -> best pricing
photo processing
work flow tracking (appointments, work process, billing)
Quick Books
_________________________________________________________________

Setting up Shop II - Look for this episode of "The FORMULA" show in early January

Process Flow
setting Appointments -> onsite filming -> offsite processing
total turn around time
what services will you provide
packages
options

Credibility boosters
business cards
business insurance (liability and bonding)
local phone number
fax number
PO box
toll free number

Affiliate to local MLS
get involved
sponsor classes

Expanding your business
continuous improvement
recruitment and hiring

Blogging in the virtual tour provider blog at RTV. Why you MUST use the RTV blog to link back to your site if you want #1 Ranking

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