fbpx

Call Us: 206-384-4400

Signup
Login
Click to Call @ 206-384-4400
New Customer – Topic #3 – Brandkeepr, for free leads

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

by | Oct 26, 2023 | New Customers

HomeDiary Logo
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

View other related posts

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

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

by | Oct 24, 2023 | New Customers

HomeDiary Logo
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.

View other related posts

New Customer Topic #1 – Win the Listing

New Customer Topic #1 – Win the Listing

by | Oct 24, 2023 | New Customers

HomeDiary Logo
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

View other related posts

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.

Spotlight Tour- Week #192

Spotlight Tour- Week #192

by | Oct 18, 2023 | Spotlight Tours, WA

Lovingly Updated Home

BOTHELL, WA 98012

View The Story of This Home

Nestled in a quiet cul-du-sac between Bothell & Mill Creek, this home has been lovingly updated and cared for by the original owner. Beautiful upgrades include quartz countertops in the kitchen, under counter lights, some new SS appliances, luxury vinyl planking on the main level, state of the art thermostat, new exterior paint, new fence, A/C, designer paint & touches throughout. This open floorplan has a gas fireplace with a granite surround that matches the kitchen island & a spacious pantry. The primary bedroom features a vaulted ceiling, connecting to a relaxing 5-piece ensuite & a big walk in closet. The yard is very private, fully fenced & backs to community open space. Enjoy entertaining company under the gazebo around the warmth of a firepit.

HDR Photography By: Christine C.

If you are interested in listing your home or have questions, please contact:

logo57676 original

Vicki Powers

CRS

Windermere

3933 Lake Washington Blvd NE Suite 100, Kirkland, WA 98033

direct:(425) 941-6164
mobile:(425) 941-6164
vpowers@windermere.com
vickipowers.withwre.com/
Spotlight Tour- Week #191

Spotlight Tour- Week #191

by | Sep 29, 2023 | OR, Spotlight Tours

Stunning Traditional in Desirable Ash Creek Woods!

PORTLAND, OR 97219

 
 

View The Story of This Home

Stunning traditional with high ceilings and great natural light in desirable Ash Creek Woods! Greet your guests in the open foyer with hardwood floors and into your formal living room for quiet conversation around a warm fire on cool fall evenings. Entertain family and friends in your formal dining room or enjoy a casual BBQ on your huge deck off the family room. Romantic primary suite with soaking tub, walk-in shower, and door to back deck. Treasure the sights and sounds of nature from your private back deck overlooking the peaceful treed setting. Massive bonus room on lower level with access to 28’x16′ workshop plus extra spaces. Two guest rooms and full bath plus large office with built-in desk in lower level. Apartment with outside entry on lower level with sitting area, full bathroom, plumbed for kitchen and washer & dryer. 3-car garage for all your cars and toys. Easy access to shopping, restaurants, and Gabriel Park

HDR Photography By: Mike W.

 

If you are interested in listing your home or have questions, please contact:

logo56579 original

Deanna Wilson

Windermere Realty Trust

6443 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy Ste 100, Portland, OR 97221

direct:(503) 701-6629
DWilson@DeannaWilson.com
DeannaWilson.com
 
 
 

September 2023 Release

by | Sep 25, 2023 | Real Estate Info

The September 2023 release is here, and it includes many new enhancements, fixes and improvements to the UI of the HomeDiary system, which is now the backbone of the FloorPlanOnline tour platform, so this blog post goes through it in detail.  And if you have not noticed, we are now defaulting you to the new HomeDiary PRO website experience because it really has a lot of cool and new features, it is much more usable, plus it should work on an iPad and even a phone in a pinch.  When you place an order, the order will be under the new account interface as well, including all associated emails relating to the order.

If you need to, you can still access the old FloorPlanOnline platform by clicking the menu at the top that says Back to FloorPlanOnline, but most of the functionality should be in the new system at this point.

Update to the Stories Page

Stories is where you go to manage, edit and download content for your virtual tours.  You can also create a New Order using the “+ New Order” button.  We added functions under the Action column, with anything active in orange color, and anything not active in a light gray color.  That way it is clear where to go to download your photos or manage your Media for example, or to edit the property presentation (the tour look and feel), all in one click.

A summary of the options under Actions:

  • Property – add the location, description, Property facts (like size, year built, beds/baths), features, Price, MLS number, and  owner/co-listing info.
  • Order – see what you ordered and the status of it, view/print your invoice for the order and order additional things after the initial production of the tour.
  • Photo/Media – download photos, floor plans & videos, get access to your virtual tour and other links, edit the Photo Gallery, Slideshow Video and Floor Plans, edit and download flyers and more.
  • Presentation – customize the look and feel of your virtual tour – pick from various themes, show or hide content and even reorder the content sections, so if you want the Photo Gallery, or the contact from, up at towards the top of the tour page, you can drag it in your desired order and save (you can also set the default in your profile).
  • Publishing – publish a produced tour to make it visible via search engines and more. If you have added your MLS in your profile, and we can automatically link it to the MLS (select MLSs only), it will also show here.
  • Disable – disable a published tour.  You can reactive a disabled tour by selecting Order and the reactivate button.
Story Manage page for all virtual tour management and media downloads

Manage Listing Status in One Click

You can also easily manage the status of your listings from Active to Sold just by mousing over the status icon and selecting the right status for your listing and its associated Story.  This also helps managing the Story page, because at the top you can filter to just show Active Stories, for example, and it will just display those tours marked as Active, as you see in the screenshot below.  Remove the filter to see all tours created over time.

manage story status

Gallery Page

We added a new way to just view the photos in the Gallery Link. Click the View Gallery button and it pops a new tab to show your images in that view. See Sample.

This Gallery page is also accessed via a button on the shared media page, a page that does not require login access, so you can share it with anyone.  Just copy/paste the link into an email and the other person gets access to the downloads too. See sample.

 

gallery page display for a virtual tour

Quickly Download Photos

When a tour is produced, you should get an email notifying you that it was produced (example in the screenshot below).  The email has links to the virtual tours as well as the media downloads.  We updated this to go directly to the download photos page, so it is one click from the email right to Photo downloads!  We also default it to the Print Quality Photo size – at this point, most MLS systems should be able to resize to fit their needs, and some require larger than HD size (1920 pixels), so when in doubt, just download the Print Quality size and upload that to the MLS, or where ever else they need to go.  Note, you can create your own custom size on the fly as well using that option, just check the box and enter your desired dimensions.  

 

email media
download photos

The Download link now takes you directly to the Media page and the download section for the media type selected.

The Tour Links will take you right to the virtual tour, or Story.  Read below on how the tour can get you more business with Brandkeepr.

  • Branded – shows your branding on it – this is good for your own email marketing or blog posts, social media posting, etc.
  • Unbranded – the base unbranded version removes all of your branding – this is accepted by most MLS systems and is needed to comply with the IDX rules that prohibit agent branding on listings distributed to various brokerage sites.
  • Restricted – use this URL if your MLS does not want ANY out links from the tour, no address (which can have links via the map) and other restrictions.  Some MLSs that we know need this link – e.g., CRMLS, NWMLS.  This is the bare bones tour.

Download Videos

We added a way to download the Custom Videos created for you under the Custom Video section on the Media page. This only applies to new videos created as of writing this post.  Just click the download icon to download the video to your computer or mobile device.  You can then upload it natively to the various social media platforms. You can also click play to pop the video in a larger window – the video link should be on the video when you click the airplane icon.  

download custom video

Note: while it did not make it in this round, we will be adding ways to get your video links as well as make review comments on the videos in this section as well, coming in a future release.   You can also download the Slideshow video included – scroll down to the Slideshow video section and select the download button.

How to get FREE leads on the top sites like Zillow?

Put the unbranded tour into the MLS.  We do the rest. With Brandkeepr.

Brandkeepr is our patented process where we automatically convert the unbranded (or restricted unbranded) tour you put into the MLS back to a branded version on select “public” portal websites – Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia, Homes.com, etc. On 98% of the Top 10 sites, we can show your branded virtual tour when clicked on from these larger websites.

You can even set up Brandkeepr for your own website or company website – after all, if you are a Keller Williams agent, there is no harm in having your branded tour show on KW.com.  Just go to your Profile (top right) and scroll down to the Brandkeepr section and add as many sites as you want – just respect IDX rules on your direct competitor sites.

What people see when they click the virtual tour link from within the MLS is the unbranded tour…as well as on all of your direct competitors’ websites.  But on Zillow and others we show the branded tour.  This has helped our clients get free buyer and seller leads, leveraging the tour they already have to win even more business!  Our tour showcases all of the great content buyers want to see, and sellers appreciate it.  That is why we have had one agent re-list the same house 3 times now = each buyer wanted the same content to sell their home as they got when they bought it, so they sought out that original listing agent.

The HomeDiary Story = more business for you, if you put it into the MLS as the virtual tour…

brandkeepr April 2022

Featured Listing Page

We added a new way to customize your featured listings page, both the section that shows on the virtual tours, as well as the separate link to the page, which you can use to embed on your own website or blog.  See below for more on that…  You can now select what tours to show on your tours as well as the display order.  

See the Video for more.

Embed your featured listing page on your own website or blog.

Use this sample html embed code to quickly and easily add your featured listings (our virtual tours or Stories) to your won website.  Just add a new embed code module (most sites have this functionality), and just remember to change the number in this sample code to your customer ID.  Your customer ID is under your profile, at the top of the page next to your name – MID xxxxx – in the example below the ID is 66.

account ID

 

The embed code (iframe) code to use is below – just change the x’s with your actual tour/order ID and if you need to adjust the height, play around with the 85  — 90 will make it fill up more of the page, something like 75 will do less…

<iframe width=”100%” src=”https://my.homediary.com/story/featured/xxxxxx” frameborder=”0″ style=”height:85vh;width:100%”></iframe>

Additional Addons – Post Production

Once a tour has been produced, you can now add on additional enhancements, even if they were not ordered originally at the time you created the order.  Just select the Order link under Actions and scroll down to the bottom of the page and select additional addons available.   We will get the order and complete the enhancement and add it back to your tour and order.

The Order page is where you go to find all what you ordered, who the service provider was, how much it costs and you can even print the invoice associated with the order. 

 

order addons for additional enhancements
displayed content lets you set the order of how content is displayed on the tour

Displayed Content Order

You now have the option to display the tour content in any order you want, so if you want to show the Matterport, Photos or even the Contact form towards the top of the tour, just click and hold your mouse on the content section and drag it to the desired location.  When done, save and the tour you are working on will show the content in that order.

If you want this order to be the default for every tour you create, just go to Profile Settings (top right menu where your name and photo is location) and go to the Default Presentation Settings and change the order here.  Save and every tour you create in the future will show this order.  Note it will not change older tours. You will need to adjust those manually if you want them to have a different order.  

If you want to hide certain content sections, just click the toggle next to the Content section to turn it off – that content section will not show on the tour.  This is great if you have a custom video and want to hide the built in Slideshow video, or maybe you have a tour for a rental and you want to turn off the Claim Home option, which allows the buyer to claim the home and get the listing content put into their own private HomeDiary account.  Again, this can be done on a tour by tour basis, or as part of the system default. 

Tour Reporting

We now have both the high level summary tour reporting for visits and vistors, along with more detailed reporting – click the View More link to see the complete reporting page for the listing.  Just go to the Presentation sub-menu option for the listing and then scroll down to the bottom to see the Reports section.

reporting - summary and more detailed reporting

The detailed reporting looks like this…

Visitor Statistics detail reporting

That’s about it for the major things in the release.  As always, if you need help, just reach out to us at support@floorplanonline.com.  

gtag('config', 'AW-11354002893');