I am a Realtor(R) in the Orlando area and our market is very competitive to say
the least. We have an abundance of listings and very few buyers. I started
to shoot my own virtual tours which cuts down on my marketing overhead and
also time spend on appointments. I use the virtual tour as integral part of
my marketing.

All listings get a 360 virtual tour right away when they are
entered into MLS. That helps me to give agents and buyers a good impression
of the property and channel showings of qualified buyers. In our association
it takes many agents a week or so to post pictures of the listing, let alone
a virtual tour. By that time the listing is not new anymore and the
attention of potential buyers has moved to the latest postings.

I have established a routine that helps me to not overlook anything in my
marketing mix. I shoot pictures and the virtual tour when I take the
listing. If the house is in disarray, I shoot the tour as good as I can, and
later update it with additional scenes or I exchange the ones that do not
look perfect. Since I am able to re-work the tours myself fairly easily with the virtual tour software, this is not a very time consuming task.

When I have the 360 tour up an running I also place the tours and property
information on Homes.com and Homeseekers.com and I send out the link info to
our administrator to add the non-branded version in MLS. I personally
enhance the info in Realtor.com (I have subscribed to the cheapest Ilead
account that allows me to post tours, add pictures and change headline and
description)

Since I do all these tasks at the same time I rarely forget to place an ad
or post the info on a website. Then I send a confirmation email with all the
links to the seller so they can check it out and alert me of potential
errors. Now my sellers know what we do and how they get exposure to the
market place. They understand if we do not have enough showings it is
largely a pricing issue, not a lack of advertising.

I just closed a listing yesterday which had the original offer and a backup
offer in place. This is very rare in a buyers market and I contribute this
success in part to my extended exposure.

I do spend more time on the computer preparing the tours myself but I
am 100% convinced that using a 360 virtual tour on every listing is mandatory. Whether you decide to produce it yoursself (again, if you have the time!) or you pay to have one produced, virtual tours help all real estate agents maintain the competitive edge and sell homes more efficiently!

Malte Strauss
Southern Realty Enterprises, Inc.
Broker Realtor®
mstrauss@luxuryhomesinorlando.com
www.luxuryhomesinorlando.com
Longwood, FL Real Estate
Mobile (407) 416-9659