I thought it might be interesting to resurrect this and see where we are today, a little over a year later. Despite all the things that people decry above about TourFactory and other mass-market tour/photography providers, these companies have come to dominate even very high end markets. Annoying music, out-of focus and poorly lit photos, inconvenient site navigation and slow loading times, and realtors are all over it. Why? Is it because that, although they are using professional photography, they still don’t really get it; that they are not really using professional photography because they believe in it but because someone told them that it is just something they need to do or they are just reacting to their competitors’ use of these services? I don’t think it is necessarily about cost either. I would guess that you could offer a lot of realtors the best photography in the world for the same rates as the mass-market tour providers and they wouldn’t go for it. They don’t want to have to actually think about it. They just want to call up a brand they recognize and get everything ordered at once. So, I wonder if Fred is wrong about separating the photography from the tour provider. In fact, Obeo and Tourfactory will sell their tour templates independently of their photography, but how many realtors actually just buy the template and hire their own photographers? And, there are other tour-template providers which offer the same services, similar pricing, and a superior presentation to Obeo/TourFactory, yet how many realtors actually go for this?

As people here have mentioned repeatedly, the number of realtors who really take marketing seriously is very small, and these realtors do not use the mass-market tour providers.

I’ll watch Google Webmaster Tools, and if the links don’t show up after a couple of weeks — I won’t go back to that blog again.

Another suggestion: you should have a Top Commentator widget installed.

Do Follow and Top Commentator will ensure that you have a successful blog with lots of readers!

So what I’ve done (and I’ve not done this for residential real estate — just commercial) is offer more than just virtual tour services. I offer complete marketing services including website design, email marketing and other things. Therefore the photography is just one thing out of many things that I offer. I can’t survive on selling just photography.

As a recent new architectural/real estate photographer I feel I have the equipment isues under control now thanks to your columns and readers, but am still evaluating tour hosting.

Some of the largest have a full packet of features, but small, poor photographs, others seem to be directed at agents. I was formerly a broker in New England, and believe an agent should be listing, selling and marketing and not spending time in site photography and Photoshop sessions.

Looking at tourbuz, justsnooping (why that name?) realbiz360,
et all. What say you and your readers; I feel I am openig Pandora’s Box…

Fred
Lowcountry Panorama
fred@netbusiness.com

Does anyone know what they pay? I know from experience that OBEO charges 100 dollars for their slideshow tour and pays 25 dollars to the photographer. They’re making 75% and the most they did was give the photographer a login to the system. Tourfactory allows photographers to set their own rates but they encourage photographers to not go over 65 dollars, that way they can keep their tours at 140 in this area and make 75 dollars off the photographers’ work. In fact, they keep a 15 dollar “scheduling” fee over what the photographers’ charge even if the agent never went through the system to make the order and everything was set up by the photographer. Not to mention their yearly membership is actually higher by 60 cents than paying the monthly membership every 30 days (small amount I know but still weird). 12 photos and a weakly branded virtual tour for 50 bucks, not really worth it.

Then you have the bargain basement king, Circle pix. They go into offices, find out what agents are paying for virtual tours and underbid them by 20% if they can get the office to guarantee 20-40 tours per month. Then they hire “no experience needed” (from one of their wanted listings on craiglist) photographers and pay them 20-30 dollars to do all the work.

How can a photographer pay car payments, buy health insurance, replace worn out camera/flash equipment, and expect to have anything left for personal advancement after making 10-20 dollars and hour. It would be much easier, and less expensive figuring in expenses, for a person to just go get a job at the local auto parts store for 10 dollars an hour.

I think the software company should be separated from the photographers, like what Tourbuzz and some of the others smaller companies have done. Its my opinion that it would be much better for a photographer to charge what he feels he should charge and not what is being forced on him by his boss at the software company making 75% of the price of the tour. I’m sick of companies like OBEO and Circlepix and the rest like them coming in with their inferior quality photos and inferior quality branding options and lowering the value of quality photographer. All I hear from people is that they could get tours for 90 bucks from Circlepix. They go to my website and see my samples and know that my photos are better quality but much of the time I end up having to give them a free tour or a 2 for 1 just to convince them to hire me. Once I get the first one out of them they stay loyal, but before I get them on board their minds are polluted by the walmart philosphy that companies like circle pix blah blah have created.

Wow, talk about a rant.

I personally dont like shooting pans but my clients like them and there use to seeing them in a true 3D mode. I really hope to see this added ASAP!

I don’t mean to be so critical, but to me, those images don’t show the property properly. Can these tours show real 360º tours?

I don’t like it I love it. I’m the marketing director for the largest homebuilder in Utah and we have 40 decorated models–I’d love to see them all presented this way (our tour provider is a friend and he would likely agree with Laurent so I’m not sure how I’m going to swing this).

Web designers think different than users–they think they want things that they really don’t want or don’t care about.

There are two fantastic elements that are important to USERS (prospects).

First and most important, it’s fast and easy.

The easy: I can leave my mouse in place and the thumbnails scroll into place. Many of you might think that sounds lazy and it is…and that’s exactly what web users want.

The fast: When I click on these pictures, the photo appears immediately and turns off the Ken Burns effect. Nothing is more frustrating than a photo that fades in slowly. I leave sites that don’t give me what I want IMMEDIATELY when I want it.

Second: It’s very nice to look at –obviously made for homes that you want to show off, not entry level in my opinion. The critical element is that the BEAUTY of the site does not get in the way of the most important element: fast and easy.

I disagree with all of you on the Ken Burns effect. I don’t think you need it because prospects want it, you need it because owners of the homes want it. I think most prospects want to get virtually in and then out in an efficient manner (Laurent pointed this out and I fully agree with him).

Here, they’ve done a good job pleasing both the owner and the prospect–you get the Ken Burns effect to make the homesellers happy but again, this effect does not supersede or get in the way of the critical element, fast and easy.

When I clicked on the tour, my sound was off. (thank goodness–elevator music being a negative is another point on which I agree with Lauren–homesellers want it, prospects don’t–unfortunately, no way around it)

Overall, outstanding!