Online-service to Realtors. How to do secure for both sides?

[Kraut]

Hello! My name is Dietmar.

I am German, living and working at Germany.
My English is not perfect, so please excuse some mistakes in words and grammars.

I have some questions and did not found satisfiyng answers at the net, so i decided to ask here.
My service is directed to Realtors, so i am after all not completely at the wrong place.

That service, which we offer (at moment to German Realtors only), is the professionally recreating of floor plans for Realtors marketing purposes.
To do that job we programmed a webshop, where customers can order and load up their plans.

I do not know the American habits in business like i do in German.
(So if you are in need to know about German business, please feel free to ask)

So i am uncertain because of payment and trust.

We will need the trust of customers, and that will get surely harder from Germany to the States as it is B2B only inside Germany.
The U.S. Realtor may will get doubts to order because we are far away...
If advanced payment is asked, are we worth to trust in?

So i thaught about to offer the service on account.
Here at Germany we do our business on account, and there are (nearly) no problems to get the payments.
The amount for an order will be between $30 to $100.

My questions (for the U.S.) are:

1: Is it a good idea (or is it nuts) to give our service on account? Better ask for payment in advance, even for the first order?

2: I want to offer PayPal and Moneybookers for payment. Is that a good idea or do i better offer more or else kinds of payment?

That`s all for the first and i will be happy to get some answers.

See you, thank`s in advance and bye


Dietmar

[stevetrang]

Great idea. A couple of companies already offer that service, and I believe they charge much more. Your client will be the Realtor, and we typically pay up front.

[Tim Shepard Destin]

You should be able to collect payment at time of service since most payments would probably be via CC anyway.

Can you describe your service in more detail?

[Kraut]

Hello again!

Thank you for your answers.

@Steve: So i understand that you would not fear to order for about $50 with Paypal or Moneybookers, even with a German company. But payment with CC is asked. Is one of that payment processing systems usually used by you? I mean that in the way "You know it and use it without hesitation" and not "Ouch, they offer only PayPal and Moneybookers, beware"

@Tim: The costs will be shown, collected and billed while ordering.
The only thing in my mind was to give trust in sight to earn trust. That was
about delivery on account. May i start with "first payment then delivery".

The service itself is very easy: You take the original old plan and may mark some changes or write some adding informations into it. (We get even hand-"drawn" plans from time to time) Then scan that. This scan you will upload while ordering. After receiving your order we recreate that plan, using CAD-Graphics software. Finally you get a complete new made floor plan which will be delivered as jpg-file, both unfurnished and furnished, scaled to 1/100, 300 dpi, rgb-colorspace but cmyk optimated and still a small file. So it can be used beside internet even for offsetprint by professionals.

After establishing finally you may take a look at it. (We are at 95% yet)
I offer one plan for free

Greetings

Dietmar

[LuxorDreams]

If your actually worried about getting money from customers and customers being leary of giving you money before the work is done, you could either do the job and show them a sample and/or collect half now and the other half after the work is done.

A sample could have a watermark on a 300x300 image of what the work will look like. After it's approved by the client, collect the money and give them the full floor plan.

[Kraut]

Good morning!

"A sample could have a watermark on a 300x300 image of what the work will look like. After it's approved by the client, collect the money and give them the full floor plan."

That is a pretty good idea which i will store in mind Thank you!

Greetings

Dietmar

[Dallas Broker]

great idea, some of the create your own software directed at realtors such as floorplanner charge around 30-70 per month. I would definetely offer different plans geared toward square feet and amount of rooms such as the floorplanscompany

[Kraut]

Good morning!

I just checked that companys work. The plans they show are more simple than ours. It is comparable with our "Solid" type, which is the cheapest artwork with (actually planned) price of $21,90 per floor plan, but furnished. Target with our plans is not to reach Engineers but Realtors clients heart. We do not charge per square feets or room. Biggest allowed size is about 6500 square feet for one fixed price (letter size 1/100). Charged will be per floor plan and floor. Because that system works fine here i think we will not change it at first. Mostly houses are no palaces. Average counts. If i have to learn that U.S. houses and flats all are much bigger than here, i will react.

Please feel free to take a look at the not finished site, so please do not order http://floorplan-designer.com

@Admin: If it is forbidden to give that link, please remove it, but not my account...

Anyway: Thank you for your proposals, i am happy to get your opinon.

See you
Dietmar

[Dallas Broker]

you should post your website in the Website Review and get some feedback....just make sure you review another website or two before asking for review on your site