Virtual Tours--A Proactive Step Toward Business Success

The Real Estate Industry has some strange peculiarities that are particular to Real Estate and that I don’t think are appreciated by the average citizen, at least here in Alcona County, Michigan. To give you an idea of what I mean take a look some of these oddities.
· How many businesses do you know sign a contract with someone expecting them to provide services, spend a lot of money in advertising, and to expend an undisclosed amount of time, work and mileage to fulfill their part of the bargain with no money exchanged; in other words, all at the agent’s expense?
· How many businesses do you know that would sign that contract knowing that no matter how much money and time that agent spent in good faith to perform their part of the service, the other party could pull out anytime and give his or her business to someone else?
· How many businesses do you know that would tie up their time, and money on a contract that is good for less than a year in order to be competitive with other businesses?

Peculiar, don’t you think? And yet, here we are, doing the deed 24/7, holding onto our bootstraps. I have said it before and I will say it again. It is time to be proactive.

A recent Homescape Newsletter stated:
"According to the Internet vs. Traditional Buyer Real Estate Research Report, 52% of home buyers under the age of 45 (Gen Xers) and 22% of home buyers 45 and older (Baby Boomers) found their real estate agent on the Internet.* As home buyers are changing their behavior and looking more and more to the Internet as a source for all real estate information, promoting yourself as a real estate expert to consumers via the Internet is becoming just as important as advertising your listings online."

Agents have to market themselves in a new way and Key Solutions 360° Virtual Tours, (www.keygraphicsolutions.com), helps do just that thanks to Real Tour Vision technology,(www.realtourvision.com). Each individual tour features the agent, all the agent’s other current posted virtual tours, the agent’s personal website if they have one, and the real estate agency’s website by providing links to each one. Of course, there is also a direct link to the agent’s e-mail. This is a subtle way of marketing the agent while boldly advertising the client’s property.

I know 360° Virtual Tours are not the end all and be all of guarantees to achieve that sale but they sure are the best way I know of to market a property while at the same time marketing the agent and agency to a vast audience. I think a 360° virtual tour should also be used as a listing advantage for an agent to secure a full year or better listing contract. After all; the tour is posted for one full year and the client should have enough good faith in an agent willing to provide that kind of exposure to sign up for a year as well.