An RTV Love Letter

Dear RTV

A love letter from a Nova Scotia Virtual Tour provider, Supernova Studios and Nancy Bain.

You will have to forgive me as I am a little out of practice, but I simply had to try to convey to you my absolute love for you.

I’ll never forget the day we met. I first saw you through the eyes of a fellow RTV Dealer (Dave Hall, Listing Solutions) and the infatuation began. His enthusiasm and praise for you filled me with wonder and I knew that I had to contact you at my first opportunity.

You were waiting for my call. Anticipating me, and the courtship began. How thorough you were in answering each of my questions. How prompt you were in following up. How patient with me when I felt challenged. How encouraging you were when I needed a push. Your attention was immediate and consistent. And the love affair took root in this Nova Scotia Virtual Tour provider’s heart.

I have so many favorite memories of our short time together. Like the time when someone an hour from me contacted you and wanted to begin a love affair with you too! How faithful you were to me when you not only turned them away but gave them my contact information to become their Nova Scotia virtual tour provider. You earned my trust that day.

And when you mentioned my name and promoted my business on an RTV webinar I was bursting with pride from your public support. I could barely sleep that night. How very very flattering. I want to be wildly successful and make you proud.

Your RTV family has welcomed me with open arms. Several of them contacting me, showing their support, encouraging me and following me.  Your RTV family has become my RTV family.

You make me look so good through your Inner Circle Marketing providing me with all the tools for a comprehensive marketing package. You are dedicated and are continually working to come out with even more amazing marketing solutions for me to offer my Nova Scotia real estate tour clients. There are days when I feel that I can barely keep up with all that you have to offer.

You are invested in me.  And I am invested in you.

A true virtue, you are committed to my success through your time, energy and effort. And I am committed to you.

Commitment is what
Transforms the promise into reality.
It is the words that speak
Boldly of your intentions.
And the actions which speak
Louder than the words.
It is making the time
When there is none.
Coming through time
After time after time,
Year after year after year.
Commitment is the stuff
Character is made of;
The power to change
The face of things.
It is the daily triumph
Of integrity over skepticism.

When I say I love you, I mean that I’m committed to working to love you even when it’s hard.

Love always,

Nancy Bain
Supernova Studios 
Nova Scotia Virtual Tours
Order a virtual tour: 902-543-2185

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Do You Really Need Good Pictures to Sell Houses?

Bay Area Virtual Tours are everywhere, but do you really need one?  For that matter, do you really need good or professional photographs?  Can't you just snap some photos with your point-and-shoot, load them to the MLS and "poof" the house is sold?  Well, in some cases... maybe! San Francisco Bay Area real estate has been very strong compared with many areas of the country.  And yet, no different than anywhere else, it is key to the success of a listing and for that matter, the listing agent, to be priced right and marketed well.  So just what do we mean by "marketed well"?

I am going to borrow a paragraph out of the text "How to Photograph Houses by Stan Barron".  The booklet was written for members of The Institute For Luxury Home Marketing, founded by Laurie Moore-Moore.  In this booklet, Stan says:

"Selling a house is not a real estate function...it is a marketing function, and pretty photographs sell more houses.  Think about the marketing used for professional products you are exposed to.  Have you ever seen a bad photograph (taken with a point-and-shoot-camera) in an ad for a BMW?  Of course not.  Ever seen a badly composed shot in a cosmetics ad?  Never.  Good photographs are worth the effort."

Maybe we should ask ourselves, do we have an ethical and possibly legal responsibility to represent the client in a professional manner that includes photographs that highlight the homes features, and marketing that exposes it to the public, even more so than the BMW dealer?

So, how do we take good or even great pictures?  Start with a good camera.  With recent technology improvements you can buy a good digital SLR camera for under $1000.  One that I recommend is the Canon EOS Rebel.  Nikon also has a very good entry level digital SLR called the D40 in the same price range.
Bay area virtual tours as an authorized RTV dealer, is no different than virtual tours and real estate photography anywhere in the world and one of the keys to good architectural photos is the wide-angle lens.  You want a lens that is somewhere between 12 and 16mm for a digital camera.  Remember, the lower the number the wider the lens.  A normal camera is a 35mm lens so a 16mm will shoot much wider shots such as shown above.  I shoot with a Canon 50D and a 12-24mm wide-angle lens.

Next, always and I mean always use a tripod!  You cannot hold the camera still enough to get good pictures.  And you will also want to be sure the camera is level and that's hard to do when hand holding the camera.  At Property Marketing Studios, I use a tripod with a built-in leveler so I know the camera is level in either vertical or horizontal positions.

Then to add natural lighting, you can either use a very slow shutter speed such as 4-8 seconds for a long exposure and natural light (no flash) or use an external flash and a diffuser.  I use both natural lighting (above) and the Gary Fong Lightsphere Diffuser (below) for a natural look and feel.
So, do you really need good pictures to sell homes?  Only if you want to get more exposure, sell faster and get noticed by more potential sellers and buyers that take note of your great photos and superior marketing skills!
And the rewards will be well worth it... Your sellers will be telling their friends and associates what a great job you did and statistics show that properties with good pictures sell faster than those without!  And quantity does matter too...  According to NAR, listings with the most pictures and with Virtual Tours get more viewing by almost 30%.

Yes, all of this is an investment, but it will pay for itself in faster sales and referrals by your sellers and clients.  Or, if your time is better spent getting new clients and prospecting, then hire a professional such as us, Property Marketing Studios.

As part of Bay Area Property Marketing Studios and Virtual Tour business, we offer the option of using the agents photographs and creating a YouTube Presentation for as little as $35.  This is a great option for those agents that like to take their own pictures.  Use the tips above and your pictures will look great and when Property Marketing Studios exposes it to the world, you and your seller will be proud!

So, in summary, I hope we have established the need for good quality, even professional pictures whether you take them yourself or you hire a professional such as Bay Area Property Marketing Studios.
Next, how do we market the property to get the exposure for the property as well as ourselves.  Social networking, Twitter, YouTube, Craigslist?  RTV and Property Marketing Studios have developed social media exposure programs that expose both the property and the agent to the world!  But hey, that's for another day, We will talk more about that in our next communications.
I invite you to join me on my Facebook Fan Page at: 

Thank You,
Tim Denbo
"The Marketing Guy"

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RTV Rocks the Kasbah

Hey Everyone at RTV, I just wanted to send you in a little testimonial because we love you guys!!!

You guys rock.  I can't think of any other virtual tour company that focuses so much on it's distributors.  Thank you so much for helping us with training and giving us the tools, knowledge and methods to grow our property marketing businesses into successful, competing companies!!

The past few virtual tour webinars have been right on target with helping us understand and utilize social networking and optimization.  I'm really excited about the HD and Full Screen options.  Wow, the pics look so much better and THAT'S what will get us more clients. 

A special thanks to Mike Thompson for sharing his knowledge and experience.  It's good to hear and learn from other RTV dealers. Nancy Bain is a great inspiration. I've learned so much from her ... and I bet she doesn't realize that she's been a positive business influence.

Keep up the great work RTV, we appreciate your hard work and support.

Thanks Tammy Mills
Time Matters Marketing
Knoxville Virtual Tours
http://www.timemattersmarketing.com/

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Camera Wars

Attention RTV virtual tour photographers and camera junkies alike.  Please join us for the next episode of The IMAGE "The official photography webinar of RTV".  Are you looking for that perfect camera and not sure which brand is best?  Have you been to several camera shops only to hear each supposed expert claim their preferred brand is the best because of XY and Z?  If you have, please know that you're not alone out there.  In fact, there are thousands of people who simply throw their hands up in the air each day and select a camera out of sheer exhaustion.

If only you could get all of those camera shop owners in one room at the same time so you can witness firsthand a fair and balanced debate then maybe then you could make an informed decision. Well now you can!  Because RTV has hundreds of virtual tour providers all around the world we are going to do something that most companies out there could never achieve.  We're going to put die hard Canon junkies up against must have Nikon lovers against Fuji fanatics and Olympus addicts and watch them fight it out on The IMAGE 13 "Camera Wars".

Join us ringside for an amazingly fun no holds barred evening as dedicated RTV Virtual Tour Builders throw off the gloves and debate why they chose Canon, Nikon, Olympus, or Sony. This will be a sheer battle of the brand and only those with true grit will be left standing.

Find out the advantages and disadvantages of each brand of digital SLR so you will know what to pick the next time you plan to get a camera. Join me, Ben Knorr, for the IMAGE webinar – "Camera Wars" on March 30th at 7:00 Eastern.

Sign up NOW! Public is welcome!
https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/710831347

Ben Knorr
Camera Junkie and RTV Lens Engineer

P.S.  If you love your digital SLR, think it is the best brand, don't have a problem telling the other brands off, then we would love for you to be a guest on this show! Shoot me an email or give me a call today at 231-947-0684!

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RTV Webinars Work For Me

Just letting you know that I have been enjoying all of the Virtual Tour Webinars that you are guys are putting out.

The Life Lock Webinar was such good information for protecting yourself and your business. Thanks so much for giving your dealers the opportunity to be secure. It seems that identity theft is a way of life. It's good to know that Life Lock has figured out how to help those who have had this problem and how to get a person set up safe and secure so that it doesn’t happen. Thanks again. 

The IMAGE virtual tour Webinars are so interesting and informative. Since the Night Shots Image Photo Webinar I have been taking a lot of pictures of my house at night to see what differences are changing the setting without the filters as discussed. I have some interesting photos as you can imagine. Thank goodness for digital cameras and instant delete!

C.Lee Images in Mesquite, NV is doing well. Our housing market is still not the best in Southern Nevada but a few homes seem to be moving. I enjoy when a client calls to tell me to take a tour down because it has sold. I always send back a Congrats and thank them for their business with a gentle reminder of my business when thinking of their next tour.

My client list is growing and I like how C.Lee Images is making headway with good relations within the Real Estate Community. Still a long way to go but I am positive that things will change in a positive way as agents become aware of the power a 360 virtual tour can give them. Very excited now about offering the new RTV HD Full Screen virtual tour. 

Thank you SO MUCH RTV, you have a great company and a great support system for us virtual tour dealers out here in the field.

Here’s hoping that 2010 will bring us all great success.

Cher Lee



C.Lee Images
Mesquite Virtual Tours
Order a virtual tour: 435-215-8102

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FREE Software for AWESOME Virtual Tours

It’s Freebie Friday time courtesy of Palm Canyon Media in sunny Palm Springs, California!
When you get right down to it, we all want to be the best Virtual Tour Providers.  We take pride in our Virtual Tours and want them to look their best.  That’s why team RTV offers us a lot of tips and tricks to make our product look its very best.

On that note, I would like to share with you some of the tricks, actually FREE (yes you read that right) software that’s available to make your Virtual Tours stand out above the rest.

Most of us are using wide angle lenses which can distort an image.  A simple fix is ShiftN.  It’s a simple to use program which permits the automatic correction of converging lines.

Have you ever wanted to buy Photoshop but just couldn’t afford it?  I know I have but I think I might have found the next best thing.  It’s called GIMP.  Gimp provides professional tools that can stand against the big boys without the hefty price tag.  It’s extremely powerful and easy to work with and is ideal for either amateur and pro photographers or anyone who wants to create and edit professional-quality digital images on a budget.

FastStone Image Viewer, Screen Capture and Photo resize.  That’s a program you have heard Ben Knorr talk a lot about.  It’s an easy to use program.  FastStone can batch-convert files into a number of popular image formats and sizes.  The slide-show creator allows you to apply transitions, specify the interval between images, and add your own MP3s as a soundtrack.

And finally my favorite: Adobe Lightroom 3.  Yes, I know this is an expensive program, but they have a beta version that you can use for FREE through April.  If you have never used Lightroom I invite you to download it and take it for a spin.  It can add a lot of depth to your images.

So there you have it, FREE software that you can find and download easily from the internet and use right away.   Have fun!

Kurt Beabes
Palm Canyon Media
Palm Springs Virtual Tours
www.PalmCanyonMedia.com
Order a Virtual tour: 760-327-0701

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Hail to the IMAGE

We were pleasantly surprised and tickled by yesterday's RTV IMAGE webinar featuring world renowned Bryan Peterson as the guest speaker. To have him critique our photos was awe inspiring. Makes you want to go out there and practice your night shots! Check out our newest tour at KaMilo.  We spent a great amount of time waiting for the right shot and had to move fast. Once that sun goes down you only have a limited time to capture just the right "night" shot. Then that "Mr. Dusky Blue Sky" is gone until tomorrow.

Cielito Rooney
VizWizardz LLC
http://www.vizit360.com
Waikoloa Virtual Tours
Order a Virtual Tour: 808.333.6458

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Milwaukee Virtual Tours - Night Shots & More!

Night Photography what a great topic for The IMAGE.  Last night’s IMAGE was filled with some great suggestions and tips from an excellent photographer Brian Peterson. The team here at 360 Image Media offering Milwaukee Virtual Tours, really learned some great new ideas and tricks to make our night photography even better. We will also experiment with some of the tips learned and apply them to some low lighting and creative shoots we have coming up real soon. With this enhanced virtual tour photography knowledge we are also really looking forward to the launch of the new Full Screen HD virtual tours.

The artistic quality and creative feel of night photography has also prompted my team to create a new blog for posting RTV dealers night shots. So for all you experienced pros and you new dealers out there the blog address will be as follows http://rtvnightgallery.blogspot.com/.  So start submitting your night shots and descriptions now and display your talents as well as increase your Google Juice. Submissions can be made to 360 Image Media Night Shot Blog by sending us an email.

Now for our second tidbit of information. We have recently stumbled upon a new way to increase your Google Juice and your page rank. What is it you ask?  BING.  Really you say how can BING improve my Google juice. Well we have recently discovered that signing up for the BING community so that we could improve our ranking within BING search engines, has also given us Google juice by having our BING community profile rank organically in the Google Search Engine. So fill out the profile and sign up for the Bing community now, so you can get even more exposure. Bing has had enough Google juice to occasionally get our profile on the first page of the Google results when searching for our Company Name.  So there it is BING increases Google Juice and helps you gain exposure. Also make sure you sign up for Bing webmaster tools and submit your site and setup there xml verification to get them crawling your site as well.

That’s all for now.
Thanks for stopping by our website!
www.360imagemedia.com
Milwaukee Virtual Tours
Order a virtual tour: 262-613-1099

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Mixing it up with RTV

            "As an Indianapolis Real Estate Auctioneer and Broker, RTV's virtual tour software offers me a distinctive service differentiator. None of my local auction competitors have the ability to offer such a product. I mix it up a bit by providing 360° panorama virtual tours as value proposition which is always enjoyed by my varied client base.

           Bonham's is affiliated with United County Auction Services - the largest national organization of auctioneers, holding auction licenses in 48 states. We work with Lawyers, Bank Asset Managers, People that are Downsizing, etc., to auction Commercial & Residential Real Estate and Personal Property. These clients all expect quality and timely service. Offering Indianapolis Virtual Tours and Real Estate Video Tips through Video Connector provides services and capabilities not offered by my competitors.

           Having been in the Auction and Real Estate business for 10 years, I know the importance of growth and business development through adding service capabilities and improving your personal & personnel skills. For personal development, I have attained my AARE auction real estate accreditation, will complete my CAI designation in 2 month. I sit in on various training webinars offered by RTV, the National Auctioneer Association, etc. For business development, we are always looking for better staff, newer technology and updated software. All of these things have helped us grow our business, make us more profitable and better serve the needs of our customers.

            Soon, I will extend my virtual tour service to new business sectors. In the past, my business services were offered just for my auction real estate. The business goal for 2010 is to offer 360° panorama virtual tours to area real estate brokerage firms, corporations and public business facilities. As a part of our growth plan, Bonham's will have RTV prepare a dedicated website under the name: Circle City 360° Virtual Tours.

            Bonham's associated with RTV about 14 months ago. It has been a positive relationship and a very good business decision for our auction business. Thanks RTV!"

Mark W. Bonham, AARE
Indianapolis Auctioneer & Virtual Tour Provider

 United Country - Bonham Auction & Realty

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When Malware Strikes

Dear Jack,
During the RTV virtual tour webinar regarding the LifeLock system, Jason LaVanture mentioned a few steps to take if you thought you had spyware on your computer.  Could you please do me a HUGE favor and outline those steps?
Yours Truly,
Melissa

Melissa my dear,

Thank you so much for your interest in keeping your computer running smoothly. There's simply nothing worse than having a virus or spyware taking your valuable time away from you.  Let me run through what Jason (The Virtual Tour Guru) was talking about on the webinar and explain what he referred to as "Protocol".

Before spyware does strike you down you should arm yourself by going to http://www.avast.com/download-software  and http://www.malwarebytes.org/  and http://www.atribune.org/ for the ATF cleaner.  These three programs should be installed on your computer and you should regularly get updates for them.
Should you ever feel that your computer is running slowly or that you're infected you should immediately take the following protocol:

1. Update Malwarebytes and then unplug yourself from the Internet
2. Turn off System Restore (I know this is a scary thing to do but please trust me!)
3. Reboot your computer in safe mode with networking by pressing F8 during boot
4. Once logged into windows run the ATF cleaner and remove all
5. Run Malwarebytes and perform a full scan
6. Once scan is complete reboot your machine once again in safe mode
7. Run Malwarebytes again, check for updates (plug in briefly and then unplug), and run a full scan
8. Continue scanning and rebooting in safe mode until your scan comes up clean
9. Boot into regular windows, plug back into the Internet, update Malwarebytes again and run another full scan
10. If the scan comes up clean turn System Restore back on and consider yourself very LUCKY!
11. Good luck out there!

Print these directions off now and tuck them away somewhere.  Trust me, when you've got 1800 Virtual Tour Providers around the World you tend to deal with this on a daily basis!
Real Tour Vision
http://www.realtourvision.com
Virtual Tours

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Setting up for Virtual Staging Sales

Attention RTV virtual tour providers:

I know that you're all working very hard to setup your virtual staging program and we've just done something that will make your job much easier.  As you the virtual staging catalog is nearly 14 MB which is much too large to email your prospects.  RTV has uploaded an unbranded version of our virtual staging catalog that can be found here: RTV Virtual Home Staging Catalog.



Once you click on that link you will want to follow the steps below PRECISELY to add this catalog to your website just as we have done so below in this blog.

1. Click here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/27387438/Virtual-Staging
2. Place your mouse over the 'Twitter,Facebook,Share' button and click
3. Look for 'Embed This Document' and copy the embed code to your clipboard
4. Embed the unbranded document into your website or blog.
5. Start selling!

If you would like to see what this looks like on a finished website please take a moment and visit

Listing Solutions - St Augustine Virtual Staging

BlueLavaMedia - Traverse City Virtual Staging

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Social Ignition Course Update

RTV is very pleased to announce that our ever popular Social Ignition course has been updated.  All 12 weeks are now available for download in your www.rockpointemarketing.com site under the Inner Circle section.  All new members who have not yet signed up for the course may do so by signing into your RPM marketing system now! This will automatically sign you up for the brand new Social Ignition system.  For those of you who are putting your customers through this course, please take time now to update your course online.

The updates to this course include a very powerful FREE Keyword Rank checker that works flawlessly and is lightning fast.  It also works without you having to clear out your cache frequently.  The course has eliminated all sites that are no longer available and includes links to five new, very powerful sites.  Enjoy the new course outline!  Remember that when you become more than a virtual tour photographer your need in the community increases exponentially.

RTV
866-947-8687
Virtual Tours & Now Virtual Staging!

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Final Call For Mobile Text Marketing Discounts

TXT2Look and RTV are pleased to announce a Special TXT Connect Offer to kick start 2010.

This is a limited time offer only available to RTV Dealers who sign up for the TXT Connect mobile text marketing program during the month of February.

It includes: special pricing, free demo codes, commission incentives, and additional income opportunities.

We will offer anyone who signs up during the month of February:

•    A custom TXT Connect site and license fee for $249
•    A commission of 20% for all sales including all recurring sales

PLUS an additional bonus to the first 50 RTV Dealers who sign up - 5 free packages of TXT Connect 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 TXT Connect. Act fast to take advantage of this great opportunity.
 

 For more information on the RTV TXT Connect program please visit:RTV TXT Connect in your TMS!

www.RealTourVision.com
International MLS

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New RTV HD Tours are Here

Calling all RTV Virtual Tour Dealers: The Formula 23 | The Big Screen

RTV would like to invite you to a very special episode of The FORMULA to be held on Tuesday March 2nd at 7:00 Eastern time.While the majority of the show will be focused on how to take advantage of our new (High Definition) HD Full Screen virtual tour viewer, RTV Chairman Doug Knorr will be visiting with us to address the network for the first time since 2003.

Head of RTV Technical Support, Torie Hermel will also be co-hosting the show with Jason LaVanture and will be going over the best ways to compress and publish your new HD images into the system. We look forward to seeing you on The FORMULA 22 “The Big Screen”. This webinar is open to ALL dealers so sign up now in your TMS.

RTV
Virtual Tour Software
Become an RTV Provider Today!

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I’m Nancy Bain and I’m a Marketing Genius

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

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Virtual Staging Begins

Click on the virtual staging images to enlarge

We're starting to see the very first virtual staging images roll off the assembly lines.  RTV proudly gives our tip of the hat to Suzanne Feinberg from Scottsdale Virtual Tour Company PowerVision360.com for getting the very first virtual staging order completed over the weekend.

The quality level shown above is quite amazing considering what we're seeing from other companies virtual home staging products.  RTV has led the way in 3D Renderings and 3D Walkthroughs for many years now.  It is likely that our virtual staging product will also dominate the industry.

If you're looking for a source for virtual staging contact RTV today to order this from a local RTV virtual tour provider.  We offer two quality levels and deliver a very fast turn around time.

Go RTV!
Virtual Staging
866-947-8687

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YouTube and Technology

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

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More IMAGE Love

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

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The IMAGE Receives Island Love

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

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Must Love Blogs FORMULA Summary

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

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The Real Kate McCoy

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

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Virtual Home Staging

Virtual Home Staging is here from RTV! With more and more homes now being vacant due to foreclosures virtual staging is now more in demand than ever before.

Are you an RTV virtual tour provider? Are you looking for additional property marketing services to add to your offerings menu? If you answered yes to both of these questions then look no further. A powerful property marketing tool packing a dramatic eye-catching punch is here!

RTV is now able to offer you this new virtual home staging product at an extremely low price. Please review our latest RTV newsletter for ordering details and virtual home staging pricing.

RealTourVision
http://www.realtourvision.com
Virtual Home Staging

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Island Digital Images Rocking TxT Connect Mobile Marketing

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

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Like a hand in glove - Joining the Chamber

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

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The FORMULA 22 | Must Love Blogs

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

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For Sale By Owner Virtual Tours

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

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Calling All RTV RAINMAKERS

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

Virtual Tour Software

Order a virtual tour - 866-947-8687

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New Technology & New Year

The 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

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Wilmington Virtual Tours

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

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