It would be great if every listing put up a virtual tour within 30 days or sooner!

Thanks,

Tom Davis

World Class DE Realtor

Hi Fred,

I agree with you... and the quality of some of the virtual tours is just not acceptable.  Have a great weekend.  Michael A. Caruso

I believe it depends on the area you live in.  Many individuals here in New Brunswick, CANADA haven't really used the internet, unless they are educated.  I know REALTORS here, who have no website and yet are doing VERY WELL!!!  I think you really need to analyze the area you're in and create a data analysis to see how many views you get per week or month and see how fast it sells, and if the person who bought it actually saw it on the internet or virtual tours.  It would be some good data, to see if it's worth using in your area.

Other than that, I LOVE THE CONCEPT OF USING VIRTUAL TOURS, BUT THE PUBLIC NEEDS TO BE EDUCATED TO USE THE TECHNOLOGY....

               ;>)

Fred,

Overall, I thought it was a nice tour. A little on the long side and I could do without the clicking sounds when cycling through the still photos, but overall I thought it was well done.

I think it works well on a high end home such as your example. I don't know how well it would work on a small ranch or condo though.

I agree with your point about many virtual tours using the same photos as the stills.

Who wrote the script? Do you come to MA? What is the price on having a tour done?

John:  Of course I work in MA...  although not the western part of the state... but I do a lot in Boston, Hingham/Cohasset.. even down in Provincetown.

If it's more than 60 miles from Nashua though, I do require a minimum of two tours.  

Video tours work well on any type of property really...  here's one I did recently for a condo in Nashua.  People mistakenly think it's a high end marketing tool, and it's really not.  I've done many garden style condos for $139K!  They're usually not narrated as they're is not much to say, and they tend to be shorter, but it still shows off the property.

Prices range from $139 to $300/$400.  

I do not consider it a virtual tour if it is just the same pictures again in a slideshow.  I'm so disappointed when I see that format.  I agree with you...if you are going to call it a virtual tour, put more effort into it. 

I nice virtual tour is such a difference maker- it's nice to be able to get that guided walk through before hopping in the car.

Fred, you are correct about what should be in a virtual tour if you are going to do one.

I, do not believe that virtual tours are very good. In my opinion 99% of all Buy a home after physically looking at the house. Virtual tours give the Buyer the opportunity to decide whether they like the house or not from the comfort of their home, and they may decide to bypass a lot of homes simply because they think it's not for them from what they saw.

A Realtors job is to entice Buyers to come see a house, so I am old fashion when it comes to posting my Listings. I try to write the house up in as favorable a light as I can and get some nice photos (max 8) of the house that make a Buyer want to see more.

Fred's the man!

I relate it to my own personal experience - as I'm crusing CraigsList, the listings that have that enticing little yellow button "Pic" next to them earn my attention WAY faster than ones without the Picture.

And I would imagine that buyers looking at listings online are apt to hang out on those listings that have pictures. Take that a step futher and offer video and the buyer won't go back to lame picture listings! 

Great posting, in the Fort McMurray, we only have a hand full of realtors that are doing virtual tours. I have been doing some reseach on the net about what equipment I would need to start doing my own virtual tours, in me area the realtors are doing their own. Fort McMurray is a bit of a boom town, not a lot of srevices. After viewing your site and reading you blog i have to ask what would be required in the form of equipment to do a video tour.

Sarah, here is how we post listings to Craigslist for our Video editing customers  http://lansing.craigslist.org/reb/851625362.html  we of course use www.Postlets.com (which also sends the video tour link to several other key real estate sites) to build the posting.  We then add **See the Video Tour** in the headline and then add the tours link at the top of the source code that we use from Postlets to post over to Craigslist. 
It drives alot of traffic to the videos....not Youtube type traffic but actual leads that are looking for real estate in that geographical area. 
Very effective. 

Mark Passerby, POVvideotours.com

Patrick,
First of course you will have to choose a video camera, and the choices are seemingless endless these days.  Price point plays a role as well as ease of use, and most importantly lowlight capabilities.
  You can generally get a good feel about a particular camera by reading reviews online, and visiting video sites to compare results.

Next you will need to choose some good editing software and then you will be ready to put it all together.   The finished video can be uploaded to a myriad of sites, linked on Craigslist, Trulia, embedded in Realtor.com, Youtube, linked in your MLS and put on your personal listing site. 
Also remember high quality video that is stunning online is easy to achieve....what is difficult is creating the ideal PLAYBACK experience for the average user and connection speed in your area.
This is always a concern and depending on your area could be more or less critical to a videos success. The last thing you want to have happen is your seller watch your tour and it stalls repeatedly.   I have seen several posts trying to explain why some videos start and stop i.e. old computer, slow connection etc.....but at the end of the day video tours and the files that drive them are not all created equal.
The newest format is h.264 which has a low bitrate/high quality however, that alone is not enough say for Northern Michigan where slower connections are more the norm.  
The next thing is bitrate....up North we would encode with h.264 at 300kbs but in most markets we choose 500-600kbs and as time passes it may very well move to 1000kbs see h.264 examples below to compare load times/playback and quality. 

Average Broadband Market Tour: 500kbs http://www.povvideotours.com/h264/sharonalexander/3720colby/index500kbs.html
 File Size: 14 megs  Video Play Time: 3 minutes

Slower Connection Market Tour: 300kbs http://www.povvideotours.com/h264/sharonalexander/3720colby/index300kbs.html File Size: 12 megs  Video Play Time: 3 minutes 
**a dialup user could view this tour with a correct buffer setting in the player setup and maybe a pause to load a bit before or during play. 

Highspeed Broadband Market Tour:  1000kbs  http://www.povvideotours.com/h264/sharonalexander/3720colby/index1000kbs.html File Size: 25 megs  Time: 3 min. 
*Where you will notice the biggest quality differences in these tour examples above is in the full screen playback.

Once you have the ideal tour for your market....then every listing you have should have a video tour no matter the price or condition.  One of our cleints who is the highest producer in our MLS uses the videos on inexpensive foreclosure listings.  Investors love the videos.  For an example this $11000 listing has no electricity and is in very rough condition http://www.povvideotours.com/h264/joemullaney/1030clear/ amazingly though this video tour has already generated many many calls in just 2 days! He may not sell the caller that house, but he will capture the lead from that call and sell them something. This agent also used the "video tour" marketing angle to gain the business of a major asset manager.  That bank now will be using him to market their foreclosure inventory.  Those are big market shifts among competing realtors directly attributable to video tours.  Video tours can be used very effectively to gain market share no matter what price point you operate.   

The best video tours though in my opinion are those where the agent actually narrates http://www.povvideotours.com/hdtours/steveosmar/601tirrell 
If at all possible stay away from professional narration...i.e. that narrator can't be in your office when the prospect that watched that video calls your office.  When that buyer calls and you pick up the phone...your voice is the familiar voice at the other end of the line!  It also is just plain impressive all around for both the buyer and seller. 

Good luck in your efforts and if you never need any help feel free to contact me offlist. 

Mark Passerby, POVvideotours.com