Your work has added value to the viewing of my house and I want to have vast exposure as best possible. 

By the way, friends and family members viewing your work have called and said it is outstanding.

Thank you for the CD.  I received the package today.  I also got more WOW's on your work when colleagues happen to see it.

Gail M.
Simsbury, CT
Home owner/seller

The era of reserving virtual tours only for high-end luxury homes has ended. Since luxury homes account for only a small percentage of the single family market, real estate agents who only use virtual tours for such properties are missing a huge part of the market. People today are busy and are looking for faster solutions to find their dream home. Home shopping on the internet for a few minutes a day after putting the kids to bed is fast becoming the reality for many buyers. With 71% of Americans accessing the internet on a daily basis, it's easy to see how virtual tours of nearly any residential property are the marketing wave of the future.

Nestled at the tip of Lake Superior in Duluth, MN, Inland Seas Virtual Tours is committed to providing the tools necessary for real estate agents in the Twin Ports area to showcase their properties in an ever-changing market. Our goal is to provide excellent customer service and to be on the cutting edge of advances in the virtual tour industry so that the agents don't have to!

One of the most exciting tools available through our partnership with Real Tour Vision is HitStats 2.0(TM), a proprietary internet traffic reporting technology.

One of our customers is using the statistics report as a marketing and communication tool with her clients. The report shows her clients how she is working on their behalf to sell their home in a stagnant market. She has been able to use this valuable information to modify her marketing plan accordingly.

2008 promises to be the best year yet for Inland Seas Virtual Tours!

Travis Bumgardner
Inland Seas Virtual Tours
Duluth Virtual Tour Provider
www.isvt360.com

Ever been on Realtor.com and noticed the little red spinning houses that show up on listings for virtual tours? If you haven't, it would seem you are in the minority!

I put a virtual tour up for a client (who happens to also be my spouse), for a moderately priced home. Incidentally, one of the other agents in his office also had a listing in the same area. Similar prices ($116,500 and $117,000), similar square footage (about 1500), and similar amenities. According to the Realtor.com control panel, my husband's listing, with the "SUPER-SPINNING-HOUSE" has been viewed, on average, 3100 times a month. The other listing, with no real estate virtual tour, has been viewed only 548 times a month. Therefore, the listing with "SUPER-SPINNING-HOUSE" gets as many views in ONE MONTH as the other listing gets in nearly 6 months.

My husband's listing got 4 offers in four months, all very good, but the seller has so much traffic she's holding out for full price. The poor seller with no spinning house on her listing took the one and only offer she got after six months on the market, and it wasn't what she had hoped to make on her house.

Honestly, I was stunned and amazed at the results when I saw them. Folks, if people don't look at your property, they are not going to buy it.

If you use a Real Tour Vision Full Service Dealer, like Home Tours of Oklahoma, your virtual tour goes not only to Realtor.com, but to more than 80 partner websites. You can also link it to the MLS, your broker's website, your website, or any other website you choose. So, skip the newspaper ads (cheesy and ineffective) and put your marketing where it matters!

That's the best tip you will get from this blog or anywhere else for that matter!

Cori Warner
Oklahoma City Virtual Tour Company
Home Tours of Oklahoma
 

Last Sunday morning I checked my email, and noticed I got a lot of thank you emails from clients excited about their new advanced hit statistic reports. I certainly did not tell them that I did not send them to them. My customers went on and on about how great they were.

Here is the best part, Monday morning rolled around and the phone started ringing and the emails started coming in with new virtual tour orders. Why? Because they saw the new hit stats that RTV sent out for us. Looking at them reminded them of other listings that they need virtual tours on. I took at least 6 new virtual tours orders due to the hit stat reports on that one day alone.

Thanks Real Tour Vision for doing this for your virtual tour providers. I have always said that keeping in touch with your clients is important and the advanced hit stats are a great way to do that. It also keeps my company name in front of them.

Michael Thompson
Real Vision Studio
Detroit Virtual Tour Company and Service
www.RealVisionStudio.com
 

Loss prevention is usually associated with theft in retail stores, warehouses or pilferage.  However, in the real estate business, I consider “Loss Prevention” the prevention of losing your existing customers, especially your listings.

In addition to being a virtual tour provider in Mount Dora, I am also a licensed Broker – Associate here in the Great State of Florida.

Florida, like just about all parts of the country is undergoing an “adjustment” to the market. One of the biggest and bitterest pills for a real estate agent, and especially the listing agent, to swallow is the pill you have to take just before you attempt to make that weekly “update” call to the seller.

“Hello Mr. and Mrs. Seller this is your friendly real estate agent, you know the one who was begging to list your house?”…..Well I just wanted to let you know, I’m still here…..Yes, I realize I haven’t shown your house lately, nor has anyone asked to see it. I just want you to know, I’m doing everything possible to get it sold. Have a Nice Day!”

The best time to make that call is probably midday when you know the call is going to go into voice mail so you don’t actually have to have a conversation about how bad the market is, nothing is selling, no one can get a loan….blah, blah, blah. We as real estate agents aren’t telling them anything they don’t already know.

Fortunately, with the auto emailing feature of the tour stats a detailed picture of “activity” on the seller’s virtual home tour can be sent directly to them. I find that if I send it to both the seller and myself, it serves as a “trigger” to call that seller and discuss the activity for the past week. This obviously accomplishes several things. First, I have removed the “sting” of telling them what they already know, that there haven't been any showings, that the market is bad, etc. Instead I can focus on how many hits the tour got and talk about why that didn't convert into showings. I can venture to say: A. the price is too high B. Maybe you should move that car (the one that is up on cement blocks) from the front of your house. C. Cut the grass, etc., etc.

If there haven’t been any hits on their virtual tour, we can now determine the WHY of the reason. As real estate agents, we are taught the only reason property doesn’t move, no matter what the market, is either PRICE, CONDITION, TERMS, LOCATION or the AGENT.

If we, as agents, don’t communicate on a regular basis, we alienate ourselves from that customer, the one who originally liked us or they wouldn’t have entrusted the sale of their home to us. By not communicating with them, they will either go with some other company when their listing expires or cancel their listing and possibly go with some other agent.

As both an agent and a virtual tour provider, I can tell you that reviewing the hit stats report is an ideal “Loss Prevention” tool and the beauty of it is that it’s totally painless.

Dave Morehead
Mount Dora Virtual Tour Company
www.VirtuallyHere.Net
 

"Virtual touring saves time, money and professionally presents the property to the most prospects."

Bob Brick 
RE/MAX Bayshore Properties, Ltd
 

"This program provided the professional exposure we needed to market our home.  After going on line, the interest in our home dramatically increased.  Calls literally came in from all over the country.  Bottom line - our home sold within 30 days to a buyer from the Detroit area.  We were thrilled with the results and would not even consider selling another home without an interactive 360 Tour''

Jim & Shannon Petaja 
Home Owner
 

We went through three other virtual tour providers for our Condo Conversion project before we found you.  I can't believe how good the tour looks!  We will definitely be using your services for future projects.  Do you go to Ft. Lauderdale? ....

- Thelma Sherman, Sherman Properties
Miami FL
 

"This marketing system has added a new, dynamic dimension to our marketing program, as well as drastically reduced our traditional marketing expenses.  This has helped streamline company transactions through promoting in-house ancillary business (increasing our company’s bottom-line!) and is used to recruit tech-savvy agents."

Bob Garrow 
Garrow-Loftis/GMAC Real Estate