Archive for Real Estate News

Luke Gibson Receives National Recognition at AIA Exhibition

by cathymajor

October 19th, 2011

AIA|LA Office Exhibi tion: The Architecture of Los Angeles – Through the Lens of Luke Gibson – AIA / Los Angeles.

FloorPlanOnline’s LA Service Provider, Luke Gibson, is showcasing his photographic passion for Los Angeles architecture at a special exhibition at the AIA office from October 11-28th. Luke’s collection will showcase both the historic and contemporary buildings of the city in this special exhibit. Luke passion for photography can also be seen in his work as a Service Provider with FloorPlanOnline. Since coming on board a year ago, he has developed a strong following with many residential real estate agents who appreciate his keen eye for detail. For more information, http://aialosangeles.org/event/aia-la-office-exhibition-the-architecture-of-los-angeles-through-the-lens-of-luke-gibson

2011-10-19

Categories Real Estate Info, Real Estate News, Service Provider, Technology, What's New
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July 2011 Sales Report

by Kris Cone

August 24th, 2011

As real estate agents, you probably have felt this impact in the drop of your bank account balance…but a picture says a thousand words…

Categories Real Estate Info, Real Estate News
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CDPE Partnership

by Kris Cone

June 1st, 2011

FloorPlanOnline is proud to be sponsoring this years Momentum 2011 Conference. This will be THE place to get actionable techniques you can start using as soon as you get home.

And until 5:00PM Eastern on 05/27/11 you can use the $100 credit negotiated to have put in your account toward this powerful Momentum Conference 2011.

This is our way of saying THANK YOU for your continued support.

If you only attend one conference this year, make this the one.

Here is where you can get the inside scoop: http://www.MomemtumConference.com

To use your $100 credit simply use promo code MMOAF at checkout.

Get a FAST MOVER BONUS when you hurry to be one of the first 110 people to take advantage of this. Get an exclusive complimentary 30 minute 1-on-1 Q&A session with a Bank of America negotiator. Your negotiator session could wrap up with you having a deal being moved toward the finish line.

This will be THE real estate event of the year. We look forward to seeing you there and would love to see you at our booth. Don’t forget to use promo code MMOAF at checkout when registering. Reserve your seat today!

Categories Real Estate News
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SargesList Launches

by Kris Cone

February 1st, 2011

Live near a military base?

For Realtors, military members are in high demand because they move often and the home buyer tax credit has been extended to April 30, 2011 for military personnel. On average, one-third of those who live off-base are homeowners. If your market is within 60 miles around a military base, you can now advertise your active listings free of charge to this highly desirable audience through a new military classifieds site (SargesList.com). FloorPlanOnline has partnered with SargesList.com, which has been heralded as the “Craigslist for Military.” While it is similar to craigslist, it has more functionality and helps military identify who is in their network for a more trusted interaction.

Reaching moving military BEFORE they move can be challenging. Since move season is just heating up and word is getting out about SargesList, make sure you get your listings posted soon (and automatically enter to win an iPad this month). Registration and basic listings are free but there are upgraded features you can purchase. If you are interested in being an exclusive advertiser for your military area, contact info@sargeslist.com for more information. With over 500 installations around the world, check and see if the installation near your market is available.

Visit www.sargeslist.com today!

Categories Listing Tools, Real Estate Info, Real Estate News
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Move buys ListHub

by Kris Cone

September 21st, 2010

Move Inc. to offer listings syndication through its Realtor.com website via ListHub

Realtor.com operator Move Inc. finalized a deal Monday to acquire Threewide Corp., operator of national listing syndication platform ListHub. The acquisition comes on the heels of an amended agreement between Move and the National Association of Realtors concerning the operation of the Internet’s most popular real estate portal, Realtor.com.

In addition to giving Move more leeway to redesign the real estate site, the amendment also gave Move permission to syndicate listings data to third parties such as online portals, real estate listing sites and other “designated destinations,” if instructed to do so by the multiple listing service or broker supplying the listings.

“By acquiring Threewide and elevating the ListHub brand to a primary product offering at Move, we’ll combine Move’s core competencies of listing aggregation, relationship management and the delivery of effective marketing services with ListHub’s leadership in national syndication and market intelligence,” said Steve Berkowitz, Move’s CEO, in a press release.

You can read more on the release by clicking here.

Categories Real Estate News
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YouTube & Realtor.com Video Innovation!

by Kris Cone

August 31st, 2010

The innovative Premium Virtual Tour company FloorPlanOnline has done it again.

FloorPlanOnline continues to offer additional features and functions to its tours and single property websites…without charge. Real Estate Agents may now check a simple box and an automated process creates and posts a YouTube video of the listing online into the FloorPlanOnline YouTube Channel or….your own (or company’s) channel! It’s very simple to use – just use our normal video editing tools and save your changes. Best of all, this enhanced tour distribution service is FREE. The video will be available for download under Marketing Materials generally within 1-2 hours after saving your changes (time varies based on the number of videos in the processing queue). In addition, we also create a video file that can be used to upload into your Realtor.com Showcase listing. For now, this is something you must do as Realtor.com has no automated process for tour companies to handle this job for you.

More adventurous Realtors may opt to select different music, type in captions for each photo and edit photos to create a more personalized YouTube video. In order to take advantage of the new YouTube & Realtor.com tool – FPO customers should log in and edit their linking profile by checking the box to include the linking to the FloorPlanOnline YouTube channel. Then just make sure it is selected on the order as you place create a new tour.

This new tool works on all new tours created as of Monday, Aug 30th 2010.
Click here to view an example video on YouTube or just play the sample below:

As with most enhancements and improvements to FPO tours, there is no additional fee for this feature. Other companies charge up to $20 or more, just to put a video on YouTube. On top of that, they charge up to $49 or more for the same virtual tour we price at $29. As long as your tour is active, including tours that have been renewed, you can create a video file and have the video uploaded to YouTube. Please read our FAQ below for more details on how to create a video file. Additionally, word from the FloorPlanOnline development department is that further options and YouTube related tools are being tested and tweaked for launch before the end of the year.

Why should you link the tour to YouTube, or Realtor.com? More online exposure. Most people are not going to YouTube to search for properties. In fact, according to the most recent NAR statistics, less than 1% of buyers in the survey sited YouTube as a source for online content. Realtor.com was one of the highest websites, however. However, putting the video on YouTube can help with search engine optimization…so your tour gets found, and you get it sold!

To learn more, just click on one of the FAQs below to read more details (click again to hide the detail).

How do I Create a video for YouTube & Realtor.com?: We automatically produce a video file of the Virtual WalkThru Video and automatically upload the video to the FloorPlanOnline YouTube Channel or your (or your company's) YouTube channel. It is an exact replica of the video, including music, transitions and any text you may have added to the video scenes. There is no upgrade request - it just happens, and it is FREE!

How do you add YouTube Videos to your account? For new tours, the only thing you need to do is login and go to Edit Profile, then select the Edit Linking Info button and check the box for either the FloorPlanOnline YouTube Channel or Your own YouTube Channel linking option under Automated Website Distribution Service. Then save at the bottom. Once the tour is approved, the video will be uploaded within approximately 24 hours or less. As part of the video on YouTube, we include a link to the complete tour, the marketing description, and the contact information of the marketing representative. There is nothing else you need to do, and on future listings, just make sure the right box is checked to link the video to YouTube as you create the tour, and will will all happen for you, automatically!

As an added bonus, we also provide the video file for download under Marketing Materials. Just click the link under Marketing Materials and then select the Download Video button. You can use this file to upload to your own YouTube channel manually, or use it to upload into your Realtor.com Showcase listing (note - Realtor.com does not allow us to upload the video file to them...so something you must do). You can even use a third party program, such as the Windows DVD Maker included with Windows 7, to burn it to a DVD and play it on a TV connected DVD player.

We provide 3 file formats. For YouTube, any version should work for uploading.
- Download AVI File - good for Windows Media or Windows DVD Maker
- Download MP4 File - Windows or Apple users
- Download MOV File - QuickTime video file for Apple users

What happens if I change the video or I want videos for my older listings?
If you change a video, a new video file will be created and added to your account under Marketing Materials within 1 to 2 hours (the actual time may vary based on the size of your video and other videos that are concurrently being processed). To create a video file for old tours, including ANY tour that has been renewed, just login, and make sure your profile for linking has first been changed to one of the two above YouTube Channel options. Then, go to Manage Orders and select the Edit tour link, then the Edit Property Details button. Scroll down to the bottom to the Link To Website area and select the option to link to the desired YouTube Channel. Save. Then, select the Edit Tour link for the listing in question after the page refreshes back to the Manage Order page. Then select the Edit WalkThru Video & Photos button, select the Save & Close button (or you can do some edits if you'd like). This will queue the video for rendering, and it will show up in your account under Marketing Materials within 1 to 2 hours, generally (actual time may vary based on the number of videos in the processing queue).
How do I upload a video to my own YouTube Channel?: If you would like to take the WalkThru Video we create as part of the tour and upload it to your own YouTube Channel, you can do it two ways.

One. Automated upload. If you would like us to automatically upload the video to your own YouTube Channel, just login, go to Edit Profile and click the Edit Linking details button. Check the box for the Link to My YouTube channel. Enter your login name and password, go to the bottom and save! We will ask you if you want your videos upload.

Two. Manual upload. If you would like to manually upload the video to your own YouTube Channel, just follow these steps:

1. Login at www.floorplanonline.com.
-If your tour was created after August 29, 2010, go to Manage Orders and select the VIEW link under Marketing Materials. Then select the Download Video button. You have 3 file types...anyone should work for uploading to YouTube, but we suggest the first option, AVI file.
-If your tour was created before August 30th, you first need to generate the video file. Any older active tour can have a video file created. To do this, from the Manage Orders page, select the Edit Tour link for the tour, then select the Edit WalkThru Video & Photos button. Select the Save & Close button...and this will then queue up the video for rendering. Once the video has been rendered, the video should show up under Marketing Materials, generally within 1 to 2 hours...but it could vary based on how many other videos are concurrently in process. So check back later under the Marketing Materials section, then download the video file to your computer.

2. Upload the Video to YouTube.
-If you do not have a YouTube account, create one first. We suggest you create a channel for your business so you can separate personal from business videos.
-Login to your YouTube account. When you get to YouTube's homepage, click the "Upload" link on the top of the screen. Click the "Upload Video" button then fill in the required details of the Video:
We suggest title (street address), add the tour link first so it will show - www.seetheproperty.com/xxxxx or the vanity domain, description, category, your contact info, tags.

You can fill in the Broadcast Options - Date, Map Options, Sharing Options.

Select a category. We post our tours under the Entertainment category. The other option is How to & Style. There is no real estate option at the time of this writing.

Then select "Save".

Congratulations....you just uploaded a video to YouTube.
Marketing Materials - Features: Your marketing materials, such as your flyer and your virtual tour links, can be found in the Marketing Materials area of our Order Management System. Follow these steps to get there.

- Log in to your account, then select "Manage Orders." Select the "View" link under the "Marketing Materials" column which brings you to the Marketing Materials menu. This menu is slightly different depending on what type of tour you ordered and if you have customized your online flyer.

Here is an overview of your options:

- VIEW TOUR. You can view your tour here.

- TOUR LINKS. Branded and Unbranded links appear here for approved tours. Use these links to add your tour to your MLS, to forward the tour to other agents and to the seller.

-EMBEDDABLE OBJECT. You can use this tool to put both the floor plan part of the tour and the video into your own website, a blog post, etc. Many company sites now allow you to paste in embeddable code. This is similar code to a YouTube video embed code. Check with your IT help desk to make sure it will work. You can configure the object to show a button to the full tour, change the button and text colors, etc. It is a great tool to make the tour a more seamless part of your own website or blog.

- SAVE TOUR to PC/BURN a CD. Select this option to save your tour to your PC or make a CD of the tour.

- FEATURED LISTING PAGE. Select this option if you want to see and/or copy the special website address we create for you that lists all of your active tour. You can also add a button to your website of emails to promote all of your FloorPlanOnline tours.

- DOWNLOAD PHOTOS. Select this option to save the photos to your computer. You have options to download a "zip" file of all photos, in different sizes, or download individual photos in different sizes. If you are downloading the zip file, how you do this depends on the type of operating system you are using (Windows vs Apple) and whether you have installed any third party file zipping program (like Winzip) or not. Normally, you click the button to download the zip file - after several seconds, a window should appear that has icons on it. Look for a menu option that says EXTRACT ALL FILES or something similar - click that, find a place to save your photos on your computer, such as My Pictures, and walk through the steps.

- DOWNLOAD FLYER. This option opens a smaller PDF of the flyer, which is the same version found on the tour when you click the Print button.

- DOWNLOAD HI RES FLYER. This option appears if you requested to save a High Resolution Flyer when you edited the online flyer in the Tour Editor function. Select this option if you want to save the High Resolution Flyer to your computer.

- DOWNLOAD FLOOR PLAN as PDF or JPEG. Select one of these options to save the floor plan to your computer.

- DOWNLOAD HI RES FLOOR PLAN. Select this option to save a high resolution floor plan to your computer. Individual files are provided for each level.

- VIEW INVOICE. Select this option to see a copy of your invoice for this tour. There is a date stamp for different charges and all charges associated with the tour are shown on the invoice. This can include tour renewals that happened in a different year.

That’s FloorPlanOnline – Simple, Effective and Affordable.

Categories Listing Tools, Real Estate Info, Real Estate News, Technology, Tour Updates, What's New
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Stars Shine with FloorPlanOnline

by chrisdrayer

August 5th, 2010

This week was FloorplanOnline’s First Star Power Event, my first time at a Star Power Conference and my first time in Nashville TN. What a cool (Read HOT) town!
Thanks to Nashville expert and National TV personality Brian Copeland (@nashvillebrian) I had the hot tips on where to eat via Twitter. The best was Mad Donnas. I give it 4.5 stars – the same number of stars you could see at any given moment at the Star Power Convention.
A “Star” is selected and crowned each month. The August 2010 Star is FloorPlanOnline customer Sue Adler (@sueadler) I believe there are around 200 current stars, with most of them at the event. Typically Stars are the top 1/2 of 1% of agents nationwide. They sell tons of listings, give tons of referrals and in my experience are very approachable, humble and willing to share information with their competition. How cool is that? Also willing to share and help people was former real estate agent and the events Headliner Dave Ramsey Dave’s talk was inspirational, helpful and entertaining.
The Event, classes and hallway conversations included talk about Marketing, technology and how to grow business in today’s social online market. There were cool people to chat with around every corner. Ive long admired Chris Smith (@techsavvyagent) who walked up to our booth and was so impressed with FPO 2.0 he recorded an interview with me on the spot!
Below, check out my brief review of the event that includes photos and video.
The video was created on my iphone using the cool ReelDirector app.

Categories Real Estate News, What's New
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FloorPlanner Partnership Press Release

by chrisdrayer

July 16th, 2010

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) July 16, 2010

FloorPlanOnline.com, the leading provider of Interactive Floor Plan Tours for real estate listings in the United States, announces a major upgrade to its virtual tour platform with the launch of FPO 2.0, a customizable virtual tour system that features floor plans and photos in dedicated property websites. As part of this upgrade, FloorPlanOnline is including a new RoomPlanner tool, which allows buyers to drag and drop furniture, rugs, and other household items onto the floor plan, at no additional cost. The RoomPlanner tool is powered by FloorPlanner.com, a leading provider of online floorplanning tools.

Future upgrades to the RoomPlanner tool will allow buyers to see the floor plan in 3D view with 3D objects, which will enhance the capability to take a “virtual walk through” of the property when combined with the other media on the FloorPlanOnline tour. It will also allow real estate agents to “virtually stage” a home as part of their FloorPlanOnline account. This future enhancement will also allow customers to edit floor plans in real-time and eventually, allow them to draw their own floor plans and add the plans to their virtual tours automatically.

“The addition of the RoomPlanner tool as been a great enhancement to our new FPO 2.0 Tour. It is interesting to see how the tool has engaged buyers – some of the designs buyers have created with the RoomPlanner tool are amazing! We have even received a phone call from a buyer who used the RoomPlanner on a home she was purchasing in another state. She loved the functionality so much, she is creating a tour for the home she is selling, ” said Kris Cone, CEO of FloorPlanOnline.com. “The functionality is part of an ongoing upgrade path to make FloorPlanOnline the most comprehensive service for selling or renting real estate. And it all centers around the floor plan! Buyers want to see it, and FloorPlanOnline’s goal is to provide the most comprehensive content and tools online to meet this very under-met need.”

“According to independent research, buyers want to see photos first, with floor plans a close second, in terms of essential information for real estate listings. Yet, most listings today have few floor plans (not to mention interactive ones) and often, the photos have a ways to go in terms of meeting the online buyers’ needs. Floor plans are hard to get, so they get ignored, and things like online videos get more hype,” said Cone. “Yet, we make it pretty easy to get a high tech solution from a low tech process. We can do floor plan clean-up of existing architectural drawings, marketing brochures, or hand drawn sketches; or we can use one of our authorized service providers to visit the property to create a floor plan from scratch. With service in 49 states, we’ve got most of the metro areas covered with floor plan services. We can also do a self service tour anywhere in the world.”

“We are excited about our new relationship with FloorPlanOnline,” said Jeroen Bekkers, CEO of FloorPlanner.com. “This technology agreement is part of our licensing plan to work with key website properties around the world and enable them with the FloorPlanner tools. FloorPlanOnline obviously has a great customer base that values the services they provide to make getting a floor plan easy, and we are excited to help enhance their product offering with the RoomPlanner tool.

Their strategy is right on – one of our integrated partners in the Netherlands, Funda.nl, just had interactive floorplans overtake videos as the most popular premium feature on Funda.nl. Buyers want to see floor plans and plan their new potential home…and why not, it is the most expensive purchase decision most people make in their lives!”

About FloorPlanOnline.com

FloorPlanOnline was co-founded by Kris Cone on 2004, and it started commercial service in 2005. It has created thousands of Interactive FloorPlan Tours over the last 5 years on a self and full service basis. It serves many of the top real estate brands and has thousands of registered users. FloorPlanOnline has maintained over a 95% customer satisfaction rating and continues to get high marks for its tours and its customer service. FloorPlanOnline has country specific service offerings in the Unites States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. Learn more at www.floorplanonline.com.

About FloorPlanner.com

FloorPlanner.com started business in 2006. Jeroen Bekkers, a trained architect, heads up a small interactive design shop in Rotterdam called Suite 75. He created Floorplanner to get, much more simply, the same results that professionals gin up with sophisticated computer-aided design software. FloorPlanner.com has partnered with many real estate oriented properties around the world to bring their drawing tools to their users and customers. Learn more at www.floorplanner.com.

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Categories Real Estate News, Technology, Tour Updates, What's New
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New 1099 Requirements Coming in 2011!

by Kris Cone

July 8th, 2010

I saw this article in USA Today that refers to a little known requirement passed as part of the health care reform law. Click here for the full article.

It will require YOU to issue Form 1099′s to anyone you buy $600 or more from in a year! Doesn’t matter what you buy for your business, or from whom…. Previously, this Form 1099 requirement only applied if you paid $600 or more to contractors that worked for you. So, if you buy a $700 computer from OfficeDepot, you are going to have to issue a Form 1099.

WHAT IS CONGRESS THINKING?

In my option, this is going to be next to impossible to implement. As a small business owner, I have enough to deal with, yet alone creating and issuing hundreds of Form 1099′s. I already do this today for the different service providers and other services I buy…but now for anything I buy? Come on.

This will impact real estate agents….and if you do not have Quickbooks….I suggest you get it…because you are going to need it.

Write your Congressman. This one needs to go.

-Kris Cone

Categories Real Estate News
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FloorPlanOnline Around the Nation

by chrisdrayer

June 7th, 2010

The New FloorPlanOnline FPO 2.0 Product launch has generated interest from Jacksonville to Chicago, From Tech Forums to Green Living Groups! Here are some of the most recent News Articles and blogs that talk about FloorPlanOnline Real Estate Marketing.
Thanks to these respected publications for helping share the FloorPlan Online growth and development story.