There are a lot of angles to cover when you are selling a home! First you have the mediums: print, internet, direct, referral and more. Secondly you have many branches within each medium. Today I am going to tackle one very specific branch of internet marketing - the Virtual Tour.
What is a virtual tour? Some think of this as a warped image that is projected in such a way that it appears a first person navigatable shot of a room. This was the original concept. Today I think this is too narrow a box. In my mind a virtual tour is an online representation of a walk through.
Just like Realtors have different styles and techniques of showing a homes, they also have different styles of displaying properties online. Realistically though, this style also has a lot to do with budgeting. Realtors face to face showings are largely different because of personality - which is free! An online virtual tour takes investment of time or money on the part of the Realtor.
Trends and directions for virtual tours are interesting. I am finding less and less of the panoramic images and more video. Videos in many cases are painful to watch - editing video is much more complex than editing images. I am in the middle of having a new virtual tour technology developed that will combine the best of everything. Still photos in my mind give the best visual representation of a room. They tend to be better quality (as in less shakes). The new virtual tour will naturally flow between animated still photos and small video clips.
From a lead perspective, virtual tours are critical. In my market, this is the only link you have that connects you directly with the public. On your virtual tour site you can do what you want versus on the MLS sites you need to conform to the standard format.
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