Admittedly, it has been a long time since I have updated the blog here. I guess that has a lot to do with the slow business here. The market is getting better but in Florida, it is slow coming back.

I did get the chance to shoot a condo this week for a client that rents it as a vacation home. I had not really thought of marking this way but now I am think it might be a good chance to fill some gaps. The client wanted images for marketing and after talking to her, I was able to show her the value of a good tour as well for her to display on the web.

I had to return to the condo a second time for some of the images because the day we choose for the initial shoot was too cloudy and the beach just did not look good in the images. I have posted the link to the tour here as well as a few images for you to all enjoy. Feel free to let me know what you think of them.

http://www.cpgtours.com/tour.php?id=9965

A partial Pano shoot can enhance your listing.

MLS Photos is currently offering to visit your office or come to your open house to show you what we can do for you and your listings.  Not only will I come and answer all your questions, I will bring the gear, show you a tour and slideshow example and show you how we can syndicate your listings anytime.

I love to talk to clients and potential clients and show them the difference between what I do and what other tour companies produce.  If you have never used a real estate photographer or mlsphotos.info/pricing.html”target=”_self”rel=”external”title=”Virtual Tours Done Right” >virtual tour company, why not take advantage of this offer.  I costs you nothing to talk.

Another service I am offering right now is to come to a Realtor’s Open House and show you and any other Realtors what I offer.  If you have me come to your open house, any Realtor in attendance will get the chance to enter a drawing for a FREE photoshoot just for talking to me.

Don’t wait, call me today to set up a time for a presentation!!

Hybrid cars, trucks, and phones. Even computers and other everyday items so why not in the Virtual Tour market?

Just the other day it was brought to my attention that unless your virtual tours contain 360 degree panos they can’t really be a virtual tour.  I say “Not True”.  The tours offered here at MLS Photos do not have 360’s in them because potential buyers are not spending near as much time on tours as they used to.

There seems to be an opinion out there that the client wants to see the layout of the house through 360’s but in truth, if you ask the clients, they really don’t sit and watch the entire tour that way.  How do I know?  I ask people all the time.

What is the real key to marketing your properties?  High quality images, high quality presentations and syndication are the keys to a successful tour campaign.  There are a lot of “Big Box Tour Companies” that will argue this but if you can view HD images in a clean tour that allows you to control the speed and has all the property information at your finger tips, which would you spend more time on?

Take a minute to look at our tours and judge for yourself.  We offer a better price, better images, better tour interfaces and STRONGER SYNDICATION!!

Give us a call when you are ready to try a better virtual tour for your next listing.

Several days ago I was reading a blog post from another tour company that said what MLS Photos produces are not tours because we are not currently offering 360’s in our package.  This made me wonder “what is a virtual tour“?

While it has been said that our product is “just a slideshow”, we disagree.  A virtual tour is simply a display of the property online or virtually. There has never been, or is there now, any thing that dictates what should make up that tour.  The reason we choose not to use 360’s is because we feel that images of a home should show it at it’s best, period.

A 360 image can do that if done correctly but most of the tour companies out there do not take the time to blend the exposure across all the images or correct for the distortions that are part of the typical pano image.  MLS Photos works very hard to make sure that all the images produced by us are clean, clear and well exposed.  Walls are straight, windows are properly exposed and overall the image looks GREAT!!

If that isn’t a virtual tour, I guess that is okay.  Whatever you call it, MLS Photos does produce a superior product and we guarantee you will agree once you see your next “tour”.

Don’t wait around wondering, order a tour today and experience the difference for yourself.

Fall is here and MLS Photos is celebrating with a fall special to pass on to all our Realtor/Broker clients.  Order 4 tours and we will give you the fifth tour FREE!! That is a $79 value for the shoot and tour if you order them all together!!

This is not a lower feature or stripped down tour.  It is a complete package just like the package your get every time your place an order with us!!  Don’t wait to order because there is no telling when I am going to come to my senses and discontinue this deal!!

Place your order by phone or e-mail and tell us you want the Fall 4 Pack and we will give you #5 on us.  It really is that simple!!

Of course they can!!  How long does a typical short sale stay on the market? 30 days, 60 days or maybe less depending on the bank. When a property needs to sell quickly marketing is key.  No one is going to buy a home that they never see right?

In many cases short sale and foreclosure properties do not get professional photography or virtual tours simply because the profit margin is not great on them but in reality wouldn’t it make more sense to sell it and make a little less than not sell it and lose the listing?

MLS Photos can work with you to get your tour expedited and syndication down very quickly to maximize the visiblity of these properties. We are currently offering a short sale/foreclosure special of $89 for the tour, syndication and we will ad on a free single property website that will get syndicated all over the web as well.

Maximize your visibility, maximize your sales!!

Call or e-mail MLS Photos today to take advantage of this special and tell us it is a short sale or foreclosure to get expedited services!!

Hey everyone. I really don’t have a lot to report this week as far as new things happening with MLS Photos. I am still actively working to get information out to the market here and hoping to talk to more of you directly soon. In the mean time please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or requests for me.

I am told that sometime this month the CPG interface is going fullscreen and high resolution so the images added to it will go from real nice to “rock your world” status but I don’t have an effective date yet on this.  Mike at CPG did say it is going to happen soon so I will let you all know when it does.

Aside from that, we are still plugging along in the slow market with the rest of you. The one thing I will say is that just because it is a little slow, don’t forget to market to the potential buyer with as much zeal as you can. If you are not spending much on marketing it may be your demise in the long run.

If you want to get to the closing table, you have to get the buyers in. Marketing is key but I know that some of you just don’t have the free cash to spend.

Give me a call and let me show you what just $79 will buy. You might just be surprised.

I have spent a lot of time this week looking at the local MLS and I am still scratching my head. I have to ask, “Do you really not see that the walls are distorted,the windows are blown and the house looks like it is leaning down hill?”  This is becoming more and more common and I just don’t understand why.

When I think of marketing, I think of ads and billboards.  Those things that grab your attention and make you want the item that is being marketed.  Isn’t this what you think of?

When you are marketing a home (the largest single purchase most people will make in a lifetime, BTW), doesn’t it make sense to spend a few dollars and grab you potential buyer by the ear and scream “Look at me?”  You are not going to do it with images that are dark, blurry, fuzzy, distorted and generally not showing the house well.

Take a few minutes and view our tours.  MLS Photos is a professional service that only provides Real Estate Photography.  We do one thing so we can do it right.  Stop with the hacked tours and if not us, try someone who will give you quality images.  It will serve you well in the future.

Quality images do make a difference. Just ask the buyers!

Take the leap today. Call us and schedule your tour!!

Yesterday I went to Palm Coast to shoot a home for Karen at Lighthouse Realty Associates. The home is a beautiful 2 story home build in 2005 completely of poured concrete. The home owner was telling me the walls are a full 9 inches think. You will notice there are no windows on the street side of the home except for a couple small windows for light.

The home owner told me this was to cut out the noise from the street and he says it works very well. The beach side has lots of glass and it is tinted “turtle” glass to cut dow on the light coming out of them at night. This is so it does not confuse the Sea Turtles when they hatch. They need to see the moon and go out to sea and I guess the light from homes can be a problem. Not on this home though!!

Feel free to check out the tour here:

Quality images do make a difference. Just ask the buyers!

I was working on some images and talking with my brother in law tonight. He is looking at buying a home and has been looking at the MLS and many real estate websites. I struck me funny when he started critiquing the pictures used on the website so we started talking.

He was really unimpressed with the quality and wanted to know why more Realtors don’t use real estate photographers. I really did try to explain it but it was really interesting to hear someone outside our industry talking about the low quality images on many of these listing.

I know I look at them and think “Wow, that is terrible” but I am a photographer. So I asked him, would you go and look at that house? He said “Maybe but not likely because I can not tell if it is 3what I want from the pictures. I am not going to waste my time most likely.”

So Realtors. Brokers and FSBO’s, take notice. The buyers are noticing the image quality issues in the MLS and other listing sites. They are passing up homes based on these images and you ARE losing money by not spending a little.

Market like you mean it!! Market with help from MLS Photos and lets SELL that house!!!