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. It’s very simple to use – just use our normal video editing tools and save your changes. 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.  This feature is even available for our low cost, self service Photo Tour 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). Please also complete the poll to help guide our future development of this feature.

Do you Create a video for YouTube & Realtor.com?

Yes! As of August 30, 2010, we automatically produce a video file of our Virtual WalkThru Video and automatically upload the video to the FloorPlanOnline 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!

How do you add YouTube Videos to your account? 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 the FloorPlanOnline 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.

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, 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.

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 30 to 60 minutes (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 past listings, just login, go to Manage Orders and then FIRST 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 FloorPlanOnline YouTube Channel. Save. Then, select the Edit Tour link for the listing in question. Then select the Edit WalkThru Video & Photos button, then just 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.

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, please follow the below steps.

1. Download the video file.
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 30 to 60 minutes...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.

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.

# # #

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

FPO in the News

http://atlanta.daybooknetwork.com/story/2010/05/26/32181fpo.shtml

http://www.greenbuiltblog.com/floorplanonline-offers-unique-virtual-tour-tools-507/

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/innovative-virtual-home-tour-website-launches-upgraded-version,1310750.shtml

http://www.atlantarealestateforum.com/floorplanonline-launches-version-2-25731/

http://jacksonvillerealestateforum.com/2010/05/26/tour-homes-online-with-floorplanonline%C2%AE-virtual-home-tour-website-launches-updated-site/

http://www.carolinarealestateforum.com/agents-need-floorplans-323/

http://www.chicagolandrealestateforum.com/2010/05/26/web-site-upgrade-makes-virtual-home-tour-better-than-reality/

ISSAQUAH, WA –FloorPlanOnline® (FPO), an interactive floorplan website that offers buyers and real estate agents the ability to virtually tour properties online announces the launch of FPO 2.0, a redesigned and upgraded version of its interactive online floorplan tour.

The new version includes a more user-friendly integrated website that consists of upgraded navigation with different property content and multiple tour customization options. The advanced site presents the consumer with a myriad of Media options; including a Floor Plan Viewer with zoom-ability and full screen, Photo Viewer with large, high quality photos, WalkThruTM Video, and the new RoomPlanner that allows the user to drag and drop furniture onto the floorplan to experiment with furniture placement and design. The site also allows the listing agent to perform search engine optimization (SEO) on individual properties and do their own tracking via Google Analytics (or other tracking programs).

“FPO 2.0 brings a new, high level of information to the home buyer about a listing. Our goal is to provide the most robust content platform for properties online,” said Kris Cone, CEO of FloorPlanOnline®. “To be able to see the floorplan of a home, click on a room and see the photo of that room – it’s a powerful tool. To then further make it your own with the RoomPlanner gets the buyer interested and engaged. We are taking great care to offer this premium service affordably and efficiently through full or self service options.”

FloorPlanOnline® launched in 2005 to provide home buyers with an accurate depiction of property online including big crisp photos, video, disclosures and floorplans. The new and upgraded version of the original floorplan website builds upon the success that FPO has already established, including being mentioned by real estate guru, Barbara Corcoran on the Today Show in 2009.

Research completed in 2009 by the California Association of Realtors showed that 20 or more photos online reduced the time a home is on the market up to 50 percent. Other independent research has shown that floorplans were second to photos when buyers were asked what they wanted to see when looking for a home online. FPO provides both.

Top agents and companies like Shea Homes know how important statistics like these are and have called upon FloorPlanOnline to help them market their homes. Recently, universities like UCLA have also asked FloorPlanOnline to build interactive campus and building maps for new and prospective students.

About FloorplanOnline
FloorPlanOnline created the Interactive FloorPlan Tour to fill the gap in the market created by traditional virtual tour services – namely, the inability to see the property layout before an actual site visit. FPOs products can save the Buyer, Seller and the Real Estate Agent valuable time while providing them key information that has been requested for years. FPO can be used for residential or commercial real estate listings, leases, retail centers and land development.

###

Well, the dust has settled from our weekend release of the new tour.  The release went surprisingly well….probably one of the best releases we have ever done in terms of few issues and the issues getting fixed quickly.   I did want to point out a few things that have come up today regarding the new tour and tour conversion.

1. Portrait vs Wide-screen View. Depending on your screen resolution, you may see a little different content view for photos, video and the floor plan.  If you have a screen resolution of 1024 pixels wide or less, you should see the “Portrait” version of the tour, which has photos in a 4:3 aspect ratio (similar to the old TV size before we had wide-screen TVs) and the Floor Plan View is the embedded floor plan vs the side by side floor plan view.  We have set it up this way because the content would have to be very small or it will run off the page to the right.  So to provide users with these screen resolutions the best view, we alter what they see to the Portrait view.  Users with screen resolutions larger than 1024 will see the Wide-screen view which has photos in a 3:2 aspect ratio (what most digital SLRs shoot today) and 16:9 photos will be supported with an ability to mouse around the photo.  In addition, the Floor Plan View will have the photos (here they are in a 4:3 aspect ratio) side by side with the floor plan, similar to the old tour view.  You can always change a Portrait version to a wide-screen by adding &ws=1 to the end of the tour lnk, such as www.seetheproperty.com/presentation_v2/presentation.php?order_id=61383&mode=branded&ws=1 ….so if you do see the portrait version, you can see how the Wide-screen will look.

We have noticed that on some computers, the widescreen version is not showing up as the default view when it should be…the Portrait version is, so that is something we are working to fix.

2. FloorPlan/Photo Icon issue for tours created between April 15th and April 30th. For tours produced between April 15th and April 30th, we have done some work to ready the floor plan for the new tour by making a version of it in Flash, so it can be zoomed in if it is used in the new tour.  Right now, if you convert a tour produced during this time frame to the new FPO 2.0 format, the floorplan on the tour is automatically changing to this flash version.  This causes all of the photo icons on the floor plan to be mis-placed because it is a different size and file type.   Therefore, be aware that if we convert the tour, the photos may need to be repositioned.  You can do this for free or we can do this for the $20 conversion fee – if this issue was brought up to you before the conversion.   We are working on a fix here.

3. Content Area View-ability. On some computers you may not be able to see the complete content area without scrolling.  We are aware of this issue and are working on a fix to adjust the size of the content window if your vertical screen resolution is 900 pixels or less.  We will make the content area  a little smaller so it fits on the screen without scrolling.

4. Some Internet Explorer Issues. On some computers, the Photos and Video may not load…you may get a blank area.  It appears to be an issue with Adobe Flash.  The simple fix is go to www.adobe.com and download the most recent version of Flash.  Install the update, close out your browser window, and then open it up again and try the tour.  This seems to fix the problem.   We are investigating what changed, as it was fine last week….this could have been caused by a recent Windows Update.   The tour works in Firefox, Chrome and Safari.  Go figure…another issue with Microsoft software???

We have had some great comments so far.  Please send us comments, testimonials, complaints and more!

Cheers

-Kris Cone

How to order. The Room Planner will automatically be added to all tours produced AND approved, on or after March 15, 2010.  There is no need to do anything! You should expect to be Planning rooms on your tour within 1 business day after your tour approval.

If you would like the Room Planner added to an existing tour created before March 15th, call or email us and we can add it to your tour for only $10. (50% off the retail price!)  Just call 866-810-3816 option 3 or use the form below and select the Room Planner option.

Floor Plan Online is proud to offer Premium Marketing tools for top of the line Real Estate Agents. Our Products are Simple to use, Effective with buyers and Affordable – feature rich with out a long term contract.

New to FloorPlanOnline & Want to Get Started? Click here to Register Fast and Free!

If you do not want this tool on a specific tour, its easy to remove.  You can elect to not have it created for your tour as you place the order, under Tour Upgrades – see the Tour Upgrades box right after you confirm your tour to remove it from your order.  Alternatively, the Room Planner can be removed if it has been added to your tour by going to Manage Orders>then Edit Tour>then Edit Photos on FloorPlan – just drag the RoomPlanner icon to the right under Pictures Library and save.

With the Corporate/Sub account structure, you can have one person manage the office tours, for example, but each agent can get access into their own account.  The corporate account sees all tours for each sub account.  You can also place tour orders out of the corporate account for any sub-account.  Just select the drop-down on page 2 as you are placing an order.   This account structure is quite handy for companies that do some of the work for agents.

We can also set things up so the corporate account pays for all sub account tours.  Please call us at 866-810-3816, option 3 if you would like to set up a corporate/sub account structure or you can always send us an email.  Just use the form below.

-Cheers,

Kris Cone

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) — A congressional watchdog panel warned on Thursday that mounting commercial real estate losses could endanger the banking system and thwart economic recovery.

A total of $1.4 trillion in commercial real estate loans will require refinancing in the next four years, the Congressional Oversight Panel said in a report. More than half of those loans are underwater, written for properties whose value has dropped like a rock.

Click here to read the full article.

-Kris Cone