Why should real estate agents include 3cim virtual home tours in their marketing plans?

In an article dated January 22, 2004 in Inman Real Estate News titled "Strategy for Real Estate Success Revealed - Coach explains how to differentiate yourself in cyberspace", Bernice Ross, real estate coach and Inman News columnist discusses the value of marketing tools on the web. She states: "Brokers' and salespeople's own Web sites should be rich in pictures and virtual tours beyond what's provided on the MLS. Extra visuals are important hooks for not just buyers, but also sellers."

It is a well-known fact among those in the industry that increasingly, buyers are using the Internet to preview homes. Any portal that features listings will agree that listings with virtual home tours are viewed more frequently by online consumers than those with few or no photos. The National Association of Realtors presents the following statistics in the article "Virtual Tours Are Changing The Traditional Open House" published in Realtytimes.com dated November 4th, 2003:

• 72 percent of 3,000 buyers surveyed in a recent study drove by or viewed a house for sale as a result of searching the Internet
• 46 percent walked through a house after first visiting the home online
• 78 percent found photos of the houses they saw listed on the Internet "very useful”
• 46 percent said virtual tours were useful
• only 15 percent of online buyers failed to use virtual tours in their previewing process

And 3cim is considered by industry peers as the technology leader in real estate virtual home tours, breaking ground with its proprietary compression technology that reduces image file sizes by as much as 80% while preserving original image quality. This means quicker downloads, larger image sizes, and the best picture quality for showcasing real estate properties online.