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New Customer Topic #4 – Customer Support

New Customer Topic #4 – Customer Support

by | Oct 31, 2023 | New Customers

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Topic #4 concerns customer support. 

We pride ourselves on actually providing great customer support, as we know it is frustrating not being able to get in touch with someone. So we want to let you know we are here to help if you have questions along the way.  Our support team, led by Tammy Rutledge, gets high marks and even letters of praise, and we think this differentiates us from others. Here are our various support tools.

  • Call:  206-384-4400, option 3 during normal business hours (9 am-8 pm EST), M-F
  • Email/Support Ticket – Click here
  • Knowledge Base – Click here.  Lots of articles available 24/7 and we are adding more videos, so start here as many questions are probably answered already.
  • Chat – we have live chat on our Contact page. 

We are here to help so you can maximize your marketing dollars and get the most out of our system, so please get in touch if you have questions or issues.  Just check out how this one team is leveraging FloorPlanOnline to get more Listings, Leads and Repeat business. 

 

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New Customer Topic #5 – Customizing the Story

New Customer Topic #5 – Customizing the Story

by | Oct 31, 2023 | New Customers

Topic #5. Customizing the tour, or Story.

In this post we are going to go through how to edit the overall presentation (the look and feel), the content itself, and some some unique settings and uses of your virtual tour and how to leverage it to get people coming back to your website.

First, let’s look at some Unique Uses of the Story:

1. The default tour theme people see – Select from our Story (4 themes) or our new Tour Viewer (top bar).  See #2 below for Customizing your tour to pick a theme. You can also do this when you first create a tour order and there is a default setting for this under Profile (top right). As a bonus, you can have a default view, such as the Story, but still use another version, such as use the Tour version to embed on your blog or website. For example.

Once you have a tour, you can distribute it beyond your MLS, because you have both a branded and unbranded tour link.  So leverage the branded version on your own website or blog, and on social media channels.  For example, write a blog post talking about your new listing, get a quote from the owner, and then embed the tour into the blog post. See our Spotlight Gallery for what we do on our website.  Post the blog link on social media to get people coming back to your site, and seeing you and the cool content you create for marketing listings. You can learn more about embedding the tour into your blog on this post here.

2. Customizing your tour.  You can edit most things, including the “hero” section and the order of the content displayed on the tour. See the video below on how quick and easy it is to edit the presentation of your tour, or Story as we like to call it.
3. Customizing your slideshow video.  We provide a completely customizable slideshow video that is embedded on your tour, and it can be downloaded and then uploaded to YouTube.  You can also use it on your website or social media channels.  Here is what you can do with our new video editor:

  • Upload video clips to add real movement, an animated logo or a clip of you introducing your new listing
  • Add a text explainer slide to communicate a space, complete with emojis, or create a custom call to action slide
  • Select different music or transitions for each photo, including the time to display. Music is under the Settings icon.
  • Add floor plan images in the sequence, all sync’d to the floor plan database.
  • Add any kind of branded content and showcase it in the video or photo gallery.  See this post on how to keep it only on the branded version of the virtual tour.
3. Customizing the Floor Plans.  We provide a real-time floor plan editor – in fact we are the ONLY virtual tour platform we know of ANYWHERE that has their own floor plan tool that allows you to change anything, instantly. Change the text, hit update tour and new plans get generated, everywhere.  So, if you want to add flooring, beds or other furniture to the plan, you can use Edit FloorPlan and customize it and update the look of the tour.  It basically acts as a virtual staging tool, similar to what you see below.  We can do some of this customization for you with the 3D Enhanced plan upgrades.
3D
4. Flyers/Printable Plans/Brochures/Documents. We have various flyer templates to choose from and we set up a default one when we produce a tour.  To edit it, just go to Photos/Media and scroll down to Flyers.  Select Edit can pick a template, customize the colors, select photos and reposition the floor plans (if applicable) and then generate the PDF of the flyer.  It is instantly added to the tour and available for download as well.

flyer

As you can see here, for floor plan oriented tours, we also provide 1 and multi-page printable floor plans.

You can also add your own custom flyer.  Just go to Documents under Photos/Media and upload a custom flyer there.  You can select a display name and mark if it contains branded content, and it will only show on the branded version of the virtual tour.  You can do this with any custom document you might want to add.

Documents are also a great way to add other information about the house, just as a pre inspection report (#2 on Zillow’s list), pest report or disclosures.

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As always, we are also here to help so if you want to talk to someone, please:

New Customer – Topic #6 – Claim Home & HomeDiary

New Customer – Topic #6 – Claim Home & HomeDiary

by | Oct 31, 2023 | New Customers

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Topic 6 concerns Claim Home & HomeDiary

The HomeDiary platform is very unique in that we have tools for the whole lifecycle of ownership and we are the only home or virtual tour platform that includes an editable and reusable 2D/3D floor plan tool that can be used throughout the whole lifecycle of ownership, by the seller/owner, the buyer and you, the connected Home Pro.

3D FloorPlan Engine. We built our own 3D floor plan/space planner tool from the ground up to work on any device. Browsers of the tour can experiment with the floor plan and edit it on tablets as well as computers, doing things such as changing flooring or wall colors, fragging and dropping furniture, doing landscape planning, or even adding or removing walls to see what an open concept might look like. Its all temporary, but it helps them visualize the space, right from the virtual tour.

We did this because we want to extend this tool to any homeowner and any home and let the content live on through the HomeDiary integration.  Once a person buys your listing, they can claim it and then get a copy of the floor plan put into their own private HomeDiary account.   They can use the floor plan to manage their home, visualize home improvement ideas, and even plan their move by creating a Moving Guide (example below), where they can virtually stage the home and use the Note tool to put “post-it” notes of what boxes go in what rooms – print it out, hand it to the movers for a hassle free move.

Every 3D Walkthrough Tour or FloorPlan Tour has this capability to create a moving guide, to visualize improvement ideas, or to share the floor plan with others.  So talk about this at your open houses and in your marketing.  Check out our editable Canva template you can use at an open house as well to talk about the HomeDiary features, they get for free just by claiming the home (see more on this below), compliments of you.

PS, if you use this to differentiate, if people have a home to sell and like this feature, who do you think they might want to sell their home too?

moving guide
Claim Home & HomeDiary for owners.  Every Story (tour) has a Claim Home call to action section (which you can turn off if you do not want it), that allows the buyer (and the seller) to claim the home right from the virtual tour, and when you approve their request, we automatically copy the listing photos and floor plans, compete with the 3D Space planner, into their own private HomeDiary account. The buyer gets a great management tool for their new home, and the seller gets a keepsake of their old home, and they can use HomeDiary on their new place. You get some attribution to the content provided, but you are not their official sponsor.  If you invite your seller (or buyer) to HomeDiary before they claim the home, you can be their sponsor.  If you are representing the buyer on the buy side, we suggest you first invite them into HomeDiary via your HomeDiary invite link, and then have them claim the home. When they do, you will be the official sponsor of their new home!

Click here to learn more on Sponsoring HomeDiaries for clients.

claim_home

With Claim Home, the great content created on the “For Sale” side can live on into “For Living” compliments of you!

HomeDiary PRO & Collaborative Diaries – We now have official “closing gift” options for each buyer or homeowner you work with.  At the top of our the new HomeDiary PRO website are options for Stories and Diaries.  Diaries is the new option – think of it as a digital closing gift on steroids.

Diary
The Diary is a collaborative Diary, meaning you can add content into your client’s home, and it is not just one time or one year, it is for the life of their ownership period for a small one time fee.  You can use our web interface you see here, or your can ue your mobile phone (and our iOS app) to create the content.  So the same actions you do to document your kids or pets lives (take a photo or video) can be used to document and manage your clients homes.

What can you do with the Diary?  Add:

  • Closing Documents
  • Ideas & Reminders – like the HUD statement for tax time or the reminder to get that leaking hot water heater replaced in 18 months.
  • Before Photos – use our app at possession day and take a photo or 2 of every room so your clients have a Before Photo view of their home – it’s aways a great reference and new buyers always forget to do this.
  • Use our app to scan to get a floor plan – it takes about 5 minutes for 2500 sq ft and the device you already have works.  Once you have a plan, they can create a moving guide (see below) to help with the move.
  • Upload any floor plan source

Check out the overview video of the power of the Collaborative Diary.

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If you have questions, give us a call at 206-384-4400, option 3 or send us an email on our support page or check out our Knowledge Base.

New Customer – Topic #3 – Brandkeepr, for free leads

New Customer – Topic #3 – Brandkeepr, for free leads

by | Oct 26, 2023 | New Customers

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Topic #3 details our patented Brandkeepr functionality and how the HomeDiary Platform exclusively keeps your brand on you tour on 98% of the top 10 real estate search sites, for free. 

How does it work?  It’s pretty simple really.  Publish your tour and if we can’t link the tour to the MLS for you, just select the copy url button next to the unbranded Tour link provided in your account under Photos/Media – Presentation Links, or in the email we send you. Then, just paste it into your MLS’s virtual tour or virtual media field for your listing.  The tour gets distributed across the web, and when clicked on from select sites, if we can recognize where the user was coming from, like from Zillow, we automatically convert that unbranded tour back to the branded version, all while keeping the unbranded tour on your direct competitor sites to comply with MLS  rules. It’s like a breadcrumb being left back to you on the sites that people actually use most, and it has been proven to win you more business, leveraging your HomeDiary Story.

stories page

Key Steps each time you have a tour to get it distributed.

  • Make sure we have the MLS number correct in our system – you can change it by selecting Property under the Actions column on the Stories page.
  • Customize your Story – you can select a different hero photo (main image that shows when the tour loads), show or hide the description text on it as well as property features, and move the content around on the tour, so if you want to feature the Matterport, the contact from or photos towards the top, you can. It is a simple drag and drop edit interface.  Check out this FAQ on how to do customizations.
  • Make sure you Publish your Story (tour).  Under status it will either say In Progress, Produced (meaning we created the tour and billed you), or Published.  When you are ready to market the property, to just make sure you click the Publish button, which makes it live and indexible by search engines. Go to Publishing to see status, or it should also show on the Photo/Media page.  If it has not been published, you will see an orange Publish button.
  • Download the photos for uploading to your MLS. We support different sizes, even custom sizes of images.  Most MLSs can resize, so we suggest the Large or Print quality size. Go to Photos/Media under Actions on the Stories page.
  • KEY: Put the unbranded virtual tour link in your MLS as a virtual tour (sometimes called virtual media).  Go to Photos/Media and then to the Presentation Links section. In some cases we do automated linking.  In others, you will need to add the tour link – it is a simple copy/paste process.  Just use the unbranded tour, which is emailed to you when the tour is first created as well.  Some MLSs do require the restricted one that removes all out links and the property address as well.  But remember, with Brandkeepr we will show the branded tour on the top sites, so who cares about the MLS version!
    • Just make sure the virtual tour link includes the https:// at the beginning of the URL – this is the key to making sure Brandkeepr works.
  • Remember, on the branded tour, you can pretty much show anything, as long as it complies with RESPA…check out our post on how to add all kinds of branded content to your tour.

Brandkeepr helps you differentiate online

Black & White Minimalist Business Logo (7)

Brandkeepr gives you potential exposure to over 700 million+ visitors a month! With Brandkeepr, your logo, photo and contact info, and our lead capture form are seen on 98% of the Top 10 real estate search sites, including the Zillow, Realtor.com, Homes.com & more when someone clicks the tour link on their website listing page.

check out the video

This functionality also highlights the power of OUR virtual tour.  Why spend thousands of dollars (or 40% of your commission) on ads to get leads on these sites when you can leverage the free advertising you already get with each listing to be seen by buyers and sellers.  Just uploading photos to the MLS DOES NOT give you this free advertising opportunity, nor does using someone else’s tour.  With our tour, you get exposure for FREE on sites that buyers and sellers use most, namely Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, Homes.com and Redfin.  You already have seen the Valerie story…and it is all because of Brandkeepr.

As I can attest, FloorPlanOnline with HomeDiary can help you get more business.  

I received a call from a potential buyer who saw one of my listings online.  While the home sold quickly and she was too late, she was so impressed with my virtual tour, powered by FloorPlanOnline, she not only hired me to sell her high-end home, but I helped her buy her new one, too. That one listing was responsible for an additional $2.5M in sales.

I would not have gotten the new client by providing just photos.  This buyer specifically called me based on my virtual tour presentation. That’s why FloorPlanOnline is my go-to team for creating amazing content for my sellers, as well as a tool & content for new buyers through its HomeDiary integration, which can be a channel of new business too.

Valerie MacKnight

Broker/Realtor, Windermere Real Estate

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New Customer Topic #2 – Creating a Story & Billing Details

New Customer Topic #2 – Creating a Story & Billing Details

by | Oct 24, 2023 | New Customers

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Once you get the listing, you need to create a Story (or tour) to get all of that great marketing content: We have lots of options for various packages – you can use our quick selector to order a package, such as a Photo Tour, a FloorPlan Tour or a 3D Walkthrough Tour, or you can mix and match, in case you have a floor plan file (or your own photos) and you want to save some money.  Just click to select, click again to unselect.  Once you select a service provider, you will see other options they can provide as well, such as drone photos and video. View the Video on How to Place an Order
place order
A few notes – these always come up so please read.

1. Pricing of Services. We bill based on the MEASURED square footage for most package options. Your initial estimate is based on the public (tax) record square footage, but this may differ from the actual measured area. Anything measured is included in measured area and when you place an order you have the option to add in the basement or garage in what is measured and shown on the floor plan. These areas are excluded by default, which means they will NOT show on the floor plan unless you change to Include and put a sq ft estimate. For garages, each garage bay is around 220 sq ft. A basement should generally be the same size as the floor above it. We think this is the most fair way to price, because larger homes take more time, both onsite and with our production team.

2. Billing. We bill once the work is done and we produce the tour, but we do need a valid credit card on file when you initially place an order as we need to ensure we can charge for the services and avoid any delay in providing you the package ordered. Once we produce the tour, typically within 1 to 2 business days after the appointment, you will get an email with links to the tour and ways to download the photos and more. This is when we charge the card based on the size of the property, which if the job includes a floor plan, typically is based on the measured area. Again, measured area likely will differ from the public record square footage number, because of garages, basements and other areas are not typically part of the public record number (referred to as the GLA or gross living area), but are included in the floor plan created as measured area.

3. Credit Card charge. The credit card statement may show the charge detail as FLOORPLANVT and some additional identifier like Virtual Tour xxxx* provider name – where xxxx is your tour or order ID and the *provider name is the local market service provider in charge of your market.

With payment you also get the right to use the photos for your business purposes, pursuant to our terms of service.

4. Need an invoice? Each Story has a summary of the charges made to your card. Go to Stories and you can see the invoice for a specific listing under the Order details button on the far right under actions. If you need a summary of all charges for a time period, go to Profile (top right) and there is a menu option to View Invoices.

order

As always, please contact us if you have any questions, or view our extensive Knowledge Base to get answers to your questions any time.

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New Customer Topic #1 – Win the Listing

New Customer Topic #1 – Win the Listing

by | Oct 24, 2023 | New Customers

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Welcome to HomeDiary PRO, our brand new platform for all phases of homeownership, created by the FloorPlanOnline Team.  We’re glad you have recently signed up with us.

As a listing agent, you know the key to your business is getting the listing.  According to NAR’s Generational Report, if you can get the listing appointment and make a good impression, 80% of the time (90% for Millennials), you can be the ONE agent that Seller chooses to market their home (see page 124).  39% of the time, the seller also buys a new home locally and uses the listing agent to help in that purchase.  It’s almost like double ending the transaction!  But you need to Win the Listing.

So how can we help you Win that Listing? This post goes through tools we have created, so it is a bit longer, but it is very important since our strategies have been proven to help agents get more listings and leverage existing listings to win more business, just like Valerie, who parlayed one tour into another $75,000 payday! 

As I can attest, FloorPlanOnline with HomeDiary can help you get more business.  

I received a call from a potential buyer who saw one of my listings online.  While the home sold quickly and she was too late, she was so impressed with my virtual tour, powered by FloorPlanOnline, she not only hired me to sell her high-end home, but I helped her buy her new one, too. That one listing was responsible for an additional $2.5M in sales.

I would not have gotten the new client by providing just photos.  This buyer specifically called me based on my virtual tour presentation. That’s why FloorPlanOnline is my go-to team for creating amazing content for my sellers, as well as a tool & content for new buyers through its HomeDiary integration, which can be a channel of new business too.

Valerie MacKnight

Broker/Realtor, Windermere Real Estate

So how do you win that listing appointment? It starts with the content and marketing presentation of the home. And it should be heavily focused around the online experience and the content online buyers want, because remember, sellers were once buyers.

According to Zillow’s Buyer Research, 58% of Buyers think floor plans are the most important traditional listing content item when shopping online – more important than viewing professional photos and almost 2 times as important as video. In total, 84% of buyers think floor plans are important!

zillow floor plan research
Also according to Zillow, listings with an Interactive Floor Plan (included in our 3D Walkthrough and FloorPlan Tours) get 60% more views and are saved 79% more than listings without. They even found they sold for 22% MORE than listings without Interactive Floor Plans!  We give you tools to show that seller exactly how you will market their home with our tour to help generate more interest, more offers and ultimately a higher sales price.

Here are some strategies to employ.

1. Show them how you will market their home by using the Sample Tour – We give you a sample or “demo tour” when you sign up – just click the option under Stories to create your sample tour. It’s this tour but with your branding. You can find it under the Stories menu option. It has an interactive floor plan and active 3D Walkthrough, complete with your branding if you added your logo and photo when you first signed up.

We also have a few professionally crafted downloads on HomeDiary and the Virtual Showing service:

You do not need a paid Canva account. however we are a big fan of Canva, where you can make more enhanced flyers or brochures or even create some cool social media videos. Get Canva Pro here, which includes up to 5 team members.

Leverage the content for higher commissions. Maybe offer up a base marketing package for x%, but for y%, include a FloorPlan Tour (or 3D WalkThrough with Matterport and an upgrade from the FloorPlan Tour). Our 3D Walkthrough Tour is an essential tool to show a home, because it can provide 24/7 access to a property without a physical visit, checking off the box for the #1 most important Zillow activity identified above – taking a private tour of the home. Our tour can be done from the comfort of one’s couch, and it can give complete online access.

According to research, over half of ALL buyers would be willing to make offers sight-unseen if the listing had a 3D tour and floor plans, so it increases the demand to anyone with an Internet connection, anywhere. This has been proven to speed the time to sale and increase the sales price over the market average by up to 9%! It effectively pays for your commission. Again, communicate to the seller that you are creating a larger demand base for their home and expanding the universe of people who might be willing to make an offer.

2. Download and customize our Listing Presentation Template. Use all or just a few parts of it. It’s an easy to edit Google Slide deck. You can also make your own screen shots of a tour you already have – use Capture (pc/mac) or Monosnap (mac), two free screenshot tools. Loom is another Chrome plugin that can also do video if you want to record the tour and have it available offline.

3. Get seen online. Leverage your FREE advertising opportunity when you have a listing on sites like Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com and Redfin. When a browser clicks the tour link on these select sites, we automatically convert the unbranded tour you put into the MLS back to branded version with our patented Brandkeepr functionality.  It only happens on these big search portals.  Just uploading photos to the MLS does not give you ANY free advertising, nor does using any other tour.  You can even use our tour tools to add more branded content into the branded version of the virtual tour.  Check out this blog post on how to do it. We now support adding branded documents like a custom brochure on the home, or even your own services.

The first step is you need to make sure you put the virtual tour link into your MLS (if we can’t do it for you) in the virtual tour or virtual media field. Just copy and paste the full tour URL, including the https:// part at the beginning – this is very important because the https makes it a secure link, and that is how Brandkeepr works. Brandkeepr gets you and your brand in front of a potential 700 million visits a month!

We also suggest you add this text as the first part of your marketing description to get people to the tour, and to you:

“See the virtual tour for big photos, interactive floor plans, a 3D walkthrough tour and video“Adjust this text for what is in your tour. If someone is really interested in your listing, they will find the tour, no matter where it is on that listing page.4. Differentiate at the Home. Use our Call2Action photo on the sign out front (laminate it) or upload it to social media. It has a QR code that takes the user to the virtual tour when scanned, so it’s a great way to save on flyer printing costs too. Talk up the fact every home also comes with a HomeDiary, compliments of you. Provide this editable HomeDiary Handout at the open house. HomeDiary is a home management tool that lets people document, plan, manage and dream for the home, and it can be claimed by not only the Buyer once they purchase the home, but the Seller can also claim it as a keepsake, and then create a new HomeDiary for their new home, you help them buy. See the Claim Home menu option right on the tour. Both get a copy of the listing photos and 2D and 3D floor plans that are on the tour, compliments of you! Think how impressed your Seller and potential Buyers will be with this amazing tool for your listings. It’s a great conversation starter, even at the open house. The buyer can even use the 3D floor plan to virtually stage the home with their furniture and use the note tool to add virtual “post-it” notes of what boxes goes in what rooms. Print it off and hand it to the movers for a hassle free move in experience!  See our sample Moving Guide that came from a real HomeDiary user.

moving guide

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Our last onboarding post will tie it all together how we can not only help you win the listing, but also the sale and the relationship as well.

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