CirclePix Blog

Get your own YouTube Channel with all your listing videos

Posted on 19 September 2009 | No responses

CirclePix has a great program going right now where we create a YouTube video for each of your listings.  The video will contain the stills and panoramas that are photographed for your listing.  We put them together in a slideshow - complete with background music and transitions - and then post the video to a specific YouTube channel.  The videos look very professional and are a great way to enhance your marketing materials for your listings.  The first screen of the video contains an intro screen where you can completely customize the colors, design, pictures, and listing information.  Here’s an example that we created for one of our clients currently using this program :

With this program, you get to have your own YouTube channel where all of your videos can be viewed.   Having your own YouTube channel gives you a landing page where you can direct your users.  They can scroll through your channel to view your listing videos as well as search for specific listings or agents.  Your channel can have a custom look to match your own color scheme and provide all kinds of company information to the users.  Here’s an example YouTube channel with a custom look patterned after the client’s own website:

To participate in this great program at a discounted rate, contact CirclePix now at 877-390-6630.

Preparing for Your Virtual Tour

Posted on 19 September 2009 | No responses

Photos will be an important key to selling your home. For maximum benefit, prepare your home by following these simple guidelines.

Inside Your Home

• Remove all unnecessary clutter throughout the home.
• Open drapes to let in natural light and turn off all ceiling fans.
• Add decorative touches such as fresh flowers and plants, but don’t overdo it.
• Kitchens: remove magnets and pictures from refrigerator and clear countertops. Place wastebaskets out of sight.
• Bedrooms: have beds neatly made and free of clutter. Take down any personal items that you do not want to be photographed.
• Bathrooms: keep fresh towels in the bathroom, remove stains from toilets, bathtubs and sinks, and put down the toilet lid.
• Lights: all lamps, chandeliers, closet lights and fixtures should be turned on.
• Pets: please put them in a safe place, such as the garage, during the filming.

Outside Your Home

• Please clear your lawn of any tools, toys, garden hoses or other objects.
• Sweep front walkway and clean up after pets.
• Trim the lawn as needed. Cut back any overgrowth on hedges or trees if necessary.
• In winter, please clear walkways of any ice or snow.
• Remove cars from driveway and street. Request your neighbors to assist you by doing the same.
• Clean all pools or spas and display patio furniture in an inviting manner.
• Avoid scheduling a photo session on trash day. If this is unavoidable, bring the bins inside. Empty all the trash bins throughout the home.

With your help, we will be able to maintain an efficient filming schedule and provide you with professional service. Thank you.

Two Ways to Capture Your Listings

Posted on 1 September 2009 | No responses

In 2000, Robert Davis, CEO of CirclePix, identified a problem with Real Estate marketing: too many agents were listing homes on the MLS without any imaging, which was frustrating the new wave of homebuyers. These homebuyers were computer- and Internet-savvy, and the growing trend was that homebuyers were beginning their searches online instead of starting with a Realtor. Without imaging, beautiful homes were being passed over simply because there were no images to capture the attention of the potential homebuyer. In addition, virtual tours (then thought to be a marketing luxury for the more expensive properties) would capture and hold the attention of homebuyers much longer than still photographs. Thus, CirclePix was born, and quickly grew into the nation’s largest full-service virtual tour company.

Over the years, CirclePix has made a name for itself as a leader in providing professional, high-quality still and virtual images with the help of a vast network of photographers. However, what most agents don’t know is that CirclePix also provides an alternative to full-service imaging: CirclePix has a self-service model, in which an agent can take his/her own photos, upload them to CirclePix’s website, and enjoy all the benefits associated with a CirclePix tour, such as the ePostcard, lead generation, and tour statistics, as well as access to our full line of marketing materials, such as flyers, CDs, and YouTube videos.

While most agents are already doing a combination of full-service and self-service imaging, there are those out there who still may wonder what type of imaging should be used on a particular property. Here are some of the advantages of both full-service and self-service imaging.

Full-Service

Here are just a few benefits of hiring a CirclePix photographer to shoot your listings:

1. Our professional photographers can impress your sellers, showing them that you care enough about their homes to give them the best.

2. Our professional photographers have camera equipment that can provide high-quality, crisp, and bright images with true-to-life coloring. In addition, our wide-angle lenses help rooms seem as big as possible.

3. Hiring a CirclePix photographer minimizes work for the agent—instead of the agent taking hours to shoot a property and edit the images, our professional photographer will do it for you! You can then spend your time doing what you do best: selling homes!

4. Our photographers use a patented rotator to capture 360 degree virtual images, which allow even more of the home to be shown than what can be captured with still images.

Self-Service

Sometimes, an agent will prefer to take his/her own pictures of a home. Here are some advantages of using CirclePix to host your imaging:

1. Can be more cost-effective for smaller, lower-priced homes than a full-service tour or using another company’s self-service model.

2. With CirclePix self-serve, you still get full access to our marketing materials to help maximize your exposure—let CirclePix link your pictures to Realtor.com (free to Showcase members!) and/or your MLS, use our flyer templates to create your own professional flyers, email a postcard of your new listing to all the agents in your office, or use our lead generation program to find qualified buyers.

3. By shooting your own pictures, you’ll be able to create marketing materials more quickly. Need a flyer done for tomorrow’s open house? Take your own pictures, upload them to CirclePix, and, with the purchase of our Print-Your-Own Flyers option, you can build a flyer for your open house, all in less time than you’d think!

At CirclePix, you can get the best of both worlds—you can hire one of our professional photographers on your high-end listing or your larger homes, and use our self-serve model to showcase a small condo. By using CirclePix for all your listings, you’ll get maximum exposure and sell your homes more quickly. CirclePix is your one-stop, complete image-based marketing solution!

CirclePix.com–The Complete Image-Based Marketing Solution!

Posted on 10 August 2009 | No responses

According to the National Association of Realtor’s 2008 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 87% of all buyers use the Internet as part of their search. But there is an even more important statistic that is rarely mentioned: 45% of all buyers went to the Internet as their first step, before they contacted a real estate agent. To get a sense of how amazing this number is, compare it to the number of buyers who went to open houses as their first step: just 4%!

Image Source: My Single Property Websites Data Source: 2008 National Association of Realtors Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers

What does this mean?

It means that not only are buyers using the Internet in droves, but that a huge amount of them are unattached invisible buyers! Give these buyers what they want, and you’ll dramatically increase the odds that they’ll choose you to work with. According to NAR’s 2008 Profile, the five features below are what buyers want most from your real estate website:

• Photos
• Detailed Property Information
• Virtual Tours
• Real Estate Agent Contact Information
• Neighborhood Information

Images are the number one thing buyers are looking for online! CirclePix is here to give agents the best imaging and marketing available online. When agents choose to add imaging to their listings, they have two methods to choose from: hire a professional photographer to photograph the listing, or photograph the home themselves. These two methods are available regardless of the imaging type. Agents may choose full-service video, self-service stills, full-service virtual tours, and so forth.

In the past, agents were forced to search out different companies for their imaging options. If they wanted self-service virtual tours, they had to go to Company A, but if they wanted full-service video tours, they had to go to Company B. Some companies offered only stills while others only did video. This means that agents were forced to go to multiple companies to meet their imaging needs. This also required agents to enter home information into various sites, as well as updating personal information on each site as changes occur; in addition, their frustrations grew as they had to remember one more customer service number or give their credit card information to one more company.

However, at CirclePix, agents can get all their imaging needs in one location. With one phone call, agents can reach a network of professional photographers and videographers, or have access to all the same features that come with full-service tours but upload their own images and video. CirclePix is the one-stop shop for all the real estate agents’ imaging and marketing needs, whether agents need virtual tours, video, or stills, either in full-service or self-service models.

CirclePix helps agents by simplifying their ordering and billing process, providing consistent branding on all their imaging, while giving access to a wide variety of marketing materials that are powerful, effective, and easy to use. Here at CirclePix, we can meet all of your image-based marketing needs!

CirclePix’s Hidden Secret

Posted on 1 August 2009 | 1 response

I grew up in Southern California with an In-N-Out right down the street.  I love their Double-Double Cheeseburgers.  The cheese overflows like golden lava from a volcano of meat.  There is nothing like it.  Ordering is a piece of cake.  They have burgers, fries and drinks, that’s it.  But In-N-Out has a hidden secret: it’s called “Animal Style.”  If you order your Double-Double “Animal Style,” it comes with pickles, grilled onions, extra sauce and mustard-grilled meat.  It’s soooo good!  In fact, In-N-Out has a bunch of ways to order their food that few know about but the terms actually show up on your receipt.  They are hidden secrets.  Now, Animal Style is the only way I’ll ever order a Double-Double.

CirclePix also has a hidden secret.  It’s our 24/7 call capture system called Lead Bee.  Every full- and self-serve tour comes with a unique call capture extension for free.  I just Google’d “call capture system” while I was writing this article and saw systems costing between $16 and $56 a month, and then you have to pay for minutes on top of the monthly charge.  Lead Bee is free with every tour and there is no per-minute usage charge.

In the last year I have seen more and more of these systems being used by agents.  These agents understand that some potential clients are not comfortable talking to an agent but want to find out more about their listing.  They understand a 24-hour information line can radically increase the calls on their listings without losing a lead.  They also understand the importance of building a database of leads that can be marketed to in the future.

CirclePix has added another incredible feature to the Lead Bee call capture system: the mobile tour.  The mobile tour optimizes the images from your CirclePix virtual tour for a mobile browser.  At the end of each Lead Bee recording, the potential client is directed to type in www.tournumber.com into his or her mobile browser.  There, they simply submit the extension they just used for the call capture system and Voila!–the potential buyer is seeing the images of the listing right on their cell phone.  How easy is that?

Just like “Animal Style” makes my Double-Double the best cheeseburger I’ve ever had in my life, the free Lead Bee call capture system adds flavor to your marketing efforts.  The good thing is it doesn’t fatten your stomach, it just fattens your wallet.  It’s one of those hidden secrets you don’t want to miss out on.

New Apps Launched!! We have recently built and launched 2 iPhone apps.

Posted on 25 July 2009 | No responses

The first one is called Tubey. With Tubey, you select images from your iPhone or iPod Touch and put them together in a slideshow. You can choose your transitions, choose your background music, or even record a narration. Tubey will then create a video of the slideshow that you can download, email to friends, or upload to YouTube, Facebook, or BlogSpot. It’s very simple and a great way to share your photos.

The other app is called Video Uploader. With the new iPhone 3GS that recently came out, you can use your iPhone as a video recorder. The problem is what do you do with the video afterwards? With Video Uploader, you can upload your video to YouTube, Facebook, and BlogSpot all in one application.

We’re very excited about these iPhone apps and have already seen some great success with them. Check them out now in the iTunes App Store:
Tubey
Video Uploader

Welcome to the new CirclePix blog!

Posted on 8 July 2009 | 1 response

Welcome to the new CirclePix company blog. CirclePix is the nationwide leader in virtual tour technology! At CirclePix, you will receive superior customer service, the fastest turn-around time, the best nationwide coverage, and the most technologically-advanced virtual tour on the market. We offer several products to make your listings stand above the rest. One of our most popular products right now is our YouTube video--this product allows your listings to be viewed by millions on the 4th largest website in the world. Our staff has worked hard to create professional listing videos with the images our photographers have taken of your property. This video can be embedded on a blog, added to your Facebook page or other social networking site, and even downloaded to an iPod. Don’t miss out on this important upgrade on your next CirclePix virtual tour.

It is our goal to help you successfully market your listings online and help you sell your listings faster. If you are ready to order a tour or have any questions please feel free to give us a call at (877) 390-6630 or email us at support@circlepix.com