6 Costly Misconceptions about Virtual Tours

1. All virtual tours are the same.

Wrong. Virtual tours that use panoramic photos that just rotate are not true virtual tours. Most agents would refer to these type of tours as 'spinners'. Spinners lack a professional presentation and can at times do more to make the viewer nauseous than actually get them interested in the property being viewed. While spinners qualify as a virtual presentation in nature, they simply do not qualify as being a tour of any kind.


2. Virtual tours will not help with market exposure

Untrue. At any time you can take the number of listings that are currently on the market and compare that number to the number of listings with a virtual tour. This number almost never exceeds 10% of total properties on the market at any given time. But take into account that the National Association of Realtors Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers shows that use of the Internet to search for a home has risen from just 2% of buyers in 1995 to 77% in just 10 years time. Technology is clearly changing the way that consumers search for a home. The 2006 Realtor® technology survey shows that the Internet is the third most important source for new leads surpassed ONLY by referrals and repeat business.


3. Having a virtual tour professional produced costs too much money.

False. When searching for a virtual tour solution, keep in mind that you can either save more money or more time. There is an inherent downside to opting to save more money. You have to spend time. When you take into account all of the time that you would have to spend taking pictures, stitching the panoramas, ordering the pictures within the tour, adding text and graphics, not to mention uploading the tour, converting it to disc, and distributing the tour on the internet you have to consider what you COULD have done with that time. You could have been farming your area, keeping in contact with sellers, calling prospective buyers & sellers, following up on buyer leads, arranging showings and scheduling open houses. Instead you could have spent YOUR TIME listing and selling more homes. As a real estate agent you can always make more money, but you can never make more time. A small investment in a professionally produced virtual tour gives you a competitive edge over other agents that opt to waste time sitting on their computer while you go after that next listing.


4. Putting a virtual tour on realtor.corn and my website is good enough as far as virtual tours go.

False. This is essentially the same as saying that placing a sign and a classified ad is good enough. While it can work, it does not give you optimum exposure for your property listing. But the question here again is time. Do you have the time it will take to post your virtual tour to major Internet portals all over the internet.

When you opt to same money you are making a decision to spend time and reduce your return on investment. The 2006 Realtor technology survey show that 42% of realtors receive more than 10% of their leads from the internet, so doesn't it make sense that if you are going to place your virtual tour on the Internet that you should expose the virtual tour as widely as possible? A professional developed virtual tour can be produced and submitted to major portals without any additional expenditure of time, freeing you up to list and sell more homes while simultaneously bringing in new business.

5. Sellers don't care what kind of virtual tour is used

False. With ever increasing technology, home buyers and sellers are becoming more internet savvy than ever. The 2006 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers shows that over three quarters of buyers viewed the internet as a useful tool in their search for a home and that a majority of buyers drive by a home that they have seen online. A high-quality interactive virtual tour cannot only take these buyers on a full tour and get them to come by the property but can also turn motivated buyers into motivated sellers of their own home. Now that the motivated buyer is a motivated seller, with whom are they going to list their property? With an agent that uses classified ads or the agent that found them, their new home without leaving the couch.

6. Virtual Tours sell homes.

False again. Realtors sell homes. Realtors that use all available media to showcase and market their listings are those that sell homes. Virtual tours offer incredible marketing opportunities that simply were not available to the realtor or the consumer just 10 years ago. The use of a virtual tour simply increases your market penetration to bring you more leads for the property and for yourself. Your presentation on the internet is very important to both buyers and sellers and can mean the difference between a new lead and missed opportunity. Everyone knows what social networking can do for a real estate agent and this is evidenced by the high percentage of new business that comes from referrals. The question is, would you send a new referral a handwritten and crumpled business card or would you send them a presentation that speaks volumes of you and demonstrates your command of marketing tools that are significantly different from what other agents are offering. Spinners, dark pictures, unprofessional virtual tours and ineffective marketing can leave a lasting impression on your referral business.

Properly-distributed profession a I ly-prod uced virtual tours bring you more leads from a world-wide network of resources and free you up to follow-up on those leads. This gives you a major advantage over the competition that has yet to comprehend the difference between saving time and saving money.
If you want information on what to ask a virtual tour provider please send a comment containing your name, company, phone, e-mail address and the best way and times to contact you. or contact our company directly at 305 331 8960