When in the market to purchase a new home, recent statistics say almost 80% of searchers turn to the all-knowing Internet to help them save time. I wanted to share a list of the 10 Top Real Estate search tools from a recent post on Lifehacker.com. Google is included in the list of course, but there were a couple of sites that I had never heard of including one site that helps you find used moving cartons.
Read the full list complete with links by clicking right here.
Realtors, would you like to make sure all your listings are distributed to these high traffic sites? Contact SpotLight Virtual Tours for help.
Brett
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July 5th 2007 - At long last the long, white limo that had picked up the Schankweilers at the first of the week pulled into 165 Piney Rd in Lawrenceburg TN. The renovations to the Schankweiler home by the volunteer team of carpenters, plumbers, electricians, roofers, stucco, landscape and decorating specialists was complete. (See “Project Fresh Start” article.) All that was left was the “big reveal”. A modified version of ABC’s Extreme Makeover, Home Edition reveal was used. Instead of moving a bus, the team used a tractor, owned by “Buttermilk” Wisdom to hide the home from the family. When they were in position we all yelled “Buttermilk, move that tractor!”
The Schankweiler’s - Tommy, Timmy, Sandee Jo, Tonie Jo and Tayler
It was very rewarding to see the looks on the family’s faces and the obvious appreciation that they had for all the hard work that was put in by project coordinator James Crocker, 100+ very talented volunteers and 40+ businesses who donated labor, materials or gave a steep discount on materials.
For the volunteers, lots of new friends were made and the experience was priceless. I wound up on the four-member electrical crew headed up by Trevor Hamby of Hamby Construction and Electrical. Also on the electrical crew was Richard McGill, who drove his RV 550 miles from Ohio just to help with this project. Josh Ray was from much closer, only driving three miles each day to the project. It was amazing to see how people from five states and on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line worked together.
The other big reward was seeing the results of the team’s labor. The new kitchen and dining area is absolutely stunning as is the rest of the home. The edits have been made to the virtual tour of the home. I placed the before and after scenes consecutively where possible to help readers see the impact of the renovations.
The Tennesseean newspaper had a front page story featuring Project Fresh Start titled “Family’s tragic year turns hopeful“. The newspaper also made a brief video of the Schankweiler homecoming.
Brett Weaver
SpotLight Virtual Tours
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A hurting family is getting help from the Lawrence County TN community. You can help too. Links and more information can be found below.
From the Lawrence County Advocate newspaper:
Tommy Schankweiler III shot and killed his father, Thomas Schankweiler Jr. March 21, after a typical day full of threats and abuse to Tommy, his three siblings, and their mother. The elder Schankweiler suffered from bipolar disorder, a mental illness that causes unpredictable and extreme mood swings.
The Tommy Schankweiler Jr. family has resided in Lawrenceburg, TN for roughly three years. Tommy and Sandee Jo, and their four children, “Bubba”, Timmy, Tonie Jo, and Tayler moved from Florida to this beautiful Tennessee community to slow down and raise a family.
James Crocker, president of Waterblasting Technologies, was a schoolmate of Mr. Schankweiler and after hearing about the tragedy he had an idea. This quote is from the website dedicated to “Project Fresh Start”:
Their story is a long one and this website is likely not the best venue for discussing its’ details. However, with Tommy’s untimely passing, their family, friends, church and community are coming together to “plug in” and create a new set of surroundings and a “fresh start” by completely renovating their existing house. . .
. . .I fully believe that a complete overhaul of the house they are occupying would have an incredible long-term impact on this courageous family.
From what I can tell, Mr. Crocker has done an excellent job of organizing the local resources for this project. I felt that I needed to join the effort in some way so I volunteered to help with the remodeling and also to use a virtual tour to show the home before and after the remodeling. A virtual tour is an excellent way to let those who have donated money to see what their generosity produced.
The Schankweiler project before virtual tour is complete. Take a look at it here. Then come back after the work is done to see how we did! (See part 2 of this article here)The project will run from June 30, 2008 through July 5th 2008 when the Schankweilers will be presented with their newly remodeled home.
There is still time to make a much needed donation to Project Fresh Start. Visit www.helpthisfamilynow.com and make a donation .
Brett Weaver
SpotLight Virtual Tours
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The facts:
There is no time like the present to start building your online presence and reputation. It is more expensive than ever for home seekers to drive around looking at properties. If it’s not on their commute, chances are the only way they will find the property is online, especially if they are moving outside the county they live in.
Contrarian thinker and marketer Seth Godin has stated that “The best time to plan for a sale in three years is right now.” For instance:
A hypothetical situation:
If I was a real estate agent and it’s oh say 2005, it would have been really easy to put off blogging and building my online presence because the market was up and maybe I wasn’t having to dig really deep to find buyers for the homes I had listed.
But let’s say I did start or continue my reputation building back then. By 2008 I’d have had about three years of content on my site(s). Even if I did get a disgruntled client. . .you can’t please everyone all the time. . .and they decided to post something nasty about me, there’s a whole lot of good stuff out there that would bury that one little blip in my record. Besides, as I said before, nobody wants to burn $3+ gas to ride around looking at houses. They’re at home on the internet looking for that perfect property. Good thing Google is full of search results pointing at me when buyers are searching my area!
Next steps to success:
As a real estate agent, the best place to start building your online presence is by creating an account on the Active Rain Real Estate Network. If you have doubts about the effectiveness of this strategy check out this post by an Active Rain blogger who got a lead AND closed a sale all due to his presence on Active Rain.
But when would I as a real estate agent have time for blogging and online reputation building you ask? Well, you could free up some time by leaving your property photography to your local full service virtual tour provider 
BrettWeaver
SpotLight Virtual Tours
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If you’re searching for a virtual tour provider to help market your property, make sure the technology behind the tour will do the property justice. Check out this post on Real Tour Vision’s Virtual Tour Company Blog. In the post Alex Saenger of BakerB Solutions shares about a virtual tour that he was hired to shoot because his client demanded the RTV virtual tour replace the the CirclePix tour.
I know you’re in a hurry so I’ll give you the links to the tours so you can decide for yourself which virtual tour technology you prefer, but do check out the original post.
See the Baker B Virtual Tour Powered by Real Tour Vision HERE
See the CirclePix Virtual Tour HERE
SpotLight Virtual Tours uses Real Tour Vision technology to provide you with the finest interactive virtual tours on the market. Let us put YOUR property in the SpotLight.
Brett Weaver
SpotLight Virtual Tours
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