I want to know how to join the realtor so i can post the virtual tour on realtor site.
I see there are two programs, Hometour360 and PicturePath.
Is Hometour360 only for ipix which have no initial fee?

PicturePath costs $5,000 to join??? I don't think i have enough $$ to join.
Can they accept the virtual tour made by Panoweaver? I see they only accept MGI, PTViewer, Egg Solution, BeHereTotalview, Tourfactory and 3cim.
I've found other site VRGuilD cost only $500 to post on realtor.

I cannot find the MLS rules/regulations anywhere on the net for posting the virtual tours on Realtor. I don't know if they allow Panoweaver. btw, what is MLS stand for?

Panoweaver stitched images use PTViewer.jar to view. For that matter, images stitched with PV can be displayed using PTViewer too.

MLS stands for Multiple Listing Service.  Usually Real estate brokers have to buy annual subscription.  Or at least that is what my broker told us last time we moved and sold our home.

Other than this.. I really don't know.

Dave

Hello Tommy,

VRGuild charges you $500 annually set up fee and then per tour posting fees.

They have a per tour posting fee to go into the VRGuild platform and an additional per posting fee so that the tour also goes to Realtor.com if the property has an MLS number.

MLS is a database used by realtors to post and search for properties by other realtors. When you post to the MLS, you're assigned an MLS #.

$5000 seems like a hefty amout to join the Picture Path.

My advice is that you continue your research. Ask VRGuild and Homestore all those questions you have.

Hi Tommy,

I am also trying to get started in the virtual tour business and looked into
having tours posted on Realtor.com. I was somewhat apalled to find that
it seems to me like they are trying to Force everyone to Use the IPIX
technology. If you post tours using IPIX there is a per tour fee - but that's
about it. If you want to use anything other than IPIX to stitch your scenes
then there's a $5000.00 fee. There claim is this fee is for "training" - I just couldn't buy into this explanation - it Reeks. The tours that can be posted to realtor.com
are severely limited - just a very few scenes that simply pop up in a viewer - not really that impressive.

Once I am satisfied with my photography skills (having some issues with file size
and resolution) - I still intend to approach the real estate mkt - emphasize the superiority of tours we can present using Easypano or some of the other programs available. A lot of realtors have their own websites, some MLS's have
websites - you can simply provide them the files to host their own tours - or host
the tours yourself and provide them links. When it comes right down to it - there are not all that many advantages to an agent or broker having their property tours
hosted by realtor.com.

Don Maxwell

Don,

The advantage of the tours being hosted in Realtor.com is the market reach. Realtor is THE most popular site for home searching. Properties with virtual tours are displayed first.

Virtual tours on Realtor.com average being viewed 2.3 times per week...not very impressive...Virtual tours on my site (very localized) are viewed around 4 times per day...Do the research...do the math..get good at your work..make the pitch...they will use your services if the price is right..With or without realtor.com!

Realtor.com claims to receive over 2 million visitors per day..I dont doubt that figure, and that is alot of visitors!....but...There are over 850,000 members of the National Realtor Association..Case studies show that on average each realtor has 4 residential listings..Thats a total of 3.4 million listings. Add those 2 figures together and you have a potential of 4.25 million visitors per day...and none of them are there to purchase a home..they are only there to make sure their house is showing up on realtor.com.

Realtor.com means more to the Realtor than it does to the home buyer! According to Overture, the term "homes for sale (insert area name here)" , is actually searched more than the term "realtor.com"..As a general rule, a home buyer will type in "Miami realtor"...or "Dallas realtor" etc....With those search terms, you can compete with Realtor.com in your area  if you master the meta tags.

Hope this helps a bit..It has me ;)

hi zjoker,

i was interested in those stats...thanks. can u point me to where i can read more on those numbers?

what i found shows a differnt picture.

"Homes with six photos or more had 83.6 listing detail page views,"  -- per month in aug 03.    83.6/ 30 days = 2.78 views per day.

source:  http://realtytimes.com/rtapages/20031031_differences.htm

lets say i'm a crazy "smooth" agent and i check to see if my listing is really online 10 times a month. there's still 73.6 views that my listing generated that month. wheather those views come from other agents surfing Realtor or home buyers that's hard to determine. and in reality it doesn't matter if it's an agent or a home buyer looking at your listing, they're both equally important potential buyers.

that's my interpration...maybe i'm misinformed.

Hello VT360,

I wouldnt argue with those numbers...but that is not Virtual Tour views. That is the "listing details" as you mentioned. My advise to my Realtors is that they need to be on Realtor.com, and have the iLead account to be able to enhance their listings...but do not be sucked into the idea that if their "listing does not have a virtual tour on Realtor.com, you have done your customer a disservice"...that quote comes from the i*ix promotion pack that they love to hand out to Realtors. In fact, if I can provide 4 visits a day, and Realtor.com is only supplying 2.3 per week.(keep in mind thats VT stats) .you have done your customer a disservice in the other direction.

 The only way to get the stats for the virtual tour views is to have access to the Realtor's iLead program. I have worked with maybe 30 realtors that have the iLead program over the past couple of years and have compiled those stats from there. I can guarantee that those numbers will not be published anywhere, but I can also guarantee those numbers are correct...at least regionally they are.

Please know I am not trying to stir anything..only sharing some stats and possibly helping others make their pitch to their customers..

zjoker

Hmm seems to me... we should look 1 data step further.  Of the page total views gained... how many properties were actually sold to new home owners.  VR's are only a 'value added' feature.  It the VR's actually sells the agents properties... then that is the end result we need to know.

Sell the customers product !!

Dave