In an effort to maintain our high level of service, this notification is to inform you of an upcoming maintenance window in the Data Center at RealEstateShows.com.

The window for this maintenance will be from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Pacific daylight time on Saturday, April 21, 2007.

No public Shows will be impacted. So any Show created before this time will be viewable at all times wherever they may be linked.

We will be performing upgrades and maintenance on the Core routing infrastructure in the data center. Due to this maintenance, there may be several brief interruptions of service while traffic switches over from one device to another. So, to prevent any possible mishaps, you will be unable to log into your account and you will be unable to create Shows during this time frame.

Again, no public Shows will be impacted. You clients will not be impacted by this maintenance.

We get this question via email a few times a week, so we felt it might be a good topic to cover here.

Our main Shows are either 30 seconds or 60 seconds. This will always be the case. We allow an unlimited number of photos in the secondary slide show that is accessed by the “more photos” link. They do not appear in the main Show.

We’ve done significant research and experimentation concerning the optimum length of Shows. Let me share with you our findings, our experience and our conclusions.

Our objective is to help you be more effective and to help build your business.

Our shows work as 30 or 60 second commercials. We developed our technology and crafted our presentations with that in mind. The feedback we’ve received from real estate agents and from the general public (your client base) overwhelmingly says that when people view our Shows they feel as if they are watching an effective, evocative commercial.

The key in having our commercials be effective is attention span.

We all know that television commercials are 30 or 60-second spots. The reason is attention span. It’s not money, or technology limitations. We could create Shows of any length. Our research supports attention span maximums of 60 seconds. In addition, during an earlier stage in our product development, we did some custom Shows (at a much higher price) for a select group of real estate agents selling multi-million dollar homes. The Shows ran 90 and 120 seconds. There was no increase in viewer or client appeal. Some viewers asked the real estate agents why the Shows were so long. Cognitive science prevailed. Presentations have no more than 60 seconds in which to make an emotional first impression on a viewer.

The goal of our commercials is to have viewers say, “I want to see that home and I want to meet that Realtor.” That is best achieved in 60 seconds.

Here’s why our Shows are effective.

In the first 30 or 60 seconds, we capture the emotional interest of the viewer. That is essential if we want the viewer to act (contact the Realtor and go see the home). Once we capture their interest and the viewer wants more information, we provide that information in the form of additional photos – as many as the Realtor chooses to put up. Bear in mind that the viewer always becomes unconsciously hooked in the first 30 to 60 seconds. Everything beyond that is research – wanting more information. Making the shows themselves longer runs the risk of having the viewer lose interest by having to continue to watch a commercial after they’ve decided they like the product. That’s talking past the close.

We’ve created our commercials for homes at all price points – from under $100,000 to in excess of $12,000,000. The same format has produced outstanding results across all price points because all of our unconscious minds want the same thing.

The keys to optimizing the impact of your Shows are:

• take good photos
• arrange them in an inviting order
• adjust camera movement for maximum dramatic effect
• write evocative titles for your scenes
• and tell an interesting story about the home in the Property Information section of the show.

Maximum emotional impact is best achieved by paying attention to all those elements.

We truly believe that the combination of all of the above is the key to having the absolute best, most effective Internet presentations in existence.

[tags]attention span, tour, real estate, realtor, realestateshows.com[/tags]

We get a version of this question almost every day: “Why isn’t my branding showing up on my MLS?” or “Why are my titles missing on my Real Estate Show on my MLS?”

There are over 800 MLS systems in the United States and virtually every one of them forbid you to have your personal branding on the tours you attach to listings on their search engines. Some MLS systems are more strict than others. These “strict” MLS systems require that any information that can be input by the Realtor be removed. This includes tiltes, links to outside websites, property details. They remove any possibility that you could slip in your name and telephone number.

Strict Sample

Other MLS systems simply require that the branding be removed and they trust that you will do the right thing and NOT insert personal information in the titles, headlines, and property details. We call this our “basic” MLS player. Most MLS systems accept this kind of link.

Basic Sample

Both of these links are sent to you in your linking email that is sent as confirmation the moment you create a new Real Estate Show. Each Show you create has both the basic and strict link available for use. To keep yourself from being fined, make sure you use the right one for your MLS.

[tags]MLS, marketing, realestate, virtual tour[/tags]

I’m A Showcase Listing Enhancements Customer of REALTOR.COM, why am I being asked to pay the $25 Fee?

There is a simple, but frustrating, answer to that question. The reason is that the information in the Property Details of your Show do not match EXACTLY what Realtor.com has in their system. Extra characters, # signs or the wrong city or zip are typically the reason for this. If the information does not match exactly, Realtor.com will tell us you are not a Showcase Listing Enhancement Customer. Remember, this is two computers talking to one another, they have to be perfectly aligned in order to make the right assessment. So, check the information on Realtor.com and make certain the property detail in your Real Estate Show matches EXACTLY with what is shown on the Realtor.com listing - then submit again.

If they match, the system will now know you are a Showcase Listing Enhancement Customer and you will NOT be charged.

[tags]real estate, realtor.com, virtual tours, featured tours[/tags]