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:
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.
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
Why is this important to you? Just uploading photos to the MLS does not give YOU free advertising on sites like Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, Homes.com and more.
A virtual tour can…if it has your branding.
No other tour company can convert the unbranded tour to branded and have an automated video posted to your Zillow/Trulia listing, for free. This strategy puts your brand on websites that represent over 90% of the real estate oriented website traffic and leaves “bread crumbs” back to you so people can find you easily and the great marketing you do for listings.
FloorPlanOnline and HomeDiary PRO can.
With the FloorPlanOnline platform and the HomeDiary PRO subscription, it can be done automatically for you.
I have used FloorPlanOnline for over 10 years now, and they keep getting better. The new Story format showcases the amazing photos, aerials and floor plan content they create and helps make my client’s home, and me, look professional. It also positions the property for a fast sale.
The HomeDiary integration is also cool, so the new buyer can claim the home and get a copy of the photos and 2D/3D floor plan copied into their private HomeDiary, compliments of me! Joel did an amazing job capturing the charm and space of this Mt Baker area Seattle home. Keep up the great work.
Now, every newly published tour has a composite image of select content from the tour called the Call2Action Photo. It features the exclusive content like the floorplan image, a video screen shot and some other photos. It is designed to be used on sites like Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com (the 3 together make up over 70% of the real estate traffic) to leverage their massive monthly traffic to get more people coming to your virtual tour. Once they are there, use our event-based lead capture to communicate and seal the deal!
The Call2Action photo can be uploaded to Zillow and moved to say position #2 to let the viewer know there is cooler, better content on the virtual tour. Download the branded version right from the Marketing Center main page. We also have an unbranded version (that does not have the tour link but just calls out to click the virtual tour) that can be used on the MLS. This can then get swept to Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com, sites that typically include the virtual tour links via Listhub distribution. 
Coming soon – We are also working on some updated tour posting solutions for Zillow and Craigslist…that can make the posting of the virtual tour either automatic, or as simple as a few steps. We can also upload the branded Call2Action photo right into your Zillow listing. We hope to launch this new feature within the next few weeks, so stay tuned!
PS. The Call2Action photo is live on all tours published as of September 19th. If you want it on an older tour, just go to Edit Tour, then Edit Photos/Video and hit the save button. The branded Call2Action photo should then show up as a button in the Marketing Center.
The STORY: The ONE tour that combines any kind of listing content into a site that gets distributed through the web so you can leverage your free marketing opportunity on Zillow, Realtor.com & Trulia!
The Story is a new, easy-to-use single property website that makes your listing, and you look amazing. It’s FLASH free & mobile friendly, so those 60% of viewers using their mobile device still can see the great content created for your listing, including interactive floor plans. Featuring YOUR branding & flexible for ALL content types. Welcome to the Story.
HERE’S HOW IT WORKS
You can select the Story option under “Tour Frame Type.” Then select the theme you want.
The STORY has 4 Themes
All the content buyers want to see
Get more leads by differentiating yourself and your listings online with amazing listing content. See a sample – click to view our Demo House listing
Photo Grid with Full Screen Images
2D & 3D Floor Plans
Lead Capture
Claim Home to HomeDiary for Buyer
3D plan with improved room planner coming soon
Embed Matterport, YouTube, Vimeo
Join the conversation. Let us know what you think by commenting using your Facebook account.
Looking for that competitive edge? Check out VR.
What is VR? It is an artificial, computer-generated environment that you experience as if you were inside the image, or in this case the home. Put on a virtual reality headset and you can go on a tour of a home without ever setting foot inside the door, not only making house hunting more efficient, but also helping to reduce stress in a relocation situation. As far as the selling process with VR, distance doesn’t matter. You can offer the same experience to a client in the United States and a client in Hong Kong, 24 hours a day.
One problem that has plagued real estate agents for decades is that an empty home is a difficult sell. Without furniture and all of the other little touches that turn a house into a home it can be very difficult for a potential buyer to imagine themselves living in a particular property. With technology, the virtual solution solves this dilemma and ‘staging’ a home, just got less expensive and easier than lugging in actual pieces of furniture to fill a home when it’s open for inspection. FloorPlanOnline’s 3D floor plan solution allows anyone to drag and drop furniture onto a “clean slate” floor plan model and virtually stage it with furniture. Better yet, they can virtually change wall colors, flooring, or even experiment with removing a wall to see what an open concept might look like. Click a button and see it in 3D from the top, or go all in with immersive First Person view. Our 3D plan enhances some of the other cool 3D tours like Matterport, which show all of the sellers’s stuff in the property, as well by converting any Matterport tour into a 3D model that allows you or the owner to do anything, all virtually and in real time.
But is this really what consumers want? According to Coldwell Banker’s 2018 Smart Home Marketplace survey (download PDF here), the answer is YES! Th CB study reveals insights on how smart home tech and VR (Virtual Reality) are set to benefit consumers in a myriad of ways. Their survey included responses from 3,000 adults revealing that:
Click Here to view an example 3D Space Planner, standard with all FloorPlanOnline Tours and HomeDiary users.
When it comes to Smart Home products that could make or break a sale, the table below shows a percentage of Americans who already own, or plan to purchase, Smart Home products.
The following Smart Home Products were picked by respondents to be the most important pre-install in a listing:
While some of the changes expected to hit real estate technology may be a decade out to be fully felt, the movement is taking steps forward every day. Virtual Reality has proven its worth and it won’t be long before it transforms the property-buying experience for home buyers all over the world.
FloorPlanOnline’s HomeDiary PRO service is the perfect online tool to help showcase your listings, and well as provide a unique homeowner management tool to all of your clients for one low annual fee. With HomeDiary PRO, you can provide an HGTV-like 3D floor plan tool to all of your clients to they can Dream, Manage and Do more with their home. To learn more visit HomeDiary PRO. Existing FloorPlanOnline customers, please contact sales for special options.
