There is nothing like a best friend you can count on to say just the right things, keep your secrets and believe in you. That’s why I called mine last night as I was obsessing about a presentation I had to give today to 20 Nova Scotia real estate agents.
I am currently taking a Toastmasters Leadership course to help me establish my confidence and public speaking skills, but this was to be my very first opportunity to speak in front of (what I call) a large crowd. Nervous was an understatement.
She told me (my BFF) just say to yourself, “I’M NANCY FREAKIN BAIN, AND I’M A MARKETING GENIUS” It seemed funny at the time (and I needed a good laugh) but it was my last thought before I went to sleep and my first thought this morning. I remember a teacher telling me once in high school, “Attitude is Altitude”
Armed with Attitude my strategy CHANGED the minute I stood before them during my virtual tour and property marketing presentation. I had planned to show 3 of my youtube marketing videos and allow time for questions. (a cop out - very little speaking on my part) But as I looked out at their faces, I realized: 1) I had a captive audience 2) They were anxious to hear what I had to say and 3) They were not two headed hairy monsters! And I thought to myself, “I’m Nancy freakin Bain, and I’m a marketing genius!”
And then it happened. I exploded with passion as I told them how my Nova Scotia virtual tours would save them time and money. (Home Buyers who used virtual tours as a significant portion of their home-buying experience spent an average of two weeks with a Realtor® looking at homes, compared to those who did not use the internet, who spent an average of seven weeks looking for their home. (2008 RIS Media)
I explained how our 360 virtual tours have an html template as opposed to a flash one which allows them to easily rank organically on google (because of our spider link technology) on address name, agent name or both. I bragged how our interactive virtual tours had social networking “built-in” to the virtual tour window enabling the viewer to upload them to some of the top authority social networking sites with a click of a button. I told them I would be soon be offering full screen high-definition virtual tours!
We discussed the FREE Social Ignition course offered at my site www.supernovastudios.ca and the advantages of social media marketing, back linking, and blogging. I invited them all to submit their blogs to me and I would post them to a “pumper site” I have created www.nsrealestatevine.com with backlinking and anchor text to their site.
Text message marketing was a hot topic as we discussed lead generation and INSTANT information available to increasingly impatient and tech savvy buyers.
Before I knew it, an hour had passed and I could see that they “got it”.
Out of 20 attendees 14 are now signed up for my Social Ignition course, I sold a virtual tour and have a solid lead on another. I call that success! I call that marketing genius! And I can’t wait to do it again!
Nancy Bain
Supernova Studios
Nova Scotia Virtual Tours
Hello from our Hamilton Virtual Tour Company 360 Virtual Solutions & Marketing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. We are new to the virtual tour industry but not new to real estate. As a realtor with Coldwell Banker, I have seen and heard what is required by realtors in order to provide customers with unique powerful property marketing solutions. The competition here for virtual tours is fierce and now is the time to offer this innovative marketing tool to your clients. This would also apply to any of your clients selling anything via the web such as restaurants, resorts, vehicles and so on.
Coldwell Banker has now launched a dedicated channel on YouTube that gives us food for thought. They have also launched the Iphone app for real estate. Coldwell Banker has offices in over 47 countries worldwide. What an excellent opportunity for all of us in the virtual tour industry to jump in at the beginning and provide a service that while being easy and economical for us to provide, is also an excellent marketing tool featuring your company at the end of the clips. What a great way to get free advertising and provide the realtors with something unique!
These "clips" or videos can be a series of photos with music, narration or text and be anywhere from 45 seconds in length to 3 or 4 minutes. You can use free applications downloaded from the web such as Photostory, to make your video or clip. The agents can also purchase a video to promote themselves by giving such tips as Tax Credits, staging, choosing contractors, buying and selling tips and much more. The possiblities are endless. From YouTube, there is also the links to share the videos on Technorati, Facebook, Reddit, Blogger and other social networks. What a great marketing innovation incorporating Real Tour Vision's technology offers us and expanding on it to promote ourselves to a worldwide audience at not cost to us!
With tech savvy clients and social networking being the new norm, this is an excellent opportunity to leverage yourself against your virtual tour competitor and provide an unique marketing opportunity to your clients.
Jan Male
360 Virtual Solutions & Marketing
www.360virtualsolutionsinc.com
Hamilton Ontario Virtual Tours
Order a virtual tour: 905-929-9004
I just wanted to say that the last episode of the Image was absolutely the best. We are big fans of Bryan and have his books. Brad has taken classes from the PPSOP several times. Although we are still on our free 3 months, to have access to such an accomplished artist and teacher is a benefit well worth more than the membership fee for the inner circle. Ben is always so organized and thorough. You can tell that he puts time into his careful preparation of each episode. He is extremely brave to put out his undoctored photographs for review and study and you can see that he is extremely qualified to be on board as the CHIEF of learning for the Image!!
Once again, thank you for the opportunity to be a business partner with RTV virtual tour software company.
Suzanne and Brad
Suzanne Feinberg
PowerVision360
Scottsdale Virtual Tours
Order a Scottsdale virtual tour: 602-770-7149
Tonight’s ‘Night Photography’ IMAGE webinar had to be the best yet! What an extreme delight to have had Bryan Peterson himself co-host. He’s such a GREAT photographer and instructor. Truth be told…I have seen every one of his Videos on U-Tube and that is how I learned the night photography techniques demonstrated in our photos from Hawaii. I felt so ‘connected’…and most humbly honored by his positive remarks on our work. Even so…I still learned more and can’t wait to try out those filters. Can’t wait for the next RTV webinar…And Ben…you can come visit Hawaii’s Big Island any time!
A Hui Hou!
Debrasue - Vizit 360
Me Ke Aloha...
Debrasue Stutts
Vizit360 Photography
Hawaii Virtual Tours
by VizWizardz LLC
Hey there RTV. Special thanks for all of you out there who attended last night's show! I'm very sorry about all the little gremlins that were vexing me during the presentation and really appreciate you putting up with that. Our new blog http://www.PanoramaJack.com site seems to be working properly today and if you have not already done so please send me your Active Rain username now and I will add you onto the blog as a contributor.
Between now and our next show PLEASE get your home page setup.
Add your photo and your name to your site.
Add a local phone number to your site. Your cell is fine
Edit your page Title to include your geographical key word
Check your keyword density and make sure your Geo KW appears enough times.
Download the rankchecker tool from seobook.com
Send me your ActiveRain Username
Connect with the Active Rain Group found here:
http://activerain.com/groups/RTV
Send in a blog to bring the spider back to your site for re-indexing.
Hey let's all get ready for a great spring and summer!
Thanks again for coming to the show and special thanks to Nancy Bain for letting me pick on her. ;)
Sincerely,
Jason
RealTourVision.com
International Virtual Tour Company
Order a Virtual Tour - 866-947-8687
Hello, RTV Dealers! My name is Kate McCoy. I’m the owner of Just Kate real estate marketing located in the Dallas Ft. Worth Metroplex. I decided to call it “Just Kate” because from my personal experiences.
I’ve seen quite a few real estate agents’ desks. I could just picture them frantically trying to remember some off the wall company name I would have come up with while digging through that hot mess of an office and saying out loud, “I’ve got to call Kate” or telling someone, “You just need to call Kate and she will help you.” Thus, a virtual tour company name was born. I’ve now been in the virtual tour business a little over a year. I’m an active, licensed TX residential REALTOR who also shoots Dallas Virtual Tours. I specialize in putting homes on the market and getting them sold as quickly as possible for as high a price as possible.
Besides in house training from my broker I received my listing specialization certification from Howard Britton’s Star Power University. During my hey-day of real estate, I quickly learned that I could easily spend all day every day in my office working on anything from creating a property flyer to posting the property for sale on various web outlets or I could make a break from my office to go measure and photograph a house.
It’s a vicious cycle that doesn’t really allow a REALTOR the time to truly be successful. If they are in the office working on marketing their properties or out photographing properties, they are not out shaking hands and kissing babies to cultivate and get that brand new business. The other thing that floated to the surface were all the companies with the loads of qualified people getting paid quite well to handle the aspects of marketing properties like flyer creation, search engine optimization and as we all know, virtual tour creation.
The day I was sitting in my office working on marketing for one particular agent and was asked simultaneously to help out two other agents each with their individual properties out of the goodness of my heart and all my spare time, I decided to bite the bullet and go into the virtual tour and property marketing business offering myself as a virtual assistant.
I can be any listing agent’s “Mini-Me.” I’ve got a large brokerage that wants me to do it all so their process is streamlined and a new agents that want me to do everything because they just got their first listing and they have no idea where to start, but they know they want it sold fast and to look like they are an old pro at this real estate game.
Now I’ve got a new market I’m breaking into that I think you all could do well with, Accredited Home Staging Professionals. You can find Accredited Home Staging Professionals all over the world by going to the Staged Homes website www.stagedhomes.com and looking for the IAHSP link, which stands for International Association of Home Staging Professionals. In certain areas, there are also local chapters of these home stagers that have monthly meetings. I personally took the course in 2007 and received my Accredited Staging Professional certification. To keep my membership current, I pay both national and international dues as well as attend monthly education meetings and pay membership dues to my local chapter. Within these local chapters, you will find the experience level of these women and men range from having never staged one home or business to staging a few to a staging a multitude.
One thing for sure is they are looking for a way to display their before and after photos and they are looking for a way to dominate the web. Before I hit the scene, my group was primarily using Kodak gallery to promote their work. As of Monday, our local chapter members are changing and we will be using RTV virtual tours to set up a single property website site directed to their gallery page. What I put out there for these home stagers was to purchase a virtual tour comprised of a set of 10 before and after photos they provide. Then they have a few properties under their name and their property gallery is well under way.
One big selling factor is that these home stagers can use our HTML deliverables and post their before & after photos right into their individual promotional page found on the StagedHomes.com website! It’s uniform, it looks great and the number one selling factor is it is affordable. Several members told me this took a lot of pressure off having to purchase a website to promote their work. There is now even a week dedicated to home staging to make a difference in service centers of charitable organizations called World Wide Staging Week http://www.iahsp.com/worldwidestaging/. Volunteering your time within these groups to help promote their cause through photography is a way you may be able to get your foot in the door and you will feel good about yourself when you see the positive impact a home staging facelift on these service centers makes.
Hopefully, this will be an easy sell for you all and open up some new virtual tour business and possibly some new opportunities for you to extend your skills for the greater good. I’m happy to answer any questions I’m able to about the organization of Accredited Home Staging Professionals and Staged Homes.com you send my way. Shoot me an email anytime: kate(at)just-kate.com. All my best -
Kate McCoy
Dallas Virtual Tours
http://www.Just-Kate.com
Order a virtual tour today: (214) 315-4609
As a leader in the greater Corpus Christi area real estate market you have either started to use IDI TxT Connect as an integral part of your marketing plan or you will be signing up for the program in the near future.
As you are no doubt aware IDI TxT Connect is both an inexpensive marketing tool, (as low as $2.95 per month per property), and one that allows you to join in the expediential growth of mobile marketing. As always if you have any questions on this or any other Island Digital Images virtual tours or property marketing products just let us know.
Some of the new features and benefits of the IDI TxT Connect product include:
"Lots" Added as a New Category
Within real estate, we now have Homes, Rental Properties, Commercial Properties and Lots.
"Text Business Card" Added as a New Category
Why not use one of your keywords for a Text Business Card! ie: Text Alan to 43766 for my contact details sent to your phone!
Agent Photo Upload
Your photo is now displayed in the new mobile website design!
Virtual Tour/Video Upload Link
You can now upload a video or provide buyers with a video URL link such as YouTube. This is another great use for the video version of your virtual tour. This video is included with our Turbo Media Exposure option.
MLS Auto Fill
Simply enter the MLS number and click auto fill. All of the property details, extra description and up to 10 photos are automatically populated into the listing fields. The more detailed property description and photos will appear on the mobile site. This is now a one step process! (keep an eye on this process to make sure it is your listing that is uploaded, if there is more than one listing in Realtor.com within the state of Texas it may select the wrong property. If the wrong property is selected just add your information and photos manually)
New Mobile Website (WAP)
For those with a mobile data plan that can access the internet, we have re-designed our mobile website design. Our new design takes a buyer directly to the photos as the landing page, they can access a map of the listing, click on a video or virtual tour if uploaded, see the agent and their photo, "click to SMS" (or call or email) the agent, etc.
Mapping Feature
Buyers can now click an icon in the mobile site to see the property on a map!
Photo Upload Enhancement
Photo size is now larger (4MB) and you can see the upload progress and photo itself after each photo upload.
Opt-In For Price Updates Through Mobile Site/Listing
Buyers are all looking for an edge! Now they can simply click a button if viewing the listing on their mobile phone and enter their number to "opt-in" to receive SMS broadcasts for property listing info and updates. Remember, we also make it easy for any buyer to also opt-in simply by replying YES to the second text message they receive.
Stats
You can now view a number of various stats on your property listing and filter by date.
Good luck out there with TxT Connect Everyone!
Alan Fon
Island Digital Images, LLC
Corpus Christi Virtual Tours
www.islanddigitalimages.com
When RTV suggested that my Nova Scotia virtual tour business become a member of the local Chamber of Commerce, I put it on (what seemed at the time) a very long "to do" list. Priority was given to developing my brand, mastering the RTV virtual tour software, learning my new camera, establishing a website, marketing and staying abreast of what RTV's Inner Circle Marketing constantly had to offer.
After the launch of my Nova Scotia virtual tour company (http://www.supernovastudios.ca) and with more time on my hands, it was time to consider RTV's recommendation. Could the Chamber offer me opportunities to shoot tours for my local area and local businesses? It was time to find out. Once registered, I had the opportunity to join Toastmasters. Toastmasters is an educational organization that operates for the purpose of helping members improve their communication, public speaking and leadership skills. IT WAS JUST WHAT I NEEDED! I signed up immediately, and I'm so glad I did.
Following my registration, the next monthly newsletter prepared by the Chamber, I was asked to write 250 words about my company. ( http://www.bridgewaterchamber.com/NewsletterDecember82009.htm) What a wonderful opportunity to showcase my new business (for free) to every Chamber member! Your local Chamber has many functions throughout the year. I was invited to a Christmas meet & greet in December. Business cards in hand I was one of the first to arrive. I spoke to everyone there about my new business, the interactive virtual tours (http://www.supernovastudios.ca/packages/residential-real-estate), the Text 2 Look program (http://www.supernova.txt2look.com) AND the FREE Social Ignition course offered at my site (http://www.supernovastudios.ca/home). And you will never guess what happened.
I was asked to SPEAK by the Regional Development Association in the new year on social media! Can you believe it? This small town Nova Scotia girl has a speaking engagement! Has a nice ring to it doesn't it? The Chamber of Commerce and my business just "fit" together - like a hand in glove. (Thanks RTV!)
Thanks Jason!
Taylor Design & Prepress
Book your Nova Scotia virtual tour today!
Supernova Studios
www.supernovastudios.ca
159 Alexandra Ave.
Bridgewater, NS B4V 1H6
Phone: 902-543-2185
Attention FORMULA fans! Are you ready to start pumping…and I mean PUMPING Google Juice your way? As you already know from taking the RTV Social Ignition course ‘Google Juice’ comes from freshly squeezed blogs and that’s exactly what we're going to be chatting about next week.
Please join FORMULA host Jason LaVanture for The FORMULA 22 ‘Must Love Blogs’ episode. If you’re already blogging this will be a must attend event and if you’re not yet blogging this is a do or die event for your business.
As you might have already noticed we are making some changes in the way we push blogs here at RTV and have also launched an outside blog on Active Rain http://www.panoramajack.com which allows any RTV RAINMAKERS full…yes we said FULL access to submit their content any time they please.
You will then be able to post to the blog independently of RTV any time that you desire and know that your links are being followed by the search engines.
Don't worry non RAINMAKERS!! We will still post the content for you and link back to your site!
Please join us on Tuesday February 16th at 7:00 PM EST as we talk all about Blogging, Anchor Text, SEO, and the RTV Blog Submission process. Who knows we might event award you with a free tour at the end of the show. See you online soon!!
Register Now in Your TMS!
~RTV
Virtual Home Staging
The advent of the internet has forever changed the Real Estate market, allowing home buyers and home sellers to be more empowered then ever. Unfortunately, the recent Mortgage crisis and state of the economy has put us in the middle of one of the most challenging Real Estate Markets in recent history. With foreclosures on the rise, mortgage money hard to come by and an abundance of homes on the market home buyers are being very cautious with their time and choices.
As a “For Sale by Owner” (FSBO) home seller the challenges are even greater. The question is; how does a FSBO seller compete on the same level with an MLS Realtor in this tricky market? Today, top Real Estate professionals use Virtual Tours to showcase properties in their best light and provide Maximum Exposure of their real estate listings.
Today, 84% of all home buyers look to the internet first for their new home. Without crisp, clear professional images coupled with a 360 virtual tour and/or interactive floor plans, many potential home buyers move on to the next property. Time is very valuable to home buyers as well as the seller. A Virtual Tour offers a way to view many properties from home and venturing out to view in-person, only the homes that fit their needs. At the same time, the seller is spared from endless viewings by unqualified buyers and curiosity seekers. Simply stated, a professional quality Virtual tour will give you 100 times more exposure than simple snap shots or no photos at all.
Now, professional marketing is available to the individual home seller by the very same Virtual Tour Provider that services the Real Estate Professional.
DragonFly 360 Imaging, full service provider of Albuquerque Virtual Tours is pleased to offer their services to individual home owners marketing their homes themselves. With many families relocating from various parts of the Country, it is essential that your home can be viewed nationally if not globally. Our Search Engine Optimized, Google linked 360 Virtual Tours along with available syndication services provide maximum world wide exposure for your home insuring your homes greatest exposure in the global marketplace. We invite you to call and arrange a no obligation consultation to discuss the available marketing options for your home.
Call today and get your 24/7 Open house on-line today.
PS. If you should decide to list with a real estate agent, be sure to ask us first as we are currently working with many of the areas most tech-savvy real estate agents who use our powerful property marketing tools. Making the right choice on who lists your home is certainly a determining factor on how quickly your home sells!
Dale Hart
DragonFly 360 imaging
505 962 2207
Albuquerque Virtual Tours
http:// www.DragonFly360imaging.com
Are you currently on Active Rain? Are you grandfathered in as RAINMAKER status? Have you paid for your RAINMAKER status with a paying subscription to Active Rain? If you’re already at RAINMAKER status the word RAINMAKER will appear under your photo when you login and click on your profile.
Assuming that you are, you will now be able to participate in the RTV Virtual Tour Provider Blog http://www.PanoramaJack.com.
To get things started with this new initiative please email jason(at)realtourvision.com and let me know that you would like to participate. I will simply need your Active Rain username that you use to login with. Once I have that I will login to the PanoramaJack Active Rain blog and will send you an invite to become an author in the new Blog.
You will then be able to post to the blog independently of RTV any time that you desire and know that your links are being followed by the search engines. You will be able to post to the blog by simply logging into your account, accepting the invite and pushing any existing blogs there or writing a new blog and checking the “Collaborative Outside Blog” box. At any time you will be able to log in and post your content and get the google juice flowing back to your site without waiting for RTV to get to your blog submission.
Better yet, let us know when you post to this new blog and we will copy your blog posting from there to the RTV Blog too for even more awesome Google Juice. Get on board now because the PanoramaJack blog has already started pumping!
Not a RAINMAKER? That’s perfectly fine because as you post send in your blogs to us for the www.VirtualTourProvider.com blog we are automatically posting them to the www.PanoramaJack.com blog too. Please keep in mind however that we are only posting one blog daily so if you notice a time lapse, that’s why. We’re not ignoring you but simply taking them in the order in which they come in.
If you’re a RAINMAKER on AR and a part of the RTV virtual tour photographer network please email me your Active Rain username NOW and I will send you an invite right away.
RealTourVision
RTV
Order a virtual tour - 866-947-8687The New Year is sure to bring new technology to our San Antonio virtual tour company, especially under Jason’s tutelage. While we are embracing new virtual tour software technology, don’t forget to keep tabs on your present virtual tour technology.
I recently had my website compromised and didn’t find out about it until I was looking at my Google Analytics and saw a flat line for a number of days. I did a search on Yahoo and Bing and Google and lo and behold, what did I find but to my dismayment, that while my site name was there, there was ‘nothing here’. By that time, the searchbots had gone through and I lost my rankings among competing virtual tour companies.
It took a couple of weeks to regain what I had lost and there is no telling how many possible virtual tour customers I lost. It’s a good idea to review your virtual tour website probably on a daily basis just to catch any problems before they are magnified and really put a wrench in your works.
Speaking of wrenches in the works, are you backing up your data regularly? We tend to think that it won’t happen to me or that I don’t have too many hours on my drive, memory, flash drive, etc. and then the worst happens, lost data, corrupted files, virus, etc. Take a step back and think or calculate the cost of loss of your primary data base and programs if you lost them, then consider the ‘insurance’ that you need and the cost vs cost of loss. Don’t put it off, as so many of us do. Make this one of your New Year’s resolution, back up , back up, back up before its too late.
Happy New Year and may this be a fruitful and growth year to all of you.
Jim Hoback
San Antonio Virtual Tours
L’oeil L’esprit at www.AlamoAreaVirtualTours.com
When it comes to Virtual Tours and what’s new on the market I have seen a few things that make me want to say there is a very bright future coming and I need to get on board before I miss the boat.
First is the talking website Avatar that’s lets you use your own face for the Avatar and voice. It comes up on your front page and will be interactive to your viewing clients. We all know (or should) that the amount of time spent looking at a webpage is very short so your front page has to Wow them and it has to be easy to navigate so what better that an Avatar of you.
Second is video information on your virtual tour company website. Video clips that are geared towards our industry that will pop up on your front page also that will deliver important information on selling your home faster by staging it, Mortgagees and the new laws, and many more “How To “ video’s. Once you have gotten them to your site you need to keep them there so let’s not be boring or overwhelm them with soooo many drop downs and text that they just want to fly away to another site that’s easy to navigate.
Being a Wilmington virtual tour company, I pride myself on using the number 1 virtual tour software and system in the world. I know that I've got one of the largest Virtual Tour companies in Wilmington, NC. I currently provide virtual tours to the following counties:
Belville, Castle Hayne, Kings Grant, Leland, Masonboro ,Murraysville, Myrtle Grove, Navassa, Ogden, Seagate, Silver Lake, Wrightsboro, Wrightsville Beach. High quality service and images is what I deliver my customers. I'm also very pleased to say that I also offer the only Elevated camera shots around. I’m Douglas and this is the Virtual Tour Vision's way of getting out there on the Net and being seen and heard.
Sincerely Douglas Meyers
Virtual Tour Vision
Wilmington Virtual Tours
Order a virtual tour: (910) 805-2467
As virtual tour providers we are marketers. We market our own virtual tour and property marketing services, sure, but my business’ goal is to be a marketing partner for my clients. Whether I’m researching for my market or helping my clients research their market, detailed real estate marketing search is a key. Finding a certain type of property in the right price range quickly is an important skill.
This is a follow up to a blog post I wrote for TwiTip.com http://www.twitip.com/twitter-real-estate-listings-now-with-an-easy-button/. In that post I reviewed a great little tool for distributing Real Estate listings on Twitter called Tweetlister. (http://tweetlister.com) I wanted to let you know about another Twitter tool that goes hand in hand with Tweetlister and is from the same developer. It’s called Propertybot. http://tweetlister.com/propertybot.aspx
Propertybot allows you to search for listings by using the Twitter @reply function. Over the last few months, Tweetlister has had a ton of data thrown at it. According to Tweetlister.com, Tweetlister has a database of over 1.6 million listings, mainly from their partner listing feed partner, ListHub, but also from TweetLister members who have entered their listings manually. Because of this, the service has a great property search feature built into the Tweetlister.com site. Now with Propertybot, you can access this data in your Twitter app, whether that’s at your desktop or on your hand-held computer, I mean phone.
You don’t have to be a Tweetlister member to use Propertybot. The only requirement is a free Twitter account. If you’re not using Twitter and encouraging your virtual tour clients to use it, there’s never a better time than now to start. Here’s how:
• Log in to Twitter and follow @propertybot (http://twitter.com/propertybot).
• Start a tweet with @Propertybot and then add the search criteria.
• To get a full menu of the criteria available send this tweet: @Propertybot help
The main thing to remember is to put the location in quotes. For example, I sent this tweet: @Propertybot “Huntsville, AL” residential 3BR $175K-$250K
In a minute or two I received an @reply from the Propertybot account with a link to my search results. It found fifteen properties and each result has a link to the source of the listing. Most of the time it’s the Realtor’s website. Want to quickly find a list of the agents and brokers who list in the top tier in your area? Just change the location and price range and follow the links.
Speaking of Realtors, you can search a specific agent/broker's listings through Propertybot. This is a tool intended for TweetLister member agents/brokers. Your virtual tour clients can tell their clients to DM (direct message) Propertybot and get all their listings, or a specific set of their listings, by tweeting a message with the agent's Twitter name. If you tweet @Propertybot [agenttwittername] house for sale, you'll get all of the agent's home listings. This is just for agents/brokers who are TweetLister members, but you can get credit for recommending it!
The uses for this service are as many as you have reasons to search for properties. The killer part is that it’s free and there’s no new software to install if you’re already using Twitter.
Happy Tweeting!
Brett Weaver
Owner/Photographer
SpotLight Virtual Tours
Maury County TN Virtual Tours
http://spotlightvt.com
Order a virtual tour: 931-201-9328
Virtual Tour Photography, taking pictures versus tech savvy training and experience, can be a perplexing challenge for a novice photographer and especially a virtual tour and real estate photographer, in the world today.
Once upon a time, in the not too distance past, I can remember when being a photographer meant heavy, expensive equipment not to mention the technical training involving the operation of this equipment. A special talent, passion and extensive training were basics in starting a career as a professional virtual tour photographer and of course a mentor never hurt.
Very few in my world had these opportunities, so the question of even thinking about setting the goal of being a professional photographer, were out of the question. With the advancement of time, new technologies have been developed and have presented new opportunities where we can quench these daunting obstacles.
The meaning of being a professional photographer once meant more than just taking pictures with a camera. One had to experience patience in waiting for the film to be developed in a dark room before they could view what was captured in their photographs. I use the word photography instead of pictures, because I feel skill is need to produce photographs and pictures/pics are quick, uncalculated impressions.
With the wonders of digital photography, now we experience instant gratification. Immediately we are able to realize what has just happened and can correct or adjust our actions. Time being the equivalent of money, these expensive processes are reduced to affordable applications, leaving us with more time and energies to apply creative techniques to satisfy the virtual tour customer.
In real estate, the product we are selling, be it a building or land, we need to remember that we only have a small amount of time to capture our client’s interest. It is paramount we represent the property in an inviting, cozy and appealing manner. The angle/framing of the photo is essential to entice the client/buyer into action, the actual sale of the property. If you show too much open spaces of nothing, a thought can be placed in the viewer of an empty, useless area.
The same goes with lighting, if it is darkly lit, your viewer will not be see the points of interest, All in all, we can only do so much with post shoot adjustments. If we lay down a fundamental understanding of lighting and framing of our subject, the finally photo will represent what we want it to. Stop by our website today to get the Southern Michigan virtual tour and property marketing services that you deserve!
Have a warm, safe and prosperous New Year RTV!
Sandra Gibson
Power Play Multi Media Productions
Web Design, Internet Marketing, Virtual Tours
Southern Michigan Virtual Tours
http://www.powerplaymmp.com
Order a Virtual Tour Now: 517-869-2707
RTV,
Last night Ben had another excellent IMAGE webinar. Although I was late to the Lighting topic I was able to take away enough in the framing portion to make it well worth it for my virtual tour business. Like always Ben broke it down to a very easy to understand level, while still getting straight to the point when balancing artistic expression. For all the virtual tour dealers that were not able to attend you may want to watch this one, On top of the excellent tips that Ben threw at us he explained exactly what our national virtual tour company accounts are looking for… Another great webinar Ben!
Matt Rayner
Lafayette Virtual Tours
www.acadiana360.com
Hello RTV Family,
I just wanted to say that the latest RTV webinar conducted by Ben Knorr was outstanding. Although I am a seasoned virtual tour photographer, I gleaned plenty of information concerning framing and overall lighting techniques. The additional virtual tour photography training proved to be refreshing! It is clear that Ben is not only well-versed in the technical aspects of RTV’s infrastructure, he is also has a clear grasp of virtual tour photography.
This is especially important when dealing with individuals who are just getting into RTV and virtual tour photography in general. If one has no clue in the basics of photography or virtual tour photography, especially lighting and framing, one’s reputation and creditability as a photographer will soon suffer. I stress “basics” because in order to advance to the next level of photography the fundamentals of photography must be mastered in order to progress. To this point, Ben did a superb job redirecting our attention to the makings of a stellar/ above-average visual presentation related to our virtual tours. I was impressed with Ben’s research to supplement his presentation. Instead of simply providing us an overall summary of lighting and framing, I found it extremely useful incorporating examples from other photographers who specialize in property & virtual tour photography.
In the same light (no pun intended), I found it equally useful and helpful when Ben incorporated the “No-No’s” of lighting and framing in his presentation. By displaying images submitted by current RTV dealers, he was able to point how each image fell short of RTV’s standards. In addition, he was able to show us, instead of simply telling us what to avoid. This technique was brilliant! Overall, I was quite impressed with the webinar. I will be attending more in 2010; more importantly, I will become more active this upcoming year with respect to the RTV business opportunity. Best wishes to the entire RTV family!
Wendell Nicholes
Thank you, Ben and RTV, for another interesting and very informative webinar. I really enjoyed the framing session. It started the creative juices flowing. I had a Knoxville virtual tour scheduled today and I put some of the ideas to work. I've shared some of the stills with the realtor and she loves them.
I'm really excited about the future virtual home staging webinar. That will put us even further ahead of the competition. Thank you RTV and Staff for the ongoing support and new ideas.
Looking forward to a very prosperous and successful 2010.
Happy New Year,
Tammy Mills
www.TimeMattersMarketing.com
Knoxville Virtual Tours
Each month our Virtual Tour Company strives to help you become more efficient and better connected to existing and potential virtual tour customers. Our virtual tour marketing pieces are professionally made, easily customizable, and typically just require you to insert your specific company information and logo.
RTV is pleased to announce a Special 2010 TxT Connect Offer to kick start 2010. Did you participate in our TxT Connect program last year? Are you a new provider with RTV that would like to get setup selling our new Mobile Text Marketing System? The time is now to get your site going. This is a limited time offer only available to RTV Dealers who sign up for the TxTConnect program during the month of February. The commission plan is not quite as generous at it was the last time around but we're still offering one heck of a deal on the white label site. For $249.00 you will get the following:
• a custom TxTConnect site and license fee for $249
• a commission of 20% for all sales including all recurring sales.
An additional bonus to the next 50 RTV Dealers who sign up in February including 5 free packages of TxTConnect 10 code plans. These 10 code plans can be used for demo purposes or sold to interested agents.
We will pay a further commission bonus on the initial orders for any of these plans that a dealer sells. The 20% commission has been increased to 50% commission on the initial order and then 20% every month the plan stays active.
This is a great opportunity to sell an exciting new technology and service into the accounts you already do business with. If they are using Virtual tours they can benefit from TxTConnect. Act fast to take advantage of this great opportunity. Sign up now in your TMS!
~Go RTV
www.RealTourVision.com
International MLS
Well we took a little break to let you digest part one of The FORMULA Setting up Shop and now the gang is back for more action in part two of this series.
Have you been wondering if you’re setting up your virtual tour company the right way?
Ever ask yourself what you could do right out of the gate to set yourself apart?
Are you a bit confused as to what to do next and where to put your precious company dollars?
Has your business slowed down and are you in need of an overhaul of your virtual tour products and virtual tour service offerings?
Do you just need to put a little more steam into your virtual tour & property marketing sales?
If you answered yes, and you're an RTV virtual tour provider you MUST attend part 2 of Setting up Shop next week for The FORMULA 21.
We have arranged to have guest appearances from Graves Carey of Delaware Virtual Tours http://www.360Visions.com, Alan Fon of Corpus Christi Virtual Tours http://www.IslandDigitalImages.com, Mike Thompson of Detroit Virtual Tours http://www.RealVisionStudio.com and of course Jason LaVanture of Traverse City Virtual Tours and http://www.BlueLaVaMedia.com.
This combined panel has produced a total of 6314 virtual tours with “Kid Dynamite” Graves Carey leading the pack with over 2600 tours produced!
Please join us on Tuesday February 2nd at 7:00 PM EST as we engage in a round table discussion on “Setting up Shop”. This is an Inner Circle Only Event. See you at the show!
~RTV
Reserve your Webinar seat now by logging into your TMS!
On a recent trip to Florida, we had dinner on the beach during a beautiful sunset. The sky looked like it was on fire as gorgeous shades of red and orange lit the horizon. Wanting to capture the moment, we asked a friend to take our picture. In the picture, you can see the sunset if you look hard enough but unfortunately, the first and potentially only thing you see is my pretty but very distracting pink and orange paisley shirt.
Preparing for a virtual tour is just like preparing for any photo shoot…it’s vitally important that nothing distracts the viewer from the big picture. Virtual tours allow prospective buyers, renters or customers to step into your venue and literally take a look around. After you live in a space for a while, you often don’t see your own clutter or distractions. Problem is that someone who sees it for the first time often has a tough time seeing anything BUT the clutter and distractions.
We recently shot some Helen virtual tours where the homeowners had a large carousel horse. While it was beautiful and unique in person, in the 360º photographs it became a distraction from what was otherwise an elegant and classy living room.
We understand you usually have to live in your home while it is for sale but keep in mine, once your house is on the market, you must view it as a commodity and not as “your” home. Take a look around your house and see what prospective buyers may see. Go to open houses in your neighborhood and see what stands out to you.
Some of the things that can be visual stumbling blocks include:
Personal photographs
Office clutter
Kitchen counter catch-alls
Large or unique decorative pieces
Bookshelf or built-in displays
Refrigerator magnets and art
Distinct wall colors and accent walls
Remember that the objective is to showcase your home…not your stuff. If necessary, ask a friend to come over and objectively walk through your house. Chances are they will see things that you miss.
For more tips on showcasing your home or business, please check our website www.vquestmedia.com
Greg Mitts
White County Virtual Tours
www.vquestmedia.com
Order a Virtual Tour: 706-973-9056
I have been involved in land development, on the CAD (Computer Aided Design) side, for over 20 years. When the economic downturn occurred, the land development industry slowed to a crawl, forcing many engineering firms to have layoffs. I was one of several thousand engineers in the industry who was affected by this.
One always has to be open and ready for change. Now was the time to be proactive. With the absolute belief that I am in control of my own success or failure in life, I began to make some changes. I had always wanted to start a business involving video, and photography. With 20 years of computer work and engineering under my belt, I wanted to incorporate that experience somehow and knew I wanted to do this with the help of a successful franchise. Thus began the search for a suitable partner.
Enter RTV (Real Tour Vision).
Jason LaVanture, the founder of RTV, answered all my questions thoroughly. RTV waited patiently with no pressure for many months for me to make an informed decision. After looking over all the information I chose to invest and become a full service virtual tour provider with RTV. They are the largest virtual tour company and property marketing network in the world. They have the best virtual tour software, property marketing training and technical support. They even hold many national and International contracts with hotel chains which feeds business back into the virtual tour dealer network. How cool is that!!??
With Real Tour Vision servicing over sixty thousand real estate agents worldwide and over 1500 virtual tour providers in his network, Jason knows what services and functionality are needed on a local or national level. I am very excited to be moving forward in my new Harrison virtual tour business business venture, Virtual Tour Success, with RTV at my side. I can’t wait to be up in full force and to be providing my own clients with the best the industry has to offer in marketing and solutions to their problems.
The competition in the Real Estate Industry is fierce now. Quality virtual tours will give my clients the edge not only at the local level, but at the national and international levels.
To give your property the edge contact Virtual Tour Success today.
Virtual Tour Company Testimonial by:
Buffy Crosby
Owner
Harrison Virtual Tours
www.virtualtoursuccess.com
Order a virtual tour: 916-690-1786
Virtual Florida Tours is presenting the new text messaging service for real estate marketing. This is the best service provided since the advent of virtual tours.
Virtual Florida Tours is always searching for the top notch technologies that will allow our customers top the market and provide their customers the best possible service available at the lowest prices possible.
We made an exhaustive research of all the providers of this service and selected the one that gives the best quality service available on the market. Our provider offers this service on all the United States and Canada. That is a greater coverage that you can obtain with most of the companies. Allowing prospector to text the number to friends and family that are willing to relocate to the area and they will be able to see the property and the realtor will receive immediately information on the telephones that have contacted their advertisement.
If you will like to receive a better idea of the service we are presenting just SMS prop123 to 43766 or click to see a little presentation.
Gabriel Duque
Miami Virtual Tours
www.VirtualFloridaTours.com
Order a virtual tour today: 305 331 8960
I want to thank Ben Knorr for our virtual tour IMAGE Webinar this past Tues. evening, having a 2nd flash available on a shoot is really a valuable idea. I’ve been carrying a 2nd flash around for a while and I’ve had a few instances where I needed it.
www.knoxtours.net is shooting a lot of virtual tours in the resort rental cabins in the Great Smokey Mountains area, more exactly in Wears Valley right outside Pigeon Forge, all this just down the road from Knoxville, TN. It’s really great, I get to see some really beautiful mountain and valley views while shooting my virtual tours and also visit some awesome rental Log Cabins, values range from $100,000 to well over $1,000,000.
There’s all designs and different themes for these cabins, mostly these are homes away from homes and are rented to vacationers when the owners aren’t in the area. With our situation with the economy, a very many of these cabins are for sale, creating a pretty good situation for my Knoxville virtual tour company.
I recently shot a virtual tour of a cabin that was named “Me Tarzan You Jane”. Right in the very middle of this cabin was a good size tree! complete with branches and leaves, it did look very real. I always try to shoot cabins with a diffused flash, around f5.6 or so and a slow shutter speed - it helps bring out ambient light in the virtual tour. My biggest problem is white balance, the rooms already have a pretty warm glow, and unless I come in with several flashes and blow out the lights, this warm glow gets pretty intense. I put a #82 blue filter on it in photoshop, that helps a bit but that red is pretty hard to minimize and opening up a bit loses me depth of field.
Balancing the light coming in thru the windows while shooting your virtual tour is pretty easy unless it’s really bright outside, like direct sunlight on the windows, I find I get a happy balance averaging readings from the windows and the inside. I also try and stage a bit - Setting up the pool table to play, sometimes setting out dinner ware in the eating area, and such. I’m an “old Newspaper Photographer”, my clients like that I take lots of photos and on a virtual tour shoot.
Running a virtual tour company through RTV is such a great way to make a living, all I need now is more customers and I’m set for life!
I hope everybody has a very prosperous 2010.
Mike O'Neill
Knoxville Virtual Tours
www.knoxtours.net
Hello RTV Dealers out there! We are PowerVision360.com - Brad and Suzanne Feinberg - Real Estate Photographers in Scottsdale, Arizona
Just a quick hello to let you know that we are around. Our specialty is to produce Scottsdale virtual tours here for Arizona Real Estate Agents and Brokers. We also love servicing our clients in Mesa, Tempe, Gilbert, Chandler in the East Valley Real Estate Market. We love Phoenix, Arizona as well as the West Valley Real Estate Market and find ourselves in Surprise, Glendale, Peoria. We wouldn't want to forget all of the MLS listing agents in Carefree or Cave Creek either.
If we haven't mentioned your city, invite us to meet you and tell you about ourselves. We pride ourselves in treating every home for sale with the White Glove Treatment. As an architectural photography company, especially one that does real estate photography for homes for sale, PowerVision360.com is very excited to use only professional Canon camera, lens and lighting systems. Our software is the full Adobe CS4 and Nik Software packages. Our Virtual Tour software is provided by RTV and allows us to share the highest rated Virtual Tour software in the industry.
When you combine that power, with the power of the Photobiz engine that runs our website, you can understand how important quality, service and satisfaction are to our company.
Suzanne Feinberg
Scottsdale Virtual Tours
Order a Virtual Tour Today: 602-770-7149
