In the new days of technology today's buyers want photos, virtual tours, and even videos. So the question is, which one should you have to make sure you have maximum exposure to the buying community?
Consider this, although most new virtual tours have gone away from the "fisheye" look, virtual tours still have a a very heavy bandwith(that means that it take a lot of power to download and play on the computer screen). However, I am by no means telling you NOT to have your agent do a virtual tour! On the contrary, I am telling you that you should absolutly have a virtual tour done of your home!
But then what about the pictures? In our virtual world I all to often see one bad photo snapped from a car window of a new listing, and a nice virtual tour. What about those folks that are on dialup, or have older computers? How about the ones that are at work and realplayer is blocked from their workplace computers? Keep in mind that most homebuyers search for their new home while on break at work. We need to appeal to all homebuyers, not just the ones who have the latest technology. Multiple pictures are a MUST......even with virtual tours. Your home should have a minimum of 20 pictures for a 2000sqft house. Yes, I said twenty. Most MLS's will allow up to 30-40 pictures. Some only allow less, but you will have to check with your real estate agent for the number allowed by your local board.
Did you know that search engines like Realtor.com, Trulia.com and Zillow.com all rank homes by how many pictures they have. This means that the 4 bed 2 bath home that is the same floorplan as yours, same price, but has 10 more pictures ranks higher and comes up in the search results first. In todays overloaded market, multiple high quality photos often mean the difference between a home selling and not selling. Kinda scary isn't it.
On the "bleeding" edge of technology we have video tours. Now, before you start demanding that your agent have a video tour of your home done keep in mind that this is not for every home. Video tours can costs Hundreds to Thousands of dollars depending on the length, size of home, and quality. This is typically reserved for ultra luxury homes. So, if you have an ultra luxury home (classified here as $5Million +) this is for you. If not, don't feel bad. Most of us arn't.
In partiing make sure your agent is aware of your desire to have BOTH a wide aray of photos, as well as a high quality virtual tour. You want to market your home, not just list it.
The Landry Team - Orange Park Real Estate Specialists
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