by Kris Cone | Jun 25, 2019 | Real Estate Info
Adding aerial images and video can really add a wow factor to a normal listing. In this post I detail some of the tips and tricks I use in drone shooting. Hopefully it can help you too.
I am flying with a Mavic Pro2 with the Hasselblad camera. The thing I like about the Mavic is it is small, easy to maneuver, stable and the camera lens and sensor are great. I also have a Phantom 3 Advanced, and I find it a bit harder to use, and less stable. So if you are still using a Phantom, you might think of upgrading.
Creating an aerial video is not hard. The FloorPlanOnline production department will take your video clips and make a custom video. All we need is raw footage to help us tell the story. You can check out the FPO Air doc on some key moves you should have for each video. I also have compiled a few videos from YouTube that explain some of the modes that help make it easier. The Mavic has more but the Phantoms also have various flight modes. Just search YouTube for your specific model and modes.
At the end of the day, we just need some stable, well exposed clips to put in a video. These are generally 2-5 second clips. All you need to do is fly and record and FPO Production will extract the clips out of the footage. Just follow the shots in the FPO Air doc.
by Kris Cone | Jun 11, 2019 | Listing Tools, Technology
Zillow Buyers Rank Floor Plans #1
more important than photos, almost 2x more important than video
According to Zillow research, 58% of buyers rank the ability to view a floor plan of the home online while shopping for a property as extremely or very important. A total of 84% of buyers view floor plans is as important. What’s really surprising is floor plans outscored professional photos and videos. Only 46% of buyers said photos were extremely or very important. Only 28% think viewing a video is very or extremely important. See the Power of Plans presentation to see how floor plans can take your listing marketing to the next level.
– Select the Play button to view the presentation –
We help you get more Leads, Listings & Repeat Business
The photos, tools and presentations that FloorPlanOnline and their incredible photographer, Joel, provide have absolutely helped take our business to the next level this past year. On more than one occasion we have had listings in close proximity of other similar listings in a neighborhood and each time we have drawn much larger crowds to our open houses and garnered much higher selling prices than the others. Having FloorPlanOnline tours to show our clients has definitely helped us land listings, sell homes faster & for more money, and been a wonderful keepsake for our sellers after the closing.
Broker, Windermere Real Estate
by Kris Cone | Jun 10, 2019 | Real Estate Info
Our Growing Real Estate Photography and FloorPlan Company is currently looking to add Real Estate Photographers / FAA Certified Drone Pilots to the team in multiple locations. We may also consider you for an area manager position which entails a deeper relationship with FloorPlanOnline as a licensee of our system. Locations include:
- Seattle, WA (to work with our area manager)
- Portland, OR
- Southern California (to work with our area manager)
- Chicago ((to work with our area manager)
- Denver, CO
- Salt Lake City, UT
- Bay Area, CA
- Kansas City, MO
- Spokane, WA
- Boise, ID
- Bend, OR
- Philadelphia, PA
- Boston, MA
- Carleston, SC
- Florida (all areas)
- Houston, TX
- Dallas, TX
- El Paso, TX
- New Orleans, LA
- Minneapolis, MN
- Phoenix, AZ
- Tucson, AZ
- Nashville, TN
- Atlanta, GA
- Washington, DC
- Las Vegas, NV
- Rhode Island
- Upstate NY
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Cincinnati, OH
As a Real Estate Photographer, you will be responsible for providing a series of creative, high quality HDR photographs of the home and neighborhood amenities, as well as Drone Photos & Video for Residential and Commercial Properties. No editing or HDR processing is required as we use our centralized production team to process the photos.
You will also be required to use a Matterport camera to create 360 visuals and floor plans for properties (leveraging the FloorPlanOnline system that converts Matterport into a floor plan). Having an existing Matterport camera is a plus, but not a requirement.
Equipment needed:
- DSLR Camera (full frame preferred)
- Wide Angle Lens for equivalent of 10 to 16 mm
- Heavy Duty Tripod
- External Flash
- Drone with Photo and Video capacity
- Reliable vehicle and valid license, with current insurance
- Computer with Internet access.
- Laser measuring device (preferred)
- Matterport 3D camera and/or 360 Camera (Theta V or Z1)
You must have all of the items above (or be willing to procure them) to be considered for this position.
Requirements:
- 1-2 years of experience preferred, however training will be provided.
- Excellent communication skills
- Strong time management, multi-tasking and prioritizing skills
- Flexible Schedule to work during normal business hours with some later nights a possibility
- Resourceful, Helpful, and a Self Starter
- Leader / Team Player
- Exceptional Customer Service
- FAA Part 107 Certification (or pilot license)
- Samples or website link of recent work
We would love to hear from you:
If you meet all the requirements above, enjoy working in a fast paced environment, like to meet new people, and like working in a different setting everyday, this could be the right fit for you.
Please provide samples of your work with your resume when applying for this position.
Job Type: Contract position, possibly market manager potential.
Salary: $50.00 to $75.00 /hour based on a per job payout. The average payout will vary based on the job and location.
by Kris Cone | May 29, 2019 | Tour Updates, What's New
New Order Form for All Markets
We are releasing our new order process for all markets in June. The new order form has been operational in certain markets for some time and has processed over 25,000 orders, so it works well. It is now available everywhere. The benefits include:
- Showcase the selection of premium photography (which may be the only option in some markets). See samples of tours from around the country that showcases premium photos.
- Adjust the price for smaller properties, but allow for additional photos to be ordered for larger ones
- Lower price on self service options
- Choose from various floor plan and 3D tour services
- Order additional services, such as a custom slideshow video to additional service provider options, like aerial photos & videos, twilight photography and more.
- Add preferred (but not guaranteed) appointment times and other details.
This new process is part of our shift to provide the high quality content for a reasonable price. We understand we are not the cheapest, but we are also not the most expensive, and NO ONE else has all the tools and functionality we do, including our 2D/3D floor plan tools, automatic tour branding on select websites, free slideshow video and our exclusive Claim Home to HomeDiary feature for the buyer, and the seller (as a keepsake).
All of this content can get you more listings and help you sell them faster and for more money. See the research results from Zillow and NAR that found buyers highly value floor plans in our Power of Plans analysis.
View the Video to see a short overview of how it works
Now that we have an easier process for people to order, if you need a service that we are not providing, please talk to your local service provider, or shoot us an email or give us a call, as we would love to help you out!
Don’t forget! We have several tour and theme options now. We highly recommend the Story format with the Cottage theme that provides a single property website layout with big content. You can also select the new Tour format to have a modern, responsive layout that is in the classic “fixed” tour (no scrolling) layout. This is great for embedding on a blog post for example. You can also use both at the same time. Just select your preferred default (such as the Story, which you can do in your profile or on Edit Details page), and then use the below tour URLs for each specific format you want to use in a specific situation (change the xxxxxx to your specific tour ID, which you can find in the email we send or on Manage Tours).
Just remember to use the https at the beginning so when you embed it, you will not get security errors AND this is what enables Brandkeepr on various websites. The tour link we email you when your tour gets published is what you should put into the MLS, but you can use the other link for any other purpose (such as a blog post, social media campaign or email blast).
If you would like to embed the whole tour on your website, all you need to do is copy and paste the sample embed code below into a blog post and change the XXXXXX to your specific tour ID. The whole tour should then work on your site. Note, we recommend using the TOUR format for this purpose, as reflected in the URL (includes “tour” in the url) within this embed code below. If you would like to start the view with specific content, just go to the tour version, click on the content you want to show when it loads, and then copy and paste the URL part in the exact yellow highlighted part below. An example link that starts with the floor plan view is https://www.floorplanonline.com/tour/62568/b/floorplan and it looks like this screen shot.
Sample Embed Code
<iframe name=”tour” src=”https://www.floorplanonline.com/tour/xxxxxx” frameborder=”1″ width=”100% height=”700″></iframe>
Read more about embedding the tour and how to customize it here
by Kris Cone | Apr 16, 2019 | Real Estate Info
Buyers want floor plans
Over 80% of buyers ranked floor plans as useful or very useful as a content item in their home search
by Kris Cone | Mar 22, 2019 | Help & FAQ, Testimonies
We pride ourselves on providing great customer service, and I just love this letter we got from one of our customers singing praises for Tammy Rutledge, our customer care team manager, as well as the other folks on the care team. We don’t shy away from providing support. We would love your comments so please put yours on this post, good or bad!
Here are our various support tools.
- Call: 866-810-3816, option 3 during normal business hours, M-F. We added a callback feature so if one of our folks is busy on the phone, you can keep your place in line and we will call you back, so you can go about your business without having to listen to hold music.
- Email/Support Ticket – Click here
- Knowledge Base – Click here. Lots of articles and we are adding more videos, so start here as many questions are probably answered already
- Chat – we have both Betty (named after Kris Cone’s grandma, who had a knack for talking to anyone), our Support Bot on most pages on our main website that can answer some of your frequently asked questions, or we have live chat on our Contact page.
If we are not meeting your expectations we would love to hear from you as well. Each tour has a satisfaction survey link or you can always send us an email and if you want it to go to me, Kris Cone, just put that in your comments and someone will direct it my way.
Thank you Carol Dorey and Team for taking the time to write this great letter – in the day of electronic communication, this was actually a really special note!
Cheers,
Kris Cone
CEO/Co-Founder
