Perception Becomes Reality

My VR Software company, RTV recently sent me a lead for a virtual tour assignment in a town where I have had no prior virtual tours business.  I don’t normally have to travel far for my assignments, but I wanted to fulfill this request since it was generated by RTV and I am so happy that I went!!

The homeowners were discouraged with their previous attempts to sell their home and they were especially disgusted with the quality of virtual tour they had received, citing the fact that it made their hand-sponged walls appear black instead of green.  I assured them that I would do a great job in each room that I shot for them.

After I turned in the virtual tour the client was so happy that she wrote her real estate agent “WOW! This is the very best virtual tour I have ever seen . . . since our house has been on the market, I have seen a lot of virtual tours as I scan through the MLS. There is no question; this is by far the best! Thank you and Cynthia for all the work. I am absolutely delighted and can hardly wait to brag to my neighbors about the fantastic job you have done.  You have assembled a great team!“

I was so pleased to be able to present a quality HD virtual tour for this agent and her homeowners and I am starting to get more business out of this agency because of this one good experience.  I don’t object to traveling any more when the results are this rewarding.  Actually, these out of town jobs have been some of my favorites and I get to try out new restaurants!

Cynthia Baldado
Tacoma Virtual Tours
www.Custom360Tours.com
Order a virtual tour: 253-549-5373

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Sometimes They Need a Push...

In a recent conversation with a potential new virtual tour client I discovered an objection to the use of virtual tours, one I hadn’t come across before. The Realtor in question had never used virtual tours because the ones he was exposed to didn’t do the property justice, in his opinion. He didn’t want to use virtual tours because he didn’t want to tarnish the listing in any way!

A few months later he finally contacted me, with the sudden desire for me to do some virtual tour work for him. Upon asking him what made him change his mind he told me that he had seen one of the tours I did for a mutual client. He said, “I haven’t done tours before because more often than not they don’t do the house justice. When I saw what you did for Denny I was blown away! You turned a really small house into a mansion and your images were amazing!”

Image is important in our line of work and as an RTV full service virtual tour provider I know that what we produce is at the top of the list when it comes to professional virtual tours that are pleasing to the eye. The fact that tours were not an option for this Realtor until he saw a Florida Eye Virtual Tour is absolutely amazing to me and this is a story that is worth sharing again and again as not all virtual tours are the same...

Chris Grumley
Florida Eye Tours, LLC
http://www.floridaeyetours.com/

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Wasilla Virtual Tours on Advertising

I have found one of the most effective forms of advertising a virtual tour for real estate agents is to include the QR code or the virtual tour tour address in their print advertising.  When the only place an agents 360 tours can be found is their personal web page, they are narrowing the chance that a potential client will even stumble on the tours. Especially if they're not very savvy at blogging or SEO. Inclusion in their MLS listings is also very important; however, I believe that smart home buyers are looking at all avenues for their dream home.  I know my wife and I looked around for two years until we found ours!  I only wish Wasilla virtual tours were more prevalent back then.

This last summer a friend of ours sadly had passed away. Her mother was a retired real estate agent from out of state and came to town fix up the home and sell it.  Her father spent lots of time making improvements to the already nice home, but because the mother was no longer associated with an agency, she was selling it as a private owner.  She had tried for two months to advertise it with fliers posted around town and ads in the newspaper classifieds, so when I heard this, I immediately offered to give them a virtual tour.  Since she had no website to add a link to, I added it to my own sample gallery on my site and gave her a simple address that was easy to offer in her classified display ad.  In the first week she had more calls than she did the previous month. 

The couple who finally bought the home claimed it was because of my 360 virtual tour.  They had inquired their own agent about the property, but were told that it wasn't that great.  They went back to the tour and called the seller directly.  If it wasn't for the virtual tour, they wouldn't have made that second attempt.  If it wasn't in the print ad, the home may still be buried under all the other homes for sale without virtual tours.  I now recommend all my clients to at least add something that says "virtual tour" to their prints advertisements, and so far I am getting a pretty happy response.

Brian Mead
RE Marketing, AK
Video Production and Virtual Tours
Wasilla, AK 99654
(907) 232-2264
www.virtualtourak.com

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Expanding Virtual Tour Horizons

Learning a new tool is a process you must jump into!  We have seen the advantage of creating V-Slides as an appropriate virtual tour that enhances specific web-site and email distributions. See It Sell Studios, in Corinth, MS., has added this HD virtual tour technology to their tour choices.

First we had to see how to work with this type of virtual tour. What we did was begin a virtual tour that will actually be filmed in September. By loading some non-related pictures, we could see how to create the tour. Although we live in NE Mississippi, we love to vacation in Gulf Shores, Alabama. When we get to Gulf Shores, Alabama, we will be filming a condo and then remove/add pictures to feature this condo.

The owner of the condo will be able to email this visual to any inquiries they have as well as post it on VRBO (vacation rentals by owner).

Having our virtual tour company name on the tour allows us to get additional SEO exposure as well as additional business. We feel that rentals would especially benefit with this tour type because they are quick, at-a-glance, for someone looking at properties. The V-Slide is faster, easier for us to produce and thus a competitive, economical product can be easily marketed to prospective clients. Generally we will be doing only still shots but we love the feature that a pano or partial pano can be incorporated.

Set up your own "demo" to learn the V-Slide features. Use the demo to cold-call clients to visually show them how this can benefit their internet marketing! Take the plunge, you will love V-slides. NE Mississippi Virtual Tours is pleased to now be offering our client V-Tours.


Hugh Jordan
Corinth Virtual Tours
http://www.seeitsellstudios.com
Order a virtual tour: 662-664-0965

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Changes to RTV Weekly Hit Report

Good afternoon RTV! Throughout this week a number of our virtual tour provider clients commented positively on the Weekly Hit Reports coming out on Monday. Many dealers stated that the number of responses they received from customers off the stat emails were more than double of what they typically receive when the stats go out on Sunday..

As a result the weekly reports will now be emailed out on Monday. This new timing will allow you to share with your clients the complete weekend activity too. We truly hope you're having a good summer and are making use of all the new technology. 

As a final thought please don't forget to register for Ben's show next Tuesday by logging into your http://tms.realtourvision.com 

I know each and every one of you will take something away from this show!

See you on the next FORMULA RTV!!

Yours Sincerely,

Jason

PS.  Thanks for your support :)

PSS Send me some HDR (Secret Weapon) V-Slides for our gallery!
http://www.realtourvision.com/tourdemos.php

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Ninja Marketing from Alamo Virtual Tours

In my last blog I hinted about this one today. It’s been awhile but I promised Jason this would be on his ‘desk’
Monday morning.  If you’re like me, your advertising dollars for your local virtual tour business have to stretch far and wide, so I don’t do daily papers, journals, or radio spots, just too damn expensive.

I look at what will give me the greatest exposure for the least amount of money and the longest time in front of Realtors.  I may be singing to the choir, but it won’t hurt to remind you virtual tour providers out there of one of the best sources of networking and exposure. That is your local Realtor’s board. Alamo Area Virtual Tours has been a member almost since we started in the virtual tour business. If your board is like the San Antonio Board of Realtors (SABOR) then it is proactive and easy to get involved in. I’m sure that the membership fee has a great ROI for what you get out of it. Of course, the caveat here is ‘what you get out of it, is based on what you put into it!. Just because you are a member, doesn’t mean Realtors will come flocking on over to your virtual tour company doorstep to do a 360 virtual tour for them.  You need to get involved and branded.  That hat is my part of my brand and when I don’t wear it, Realtors tell me they didn’t recognize me. More to it than just that but it helps.

Onto the meat of this. There are all sorts of opportunities out there to get in front of Realtors. Sponsorship of new Realtors, membership breakfast sponsorships, and various membership functions, quite a few of which can involve table top space.  I watch for sponsorship and advertising requests from SABOR and when I see one that will fit the parameters above, I jump on it quick so I’m not left behind and out.  The one I want to write about today is the TREPAC golf tournament that was held at the Hyatt Resort in San Antonio.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t afford to golf at that course, but when the opportunity came open to sponsor a tee, I JUMPED!!!!  When I landed, I landed on the FIRST TEE.  i.e. I would be in front of all Realtors and guests when they first tee’d up.  What an opportunity.  How would I take advantage of this?  Well, if I’m a photographer, what better way than to offer a free group photo of each of the foursomes teeing off in the morning.

I got the e-mail of at least one of the group. After the event, I emailed the picture of the group and asked them to forward it on to the others in their group. Of course, there was a cover letter explaining about Alamo Area Virtual tours of San Antonio. Note the banner. That banner has seen three or four different events and will continue to see more events.

The ROI on it is priceless and the cost was less than $150. Note also the QR code on it. Perhaps the best thing about this day was being outside and an absolutely beautiful Spring day. It was fun while I was networking and advertising.  BTW if your board of realtors is not proactive, that leaves a wide door of opportunity open for you to become proactive in the board.  More on that in the next blog.
Ciao!

Jim Hoback                  
Affiliate member   of GSABA & SABOR
L'oeil L'esprit (Mind's Eye)
Alamo Area Virtual Tours
http://www.AlamoAreaVirtualTours.com
Order a virtual tour: (210) 325-2675 

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Virtual Tour to the Rescue!

Shortly after we dove in and bought the RTV virtual tour software system, one of our REALTOR clients called with an urgent request for a 360 virtual tour. We needed to create a virtual tour for an “Estate” home. She had a potential client from the west coast visit the home while on business as he was possibly going to be transferred to PA. The transfer came and he remembered the home but his wife couldn’t get back to see it. This created an immediate need for a virtual tour to see if this home was a contender for their family.

We created & posted the virtual tour and sent a link as quickly as we could. We found out about a week later the house was sold 100% off our virtual tour! His wife saw the virtual tour and decided it was the right home for them from the tour and faxed contracts to secure their new home. This also solidified our value with a local REALTOR who has now become a great volume based client and friend of ours.

My wife and I started our Lebanon virtual tour business so we could have a second business on the side aside from our Bed & Breakfast that we run.  Making the decision to choose RTV we an easy one after a few weeks of researching out the other virtual tour companies.  RTV gives us amazing attention, a continually updated product, leads and extended education.  By far the best choice for anyone looking to start up a business full time or part time. Thanks RTV!

Keith &Robin Volker
www.VirtualTourImages.com
Lebanon, PA 17042

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Virtual Tour Patent Battle Rumbles On

This blog submission is a continuation of a previous blog regarding 360 X 360 Virtual Tours under Attack. If you have not read that story yet please do so now!


For anyone who thought the virtual tour patent was nothing to worry about, had disappeared, could be ignored.... Please Think Again. For those who thought TTS would only send threatening letters that could safely be ignored while they moved on to more gullible marks... Think Again. For those who got warning letters and thought their response letters proved to TTS that they weren't infringing... REALLY think again. We are at a crossroad. What we do now -- right now -- will affect our industry's future.

As I see it there are two possibilities.

1) Ignore this. Let ICE Portal deal with it themselves. Faced with the cost (ballpark $30- $50,000) and risk of a court battle and knowing the insurance company has strong incentive to settle (and avoid litigation at a greater cost). I would be protected from further claims but nobody else would. In fact TTS would have more money to press claims against others, stronger precedence in pressing their claim and stronger confidence that they can get away with it. Which one of us will be next? How long until they get go after other virtual tour photographers? Remember, TTS' lawyer told us they are just getting started.

2) Virtual Tour Photographers can band together and finish what we already started. Together we can afford to overturn this patent. We can stop it now -- for ALL of us.

Please help. Go to http://ivrpa.org/patent and contribute what you can. I have already put in $5K last year. I would suggest a donation of $100. If you make a living shooting 360VR consider protecting that income by digging deeper. That said, any amount will help. If you are unfamiliar with the '400 patent and its threat to our industry check the patent fight website.

NOTE: This isn't a contribution toward an ICE Portal defense fund. It is toward the effort IVRPA is coordinating. That would protect all of the VR community.

It’s the photographers choice. Together we stop this. Ignore it and it will cost us a LOT more.

You can see notice of the patent infringement complaint against ICE Portal here: http://www.rfcexpress.com/lawsuits/patent-lawsuits/new-york-eastern-district-court/79553/tour-technology-systems-llc-v-ice-portal-inc/summary/


Finally please take some time to listen to this recent story on National Public Radio
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/441/when-patents-attack 


If anyone wants to see the complaint they can call or contact me directly.

The time is now, friends.



Sincerely,

Henry Woodman
Ice Portal
(954)893-6778

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The IMAGE - TMS Nuts and Bolts

How many of you log in to your virtual tour manager system (TMS) and wonder where to find a certain feature or service?

How many of you would like additional help dressing up your 360 tours by learning how to create some beautiful banners?

Well I am here to help you answer your TMS questions. In this session of the IMAGE I will take you through TMS and help you find that information and or services you have been looking, or make sure there that you not missing any new features.

I will also spend some time showing you how to make banners for your tours to really dress them to the 9’s.
If you are brand new to RTV this webinar will be a great learning experience and if you have been with us for many years a great refresher course.

This webinar will be an excellent webinar to attend live so that you can ask your questions and get answers right there on. I promise that even the experts out there will have something to learn from this show!

Sign up for this show now in your RTV TMS! http://tms.realtourvision.com

Join us August 30, 2011 at 7pm Eastern for…TMS Nuts and Bolts

We hope to see you there RTV!!

Sincerely,

Ben

Virtual Tour Software & Digital Marketing Training


Like us like it's December 21 2012: http://www.facebook.com/RealTourVision

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Keep Your Customers Loyal by Making It Fun!

What makes your virtual tour consumers love your Web site and stay loyal to your product and brand? The answer is simple! Research shows that customers have a more upbeat attitude toward a site when their online experience is engaging and enjoyable. Enjoyment is a top reason as to why consumers browse on the web in the first place!

When they become engrossed in your site, customers need to view being on it as fun rather than work. If their experience feels like play, they return for more—making them more loyal to the site, your virtual tour company and the services it sells.

What creates this captivation? You gain loyalty when:

•    The site impresses customers. Customers don't want to be bored. They want their experience to be an enjoyable escape rather than a burden.

•    Customers have the ability to interact directly with the content on your site. Customers need to be entertained and enthralled by a form of media to stay focused and bond with your 360 tour company. 

•    Customers feel they have control over the search. If the navigation is too complicated for the average user to master, they won't return to the site. If customers can't follow the site navigation, they will lose interest in their search and, perhaps, your company and its products.  Make your company’s Web site more appealing by adding sharp visuals created by the RTV Marketing Team.

Customers prefer one website over another because it is more visually pleasing. When the client has an emotional bond with a certain product, they will rationalize spending more money on it and downplay its negative points. Start carving out a little time each week and work on your marketing materials and customizing your website.  Get marketing materials now by logging into your http://www.RockPointeMarketing.com site

Sincerely,

Jason

http://www.realtourvision.com

World's Largest Virtual Tour Provider Network

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Think Win-Win

Thinking Win-Win as outlined in habit 4 of Stephen Covey’s book “The 7 Habits of Highly effective people is a Great strategy to employ while building and sustaining your Virtual Tour Company. At DragonFly 360 Imaging we always look for the opportunity to utilize this strategy, has indicated by a recent conversation with a new Client, JR Gnerich with RE/MAX Alliance of Albuquerque.

While photographing the first of many Albuquerque Virtual Tours for JR, he mentioned that he had a listing for a home by the nationally renowned architect, Bart Prince . Bart Prince, an Albuquerque based Architect known for unique architectural styles had designed this home to resemble an Airplane. JR has had this listing for a year and had utilized his own photos and was looking for an exceptional way to showcase it and wasn’t sure if a conventional Virtual Tour was the right way to go.  He was looking for a more dynamic presentation.

A nearby listing, which has since expired of a Geodesic Dome Home, the only one in Albuquerque, was photographed using HDR technology and he had inquired of the photographer, what it would cost to do the Bart Prince “Airplane House”. He was quoted $1100! This was just Photography not a 360 Virtual Tour.

Well, thinking win-win as I always like to do and wanting to keep this client I told JR that I had wanted to get into HDR photography but didn’t have the funds right now but if he was willing to advance me the cost of the technology, would do the house for that cost; considerably less then the previously quoted $1100 and it would include 360 Panoramas.  He went for it and I photographed it this past weekend. It can be seen here: http://rtvpix.com/RE-5342-8AGOQV-01 He then asked me to re-shoot that first listing in the HDR format. http://rtvpix.com/RE-3189-KLH815-01

Since then, he has recommended to me a homeowner whose house has languished on the market for 6 months with no activity and I received a lead from RTV for a Realtor looking to photograph 2 high-end homes. After sending him the links to conventional & HDR Tours, It’s looking like he’s going to go HDR

From the 7 Habits: Win-win sees life as a cooperative arena, not a competitive one. Win-win means agreements or solutions are mutually beneficial and satisfying. We both get to eat the pie and it tastes pretty darn good!

Dale Hart
DragonFly 360 Imaging
Albuquerque Virtual Tours
Order a virtual tour: 505-359-8885
www.DragonFly360imaging.com

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How to NEVER Close a Sale

Tomorrow night I am giving a presentation to other virtual tour providers entitled “The Elegant Art of Sales”. I have logged hundreds of hours training thousands of salespeople all over the country. I am well qualified to speak on the art of sales but I did not choose the title of the presentation. Had I chosen the title, the presentation would have been called, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”

I learned sales from someone who was a Master in the art. In fact, he was so good at selling that I never could tell when it was that he actually made the sale. I learned more from him about life and business than I have from anyone in my life but he made it look so easy that I really thought that I could never do what he did. It wasn’t until I went on several training appointments with the WORST salesperson in the world that I was able to understand the components of the sale. By seeing WHAT NOT TO DO, I was better able to understand the process of making sales in any business and especially the virtual tour business.

Here are 8 things I learned on how to guarantee that you never close a sale:

    BLOW YOUR PROSPECT AWAY With Your Technical Brilliance -- Make sure that they know that you know way more about what you are discussing than they do. People respond so very well to condescension and just love to be lectured to. It helps if you can periodically insult them so that they can know that they are not on your level.  It's not as if you are trying to form a relationship...After all, YOU are the expert and they must respect you!

    KEEP TALKING Until You Are Sure That They Are Catatonic -- It isn’t enough to just see their eyes glaze over, you need to make sure that you have droned on until you hear them snore or see them start to drool. This is when you know that you have said enough. Which leads me to number 5...

    DO NOT Let Them Get a Word in Edgewise -- You are the expert and they need to know that. Again, this is another great time to insult them if they try to bring up a point or objection! You don’t want them to think that you are actually listening and interested in what they have to say!!

    OVERLOAD Them With Information...BEFORE THEY ASK -- This goes right along with #1. Always make sure that you tell your prospects everything they could ever want to know about your product or services. Do not make the mistake of leaving a question unanswered -- even if it doesn’t apply to them. Make sure to tell them everything.

    WAIT UNTIL YOU KNOW IT ALL Before Making a Sales Call -- I have trained literally hundreds of salespeople and I can guarantee that the ones who are best at NOT making money, are those who understand this vital rule. The best thing is to stay in your office and close the door and study all the possible information you can before you ever ask anyone to do business with you. After all, it’s imperative that you know it all if you are going to bury them alive with your knowledge. Remember that information is constantly changing so you may be in your office for years.

    FOCUS ON ACTIVITIES Instead of Results -- Some great suggestions of how to look really busy without actually producing any results are to gather business cards, create endless lists and databases. Another great idea is to preach to the choir...if you can find someone in your field who also isn’t out producing results, the two of you can spend endless hours imagining scenarios of what might happen if you ever do make a sales call.

    Keep Talking AFTER They Say Yes -- It is possible that you may accidentally close a sale even if you follow all of these steps, but do not worry...you can easily change their minds if you just keep on talking after they have told you that they want to buy from you. You want to provide enough information that they become paralyzed and tell you they will need to get back with you later.

    DO NOT FOLLOW UP -- This may be the single most important thing to making sure that you never close a sale. Always accept NO for an answer when you finally are quiet enough to let them speak. Do not ever assume that NO might mean NOT NOW. Assume that everyone gets and reads your very first email so if they don’t respond immediately, just assume that they are not interested.

Staying busy is so much easier than actually closing business. It saves you time and money because you never have to actually deliver your product or service or deal with trivial technicalities like depositing checks in the bank and making money.   Sales is the greatest job in the world as long as you never have to deal with those pesky customers!

If you have other suggestions on how to drive prospective customers away, then please leave comments so we can all learn from each other.




Paige LeFevre and Greg Mitts
Vision Quest Media
www.vquestmedia.com
Northern GA Virtual Tours
Order a virtual tour: (770) 503-4493

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RTV Hits Home Run

Being an RTV dealer since 2005 has been the best decision our virtual tour company Virtual Florida Tours has made. Before starting our relationship with RTV we made a research of the other companies that were offering similar programs. At the time we did not know that RTV was so committed to help us launch our virtual tour company, or that they will keep teaching and researching how to make all of us more knowledgeable in all the techniques and programs that will allow us give a better service to our clients.

Now RTV gave us a new present they just launched our new Image Delivery Engine allowing us a quick and simple way to deliver high resolution images directly to our customers.

Until now I had to invest valuable time setting the pictures on a zip file or sending the pictures in multiple emails to send the pictures to my customers. This new system simplifies the whole process of emailing the photos to my customers, reducing the time invested on this.

Congratulations again on the hard work to all the members of RTV! This is what has made our decision to join this fabulous virtual tour company such a good decision.

For your entire Internet marketing needs in Southeast Florida please contact us at (305) 331 8960.


Gabriel Duque
Florida Virtual Tours
Order a virtual tour : 305 331 8960

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Panoramic Photo Workflow

We use Lightroom because it is a great place to organize your workflow.  Because we shoot in raw, it is important to us to be able to create a quick and and easily repeatable workflow that will allow us to maximize our end product and minimize the amount of time it takes to process.  This workflow is not a function of camera type, but rather the willingness to purchase products that free up time to earn more money or have more leisure time.  The software costs can be amortized very quickly as you have the time to shoot and process more homes.  Our entire workflow is compatible to Mac and PC.

    Our workflow actually begins with a product called Color Munki – a monitor calibration system from X-Rite (makers of the Expo Disk).  This works on laptop screens as well as computer screens and even if you don’t want to spend the $499 to purchase the color munki, you should make sure your screen is always recalibrated back to either factory settings or to the basic settings recommended by X-Rite. Each screen is different .  We recalibrate once a week, but with today’s monitors on iMacs we probably will be calibrating only once a month as soon as I feel confident that the monitor stays calibrated.  We use X-Rite products because they provide free easy to understand webinars that have not only improved our color calibration, but also our lightroom workflow!

    The second step is actually an X-Rite product as well called the Color Checker Passport.  We take this small pocket size device to the home.  Since we are using our Secret Weapon for shooting, and we are using auto white balance for the secret weapon, we do not do a custom white balance.  Instead, we take a photograph of the Color Checker Passport first.  You will need one photo for each lighting situation. (see free webinars for how to use this device).  Then we shoot our 9 shots.  With a Panoramic, we shoot 9x12 or 108 shots.

    After shooting the virtual tours and returning to the office, we download our photos direct from the camera into Lightroom.  We have preset our import criteria to include our copyright, basic sort of company stuff and basic keywords.  We then individualize the preset to the home by naming the files but keeping the image number at the end of the string so that we can identify any raw files as well.  Lightroom is great because it allows you to back up your files at the same time you are importing them.  Lightroom then imports into folders, and you can automatically divide them into sections called shoots like kitchen, bathroom, etc.  Leave the picture of the color checker card in the highest level of folders created.

    I do most of workflow prior to photo stitching or any other adjustments.  My first job is the color checker passport.  The device comes with a lightroom plug in that allows you to set up a calibration for the job and a white balance for the job.  I run the passport photo through the plug-in and create a custom calibration for the job and name it the address of the home.  My next step is to work on my first panoramic shot of the day – for this example the kitchen.  I copy the calibration card into the kitchen folder.  I then use the Lightroom camera calibration icon and calibrate the card to the custom kitchen calibration.  I then do the same thing to the card with white balance (the card has a section on it to correct – warm up or cool down the white balance), lens correction and fill light/black point.  Finally, I copy these settings using the lightroom sync function to all 108 photos of the kitchen.  (I do not do lens correction because this messes up the enfusion process.)

Now I am ready to do the Enfusing.  Using LightroomEnfuse I put together each set of 9 photos using the batch processing so that I have all 108 raw photos enfusing into a single set of 12 kitchen tiff files ready for stitching.   You will notice that the color and the contrast need substantial adjustment but don’t correct this yet.

The final step in Part One is to stich – I use the PTGUI export function to stitch the 12 pieces together to create one giant and I do mean giant TIFF file for processing.

To do one panoramic usually takes me 3-1/2 minutes to get to this point.  Instead of moving into kitchen processing – I get all of my photos to this point.  You can actually adjust this workflow for non-panoramic by just leaving out the stitching step, so if you have single views – get them to this point as well.  My reasoning for not doing individual photos to the end, but  rather getting to this point is I can now use actions in photoshop or third party plug ins in light room in batches to help the workflow of part 2.  My total time per home is about 2 hours part one and part 2 combined – I have done it in as little as 1 hour as well depending on the amount of correction and the number of photos.

Part two to follow shortly.

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Virtual Tours for Insurance Documentation

Just close your moment..............now mentally make a list of everything in your house.

In the past few weeks, two of our close friends in two different cities have had their homes broken into. Imagine walking into your home and finding that someone violated your sanctuary and taken your stuff. The trauma and shock of that experience must then be followed by the stress of dealing with police reports and insurance companies to detail what is missing.

Next weekend, Greg and I are going to Ringold, GA with our church to help that community which was decimated by a recent tornado. Homes and businesses there were literally flattened by the tornadoes...families lost everything. Again, in addition to the trauma of surviving the storm, can you imagine trying to remember everything you own and providing that detail list to your insurance company?

Vision Quest Virtual Tours has recently finished shooting 30 cabin virtual tours for a North Georgia vacation cabin rental company. Within a week after shooting these tours, one of the cabins had an unfortunate incident where renters using fake identification and stolen credit cards stole many of the valuables from the cabin including electronics, linens, decorations, dishes, and much more.

Luckily for the cabin owner, there was no questioning what was stolen because they had a room by room cabin virtual tour that showed the cabin exactly as it looked prior to being wiped out. Virtual tours are not just great for marketing, they are also invaluable should there be the sort of tragedy that we have seen examples of recently.

Vision Quest Virtual Tours is a North Georgia virtual tour provider specializing in high definition 360 degree virtual tours for healthcare, hospitality and education. Professional photography, cutting edge technology and a national presence are just some of the reasons that Vision Quest Virtual Tours has been chosen to provide healthcare virtual tours, school virtual tours and vacation virtual tours to businesses in 26 states this year.

For more information, visit us at www.VisionQuestVirtualTours.com or give us a call at 404-863-9769

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Image Delivery Engine Released

RTV launched today their new Image Delivery Engine allowing RTV virtual tour providers a quick and simple way to deliver high resolution images directly to their customer base.

The Image Delivery Engine is as simple as pushing a button in the virtual tour manager system and emailing a link to the customer.  The new Image Delivery Engine has been programmed to work with both the HD V-Slides and HD V-Tours so all RTV customers may take advantage of the latest developments.

Most RTV virtual tour providers delivering several tours daily to their customers will instantly see several hours of time gained back on a monthly basis.

For a live demonstration on the RTV Image Delivery Engine please watch the following video: http://youtu.be/pIXMXBTQpJ8

All RTV dealers are encouraged to login and test drive the new technology today. As always please call us for any questions that you may have.

 
Enjoy the new technology RTV!


Virtual Tour Software & Digital Marketing Training
866-947-8687 Ext 4
http://www.RealTourVision.com

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Dealing with the Compeition

There’s a saying that you can have the biggest house on the block by building yours higher or by tearing everyone else’s down.  The same can be said for virtual tour businesses.  Very few companies have the luxury of a monopoly on their field so at some point you have to figure out how to deal with your virtual tour competitors.

When we started our North Georgia virtual tour business, I did extensive research on our market and found that there was one major competitor who we would be sharing our  regional market with.  They had great market saturation with the Realtors and offered a quality product at a good value.  Between our virtual tour software and photography we can go head to head with anyone anywhere but I saw no reason to go head to head.  We chose a different niche and focused our efforts more on marketing to businesses than Realtors and have enjoyed great success.

I’m the first to admit that I prefer to work smart than work hard.  It’s a much harder sale to try to convince a satisfied customer to try us out than to go to a whole new batch of customers who aren’t currently using 360º tours.  When I am prospecting, I look to see if the company has virtual tours on their website.  If they do, I almost always move on to the next prospect.  It’s not that I don’t think our product would win in a head to head competition -- but why do I want a head to head competition when I can focus my efforts on people who are genuinely open to a new idea.

But second, part of the mission of Vision Quest Virtual Tours is that we will run our virtual tour business with the utmost integrity.  Denigrating someone else’s work or business - even by way of comparison - just doesn’t resonate with me as a way to win.  I can explain the benefits of my product and explain our value without ever comparing anyone else’s business.  Periodically, I run across customers who ask about my competitors and my answer is that they do great work.

Billy Graham felt that integrity means operating your virtual tour business in a manner that is above reproach.  You didn’t see his name in a scandal because he never got himself in a position where he had to explain himself.  Rev. Graham put it this way, “When we speak of integrity as a moral value, it means that a person is the same on the inside as he is on the outside. There is no discrepancy between what he says and what he does, between his walk and his talk. A person of integrity can be trusted and he is the same person alone a thousand miles away from home as he is in Church or in his home.”

This weekend I attended a Christian women’s retreat with women from all over North Georgia.  The very first night, I sat next to a nice lady who ended up in my small group when we broke into groups of four to dive deeper into the subject matter.  It wasn’t until two full days into the conference that I found out that this wonderful woman is the owner of the very virtual tour company that I discovered as my competitor two years ago.  It was just a chance meeting but it was awesome to know that I had never said an unkind or unflattering word against her business.  We were both very aware of the other’s companies and had been impressed with each other’s work prior to meeting. The weekend ended with us praying for each other and asking God to bless each other’s business.  There’s plenty of business out there for everyone and quite by chance, I ended up with a great new friend.

Besides, who needs the biggest house on the block...it’s just that much more you have to vacuum!




Vision Quest Virtual Tours is a North Georgia virtual tour provider specializing in virtual tours for healthcare, cabin virtual tours, healthcare virtual tours, bed and breakfast virtual tours, school virtual tours and other businesses where people want to see the big picture.  For more information, visit
 www.VisionQuestVirtualTours.com or call us at 404-863-9769.

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The FORMULA 56 - Shifting Gears

There comes a time in the life of every virtual tour company that the owner must sit back and make the decision of how to take the next step. You are out there on the front lines shooting X 360 tours a month. Your overhead is low. It's you, your laptop, and trusty car. Life is good money-wise and you are spending your days shooting virtual tours.

Wait!! What's wrong with this picture? You stopped doing your sales calls that’s what! Remember in the beginning of your virtual tour business you would hustle all day long, doing a sales pitch here, and a cold call there. Now that you have taken the time, put in your hours, and sealed enough deals to get the engine running, you are stuck and unable to continue growing your company. You need to shift gears. Do it the wrong way however and your wallet will take a hit.

Bringing on a new hire means that you will have to start cutting into your profits and instead of all of them going to you, you will now have overhead. On the flip side, bringing on a virtual tour photographer will free you up with the much needed time enabling you to get back out there, hit the bricks and bring home some fresh clients.

If you play your cards right like you did the first time around, in no time at all you will find yourself in the field shooting virtual tours for most of your day. You have now just doubled your company and this folks is called shifting gears.

Please join myself and a panel of top RTV Virtual Tour Providers from all across the USA on Tuesday, August 16th at 7:00 PM Eastern as we discuss the right way to take your company to the next level.

We’re looking forward to having Graves Carey from www.360Visions.com, Alan Fon from www.IslandDigitalImages.com, and Mike Thompson from www.RealVisionStudio.com on our show.

We hope to see you there RTV!! Sign up now in your TMS
Sincerely,

Jason
http://www.RealTourVision.com
Virtual Tour Software & Digital Marketing Training

Like us Like bears Like honey! http://www.facebook.com/RealTourVision

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Corpus Christi Virtual Tour Provider Goes to Vegas

Home Video Studio was recently nominated for four Hanley Awards at the 11th annual Home Video Studio (HVS) Getaway in Las Vegas, NV.  The Hanley Awards, HVS’ version of the Oscars, recognize achievement in the video industry.  Home Video Studio is the world’s largest international video production services franchise with studios located in the United States, Canada and Sweden.

    Studio owners Alan and Kim Fon who also run a Corpus Christi virtual tour company submitted their video work in several of the thirty-three Hanley award categories. Studio owners from across the world entered to win Best Video Production, Best Documentary, and Best of Show to name a few types of honors.   The Hanley’s, named after Robert Hanley, the founder and president of Home Video Studio, are in recognition of a studio owner’s work during the past year.

    Home Video Studio – Port Aransas was nominated for its work in Best Press Release, Best Open House, Best Use of Green Screen, and Best Marketing Plan categories.  The videos for Best Press Release, Best Open House, Best Use of Green Screen were all produced and edited at the new Home Video Studio location in Port Aransas. The video for the Best Marketing Plan was filmed on location in Las Vegas.  

“We couldn’t be more pleased that our video was recognized by our peers,” says Alan Fon, Home Video Studio owner.  “We strive to produce the best 360 tours and videos for our customers and it’s nice to know that other professional video studio owners are impressed as well.”


In addition to being an honored guest at the gala black-tie Hanley Awards ceremony, the Fon’s attended several days of intense course-work in HVS’ proprietary marketing plan and video production.

HVS studio owners provide at least 27 different types of professional video services as well a real estate virtual virtual tours from sister company Island Digital Images. Some of those services include video to DVD transfers, photo/video montage keepsakes, home movie transfers, videotape duplication, video editing, legal video services, and sports or music scholarship videos.

Alan Fon
Owner
Corpus Christi Video Production
Port Aransas Video Reproduction & 360 Virtual Tours
(361) 749 -3200.  For more information visit their website at www.homevideostudio.com/tex

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24/7 Virtual Tour Open House

 I suspect that you’ve had a conversation or two about “Open Houses” and how they are used to sell a home. Traditionally, when people were thinking about moving, they would “prowl” their favorite neighborhoods by car to see if any homes were for sale. Sundays were always popular prowling days, because many real estate agents would hold open houses for the purpose of letting interested people see the inside in private.

It is very rare that somebody buys a home without first seeing the inside. Open houses offered prospective buyers a chance to get the rare glimpse inside the home, so they were willing to kill several hours on a Sunday afternoon going from one open house to another. But this is not so much the case anymore! In fact, that’s the reason for the e-mail today.

 

It is my belief that the “one day per month” open house has been replaced. Prospective homebuyers are no longer prowling in their cars on Sunday afternoon, rather they are prowling the internet, from the comfort of their easy chair. Through the power of the Internet, you and with the power of our real estate virtual tours your clients can have an Open House, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

    You have to be able to offer your open houses 24/7, and you do this with our Lenawee County virtual tours. Tours D’ Force, your Southern Michigan virtual tour company uses high-quality digital imaging, we produce interior and exterior photographs, HD virtual tours and HD V-slideshows that enhance your existing Real Estate marketing initiatives. Realtors® can reach more clients and show more homes without even having to be there.

Tours D’ Force professional photography and virtual tour services are perfect for Lenawee County and the surrounding Real Estate markets. With an eye for detail, our highly trained, professional staff uses specialized cameras & lighting to best showcase your client’s home. Years of experience combined with the latest digital technology allow us to produce outstanding results with the greatest efficiency. We take less time out of your busy schedule, giving you more time to focus on what’s important: listing, selling and of course your clients.

The language of real state is photography.  Buyers use the internet to preview homes and select those they want their Realtor to show them. To ensure that your homes are shown in the best possible light, hire a professional photographer who knows the best angles, precise lighting and has the appropriate tools.
We will build you a comprehensive, site specific custom website packed full of information about your home, the neighborhood, and quite frankly about you, a complete, dynamic website that buyers will find and stay on for several minutes. Our websites are expertly designed and get found easily on Google by buyers looking for homes in your area.

We know buyers are looking for pictures of homes, neighborhood information, video, walkability, floor plans, school information, home amenities and they are comparing your home to you competition.  By creating a site that gives them everything they’re looking for-buyers will stay engaged in your home much longer than any other home on the market, increasing the odds they will identify your home as one they’d like to see in person.
What good is getting a virtual tour from anyone if it is not seen by everyone possible? A big reason home sellers use a listing agent to sell their home is to get that maximum exposure only a listing agent can bring to the table.

At Tours D’ Force your listing & tour will appear on Google Base, Craigslist, Trulia, Zillow, Oodle, Lycos, Local, Hot Pads, Vast, Properazzi, Dot Homes and more! Listings pushed to the exposure engine receive on average 25% MORE viewings and are kept updated until your listing is sold! Tours D’ Force also has direct access to the PicturePath distribution portal through Realtor.com which puts your listing onto 83 additional national portal sites. You WILL get more viewings when you use our exposure engine and PicturePath portal than you would if you simply added listings into the MLS and company site alone.

Show your clients that you’re doing everything possible to sell their home by giving them an open house 24/7 with a high quality virtual tour.

Read more:  http://halholubik.blogspot.com/

Hal Holubik
Tours D’ Force
Southern Michigan Virtual Tours
www.Toursdforce.com
Order a virtual tour today: 517-486-4209

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Getting to No

Many people who begin a career in sales get to the point where they dread hearing the word NO.  In fact, many new salespeople get so discouraged from being told NO that they quit trying and ultimately fail.  If you hear a hundred NO's without hearing a YES, you may be tempted to give up.  The metric used to measure success in sales is the "closing ratio".  In the most basic form, a closing ratio is how many people you have to talk to in order to make one sale. But in actuality, a closing ratio is better measured as how many prospective virtual tour customers ultimately tell you YES in comparison to how many ultimately tell you NO.

The key to success in sales is what you do after you hear the word NO. Even the best salesperson hears NO a great deal of the time. But the fact is that 90% of YES's come after a prospective customer has said NO.   Those people who become successful in sales realize that NO is just one step on the way to YES.

In his book 12 Cliches of Selling and Why They Work, Barry Farber says, "The cliche is that extroverted people people go into sales but the fact is that introverts make just as successful salespeople as extroverts, perhaps because introverts are such good listeners." What successful people learn is how to listen to what their prospective customers are really saying because No doesn't always mean NEVER.

NO may mean "You haven't given me enough information to say YES".  For a new salesperson (or an experienced salesperson learning a new product like I was when we started our Virtual Tour Company, there are going to be many more NO's than YES's at first.  While it's important to be educated before making a sales presentation, there are some things you can only learn with experience.  For any product or service that is sold, there are a finite set of objections. In the beginning, these objections represent locked doors but once you have learned how to overcome an objection, you have the key to open that door the next time you hear the objection. The goal is to collect a wheelbarrow full of keys so that you are ready for any objection you may hear.

NO may mean "Not Now".  When someone tells me No Thank You, I ask if they mind if I send them some information in case their situation changes in the future.  If they say yes, then I add them to my Contact Management System and set up a drip campaign to stay in front of them.  This may be a postcard every 90 days or it may be a phone call every week.  I am currently talking to the owners of a cabin rental management company who assures me they are interested in cabin virtual tours.  They are incredibly busy so each time I have called, the owner has asked me to call him back.  I have called him a dozen times but each time he assures me that he really wants to talk to me but is just busy.  At some point, I will go from calling him weekly to bi-weekly to monthly to every 90 days but unless he says, please don't call me anymore, he will remain on my drip list. 

NO may mean "NO".  There is no such thing as a 100% closing ratio...even the best salespeople get told NO a predictable amount of time.  In fact, seasoned salespeople can tell you how many No's they expect for every sale they make.  If NO really means "NO", then the key is to find this out as soon as possible so that you can get on to the YES.  If it takes 100 No's to get to Yes, then each No is just one step closer to your sale.



Vision Quest Virtual Tours is a North Georgia virtual tour provider specializing in virtual tours for healthcare, cabin virtual tours, healthcare virtual tours, bed and breakfast virtual tours, school virtual tours and other businesses where people want to see the big picture.  For more information, visit
 www.VisionQuestVirtualTours.com or call us at 404-863-9769.

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