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Dear Mr. Internet,
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Is there a good way to make my listings standout from the
crowd when viewed on the Web? |
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Cathy Amendola
Metrobrokers GMAC
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Dear Cathy,
Differentiation is the name of the game when marketing on the Web. A
few years ago having a virtual tour of your listing would cause "oohs" and "ahs"
from your site visitors; not any more. While still a valuable
tool, virtual tours are hardly unique and therefore have largely lost their ability to
set your properties apart from those of your competitors.
Just being unique is not enough either. Ideally, any enhancement to
your online listings provide visitors with useful, relevant information
presented in a unique way. For example, virtual tours certainly meet that
criteria when compared to simple photographs. And now, there is a way to
take the presentation of your online listing to the next level.
Floor Plans Made Easy
Online floor plan images have been used by builders for several years as a
way to provide potential buyers a unique view and understanding of each model
being offered. Since these are new homes, converting the architectural
plans to an online format is fairly straightforward. While common for the
new home builder, the practice of providing online floor plans for resale
properties is currently quite rare in most US markets. This is primarily because of the time, effort and
cost of creating an accurate renderings of existing properties floor plans made
it practical. However, this will soon change.
As a result of an affiliation with an overseas firm that specializes in
producing affordable architectural quality floor plan drawings from rough sketches
with quick turnarounds, a
USA-based virtual assistant support firm,
REVA Teams will soon be able to offer its real estate professional clients this same service.
With just a rough drawing, architectural quality floor plans can be produced
easily, affordably and quickly. For example the images below show a completed floor
plan from an initial sketch:
  
The resulting floor plan image can be in standard GIF format, or
in a "vector" format (i.e. Adobe Illustrator file) that lets your Web
designer manipulate and
scale the image in almost any way without affecting image quality.
And that is just the beginning because with adding a few
creative touches, these floor plans can take virtual tours to a whole new level.
Floor Plans With Pizzazz
Imagine having a floor plan with special "hot spots" that when
clicked show photos or even wraparound 360� panoramas.
When presented this way you provide "context" to visitor's experience of your
listing and thereby greatly enhance their understanding and appreciation of it.
You can see one example of how this might look by clicking on the image
below:
(NOTE: the above examples are provided
with permission by Paul Van Hoff for illustration purposes only and do not
necessarily represent the final look and operation of static and interactive
floor plans when made available through REVA Teams)
So When Will This Be Available?
The folks at REVA Teams say they will be ramped up and ready to
produce floor plans from your drawings sometime in Q2 2004 (at which time
pricing will be announced as well). All you need to provide is a rough
sketch and in about 48 hours later your architectural quality floor plan image
will be ready to use. Depending upon complexity, interactive floor plans
will naturally take longer and require photos and/or panorama shots. You
will receive the resulting images via e-mail so your Webmaster can load them
into your listing pages.
Clearly, this is not for every listing. However, for those
you want to really stand out this certainly will do the trick!
Article Resources
REVA Teams - a real estate virtual assistant support company that provides a
wide array of operational and marketing support for real estate professionals
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