I know you keep getting the same questions from us new members, but you know you love it ;-)
A quick background first
I have sort of stumbled into this, I have a reasonable amount of photography experience, done 5/6 weddings and been a keen armature for years, my wife runs a holiday letting business, and i started taking some stills for her, adopting quite a strong hdr image to give a lot of punch in the listings,
I have 2 friends in the real estate business, who after seeing a set i did for a 1m villa said i should do this for MONEY
So I entered your world, very quickly it became apparent that VT are important, I just had no idea what was involved in making a good one,
Back to the Master Plan
I operate in Spain (come from the UK), real estate here works differently in that there is very few agents who Work exclusively, so your property might be on with 20 different agents, meaning no one agent will spend the money or time to take decent pictures let alone VTs,
here is my business opportunity, to provide professional photography to the person selling the house(not the agent), this will require a lot of sales and marketing effort, for this i have approached somebody(sales man) who will sell the product, because i would be useless at sales:-)
I am happy with the pictures I can produce, and the kit i have to do this with, whats being a large learning curve is these bloody virtual tours, I did a set for stitching, thought it took way to long on site and in post process, so i got a 360 one shot, Hmmm was that a mistake?
I have canon 40D, canon 20d, canon G9, canon 10-22, canon 24-70 2.8, 70-200 2.8, 2 good tripods/heads, 4 speedlights + transmitter, loads of other photography bits
I purchased a 15m extending tower to do low aerial shots,
I have a good fast computer and laptop
I have lightroom2, CS3, smartdraw, PtGiu, tourweaver3, photomatex, buisness class website,
I have just ordered Sigma8mm3.5 Agno`s Tcpshort, and a tripod leveling base, is it worth getting the ringT for the 8mm?
A lot of you do this for a living, you have the benefit of experience, is there any major flaws in my plan?
introducing a salesperson will put my prices up by 30/40% and maybe another 10% to sweeten the agents for the introductions, but I dont think advertising and Internet will be enough, do any of you use a salesperson?
I think i am nearly there with the kit, or am i? shall i ditch the oneshot, or is there a market for quick cheap tours?
same with the software, is what i have adequate?
this forum has been a huge source of help and information for me, when you charge a client good money for being a professional you are supposed to know what you are doing, and with your continued help i may even get there
Many Thanks
Steve
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