2216 Park Dr., Essex, MD 21221

Presented by Sue Miller, Home Selling Assistance. This 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, split foyer is in great condition! Updates include Pergo flooring, carpet, master bath, and kitchen enhanced by breakfast room/sunroom. Sliders to double-tier decking, down to landscaped yard, with 90' of water frontage! Bonus is the cute beach house, perfect for entertaining! Plenty of parking available! Sellers have found home of choice and are motivated to sell. A piece of paradise!

Sue Miller
410-661-2600 9512
Harford Rd. Suite 5
Parkville, MD 21234
Email Website
View My Tour Gallery

Lowering the Cost of Virtual Tours

In today's economy, many realtors wonder how to lower their costs while remaining in business. After all, they need to put alot of money out front to market a listing which may or may not sell, or the seller may choose to cancel the contract. There's the cost of staging the property, flyers/brochures, postage, photography, posting to sites such as Realtor.com, signs, etc. etc.

Jack, a realtor I work closely with has come up with a solution to lower the cost of photography/virtual tours for his listings. He has decided to share my price sheet with the seller and ask them which package they feel would best showcase their property. The Seller chooses the package and products which s/he believes is appropriate. Jack then contacts me to schedule the photography, and the Seller pays me directly. Any savings that Jack is eligible for such as discounted tours, is passed through to the Seller (making Jack look even better!). I provide both the Seller and Jack with a copy of the invoice for their records.

This benefits the realtor in several ways:

1) The Seller is more invested in making sure the property looks its best.
2) The Realtor does not need to put all his/her money up front and hope that the property sells.
3) When the property sells, the cost of the photography is deducted from the Realtor's commision to reimburse the Seller, so the Seller may remain more committed to continuing to work with the Realtor in order to recoup his money.
4) By putting more of the responsibility on the Seller to assume marketing costs up front, with reimbursement at settlement, there is less likelihood that the Realtor will be blamed if the property fails to sell.
5) If the Seller decides at some point to withdraw the property, the Realtor has minimized his cost of doing business.

In today's difficult market, we all need to follow Jack's example and think "outside the box" to identify creative ways of continuing to do business while lowering our risk.

The Power of Social Networking and Virtual Tours

Charm City Virtual Tours recently added an integrated Social Networking and Bookmarking tool to all virtual tours to provide maximum exposure for real estate listings. This new service is FREE with every virtual tour! With a single click, each virtual tour can be added to 14 of the most used Social Networking and Bookmarking sites:

Digg
LinkedIn
Delicious
Reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
FriendFeed
Technorati
Furl
Twitter
MySpace
Mixx
Backflip
Bebo

So what? What does this feature mean to you as a realtor? Virtual tours have just gone viral! Huh? This means you can easily obtain maximum exposure for your listings by simply adding it to any of the sites you currently belong to or sign up for, and so can your seller, and their friends, and anyone who views the tour!

Encourage your past and current clients to add you to their networks. Encourage them to add the tour to their network as well. Create groups for different areas - you might have one for Baltimore, Rockville, DC, Gaithersburg, etc. Use those groups to market properties to particular homeseekers, etc. Share your listings with other agents in your office or network. Spread the word and watch your listing exposure and hits increase! Best of all - all of these sites have FREE membership!

This screenshot from a recent property listing shows just how effective this type of marketing can be - out of 82 hits, almost 32% were from Social Networking and Bookmarking sites!

Try it and see what a difference it can make in the exposure of your listings!

Your Needs or Mine?

Last night, with all intentions of settling down to read a good book, I found myself instead thinking (once again) about the work I do and a recent conversation with another photographer who called me to vent. As with any business, there is often discussion with one’s peers, including the usual grumbling and griping, sharing of stories, etc. This particular discussion involved the photographer’s frustration with the realtor’s expectations for the photos. Apparently, about 2 hours after shooting the property, the realtor called the photographer in a panic and wanted to know how soon the pictures would be available as there was a deadline needing to be met, when the tour was going to be posted, how she could get the pictures to use in print materials, indicated several specific sizes were needed for print and online, wanted to know if a brochure was included, asked which and how many sites the tour would be syndicated to, etc., etc., etc. At the time I empathized with the photographer as the realtor’s questions (unknowingly) caused a great deal of stress.

Incidents like this jolt me back to my beginnings as an educator. A lack of knowledge or understanding often (but not always) indicates the failure to communicate and confirm that information has been received and understood. Regardless of one’s role as a teacher, student, realtor, salesperson, photographer, homeowner, buyer, lawyer or Indian chief it behooves all of us as professionals to clearly communicate with those we work and do business with if we want to be successful. Had the photographer discussed the particulars regarding photography services with the client/realtor prior to the shoot and asked relevant questions about her particular needs, much of the frustration and distress felt by both parties could have been completely avoided.

I can also empathize with the realtor in this situation – perhaps this was the first time she had hired a professional photographer for a listing, didn’t know which questions to ask, assumed the photographer would intuitively know what she wanted and needed and when, was feeling distressed herself because the printer and marketing department needed the photos ASAP, she wasn’t able to adequately answer the homeowner’s questions regarding the photography, or was stressed because she had a sick child at home. Regardless, communication and education about each other’s needs and expectations should occur prior to any service being agreed upon. Making the assumption that someone knows what is needed is a disservice and will most likely result in dissatisfaction between the parties.

As a photographer and business owner, the more I know about your needs the better I am able to serve you and meet or exceed your expectations. So let’s talk!

Charm City Virtual Tours

Charm City Virtual Tours was started in November 2008. We are a virtual tour company, providing still and virtual tours to realtors within the greater Baltimore/DC Metro Region. We are an independently owned company within the RTV (Real Tour Vision) network of providers. It is our mission to provide professional, high quality photography to realtors at a competitive price while maintaining a high level of customer service. Whether it's a small condo or a large commercial property listing, we can meet your needs!

Currently, our tours are syndicated to 90 sites to give your listings maximum exposure! Our tours can also be forwarded to your customers, their friends, etc. with our new social networking bookmark feature which includes Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, Twitter, and more.

We are very excited about our services and look forward to working with you! Please stop by our company website - www.charmcityvirtualtours.com to check us out!