HomeJab Reveals Top Trends in Pro Real Estate Photos, Video, 3D Tours, Aerial and more
Do your agents use professional real estate photographers to shoot every listing? They should if they want to stay competitive, as today, 73% of all agents use professional photography to promote every property they list. Professional photos, video, virtual staging immersive 3D tours, aerial photography, and the use of twilight photos by agents are all covered in a brand-new survey from HomeJab. If you use professional photographers and other visual assets to promote your property listings and don't know HomeJab, you should. Go to HomeJab.com and see for yourself how they connect you with top local photographers and deliver a lightning-fast 24-hour turnaround. Founded in 2013 by real estate industry veteran and real estate photo and video expert Joe Jesuele, HomeJab has emerged as America's most popular and reliable on-demand professional real estate photography and video service for real estate pros. HomeJab is also one of the hottest startups in its category. The new HomeJab study uncovered some fascinating recent tech trends, including: Video tops 3D tours: While immersive 3D interactive tours continue to soar in popularity, real estate agents pick video over 3D. Thirty-six percent said they preferred video tours versus 21% for 3D tours. Additionally, 30% said they use both video and 3D tours, depending on the seller. Virtual staging narrowly beats traditional staging: HomeJab found that 30% of agents now prefer virtual staging, slightly more popular today than traditional staging at 29%. Only 7% of agents shoot their own listing photos: Despite the advancements in smartphone camera technology, professional photography still beats DYI – by a wide margin. Agents know that pro photos positively showcase their personal brand, HomeJab notes. Aerial photography is hot and getting hotter: Sixty-seven percent of real estate agents said they had used aerial photography with their listings. Fifty-five percent of agents said their use depends on the property. Twelve percent said they use aerial photography with every property listing. The newest trend is the growing popularity of virtual twilight photos: Seventy-six percent of agents have used them to promote their property listings or are interested in using them. Forty percent of agents said they use twilight photos. Thirty-five percent say they love them, and 5% say they use them but don't love them. This new data from HomeJab showcases how high-quality and innovative imaging assets have become the cornerstone in property listings marketing. More importantly, it's great to see new data points on this hot topic, as much of the existing research is mostly dated. Here is their full news release on the recent HomeJab survey. To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.

Matterport's Narrow Moat and the Future of Virtual Tours
I had an opportunity last week to connect with Peter Schravemade of BoxBrownie.com. BoxBrownie.com is the industry leader in virtual home and office staging and they recently published a press release about dropping the cost of virtual staging down to $24 per photo. Previously, the fee for this was $80, but the price has been dropping significantly. I am accustomed to visiting with Peter a few times a year at conferences. This year, I had to catch up with him for his perspective on all things virtual tour and the Matterport IPO via Zoom. We hope that Peter can begin his trips back to North America soon. Matterport is going public, and they are a great product. They pioneered a new category for real estate by taking 2D slide show tours and changing the experience completely to 3D interactive experiences with doll house floorplans. Founded in 2011, Matterport had already taken on more than $60 million in investment before launching powerfully in real estate by 2016. They have taken on substantially more investment since. However, I wonder if they have a cap table problem. They plan to go public at 43x revenue. I am not a buyer because I believe that the competition from new competitors will drive down revenue faster than Matterport can expand. Last week, I got my kit from Asteroom. The price is $90 and I use my iPhone 12 Pro (they support Android phones, too). This allows me to get the same type of capture with the same results as I would from the more expensive Matterport product. For $60, I get the tour built and six months of hosting. This pricing is a small fraction of the pricing from Matterport. Frankly, with competitors like this entering the market, I do not see Matterport holding their margins unless they get super aggressive to protect their IP as they did in taking GeoCV to court and ultimately driving that company out of business. Compare this pricing to the Matterport pricing of a camera for $3300 plus software that runs between $60 per month and $300 per month. Where I see the market going Perhaps the greatest growth in technology for the virtual tour space will be seen in the battle between BoxBrownie.com and roOomy. We have all seen the unprofessional photos that get entered into the MLS by agents. In many cases, there was not much that could be done by the agent. If a seller has poor furniture, bad style or simply refuses to clean the house, the agent was stuck. The good news is that using BoxBrownie for virtual staging to improve the light and stage each room to look appealing is quite easy for agents to do. What inspires me most is their floor plan product. These digital staging services take out the clutter and give buyers the opportunity to imagine how the home could look with their tastes. Check out this great work. For traditional virtual tours, I am still a fan of PropertyPanorama. Their InstaView product is a nice facelift from earlier products. Their prices range from free to $5. On the full-service side, I am a big fan of VirtualTourCafe—they offer a wide array of services for any home (and every price point) with a level of service that is undeniable. Recently, the company that has piqued my curiosity the most has been CoreLogic with HomeVisit. They aim to make photography, virtual tours and other home marketing solutions available through MLS partnerships. On a side note, a virtual home sold last month for $500k as an NFT—non-fungible token on the blockchain. I think that Matterport and BoxBrownie would see an enormous jump in their company's value if they focused on the NFT market—virtual houses may have more value than real ones. To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.

Channel the Spirit of the Winchester Mystery House
Dare to Wander this Architectural Wonder... in IRL or in 3D Nestled in San Jose, Calif. is the infamous historic landmark, the Winchester Mystery House. The Queen Anne Style Victorian mansion was once the home of Sarah Winchester, the widow of William Wirt Winchester, who was the treasurer of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Tragedy struck the family; their infant daughter died and shortly thereafter William passed away. Sarah moved from Connecticut to California, where she purchased a farmhouse that would become the sprawling estate that we know as the Winchester Mystery House today. For more than 36 years until her death in 1922, Sarah continuously added onto the home. She built onto the farmhouse's original eight rooms, expanding the mansion to more 24,000 square feet with seven stories, 160 rooms, 47 stairways and fireplaces, 13 bathrooms and six kitchens. Curiosities abound, there are doors that open to nowhere, rooms without floors and a room built specifically for seances. Rumor has it she visited a psychic who told her that she must build the home to house all of the souls taken by the Winchester rifle. Paranormal activity has been reported numerous times by visitors to the mansion. A historic photo of the sprawling and strangely-built mansion. Despite her eccentricities, Sarah is still "a woman of independence, drive and courage who lives on in legend." The home is overflowing with architectural curiosities and innovations like forced-air heating, a hot shower from indoor plumbing and a horizontal elevator. Ornately designed, the home is adorned with chandeliers, hand-inlaid parquet floors and custom-made stained glass windows. This October, the Winchester Mystery House will be opening up for Hallowe'en Flashlight Tours – this time with no guide. Wander the halls of your own accord – maybe you'll even meet some of the house's otherworldy inhabitants. If you're unable to come for an in-person visit, you can still visit the home with the Matterport 3D tour. We channeled Natalie Alvanez, director of marketing and sales at the Winchester Mystery House to learn more about this delightfully unnerving space. Q: What inspired the 3D capture of the Winchester Mystery House? We have wanted to do a 3D capture of the estate for years, but because we are open for daily tours we have never had the opportunity to do so. That changed in March 2020 when the estate was closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the first time in 97 years, the house was empty and we were brainstorming ideas of how to launch a virtual experience during quarantine. Thanks to a Matterport Capture Technician armed with a Matterport Pro2 camera, we were able to scan the entire 24,000 square foot estate in 48 hours! Q: There are so many intriguing spaces within the house. What are your top three "must-sees" you want visitors to explore and why? My favorite spaces are the basement and third floor because we were able to film areas that aren't on any of our regular tours. There's one room in particular on the third floor that many of the staff call the "most haunted room" – it's a small bedroom that many staff feel very uncomfortable in. Of course, there is the Grand Ballroom – the most expensive room in the house. It features many of the signature design aesthetics that Sarah was most fond of – the number 13, stain glass windows and intricate designed wooden panels. The boiler room in the basement fueled Sarah Winchester's hot shower – a new innovation for its time. Q: What's the one thing you want visitors to take away after exploring the sprawling space? That they must come see the house in person! I think the thing we've all come to realize during the pandemic is that travel and experiences are so important to our mental health. We're now open for daily tours – at a reduced capacity, of course – but guests that have been able to tour virtually can come check out this bizarrely beautiful mansion. Q: Do you have a spooky personal story you'd like to share about being in the house? I've worked here for three years and everybody always asks that question! For most of that time, I didn't have a good story. But about a year ago, I was in the marketing offices talking to a staff member about somebody who had recently died, and in the middle of my conversation, a Winchester Mystery House snowglobe flew off my co-worker's desk and onto the floor in front of me! We both looked at each other and asked "Did you knock that over"? Neither of us was anywhere near it... so we were both pretty freaked out about it! Q: Winchester Mystery House is opening up for new self-guided Hallowe'en flashlight tours in October. What can guests expect when exploring the house without a tour guide? It will definitely be a different experience as we really prided ourselves on our tour guides' ability to immerse guests into the house through storytelling. That said, we've been able to reach into our archives and pull together some amazing ghost stories to play through audio tracks throughout the tour. And I think it's definitely scarier for guests this way. I mean, you are alone (with just your household party), with a flashlight in dark rooms and hallways with no guide to tell you which way to go! It's pretty much a horror movie moment in real life – I expect a lot of our guests feel that level of fear that comes with the unknown! This was Sarah Winchester's seance room where she would channel the spirit world each night. Q: The house can now also be visited from anywhere in the world with the 3D tour, allowing visitors to stay as long as they like. Are there any "easter eggs" that virtual visitors can look out for? Oh, well—if you can find the room with the weird hole in the wall, that's the "most haunted" room. And of course, the house is filled with the number 13—so guests should definitely see how many they can find! Q: Anything else you would like to add? This pandemic has devastated the travel and tourism industry and there are so many good people that have been laid off due to the pandemic. So I would say, for people to please support their cultural institutions either virtually or in person! To view the original article, visit the Matterport blog.

Virtual Showings: Buyers and Their Brokers' Considerations
In a previous post we discussed some sellers' concerns related to the possibility of 'virtual showings,' where buyers' agents come to listings, take photos, make video recordings, or even live-stream tours, all to permit potential buyers, not physically present, to get a look at a listed property—and perhaps even buy it! Here, we consider the concerns of buyers and their respective brokers.

Redfin Sees 303% Increase in Engagement with Virtual Walkthroughs
As a tech-forward company, Redfin has leveraged Matterport 3D scans as a competitive advantage since 2014. According to Redfin, "Buyers love these scans and [we've] featured them in our TV ads every year for the past six years...since the pandemic began, views of virtual walkthroughs on Redfin.com are up 303%."

How to Edit Your Matterport Spaces Anywhere, on Any Device
Whether you are using a Pro1, Pro2, BLK, a supported 360 camera or the new Matterport for iPhone, now there are more choices than ever to scan your spaces with Matterport. Wouldn't it be great if you could also edit and stage those spaces, on the go, using your favorite mobile device? Last month, Matterport rolled out changes to Workshop to enable editing of spaces on mobile phones and tablets, which makes the editing experience easier and more intuitive across the board.

The Future of Space in the Palm of Your Hand
At Matterport, our mission is to digitize and index the built world. We make it possible for anyone to create a three-dimensional digital twin of any physical space that can be shared, published and viewed online--from homes, office buildings, hotels and vacation rentals to factories, historic landmarks and everything in between. Today, the mission has become more important and more urgent than we ever could have imagined. More on that later in the post. Earlier this month, we announced Matterport for iPhone, a revolutionary way to capture physical spaces in immersive 3D with the phone in your pocket. An important component to our global platform strategy, Matterport for iPhone completes the circle—a camera for every space. Our flagship Pro2 business has never been stronger, and the explosive growth of our support for third party capture devices such as the Insta360, Ricoh Theta, and Leica's LIDAR-based BLK give our customers the ultimate range of options to suit every need—from a 300 square foot micro loft to a 200,000 square foot factory. And now, Matterport 3D capture is on-demand any time, any place, using just your iPhone.

Delta Media Launches Virtual Open Houses Platform Wide
On Monday, the nation's leading online brokerage, Redfin, published a news release that they have experienced a 500% increase in requests to agent-led video home tours. This was up from 80% the prior week. As a result of business restrictions related to COVID-19, one out of five requests by consumers on Redfin.com is to have an agent at the house and provide the consumer with a live or recorded tour of the house. Redfin launched this program on March 3. Delta Media Group just launched DeltaNET 6 at the Leading RE conference last month and moved quickly to deliver a similar, high quality lead generation and customer engagement tool for brokers and agents on their platforms. "Our customer's ability to continue conducting business as we work through COVID-19 is our number one priority," says Michael Minard, CEO, and owner of Delta Media Group. "It is our job to help them seamlessly navigate the hurdles they are facing." The Virtual Open House feature allows consumers to schedule these virtual showings just as they would an in-person showing. Moreover, if there are other firms offering virtual open houses as indicated in the MLS data feed, they will incorporate that on IDX listings. Delta Media has integrated this feature across all 350 MLS markets covering 93% of all listings in America. Delta Media also extended support for this feature across modules that reside in the platform, including Open House Search, Market Watch Reports, New Listing Emails, Lead Management platform, Ad Wizard, email marketing platform, and their automated Facebook marketing platform. Delta Media will host a webinar, Introducing Virtual Open House Support & Virtual Showing Requests, on Thursday, March 26 at 11am ET/8am PT with registration available HERE. They will host another webinar, Learn Valuable Tips From Other Sales Professionals on How to Run a Successful Virtual Open House, on Friday, March 27 at 9am ET/12pm PT with registration available HERE. To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.

3D Walk-throughs Aren't Just for Listings: Capture These 6 Local Spaces to Boost Engagement and Business Opportunity
As a real estate professional, a meaningful connection to your community is vital to the success of your business. But we know you've heard the same advice on the subject over and over--host events, be a source of community information, volunteer, etc. Today, however, we're going to introduce you to a high-tech way to connect to your local market--and, bonus, it's sure to dazzle and engage consumers in your area. That strategy? Capturing community spaces in 3D walk-throughs. Not only does this help relocating buyers become more familiar (not to mention creating sight-unseen opportunities) with your community, but it also adds confidence and comfort to the home search through knowledge of local establishments, helping real estate consumers decide which neighborhood suits them best. "Increasingly, especially when we're talking about suburban redevelopment, you're not only choosing the house, you're choosing the neighborhood and the places that are part of that neighborhood," says Charles Nitschke, Chief Integration Officer, Sotheby's Tomlinson Group. Nitschke is part of a growing group of savvy real estate professionals around the country who are tapping into the power of Matterport's technology to capture three-dimensional models, or "digital twins," of various community establishments and businesses in their market areas. Here are examples of six local spaces you can capture in your community to boost consumer engagement, lead generation and awareness of your real estate brand. Schools So you've got school ratings, school district zoning, and other information on your real estate website. That's a great start, but you can take things to a whole other level by including 3D walk throughs of those schools where people can virtually experience and learn about the facility for themselves. Nitschke finds that this is especially useful for markets with colleges or universities. "[Institutions] are tremendously interested in being able to show off their space to attract students, to be able to walk the parents and students through the facility, to get comfortable with it before they start travelling to narrow down their final school selection." After scanning their first school, Nitschke's brokerage, Sotheby's Tomlinson Group, approached another. Next summer, they will scan Idaho College's athletic department and then scale out into dorms, classrooms, and eventually the whole college. The 3D scan will be available on the college's website and on their brokerage's site, said Nitschke. "It's a big part of becoming that digital mayor, becoming that tour guide for the community." Local art galleries Lisa Larkin is the designated broker for RE/MAX Select in Tucson, Ariz., and she has long understood the power of co-branding with influential local figures. For years, her team has worked with Diana Madaras, a high-profile local artist, to host client appreciation events at her gallery, license her art on their marketing materials, and more. When Larkin and her team discovered Matterport, they offered to scan a new gallery space she had just purchased so that she could put it on her website. It's now featured prominently on her site's front page. They put the scan on their website too, under a relocation tab where people new to Tucson could see different places and businesses around town. The result is mutually beneficial: real estate consumers learn of an important local artist, and art consumers learn about a local real estate company that's differentiating themselves through the use of innovative technology. Event and recreational spaces Microbreweries are a big trend across the country, and they tend to attract a savvy, upwardly mobile clientele—an ideal real estate customer. A new agent at Sotheby's Tomlinson Group captured a local brewery as a way to break into the market and to introduce himself to the owner of the brewery. That introduction led him to listing the owner's house when the owner decided it was time to downsize. Theaters, concert venues, gyms, and other similar spaces are also excellent candidates for 3D reality capture. These popular locations service what equates to a large audience every year, many of whom will visit their website where your Matterport scan is located. That means this untapped audience will have the chance to see your 3D digital twin on a consistent basis and the opportunity to learn about your real estate business. Places of worship Sotheby's Tomlinson Group parlayed their digital twins of local schools into an opportunity to scan a 60,000 sq. ft. mega church and its 60,000 sq. ft. athletic facility. Along with building awareness for their brand, the scan is also connecting their community to church-facilitated services that they may not have otherwise known existed, such as substance abuse and domestic violence programs. "If you were to walk into this large church, try to figure out where to go to find those services, to familiarize yourself with what's available, or even to get the process started, it would be an intimidating process to go down that road," says Nitschke. The digital twins of the church helps community members understand what's offered, where to go within the church, and how to reach out. The church is even leveraging Matterport "Mattertags," to embed digital media (in this case video) into their digital twins. Every week, they add their sermons in a Mattertag for people who missed the service or want to listen again. Your office While creating 3D digital twins of local spaces is a great form of passive marketing, let's not forget one very important space you should also capture—your office. "It's fantastic to send out to clients so that they know where they're going to be going, where they're going to be meeting and take some of the apprehension out of that process," says Nitschke. Unlike your office, the digital twin is available 24/7, and it can help current and potential clients feel more comfortable with your business. Sotheby's Tomlinson Group has also scanned their title company and has future plans to scan their mortgage vendor's office, too. "When the consumer is getting ready to go to closing day, they're able to navigate the building where the title company is so they know where to go from the parking garage to the title company, what the reception desk looks like, what the conference room that they're going to be signing in looks like. It just takes a lot of that stress out of an already stressful situation by being able to walk them through," says Nitschke. How Can I Get Started? We've talked about capturing some very big, important spaces in your community. If that seems intimidating, it isn't. Starting with local businesses you're already familiar with will streamline the partnering process, but creating the digital twin itself is really quite simple. It's a natural step in building relationships for an industry that relies on that ability. "I'm finding the more that we get involved in these community spaces that are incredibly important to how and why and where people choose to live, the relationships start to build on one another," says Nitschke. "Shooting this facility ends up leading to an introduction to somebody to shoot another facility, and so we're kind of growing very naturally through collecting these spaces." Once you've captured your first community space, be sure to put it on your website and promote it wherever you can. Lisa Larkin's brokerage, RE/MAX Select, has even created a website dedicated solely to 3D tours of local spaces, as well as a Facebook page for that website. An easily accessible collection of 3D digital twins of community spaces also helps real estate consumers get a better sense of what a neighborhood's all about—far better than traditional real estate tools and MLS data can. Traditional tools offer "no depth to what a community is all about, and this allows us to give them a much better idea of what the difference is between some of these neighborhoods," says Nitschke. For more in-depth information about capturing community spaces, including marketing strategies, check out our recent webinar here. And try Matterport yourself with your free Matterport account to get started with 3D differentiation.

See the Real Estate Social Media Tool Contest Backed by Reality Capture
It's impossible to ignore. Today, people spend an average of 122 minutes each day viewing social media and real estate companies are taking notice. In fact, some companies are even creating their own platforms, designed for getting more use out of these social ones. Better Homes and Garden Real Estate (BHGRE) is one such company as they recently launched their own social tool that's integrated with their current intranet portal, "Greenhouse." It was a launch that featured a contest to encourage its use and offered a unique prize for creating unique content designed for making the most of the unique opportunities provided by social media.

How Commercial Real Estate Offers a Vision of Workplace Environments
Today's workplaces have placed a greater emphasis on visibility into both commercial real estate spaces and the corporate office spaces that fill them. It's no secret: we spend a significant portion of our lives at work--around one-third of our lives, in fact. As a result, the workplace environment can be as consequential as the home. Companies spend a lot of time (perhaps today more than ever) choosing the right space for their employees in building their desired company culture. For commercial real estate pros, this is something to keep in mind when marketing spaces and attracting clients. Over the years, office spaces have changed to match these changing aspects of desired workplace environments. Recently, there has been an emphasis on friendly, colorful and open office spaces; showing that off is viewed as a major recruiting tool for top talent.

Zillow 3D Home Tour Is Really Property Panorama
Remember years and years ago when Property Panorama launched? Property Panorama is still around, and running strong. They are probably the industry's leading virtual tour company, with over 500,000 customers building tens of thousands of tours every day. Zillow took a page out of Property Panorama's playbook by using visualizations to create a 360-degree tour and stitching them together, which they call Zillow 3D Home, and claim it is a 3D tour. Way to catch a headline, Zillow, but your tours aren't even close to a real Matterport or GeoCV 3D Tour.

How Does Augmented Reality Affect the Real Estate Industry?
Virtual reality has been a big buzzword in real estate for the last few years because it enables people to tour a space remotely. But it might soon be taking the back seat to augmented reality. Augmented reality, which takes images from the real world and layers 3D models over top for a much more real experience, has been making a big splash in the real estate industry. In fact, one of the big trends we saw late in 2018 was the development of AR apps specifically for real estate use. So how do they work, and how do they help real estate brokerages?

Friday Freebie: Broker's Guide to Recruiting and Retaining Top Agents
Frustrated by the challenges of recruiting top performing agents in this competitive market? You're not alone. A whopping 78 percent of brokerage leaders say recruiting is their top business concern, according Imprev's 2018 Thought Leader Survey. So how can managing brokers improve their recruiting and retention outcomes? A new guide points to strategies brokerages can employ to attract and keep high performing agents. The best part? It's free. Read on to find out how to claim your free copy! Free Guide: 3 Ways to Recruit and Retain Top Agents, courtesy of Matterport Matterport's new guide to recruiting and retaining agents in broken down into three parts. The first two sections, attracting and retaining top agents, are chock-full of practical advice. Readers will learn about the importance of monitoring your competition's commission structure, creating mentorship programs, and investing in technology. The third section, Leverage Recruitment Marketing on Facebook, is the part that really shines. Here, Matterport breaks down how to target and advertise to potential recruits on Facebook, engagement strategies for your Facebook page (including showing off impressive visual assets generated by Matterport, like 3D property tours, high definition photos, and floor plans), and more. Matterport is right to focus large chunks of this guide on the importance of technology in recruiting--and brokers would be wise to heed their advice. As older agents age out out of the industry, brokerages are struggling to attract younger agents to take their place. By emphasizing the technology they offer agents--and how that technology can help agents sell more homes--brokerages play into the affinity of the younger generation for technology. It's not enough to simply offer technology, however. Brokerages also need to make that technology accessible and easy to use. In the guide, Matterport also touches on how to create an infrastructure and environment that not only encourages tech adoption, but tech proficiency. Ready to begin crafting a strategy to attract and retain the top performing agents in your area? Download 3 Ways to Recruit and Retain Top Agents to get started!    

The Scoop on Virtual Staging Real Estate Technology
In 'Take Advantage of VR in Real Estate,' we looked at some of the advantages of using VR in your listings. But how does using VR in virtual staging work? Key Aspects of Virtual Staging (and Selling!)

Virtual Reality for Real Estate: What Can It Do for You?
What if you could introduce potential home buyers who live hundreds of miles away to some of your top properties without anyone physically travelling to the property? What if you could literally help them visualize what the home would look like with all or a few of their own personal touches? Virtual reality (VR) is gaining a lot of attention as a potentially powerful tool in the real estate industry, because it has the ability to help you to market your listings to a broader audience and convert more leads. Is Virtual Reality Here to Stay?

Are You Ready for Virtual Reality in the Real Estate Market?
Today, 20 million buyers are taking advantage of virtual reality (VR), and that number expected to reach 50 million by the end of this year and a whopping billion by 2023. Experts predict VR will change the industry the way the Internet and video use in real estate marketing did, so how long will it be before you market a home in VR? The Timing is Right With Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg 2014 investment in the industry, VR technology has rapidly matured, getting easier to use and coming down significantly in price. In fact, it's a foregone conclusion that VR will be a part of the industry, and companies like Matterport and Realvision are paving the way.

Top 5 Reasons to Consider Virtual Reality for Real Estate in 2017
In 2017, you will continue to hear more and more about virtual reality in real estate. According to 3D/VR media company Matterport, 76 percent of real estate professionals plan to or are already using VR to be more competitive in 2017. As a broker/owner, you likely have seen virtual reality solutions at trade shows, from local photography vendors, or on other listings in your market. With adoption expected to rise this year, now's the time to figure out if it's right for your brokerage. It's an immersive way to experience a home online. So why should I consider 3D/VR in 2017? You want to attract and retain agents As you know, recruiting is a constant for most brokerages. Top agents look for brokerages when their current brokerage does not keep up with, or provide them with, the best and latest technologies to help them succeed. By offering a program directly, or through a third party vendor, to capture the 3D scans — and easily supporting the agent's ability to display that 3D content on your website — you've added tools to their tool belt that are not yet commonplace. This is an opportunity to differentiate yourself in the marketplace. You list, or want to list, luxury properties Sophisticated sellers expect the latest marketing methods to sell their properties, and sophisticated buyers want the convenience of touring a home whether it's 11 p.m. or while at their busy office. Letting a seller experience a 3D or virtual reality model during a listing presentation is a great technique to win a listing. By not offering 3D or VR solutions, you open the door to losing a listing to another brokerage.

Brokers Need to Fix Their YouTube Channel
WAV Group has studied the effectiveness of video marketing for brokers over number of years. By and large, firms are not seeing the level of engagement on video marketing that justifies the trouble or expense. Having a video on YouTube with two or three views is not a conveyance of success. The promises of video marketing are pretty significant. By using video, a property is marketed more dynamically than photo and text marketing. Videos are processed by the brain 60,000 times faster than text. Simply stated, it's a better consumer experience. People enjoy a video television experience over a magazine or newspaper experience. Homebuyers spend more time looking at the property (minutes rather than seconds) at a much higher cognitive level. The average consumer with an Internet connection watches roughly 206 videos per month, according to Nielsen. Brokers are also failing to syndicate their branded and unbranded videos effectively. WAV Group audits portray that unless the insertion of the videos into the MLS is done automatically, Realtors® or staff do not consistently complete the chore. IDX syndication of virtual tours drives a lot of views, and, done correctly, will provide some additional SEO benefits that can accrue to the broker website in the form of backlinks. Moreover, branded virtual tours are not being syndicated well on third party listing websites like Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia, Homes.com or others. Again, syndication drives views.

World’s First Virtual Broker Open
In May, the Minneapolis Area Association of REALTORS® Young Professional Network presented the first ever virtual broker open. Architech 3D Imaging was on hand to talk about 3D mapping and virtual tours, including Matterport as well as a new service they're now offering. I spoke about how virtual tours can help market properties and save time for both buyers and sellers. Meanwhile, attendees were able to experience virtual reality demonstrations with Samsung Gear VR platform and a version Architech 3D Imaging's new product for Google Cardboard that is under development. The virtual tours we're creating can be displayed on a computer, tablet, or mobile device. They're able to be syndicated out to thousands of websites including Zillow through an MLS data feed, so consumers can access them from their couch anywhere in the world. Not only are buyers now able to visualize the home on a flat screen surface, they can also use virtual reality devices to experience the properties as if they were standing right there in the home. A Samsung Gear VR retails for about $200 and requires the use of compatible Samsung phone. While an agent or a builder may invest in one of these units, it is unlikely that most buyers will have one anytime soon. Enter the Google Cardboard! For around $20 you can fold together a piece of cardboard with a couple of lenses, allowing you to use almost any smartphone to access the virtual tour.

Marketing Trauma
REALOGY has made a big deal of the new 3D virtual tours that they believe is the future of property marketing. They may be right. WAV Group took a look look at homes on the internet which offered three distinctive methods of viewing images – photos, 3D tours, video tours. When you think of marketing homes for sale, real estate professionals need to think in terms of priority. In consulting parlance, we divide prioritization into three categories: Trauma, Pain Killer, Vitamin. Beyond marketing decisions, it is a healthy idea to use this categorization across many of your technology considerations. Here is what we opined from looking at listings offering all three media types. Trauma = Photos Pain Killer = Video Vitamin = 3D tours Trauma It all starts with great photography. Your marketing will die without it. The worst-case scenario, agents take a single photo on their flip phone of the front of the house out of the window of their car (rear view mirror included). For the best case, look at photography by Malin Giddings of Coldwell Banker San Francisco.

1 plus 1 Equals Video
Doing research like our 2013 Broker Website Effectiveness Study (BWES) helps WAV Group identify and measure a multitude of strategies that brokers may deploy to improve their online performance. One key trend today that is working very well is video. I am not sure how long video will help brokers gain an edge, but today it works. Some of the facts we gathered in the BWES included that Google is the number one search engine by a significant margin, capturing 75% of all search traffic (see image, right). If you combine the predominance Google with an understanding of how search results are displayed, you recognize that for every keyword search, Google attempts to display a video search result above the page on the first page of results (see image, left). This has been a keynote strategy that we have long appreciated with virtual tours. Today, virtual tours by most vendors are automated. They rely on data feeds from the MLS or ListHub to acquire the data ingredients, including photos that are stitched together, price, description, etc. In many ways, the information found on a virtual tour webpage today is a comprehensive IDX display.

A Quick Look at CirclePix Virtual Tour
There are plenty of virtual tour products for REALTORS® to select from. A company that has been around forever in our industry is CirclePix. Normally, when you think of CirclePix, you first think of image innovation. Over the years, they have enabled agents to provide consumers with virtually any perspective of looking at images. You can look up, down, right, left, spin around, stand upside down, look around corners. You name it, CirclePix provides it. Today, I noticed something extraordinary about CirclePix that I had not noticed before--the school page. Take a look at the level of detail they provide on school choices. They provide the school name, phone number, student to teacher ratio, census data, and number of students. (Click image to view full size.)

Holiday Deal: Charitable Donations from Obeo
Nothing's more in line with the spirit of the holidays than giving back to those in need. That's why we're highlighting Obeo's "Season of Giving" as our latest Holiday Deal. For every virtual tour add-on purchased, Obeo will donate 20% of the purchase to the children's charity of the week. What's more, you will also receive a 10% price discount. The schedule below shows what charities will be receiving sales proceeds each week. Dec. 10-16: The National Down Syndrome Society Dec. 17-23: The March of Dimes Dec. 24-30: St. Jude's Children's Hospital Dec. 31-Jan. 6: The Children's Miracle Network Click through to the next page to learn more.

3 Things You Need To Know About HD Virtual Tours
There are a few things to remember when creating an HD virtual tour. The bottom line is this: it isn't as complicated as it sounds. Here's what you need to know. 1. You don't need a special camera Although we recommend using a professional photographer whenever possible, for many agents the cost is prohibitive. If you're taking your own listing photos, you can still create gorgeous virtual tours. When we talk about HD, we aren't referring to a special setting or type of photo, we're referring the size of the picture. Digital photo sizes are measured in megapixels: more megapixels mean bigger pictures. But they don't have to be huge to be considered HD. Even a 1 to 2-megapixel setting will work. Most camera phones can even take images that are considered HD, and certainly all digital cameras that are on the market today, even the inexpensive ones.

Discover How Video Creates More Opportunities, Friendships and Income
If fact when your video tells a story (and all Good Video tells a story) you can create opportunities, which create friendships which lead to income. In this video interview David Bell of Teldon Marketing and I share our story of how we connected at a Real Estate Mastery Event in Denver CO and how from that meeting we were able to forge a friendship that has subsequently opened up avenues of opportunity and friendships for both of us. This is a True Story and the video footage I use goes from Denver – NAR Conference in New Orleans – Century 21 Convention Toronto Canada – Century 21 Convention Las Vegas and ends with us doing this video the Real Estate Masters Guild Event Savannah GA!