Real Estate Info

New Platform Updates for June 2023

by Kris Cone | Jun 5, 2023 | Listing Tools, Real Estate Info, Tour Updates, What's New

We did a comprehensive development release on June 4, 2023, that added several new features and addons to the HomeDiary Story (i.e. virtual tour) platform, along with some bug fixes, including

Drag & drop/reposition the various content sections on the Story to your desired order (see screenshot above)
Add branded documents to the branded version of the Story
New Addon – Virtual Timelapse video
New Addon – Blue Skies through Windows
Added Pre-Shoot and Re-Shoot options under No Tour
Bugs & Fixes
- Updated the Social Media video to a 9:16 aspect ratio (portrait orientation) to better fit with Instagram, TikTok and Facebook Reels. The price of this addon remains the same at $25.
- Bathrooms now properly account for 3/4 baths on the Hero features
- Changed “asking” to “price” for the listing price of the property
- Fixed co-listing display issues on the flyer editor
- Profile display settings fixed to show correctly on tour
- Simplified the Matterport links provided to match Matterport’s standard convention

See below for more details on some new items.

Drag & Drop Content Sections on Story

With this new option, you can change the order of the content displayed on your virtual tour by simply dragging and dropping the content in the desired order. Save and update, and the tour is updated. So if you want Matterport, or the Photo Gallery to be at the top of the tour, right below the “Hero” image, you can change the layout.

You can also change the default order in your profile settings, which will apply to all future tours created. So set it once and forget it. Check out the video on how easy it is to do.

Branded Documents

With this new tour enhancement, you can upload any kind of branded document, and as long as you mark it contains branded content, it will only show on the branded version of the virtual tour. This is a great option to add a detailed property overview, a sales sheet about you and your brokerage, a custom property brochure and more. Check out the video on how easy it is to do, and because we can show the branded version of the virtual tour on the top sites like Zillow with our patented Brandkeepr feature, this content will get seen more often than not as well!

Virtual Timelapse Addon

With the Virtual Timelapse addon, priced at $75, we simulate a 24 hour period at the property using just one daytime photo. The video gets added to your slideshow video (and/or other custom videos) so you can make your content stand out further. You also get a virtual twilight photo included as a bonus, a $35 value. Just pick the preferred location of the photo and sky for the virtual twilight photo, and we will create the video and image, then add them to your tour. Check out some of the examples on how cool it looks.

Click here to see a few more examples

Blue Skies Through Windows

With the Blue Skies through Windows addon, we will add a blue sky to the selected number of window views, starting with the most important view shots. So, regardless of the day outside, we can always make it a blue sky day! Priced at $50 for sets of up to 10 photos. Just select how many photos you want and we will do the PhotoShop editing and deliver the images for download.

Susan Feldman, eXp Review

by Kris Cone | May 18, 2023 | Real Estate Info

We love hearing from our customers. Here’s a great review from Susan Feldman, Realtor with eXp. You can view her website here susansaysrealestate.com

Several years ago, I was searching for a way to provide floor plans for my listings and was so fortunate to find FloorPlanOnline and incredible Ace Photographer/Market Manager Christine Cox!

They are the real deal for sure! Not only do they create stunning photos, detailed floor plans, 3D walkthroughs, drone photography and movie quality video, but they deliver everything in a "done for you" platform that is oh so easy to navigate. Each customizable website looks like you spent hours creating it, when really it is 100% plug and play. After Christine works her magic onsite, the editors work behind the scenes to develop a comprehensive digital program that is a show worthy, multifaceted marketing piece that will truly blow your clients away. And, it's done in record time- less than 48 hours! The people in customer service are equally impressive, handling requests, edits and questions in a timely manner with kindness and grace.

Owner Kris Cone has definitely created an amazing service and gathered an unbeatable team of highly creative and talented professionals around him. Additionally, they are ever evolving, adding new and relevant features that will make you shine online from start to finish and beyond. I highly recommend Christine and FloorPlanOnline. I can't imagine going anywhere else.

Susan Feldman

Realtor, eXp Realty

How many bathrooms?

by Kris Cone | May 4, 2023 | Real Estate Info

A few fixes on the property information displayed on the tour.

1. We have changed the term for listing price from Asking to Price as you see in the screenshot

2. You have new options to show or hide the property description on the Hero View – the initial view you see when the tour loads. In addition, you can show or hide property info such as the price, beds, baths, etc, like you see on the screenshot. See the video below for more on how to configure to your liking.

3. We have fixed the issue of the display of the bathrooms on the tour and on the flyers. We had an issue where 3/4 bathrooms were not being displayed correctly. They now show up right, and you actually have two options to show bathrooms – either the total calculated, which matches how the RESO standard defines the total bathroom count, or you can input your own number for display. For RESO, if a home has 2 full baths, 2 3/4 baths and 2 half baths, the total bathroom count = 6. If you don’t want that, you can override it with your desired total. See below for more.

Customize the Hero View

Customize the Bath Count

RESO Standard

If you select Calculate Total, the system will calculate the total bathroom count equal the total number of bathrooms regardless of the fixture count. A bathroom is counted as a bathroom, whether it is a full, 3/4, 1/2 or 1/4 bath. This is coming straight from the RESO Standards definition and should match how things are displayed on sites like Zillow.

Example = 5 baths

2 full baths
1 3/4 bath
2 half baths

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

Your Total

With this option, you can input any total bathroom count you want to display, while still showing the detail of full, 3/4, and half baths in the details. Just untoggle the Calculate Total button and input whatever total you want to show for Total Baths.

Example = 3.25 baths

2 full baths
1 3/4 bath
1 half bath

Use PayPal Credit to Pay for Virtual Tours

by Kris Cone | Mar 29, 2023 | Real Estate Info

Use PayPal Credit to pay and get 6 months no interest!

Since we are integrated with PayPal, you can use PayPal credit as the default payment method for your PayPal account and use that to pay for virtual tour services. As long as you pay the charge off in 6 months, you get the float and no interest for this timeframe! This can be a great financing tool for new listings that will close in a month or two. And it does not cost you anything and there is no administrative things to work out between you and us. It’s built into PayPal already. If you don’t have PayPal Credit set up yet, just click the button and apply to get a decision in a few seconds.

Apply for PayPal Credit

See the video on how easy it is to set up.

How to Easily Customize your Story

by Kris Cone | Jan 18, 2023 | Listing Tools, Real Estate Info, Tour Updates, What's New

With the new HomeDiary PRO management system, it’s never been easier to customize the look of your tour, or Story, as we like to call it. Here’s a few things you can do with the Presentation page, our new real-time Story editor. See below for a video on how you can do these edits.

Preview and select different Themes
Customize the Hero section (the first thing you see) by adding a title or banner, show/hide the property description or show/hide property features
Select a different Hero Image than the first image in your Photo/Video Gallery
Customize the Property Description with a basic text editor with Bold, Italics, bullets and numbered lists
Show or Hide content sections
You can even preview how the Story looks on different devices, including mobile phones

Use the slider to see the before and after view of the tour

See the Video on how easy it is to customize and enhance your Story

You can also see the sample tour I was working on by clicking here.

If you want to customize your tour more with branded content (only on the branded version of the tour), check out our detailed blog post on the topic here. With our patented Brandkeepr feature, it’s a great way to leverage your tour to get more business, and differentiation, for YOU!

If you want to learn more about our new digital closing gift (and more), the Diary, check out this post. It’s great for your new buyers, or even long standing clients.

Holiday Special on The Diary

by Kris Cone | Dec 6, 2022 | Homeowners, Listing Tools, Real Estate Info, Real Estate News, Technology

Looking for a meaningful reason to reach out to your top clients this holiday season?

We have an awesome promotion on our new Diary product that allows you to create a HomeDiary for your client, add content into it, and then invite them to receive the gift of our home management app that will help them increase the value of their home over time, and save a lot of hassles, and money, along the way.

We are reducing our introductory price for the Diary between now and January 31, 2023, to just a one-time fee of $15, normally $29. No other subscriptions or fees to keep adding to the Diary over the course of homeownership!

The gift of the HomeDiary app is the perfect reason to touch base with your clients this holiday season. Call them, tell them about the app you’re going to give them, and maybe add in a hand crafted home value estimate as part of the content you add into the Diary. But first, ask them if they have done any improvements, like a new bath or kitchen. This will give you extra data to provide a differentiated home value than those automated AVMs. Provide the value estimate as a Timeline entry with the value determined in the amount field and the CMA as a PDF attachment (or if you have a link, add that too). See our Implementation Guide for how to add these improvement values to your estimate, and other example use cases of what you and your client can do with HomeDiary.

What do you get?

A sponsored Diary where you can collaborate and curate content for your client’s HomeDiary for the life of the ownership of their home. Add the closing docs, reminders (like the Closing Statement for tax time), a “To Do” list from the inspection report, or just post a photo of a cool marble slab you know your clients would love for their upcoming kitchen remodel.

Once you unlock the Diary for collaboration, you can put content in over time for no additional cost for the life of your client’s homeownership! You are positioned as the default home pro, and your info is just a call, text or email away.

PS. you also get a free HomeDiary account for your own house. So add receipts, documents or create a floor plan to show your clients the cool and helpful info that can be part of their Diary.

Video on HomeDiary for Homeowners

What does your client get?

A fully functioning HomeDiary, complete with 3D Designer, our drag and drop floor planner and room design tool. It’s like HGTV, but for their home. If you have access to a floor plan source, we can convert that into 3D Designer for a one time fee of $30 ($45 total price for the Diary with FloorPlan). Or, you can use our iOS app to scan their home in 5 to 10 minutes and get back a customizable 3D floor plan in 1 to 2 days, priced at $55 until January 31, 2023. Just ask your client if they have a source they can send you and upload it, and we will convert it into a 3D floor plan.

Our Holiday Promotion, in summary:

Basic Diary – $15
Basic Diary+FloorPlan from source – $45
Basic Diary+FloorPlan with scan app – $55

There will always be a free version of HomeDiary for a homeowner to use. It is private and secure by default, but you now have the ability to put content into their HomeDiary with this new feature. See an idea for a client? Toggle to their house in the HomeDiary app (or login using your favorite browser) and post an Idea, Reminder or Timeline entry. Anything you can do for your own home can be done in your client’s home via the app! All data can be exported out by the homeowner as needed and they can share content cards via the app.

The Diary opens up new and exciting communication channels between you and your clients. Think of the difference in the relationship created between giving a calendar annually to your clients vs posting a photo of that cool marble slab you found into the Ideas section for your clients’ upcoming kitchen remodel. It shows you’re invested in their homeownership experience in highly personal and targeted ways, and it keeps you top of mind as their agent who is there to help guide them in their homeownership journey. In other words, it puts you top of mind with your sphere of influence, about 10% of whom will move this year. That could be 30 to 50 transactions, just by being remembered and present as the person they should be using to sell their home.

Want this for all of your agents? We do have office and company subscription options where the base Diary is free to the agent, as the company pays a monthly fee on behalf of all agents. If you are interested in the Office program, please contact us at sales@homediary.com or call 206-384-4400, option 2.