The Lancaster Newspapers reported that the Lancater County's largest real estate office is switch from a Coldwell Banker franchise to Prudential.

"HomeSale Realty Services Group, headquartered at 215 S. Centerville Road, announced Tuesday it will end its alliance with Coldwell Banker and instead team up with Prudential Real Estate.

It will operate as Prudential Homesale Services Group in Lancaster County, as well as in Cumberland, Dauphin, Perry, and Lebanon counties.

...The Lancaster headquarters oversees 1,000 real estate agents and 350 office personnel, including 500 employees here.

It said it represented buyers or sellers of $2.09 billion of real estate in 2007, the most in south-central Pennsylvania and 29th most in the nation."

The complete story is here.

George Sheldon - Virtual Tours Company . com

Here is a nifty way to market a listing: use a single property web site.

It's easy! And cost effective, too!

Buy a domain name, like 123MainStreet.com, and point the domain to your virtual tour. Here is a good example:

www.1770eversedgedrive.com

Now, in any advertisement, include the Web site. All the information the prospective homebuyer needs is on your virtual tour. This is a great way to promote the listing and yourself!

Tip: you might want to try the .info domain -- they are even cheaper than the .com's!

Sometimes, real estate agents just want to do the virtual tours all by themself. They don't want (or think they need) a professional photographer or tour builder. Maybe it's the economics. But here is proof that you get what you pay for: this is what happens with the Do It Yourself Virtual Tour -- and how things can go bad.

Grab a cup of coffee, sit back, and take this tour. You won't believe it!

It is just a matter of time until I'll be offering my clients the ability to download a virtual tour to cell phones. And it's coming faster than you may think.

I just read this in USAToday:

Microsoft has licensed Adobe's software for viewing online videos and other files on cellphones, the companies said Monday.

Microsoft will distribute Flash Lite and Reader programs from Adobe Systems to cellphone makers who use its Windows Mobile software.

Flash also allows users to interact with more websites. It's the software behind most shopping sites where you can view an item in different colors or try out house paint colors on a virtual home.

"Flash content is the most prolific content on the web today; it is the way people express themselves on the Internet," Adobe spokesman Gary Kovacs said.

Julie Ask, an analyst at Juniper Research, said cell customers are more likely to browse the Web when they have more capable phones, and that's good news for advertisers.

The complete story is here: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/wireless/phones/2008-03-17-microsoft-adobe-cellphone_N.htm

What this means is that potential home buyers will be able to take a virtual tour by using their cell phones. Yes, they can drive by a property, see an agent's sign that says there is a virtual tour available, and poof! There is an open house readily available via the virtual tour.

Ahoy, matey!

Did you know a virtual tour can sell a boat?

One of my fellow full service dealer of Real Tour Vision recently completed a virtual tour of a boat. Looks like owners wanting to sell their boats have turned to virtual tours to get the job done.

Here is the virtual tour.

Recreational vehicles are just one more thing that virtual tours can help sell to computer users.

Here are two more No-No Photos:

Both of today's examples depict bowing walls...

Is it just me, or are those walls leaning out?

When I look at the stove, it looks like it is rolling into the left wall. In fact, the whole home looks like it is leaning left, until I look at the refrigerator, which looks like it is leaning right...

These are two more good exampls of No-No photos -- and how NOT to market a property with bad digital images.

Virtual tours cost less than print advertising.

Consider these three print options:

10-day classified advertising in local newspaper

• Weekend display ad
• Ad in local real estate magazine
• What are your costs for each?

Now consider a virtual tour cost - which will probably be from $80 to $135. How does the cost of print advertising compare to the cost of creating a virtual tour? 

The cost of creating a virtual tour and placing on your web site is just less than print - or certainly competitive.

Does anyone here on Active Rain have any advice, tips, or suggestions on starting a networking or tips club? I have been thinking about starting one here locally. I assume most of these are started on the fly - with a few rules, such as only one real estate agent, one attorney, one CPA, etc. Any suggestions on the "rules" or how to get started? What's the best size for the club to be? Where should the meetings be held? And how often? Anything else that I should consider?

Those threatening e-mail messages -- which included death threats to Lancaster County real estate agents -- originated in Nigeria, police announced.

For the complete story, see my blog entry here.

According to the updated report in the Lancaster Newspapers,

"A number of local real estate agents reportedly received the e-mails two weeks ago, which happened to coincide with Valentine's Day, describing the correspondence as "just hateful."

 

The complete Lancaster Newspaper story is here.

A couple of months ago, I was posting what I called the "no-no" photos. A book project and working on virtual tours kept me busy. So the no-no photos faded away. And just when you thought it safe, here comes some more!

No-no photos are what not to do to sell/market a property. Here are some examples sent to me by an out-of-state associate:

Both of these images were used in an advertisement that said "the walls are not yellow, even though they appear to be so in the pictures." 

Translation: my white balance on my camera is so messed up that I can't figure out how to fix it.

A pair of true no-no photos!

(don't you love the way the walls are leaning in the first shot?)