What a great week...! The idea that photography is the basis for all real estate marketing is overwhelming to say the least. I've always been a strong proponent of the "You only have one time to make a first impression" school of thought and keep trying to help others get their properties sold using pictures and technology.

We had a really good meeting this week on a program that we are very close to launching that will actually raise the bar on how Realtor's can build their own virtual tour and photography packages as a front line marketing program. We call the program DIY, short for 360ProDIY, which is a Do-It-Yourself tour package. The agent takes their pictures and posts them on the site as a tour package and then can link to them, send them off to Realtor.com, build cd packages, brochures and a whole lot of other features. It's neat... but then again we've been in development for over 14 months to get it perfect. http://www.360prodiy.com We'll be turning this on for testing in about 10 days, and then the formal roll out by the 19th of March.

What we've decided we need is some volunteers that would like to evaluate the program in exchange for free posting of their tour packages. We would have to charge the posting fee to Realtor.com if the tour were to be posted there. Of course if those fees don't apply because of your status there, ie Showcase Agent, we wouldn't charge.

Anyway, we were thinking that the first 100 packages should give us a large enough sample to work with. Our testing has gone fine, but we have a controlled environment, and by having postings from around the country, we would be able to have a more diverse group to work with. All that we ask is that you give us a fair evaluation of the product, the ease of use, and what features it still needs after you have had a chance to use it for awhile.

If you are interested in helping us test the program, please email me for an access code.