Dear Mr. Internet,

Is there a good way to make my listings standout from the crowd when viewed on the Web? 

Cathy Amendola
Metrobrokers GMAC

Dear Cathy,

Differentiation is the name of the game when marketing on the Web.  A few years ago having a virtual tour of your listing would cause "oohs" and "ahs" from your site visitors; not any more.  While still a valuable tool, virtual tours are hardly unique and therefore have largely lost their ability to set your properties apart from those of your competitors. Just being unique is not enough either.  Ideally, any enhancement to your online listings provide visitors with useful, relevant information presented in a unique way.  For example, virtual tours certainly meet that criteria when compared to simple photographs.  And now, there is a way to take the presentation of your online listing to the next level.

Floor Plans Made Easy

Online floor plan images have been used by builders for several years as a way to provide potential buyers a unique view and understanding of each model being offered.  Since these are new homes, converting the architectural plans to an online format is fairly straightforward.  While common for the new home builder, the practice of providing online floor plans for resale properties is currently quite rare in most US markets.  This is primarily because of the time, effort and cost of creating an accurate renderings of existing properties floor plans made it practical.  However, this will soon change.

As a result of an affiliation with an overseas firm that specializes in producing affordable architectural quality floor plan drawings from rough sketches with quick turnarounds, a USA-based virtual assistant support firm, REVA Teams will soon be able to offer its real estate professional clients this same service. With just a rough drawing, architectural quality floor plans can be produced easily, affordably and quickly.  For example the images below show a completed floor plan from an initial sketch:

The resulting floor plan image can be in standard GIF format, or in a "vector" format (i.e. Adobe Illustrator file) that lets your Web designer manipulate and scale the image in almost any way without affecting image quality. And that is just the beginning because with adding a few creative touches, these floor plans can take virtual tours to a whole new level.

Floor Plans With Pizzazz

Imagine having a floor plan with special "hot spots" that when clicked show photos or even wraparound 360° panoramas.  When presented this way you provide "context" to visitor's experience of your listing and thereby greatly enhance their understanding and appreciation of it.  You can see one example of how this might look by clicking on the image below:

(NOTE: the above examples are provided with permission by Paul Van Hoff for illustration purposes only and do not necessarily represent the final look and operation of static and interactive floor plans when made available through REVA Teams)

So When Will This Be Available?

The folks at REVA Teams say they will be ramped up and ready to produce floor plans from your drawings sometime in Q2 2004 (at which time pricing will be announced as well).  All you need to provide is a rough sketch and in about 48 hours later your architectural quality floor plan image will be ready to use.  Depending upon complexity, interactive floor plans will naturally take longer and require photos and/or panorama shots.  You will receive the resulting images via e-mail so your Webmaster can load them into your listing pages.

Clearly, this is not for every listing.  However, for those you want to really stand out this certainly will do the trick!

Article Resources:

REVA Teams - a real estate virtual assistant support company that provides a wide array of operational and marketing support for real estate professionals

(NOTE: Mr. Internet owns a controlling interest in REVA Teams, otherwise he, his company and staff receive no compensation whatsoever from any other third-party vendors or service providers mentioned within this article. Investigate any products or services found on the Net thoroughly to your satisfaction before using them at your own risk.)

Published: April 27, 2004

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Michael J. Russer (a.k.a. Mr. Internet®) is an internationally acclaimed speaker, trainer, author, and strategic consultant to the real estate industry and small business. He is also the exclusive Internet columnist for REALTOR® Magazine, the architect of the revolutionary e-ProductivityTM system and leading voice for the use of Virtual Assistants in small business. You can subscribe to his free monthly leading-edge newsletter ePOWER NEWS by going to ePowerNews.com.