Wednesday, April 1, 2009 - Virtual Tour Pricing

How much does a VIRTUAL TOUR package cost and what do you get for your money?

My pricing is very simple....  The cost is $100.00 for the Virtual Tour AND up to 25 still images. 

READ ON FOR DETAILS....

***There CAN be other costs and those are discussed at the end of this post but those costs are optional. 

You get as many "scenes" in a Virtual Tour--up to 20-- as it takes to properly display the property.  A "scene" can consist of a 360 degree spin... great for exteriors and large rooms... or a partial spin that pans across a room...great for small areas like many bedrooms, bathrooms and laundry rooms... or... a single still image displaying a detail. 

In other words, a Virtual Tour consists of a series of "scenes"... full moving 360 spins, partial full moving pans, or still images... in whatever combination best displays the property. 

The 25 still images included in the package are for upload to MLS.  Some of the still images may appear in the Virtual Tour if it makes sense to do that.

Also included in the Virtual Tour package at no additional cost is a report that shows information about the number of "hits" the Virtual Tour generates... where those hits originated from... and what scenes the the consumer viewing the Virtual Tour looked at.  Here's a link to one of the reports snipurl.com/g5x7c  These reports are sent out weekly and are a tool that Agents working with their Sellers find extremely useful in measuring marketing results.  Call me for details.

Here's an example of an 11 scene Virtual Tour snipurl.com/g5xc1  No stills in this Virtual Tour because none were needed.  The bedroom scenes are partial spins.

Here's another Virtual Tour with a couple of still images in the Tour.  One of the bathrooms has a mirror positioned to make a spin impossible to shoot and the Laundry is too narrow and small for even a 2 image partial spin.  http://snipurl.com/g5xhi

***Other Costs? 

If you need more that 20 spins the charge is $40.00 for up to another 20 spins.  I've never seen a residential property that needed more than 20 scenes so don't worry...you won't either....

If you want the Virtual Tour uploaded to REALTOR.com the charge is $25.00 UNLESS you have the Listing Enhancement Package REALTOR.com offers... then the upload is "no charge".  Why do I charge $25.00 if you don't have the REALTOR.com package?  Because tha's about what REALTOR.com charges me.  I just pass along the cost with about a one dollar markup... basically I'm just rounding up.... 

If you want ME to upload the 25 still images to MLS I charge $25.00.  If you don't know how to upload to MLS, I'll show you how.  Many Brokers have office workers that will upload your images to MLS but if you don't have that service and you don't want to fiddle with it... then I'll do it for you.  ...But I MUCH prefer to teach YOU how to do it.

Thinking of REALTOR.com....  I'm a "power user" and manage or help mange REALTOR.com sites for a couple of other REALTORS.  I know REALTOR.com pricing... it's really inexpensive at moderate levels of production and at higher levels of production you really won't care what it costs.  I also know HOW to use REALTOR.com with Sellers to MAXIMUM effect.  REALTOR.com is about MARKETING REAL ESTATE not so much about selling real estate.  Call me at and I'll explain that.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009 - Do pictures and Virtual Tours matter?

Do pictures and Virtual Tours really matter? 

My answer is YES.   When it comes to marketing Real Estate pictures DO matter...  But I sell Real Estate Photographic Services and Virtual Tours so you might suspect I might be just a little biased. 

Is my opinion based on self interest or on facts?

Let's look at some facts and see what your opinion will be based on those facts.

In the upper left corner of this post is a graph known as a histogram... this one has red bars.  The resolution isn't very good so you can's see the numbers but what is shown is pretty dramatic.  This graph is from REALTOR.com and it shows the number of 'hits' a listing received over a nine week period begining in the middle of April 2008. 

This isn't some listing from some far away place in some market different from Southeastern Wisconsin.  This is a listing right here in the Milwaukee area entered into the Greater Milwaukee Area MLS. 

The property was listed in the middle of April but the sellers really weren't quite ready yet.  Even though the listing needed some cleaning and painting and staging, the sellers and the REALTOR... especially the REALTOR... rightly thought the best thing to do was to get the property to the spring market as soon as possible.  The sellers thought that the work would be finished in a week.  A couple of exterior pictures were taken, the property went into MLS and then uploaded to REALTOR.com.

Well, the interior cleaning, painting and staging streched from a week to three weeks.  In the first three weeks with just a couple of pictures in MLS and on REALTOR.com the listing generated around 50 hits per week as the graph above shows.  Not bad if you don't know any better. 

After the cleaning, painting and staging were completed I photographed the property, then uploaded the maximum number of images to MLS and REALTOR.com along with a large Virtual Tour.  The number of 'hits' jumped dramatically. 

In the first week with the maximum number of photographs and a Virtual Tour, there were over 200 hits-- four times as many 'hits' as with just a couple of photographs.  In the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth week the number of 'hits' on the property by consumers was never less than 300 per week.  The more pictures... the more consumer interest.  The more consumer views the greater chance you'll connect with the consumer who wants to buy the property.

Do pictures make a difference?  From the example... the facts above... the answer is yes.

Here's another set of facts...

Below is another graph; this one summarizes the results of a study Point2 Technologies did in 2008 analyzing the effect of photographs and Virtual Tours on Real Estate Consumer behavior.

 ...... l 

It's plain to see that Listing Views, Consumer Interest and Prospects Generated increase with the number of Photographs. 

Do pictures make a difference?  From this set of facts the answer is yes... again.

Just to be clear on what these facts DO say and what these facts DON'T say...  Your listing will get MORE activity; more meaningful activity as the number of pictures increases.  That fact is clear.  What these facts don't say is that a poorly maintained, over priced listing will sell.

The sale of a listing is a partnership between the Seller and the Real Estate Agent.  The Seller provides the pricing... with guidance from the Real Estate Agent...and the Seller provides the condition of the property.  The Real Estate Agent provides the Marketing.

Have you ever had a beautiful listing priced to market and had little activity and an expiration in 90, 120 or even 180 days? The facts should tell you that you failed to get as much market exposure as you could have with MORE pictures.

Properties for sale-- well over 100,000 active listings-- entered by Real Estate Professionals into the Point2 Agent website network over the first quarter of 2008 were included in the Study. The Study covered economic regions across every U.S. state, every Canadian province and several other countries around the world. 

The sample of listings was analyzed based on the number of photos that each listing included. The number of photos was then plotted against three key variables: 

Views - how many times a listing was viewed online;

Interest - how many unique visitors interacted with a listing, such as going beyond the initial set of photos to view the listing’s virtual tour... and,  

Leads - the number of unique visitors who went on to contact the listing broker or agent. 

So here's the question again. Do pictures make a difference?  From this second example... the second set of facts above... the answer is yes again.   

But let's be clear on what the facts DO say and what they DON'T say.

Will more photographs cause your poorly maintained overpriced listing to sell?  The answer is no.  But if you have a beautifully staged listing priced to market you WILL get more attention and your chances of selling that listing increase dramatically because of the increased exposure.