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Weak Housing Market (MSN.COM Article) - How does this affect real-estate and virtual tours?

An interesting article was posted on MSN.COM on 3/8/07 - "Weak housing market weighs on job growth".

Based on my research into the Nashville metro-area, this is no new news. Realtors I have spoken with are feeling the crunch of the bloated housing market, which translates into larger inventories and slower sales.

The below references from the article highlight the ever growing need for Realtors to market their product as effectively as possible; one or two poor photos of a property posted to the local MLS or Realtor.com are not going to effectively get the job done. The argument for quality Real Estate Photography and effective virtual tours - panoramic, interactive floorplans, video, etc. - are going to be paramount in 2007.

An excerpt from the article:

"Sales of new homes plunged 17 percent in January, the latest monthly figures available. On Wednesday, D.R. Horton, the nation's largest homebuilder, said it would take until January 2008 for the industry to work through a glut of unsold homes. Company CEO Don Tomnitz summed up the outlook by bluntly saying that 2007 "is going to suck.""

I'de be interested to hear from Realtors and Real Estate Photographers as to how this is affecting their business.

Cheers,

Jason Bennett - Nashville Virtual Tours & Photography - http://www.nashvtp.com/

Posted by Jason Bennett on 03/08/2007 03:31 PM

Comments (12)

virtual tour, weak real estate market, market, marketing, inventory

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12 Comments on Weak Housing Market (MSN.COM Article) - How does this affect real-estate and virtual tours?

MAR

2007

I started doing Video Tours of real estate a little over a year ago.

The response was lukewarm, at best. Nobody wanted to spend the money. A few pictures were 'good enough'. Sping around, "fun house" tours were 'good enough'.

Over the past few months, I'm definitely noticing an increase in business, but it's definitely from the old timers - those who KNOW what marketing is.... that KNOW you have to do something more than plug a sign in the front yard. At this point, I'm very busy - without much promotion and with literally no advertising.

A lot of newer agents still don't get it. But they'll come around or get out of the business I'm guessing.

There has also been an uptick in media coverage - the local station in Boston and the New Hampshire TV station both did a bit on my tours on the 11pm newscast. National Public Radio (NPR) is doing a feature any day now (maybe tomorrow?), which will air nationally. So it IS kind of the buzz these days - a newer way of marketing homes - in conjunction with the web, etc.

MAR

2007

I think photos and virtual tours are crucial in this or any market. Anything that can make you - and your listings - stand out from the pack should be a requirement of any marketing plan.

My experience is different than Fred's, though. Many of the long-time agents tend to be more reluctant to add professional photos or virtual tours. They seem to feel they've been selling for 20 or 30 years without these added items (and their associated costs), so why start now?

MAR

2007

To Fred's point - more and more agents are beginning to see the light. The web has gone "2.0" and realtors mind-sets are beginning to catch up. At a snail's pace sometimes, but they are catching on.

A St. Louis realtor has stated in her Real Estate Predictions for 2007 that Virtual Tours will gain in popularity - "Online listings without virtual tours will be passed over. Virtual tours will gain popularity because buyers will demand them. Like the old MLS books without a photo, an online listing without a virtual tour will be a non-entity and ignored. In addition, buyers will want audio with the visual." I feel they will also want interactive floorplans and/or video virtual tours for their higher end listings. Fred's work is the proof-in-the-pudding that video tours work!

Frank Borges is another realtor who, although he apologizes to other realtors for calling them out, also states in his Sucky Listing Agesnt. I Vent blog says: "How hard is that agent going to fight to get you that last $10,000 if they can't do something as simple as market your property with multiple high quality photos?"

Finally, a comment from another blogger -

-------------------

"First time poster here: Glad to see some recognition of this problem! The most important thing an agent can do for their sellers today is to get lots of superior images up on the web. Here in St. Louis I am continually astounded at the plethora of dark, awful images, and "what were they thinking" photos of toilets, ceiling fans, etc, or NO PHOTOS at all! How do these [realtors] even get listings?

For most of my listings, I take a lot of my own photos, as I have a background in photography and image correction, so I have hi-res images for color flyers, but I ALSO have a great local photographer who comes in and shoots a batch of wonderful web-ready wideangle shots and virtual tours...

It's worth the investment (typical agent-"you mean you actually PAY someone to shoot your listings? That costs MONEY!") My business would be a lot less successful without quality photos."

----------------------

So - a real estate photographer who is a self-proposed "photo hobbyist" admits that the pros do it better and that it has paid off for him.

Apparantly some realtors have fully embraced the new year. Others are still living in 1993.

Cheers,

Jason Bennett - Nashville Virtual Tours & Photography

MAR

2007

Technology is funny. While we were all trying to get to the next level of property listings, the virtual tour is on the verge of extinction. Property podcasting seems to be the next hot product. Imagine viewing a "commercial" for not only your listed home, but your Real Estate office as well. And not just any commercial, but one that will include the realtor narrating the show while the commercial plays with catchy music playing lightly in the background. Now imagine the show can be viewed not only on your computer, but your mobile phone, ipod, or other wireless device.

Virtual tour was merely an introduction to the future, and the future is property podcasting.

MAR

2007

Hello Everyone!

To be honest with you. I don't know too much about the Nashville market because we don't do a ton of business there. But our NeuStep Virtual Walk-Through technology has been receiving a lot recongntion and attention in the midwest and west coast (LA). Our technology makes traditional virtual tours completely obsolete.

Anyways, I know people are talking up this podcasting deal, but I just don't see a lot of usage. I have a tough time thinking anything will do a better job showcasing and marketing property better than our NeuStep Technology. It's not uncommon for our clientèle to sell a listing without someone ever stepping foot on the property that they are purchasing, and with rentals, it happens all the time. People rent property from the apartment people without ever seeing the property.

I just dont see anyone downloading property listings as pod casts. Agents setting themselves up to compete with the users favorite music, and movies! Do people really believe that they will have a chance? Ask yourself a question. Listen to my favorite music or a random podcast?! Hmm you decide. Video takes for ever, the editing is just too much. We are in a property and out within 30 minutes with a presentation better than anything that I have ever seen. We can even deliver on the spot! NeuStep is releasing their new engine in June, along with a few resources that will change the way property is marketed over the web. Well at least we hope! :-)

If you would like to see NeuStep in action there are a few links below:

http://showcase.neustep.com/0001

http://showcase.neustep.com/0002

-Raphael

NeuStep Technology
312-281-8130

1. This 'technology' was not compatible with my browser (Safari/ Camino/ Firefox). Any technology that puts up a barrier to the customer doesn't seem to be a good choice.

2. I was able to view it on Internet Explorer. it took longer to load than a video, and I'm on a Fiber Optic connection - the fastest available. Once loaded, it looked like a typical virtual tour - although even more distorted than most! Not sure why this is a step forward - to me it still makes the home look like a carnival "funhouse' - not the best way to represent a purchase of many hundreds of thousands of dollars.... I don't get it....

Rapheal,

I have to agree with Fred - it took forever for the viewer to load - I have a very high speed cable connection and the technology you utilize takes FOREVER to load.

If it takes this long to view it, it's toast. Also, the controls are difficutl to use - very jerky.

What part of the country are you located in and how many do you do per day - and at what price point.

Jason Bennett -- Nashville Virtual Tours & Photography -- http://www.nashvtp.com

MAR

2007

Wow. Your post just got hi-jacked with a bit of advertising. I tried his links and they didn't work at all.

Hi Fred,

Thanks for the feedback. We will definitely take your response to the group. Anyways, to answer some of your questions:

"This 'technology' was not compatible with my browser (Safari/ Camino/ Firefox). Any technology that puts up a barrier to the customer doesn't seem to be a good choice."

You are right, you must be on an Intel based mac. On an intel Mac, both Firefox and Safari need an emulator to run Shockwave. The reason being is that they have not released a solution to hardware acceleration. So does it look more distorted on a Mac? Yes, absolutely, anything emulated is going to run less efficient, especially when you don't have any hardware acceleration. But we don't have a lot of control over that. :-)

"I was able to view it on Internet Explorer. it took longer to load than a video, and I'm on a Fiber Optic connection - the fastest available. Once loaded, it looked like a typical virtual tour - although even more distorted than most! Not sure why this is a step forward - to me it still makes the home look like a carnival "funhouse' - not the best way to represent a purchase of many hundreds of thousands of dollars.... I don't get it...."

The technology allows you to walk through the property from the front door to the back instead of just standing in one spot and panning around. It gives a different perspective every 3 inches throughout the home, or what ever you are presenting. The technology offers a seamless transition throughout the whole home without "Hotspot" navigation. It does not sound like you experienced that functionality. Try using the arrow buttons on the tool bar or the arrow keys on your keyboard.

As for the loading time. Not too many people complain about it. Well this is how most of our clients put it. In Chicago, getting to one place to the other is a nightmare. That seems to be one of the biggest issues on real estate in Chicago. I dont know about the situation in Nashville, but traffic here is ridicules! So its a lot easier for someone to wait a minute for the engine to stream versus driving there. They take NeuStep and use it as an elimination tool for the property that their clients really want to see. It is proving to be very useful in urban and very remote locations.

MAR

2007

Yea, the browswer was difficult to load and the third party application kept throwing ads at me as well. I would like to key in on a few points in your previous post:

"To be honest with you. I don't know too much about the Nashville market because we don't do a ton of business there. But our NeuStep Virtual Walk-Through technology has been receiving a lot recongntion and attention in the midwest and west coast (LA). Our technology makes traditional virtual tours completely obsolete."

How exactly do you make the virtual tours obsolete when in fact this is practicly the same thing. Same distorted "looking through coke bottles kinda vision". The only thing that is different is a difficult to use panel that resembles a video arcade first person game (i tried the demo, but I think I fell off the stairs a few times).

"I just dont see anyone downloading property listings as pod casts. Agents setting themselves up to compete with the users favorite music, and movies! Do people really believe that they will have a chance? Ask yourself a question. Listen to my favorite music or a random podcast?! Hmm you decide. Video takes for ever, the editing is just too much. We are in a property and out within 30 minutes with a presentation better than anything that I have ever seen. We can even deliver on the spot! NeuStep is releasing their new engine in June, along with a few resources that will change the way property is marketed over the web. Well at least we hope! :-)"

"The functionality of the video podcast is that you can either watch it on your computer, or download it to a device for later viewing. Apple now has the tv connection shipping soon so now you will be able to watch your home tour on your television set as well. I lean more towards the video podcast for the simplicity of it. You don't have to "navigate" your way through. The video is produced so you don't have to try to manuever your way through a myriad of choices"

I've actually turned alot of realtors off of the 360 degree tour and in the area of Texas that I am located in, video podcasting has taken off like wildfire.

MAY

2007

Jason,

I think virtual tours are vital to the industry. You will always find agents who shy away from technology either because they don't understand it, don't want to learn, or are flat out intimidated by it. The more that embrace it the better their business will be. I struggle with the same issues on my end. I am a home stager (former agent) and no matter what type of technology is used (or not) if the home doesn't show well, it is a tough sell. I am trying to educate agents in this area how important it is to declutter, organize, depersonalize, and market the home well. Staging, virtual tours, and online marketing is the way to go if you want to be at the top.

I use virtual tours on all my listings. An unbranded version can be added to our MLS and it is included on my websites. It really helps to show off the listing and customer responses have all been positive.

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