Hello,

I just had my first class on real estate today and during a class break, I brough up 360 tours. Most of the people either didn't know what I was talking about or thought it was bad. People also said that having your own website "hurt" you more then it would help.

Ok, maybe for the "Average agent" might not be a good solution, however, I'm going into real estate with 9 years of IT background, lots of this stuff I can do on my own. What do you guys think about the 360 degree software tours?

thanks,
Angela

I'm afraid of change

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Brevard MLS
Satellite Beach Real Estate Brevard MLS
Advanced Brevard MLS

Can you elaborate?

As for virtual tours, here are a couple threads:

• Quality of photos on your site
• 3D Virtual Reality

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Top Sales Expert ~ Sales Training ~ Mobile Homes For Sale

The guy said something about, having your own domain name and spending all the time developing a site when people can just go to www.realtor.com is just a waste of time, and that it's not helping and you are wasting your ad money on something like a website.

Am I just to "high tech" or what? I guess if you are paying somebody 5 grand to do a site and all it is a dummy shell of information, then yeah, that might hurt your business, but it doesn't ahve to to be that way.

Angela

I made my own site with just a little bit of studying dreamweaver and html. Then I've spent loads of time in this forum learing search engine optimization SEO. My site started in October 2004 and I've closed 8 deals through my website. I've only been in real estate since January 2004 and I was starting to think it may have been the wrong decision to get into real estate becase of all the competition. I'm glad that I focused on the web instead of paying loads of money on direct mailing (which I did for a while). I only got one listing from all the mail outs. It paid for the direct mail, but I knew I needed to do something else to get business.
Well, 4 months of focus on web design and SEO has paid off more than I could have imagined. My broker is loving me and seasoned agents at my company are asking how I'm getting all these buyers. LOL

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Brevard MLS
Satellite Beach Real Estate Brevard MLS
Advanced Brevard MLS

I'd say don't even bother arguing with them and let them continue thinking along those lines. After all, they're going to wind up being your competition, why even bother trying to convince them to embrace technology.

So far I've spent a total of maybe $700 and a whole bunch of hours on two websites (albeit neither is nearly as complete and as professionally done as many you'll find here on REW) and I'm starting to get quality leads every week. Right now I'm working with 3 buyers and have gotten one listing as a result of my sites. Not exactly a waste of time, IMO.

Now if you have the budget, you can have a beautiful, professionally designed and SEOd site like the ones created by SEO Guy and his team. I'm sure if you asked the owners of those sites they'd say they're worth every penny.

Never argue with someone that thinks a website is a waste of time or money. Just say "your probably right and maybe it's not for you". If you get a bunch of other agents to buy websites they just become your competition and you will have to spend more time doing SEO work.

As for the virtual tours it's great if most of your buyers will have high speed connections. If not they are very jumpy and multiple photos is a better way to go. Don't forget there are still a lot of people on dialup.

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Thanks for for all the reassurance, I think it might be a generational thing too. Im in my late 20's and the people saying this were all 40+ and don't like change.

Well I can't wait to get my license and show of my site!

Angela

Hey! I'm 40++ & I'm trying to get younger agents to "get with it!" LOL!

I'm the only agent in my office that has a website so you just need to worry about yourself & what you want to do. I know when you're new you start asking opinions & questions & you shouldn't take those answers as carved in stone, especially when, as everyone has mentioned, you're asking your competition.

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