Video Tour vs. 360 degree Home Tour
The Virtual Tours you generally see on real estate sites are a static 360 degree distorted view of a room that simulates motion. Photos are stitched together in a 360 degree circle, and you can virtual “tour” around the room. But when was the last time you walked into a room, stood in one place, and spun in a circle? Common virtual tours are distorted, usually blurry, and always unrealistic.
While certainly better than a still picture, you have no choice as to the content and often the images are not flattering to the property.
Video Tours don’t distort your property. Photos flow naturally, just as if you were in the room! It’s just like watching television! And all videos are edited to show off only the best aspects of the property. Video is more impressive than a virtual tour in showcasing the beauty and serenity of landscapes, gardens, swaying trees, water features, flying birds, floating clouds, fountains - it all adds to the vibrancy and exuberance of the video presentation.
A video tour of your properties shows off the property with immense visual and emotional impact. I believe that emotional connection increases the odds of your being contacted by a potential buyer for an appointment for a personal tour.
What’s bad is that many some real estate companies have even been as bold and misleading to the customer as to name the resulting graphical slide show presentation a ‘Video Tour’. Don’t be misled! 360 home tour solutions allow the end user to upload a set number of images and then use these images to display a moving (or sometimes even non-moving) graphical display of still images. I don’t see how you can classify five -20 pictures as a ‘tour’. In reality it is nothing more than a slideshow. There is clearly nothing ‘virtual’ about a slideshow.
I have used this so called ‘360 home tour technology’ before. While the end result is a 360-degree panorama, the quality is horrible. The resulting images distort the property and make counter tops and walls look rounded. You cannot use the cameras flash to brighten particular portions of the room like you can with photo stitching software. You are unable to do 180 degree panoramas and must do an entire full 360 of every room. You’re left with blown out windows and white balance problems. Finally the resulting images from this dreaded technology are not printable for your client to use outside of the 360 home tours. A lot of low-quality providers use these solutions to present real estate and the result is a complete misrepresentation of the property.
June 18th, 2007 at 7:59 am
To my mind, picturing is more like an art, so it really can make your house look better & more interesting. Though 360-degree panorama lets you feel as if being there, photos are more..mm..romantic,maybe, seems so. You can imagine something, see it more picteresque..