Property ManagementPhotoShare Your Presentations
REALTORS® are no longer judged solely on their productivity by consumers.
Today"s top Realtors are also elevating themselves above the crowd by
demonstrating their technology prowess. One of the products that most of them
find indispensable is multimedia presentation software, a program that delivers
photographic images coupled with sound on the computer that can also be sent
across the Internet. Multimedia presentations are impressive, but they are
also surprisingly easy to use - even for the most technophobic agents.
A picture is worth 1,000 words
The ability to transmit photographic images rapidly across the computer
screen and the Internet is an increasingly important competitive advantage for
Realtors. They may be working with long distance clients who have no other
means to preview homes or with local clients who prefer short Internet searches
to long car rides with their agents. Traditional MLS listings which are
featured on the Internet typically do not feature more than one photo of the
home, so it is up to the agent to supplement his/her listing with additional
photos of the home, its amenities, unique features, and the neighborhood.
Photos are crucial tools to not only help buyers select homes, they also
save time in the elimination of homes. Not just a tool for listing
agents, digital cameras and multimedia presentation software are widely used by
selling agents, (buyer"s agents) too. Smart selling agents get permission from
listing agents and sellers to take additional photos of a desirable listing to
pass on to qualified buyers via the Internet. And with a $20 microphone, you
can add sound to your photo presentation.
What a wonderful selling tool and it causes a sensation in listing
presentations and at buyer"s meetings. You can email the presentation to your
relocating buyers and let them view homes and listen to your commentary as you
lead them on the "tour."
How easy are multimedia presentations to make?
PhotoShare is a popular multimedia
presentation software that is very easy to learn. J. L. Winn vice president of
sales & marketing at TRF Systems, Inc., developer of PhotoShare says, "We
designed PhotoShare specifically to be used by a "typical real estate agent"
PhotoShare"s prototypical agent follows the NAR profile - middle aged, not very
computer literate, and much too busy too learn complicated new technologies.
PhotoShare features a multimedia Tour Guide, but unlike most software
tutorials, the Guide builds an end result while you learn. Also featured is a
voice over which instructs the user how to do various functions and explains
what is going to result from those functions.
"When panoramic (up to 360 degrees) photos became popular, we searched for the best solution for our market," says Winn. " We decided that PhotoVista from
Live Picture offered the easiest to use and best quality stitching features on
the market. But we didn’t stop there. We actually integrated PhotoVista into
our Tour Guide so that the end user can download overlapped photos to
PhotoShare and PhotoVista automatically reads these photos, stitches them
together and reinserts them back into PhotoShare ready for multimedia
annotations!
How can you use multimedia in your marketing?
In the PhotoShare Agent Bundle for $599 you get a Digital Business Card (DBC)
and 100 copies of a customized Personal Promotion Presentation diskette. The
DBC is just a highly compressed Jpeg of a photo of the agent that they sent to
PhotoShare. Their graphics team then adds two or three lines of text overlayed
graphically on the photo to be automatically inserted in the PhotoShare
Multimedia Home Tours. The DBC is displayed statically while the Home Tour
presentation plays from slide to slide. The result is that the prospect can
identify the particular agent with the technology used to present the Home
Tour. Your photo personality is available at all times without being dominant
over the Home Tour itself.
The Personal Promotion Presentation diskettes are a great high tech, high touch
marketing tool for agents and brokers. This is a two-minute multimedia
presentation with text script and professional voiceovers. The script and
photos introduce the agent to the consumer and emphasize not just that they use
technology, but that they employ specific technology to benefit the seller and
buyer - time savings, convenience, market appeal, etc. It’s an incredibly
powerful piece that consumers consider unique.
PhotoShare can customize the PPP diskettes in a number of ways. They can
insert your DBC, a text only box that starts the presentation and includes as
much text information about the agent or broker as they desire, a hot link to
the webpage of their choice (home page, featured properties, etc.), and a full
color photo label on each diskette with several lines of textual contact
information about the agent. You use these as introductions at presentations,
direct mailers, handouts at meetings and open houses. You can make these
yourself, order more from PhotoShare, or send them electronically.
What"s the learning curve?
Agents simply have little time for learning new software applications on
their own, so PhotoShare offers a PTA (Personal Training Assistant) to teach
agents how to use PhotoShare to its fullest. A client can sign up for a PTA
session on the PhotoShare website and request up to three dates and times for
their session. The PTA staff then replies via email within 24 hours to confirm
one of those times. At the appointed time, the PhotoShare client phones the
training staff, and they spend the appointed time teaching the client what they
need to learn from the very beginner level to advanced level instruction. PTA
sessions last no longer than an hour, and the Tour Guide is then used for day
to day reinforcement.
What equipment do you need?
To enjoy the use of multimedia presentations, you can start with any Pentium
class PC with Windows 3.1 and up (95 or 98 preferred, of course). The PC needs
just 16 MB of memory, more memory is great for higher resolution photos, but it
is not required. The PC needs 50 MB of disk for the software and minimal photo
storage, a 16 bit sound card, speakers, a microphone, and a 16 bit (65,000
colors) video driver. While you can scan in photos or take them with a Snappy
type device, Winn strongly recommends that an agent use any good quality
digital camera with at least VGA resolution, standard jpeg files, and an easy
way to get the photos from a camera to a PC (removable media or a USB cable).
He also suggests the Epson Stylus series for printing photos and flyers, and
says that the 1440 x 720 dpi printers start at less than $200.
OK, you"re sold. What should you do?
One popular multi-media product is the PhotoShare Multimedia Home Tour
Marketing System. PhotoShare has been on the market since 1996, and nearly
1,500 real estate agents and brokers use this system around the country.
PhotoShare has been a Recommended product by the Council of Residential
Specialists since 1997. The RSC instructors demonstrate and teach PhotoShare
in their technology, listing, and referral classes around the country to
thousands of agents each year.
For $599, you can get the PhotoShare Agent Bundle which includes:
PhotoShare Multimedia Home Tour System Agent version software
PhotoVista stitching software
Digital Business Card
PTA session (up to one hour)
100 copies of our Personal Promotion Presentation with custom graphics and
contact info
For $599, you get software that lets you create as many Multimedia Home
Tours and other presentations as you want. You can learn how to use it quickly
and effectively, and get some graphics and multimedia marketing/promotional
pieces that you can immediately begin to distribute to prospects. You also get
60 days of free tech support and a 30-day money back policy.
With tutorials, tech support, and easy to use product design, you can"t go
wrong. Join the tech-savvy agent club, and learn how to wow your buyers and
sellers with multimedia.