Please help us in welcoming Heather and look forward to seeing her out and about in Southern California. If you would like to invite Heather into your office to learn more about FirstHomeTour.com and creating impressive virtual tours for your clients please contact Heather@FirstHomeTour.com.  If you are located outside of  San Diego County, Heather can setup Webinar for you and your office! Send Heather an email today to find out more information about creating virtual tours, property syndication, social networking and so much more!

Would you like your virtual tours to automatically show on Twitter? Now they can SIMPLY! Just create your virtual tour account and begin creating your custom virtual tours instantly! Once you have created your virtual tour on FirstHomeTour.com upon clicking the finish button your virtual tour will automatically be tweeted to Twitter.com/FirstHomeTour!

When you see your tour come through you can either Retweet your virtual tour link or view the virtual tour and using the ShareThis link – tweet to your own Twitter Account! We are just trying to make your social networking job just a little easier!

FirstHomeTour.com Virtual Tours on Twitter

Questions? Contact your support team at FirstHomeTour.com today!

888-675-4528

Customizing the Images in your Virtual Tour - Yes you can customize the images within your virtual tour.  In addition to adding text to any image in your tour you have the ability to change the color, position, size, and visibility of the text.  The maximum number of characters allowable on each image is 80 characters.  You also have the ability to increase the time each image is shown while the tour is playing, you can change the panning direction of any image and you can adjust the zoom of any image.

*Tip: If you have an HD Tour you can customize both the Standard and the HD Tour Images separately.  The default for the Image Edit tab is All Image Types.  However, if you would like larger text or different customizations on your HD/Standard tour, just select the tour you would like to customize and make your selections.  For example: I have a panoramic image that moves very quickly during the HD tour.  I select Image Options For: High Definition Tour and change the Time Image Shown to: 20 Seconds.  This will maintain the settings I have for the Standard Tour and slow down the image during the HD Tour.

*Tip: Don’t be afraid to enhance the zooming effect of your tour. Take a look  at the first image in this Tour Example.  This image has been set to zoom from 100% to 190% and as you can see totally changes the dynamics of the image shown.

Custom Domain Names - You can purchase custom domain names for your virtual tours for $9.95 per domain name.  Once you have ordered your custom domain name the virtual tour will automatically be linked to the new domain within 48 hours.

Here is an example of a domain purchased through FirstHomeTour.com: www.mytour1.com

Panoramic Images - Yes, you can add Panoramic Images to your virtual tour.  Just upload the image like any of your other images.

*Tip: The panoramic image is much longer than an average image.  Because of this you will need to change the panning direction of the image and increase the time the image is show.  For an average panoramic image, we recommend panning Left to Right and increasing the image showing time to at least 15 seconds.

High Definition (HD) Full Screen Tours – Yes, you can create HD Tours. Before you can upload your images to create an HD tour select HD Tour at the image upload screen then upload your images.  By uploading HD image you will create both the HD Tour and the Standard Tour.

*Tip: The quality of your full screen tour will depend on the resolution of your images.  In our image upload section you will see a green bar on each image.  If the green bar is below the half-way mark, your image is not high enough quality for a full screen tour and will result in a blurry picture.

Downloading your Virtual Tours – Yes you can download your tours free of charge.  While logged into your account select the download link for the tour you would like to download.  Next select the branded 0r non-branded tour and select download.  You will then arrive at a series of prompts – select RUN – RUN – UNZIP – CLOSE.  The virtual tour will be downloaded to your C drive and be located in a folder with the name of the tour number.  Next, if you would like to burn the virtual tour to a CD you will need to burn the entire contents of the downloaded folder to the CD.  Open up your burning software and move all the files to the CD to burn – normally there are over 50 files.

*Tip: Only use a CD-R to burn to. If you burn to a DVD the tour will not play.

Professional Narration – Professional Narration is available upon request for a small fee. When you request a professional narration, your information will be provided to our narration specialist who will contact you for more details.  The narrator will also be able to provide you with pricing. Professional Narration Sample

Music – Yes, music is included with your virtual tour – we have over 65 songs available for you to choose from. We are proud to feature local San Diego Area Artists such as Mark Lessman, Douglas Stephens and Javid & Naoko.  While we were in Orlando for the National Association of Realtors conference, we also had the pleasure of meeting Clifton deMarks.

*Tip: Some of our users opt not to have a music selection.  If you have previously chosen a song but wish for no music to play simply select “No Music Selected” in your music selections list.

Realtor.com Uploads – No, we do not charge you to upload your virtual tours to Realtor.com if you are Showcase Account Holder with Realtor.com.  If you do not have the Realtor.com Showcase account you will be billed a fee of $20 per virtual tour uploaded.

*Tip: If your MLS number changes and your virtual tour has already been uploaded to Realtor.com call us.  We will have to manually re-upload the tour for you, it cannot be done on your end or by calling Realtor.com.

Corporate Accounts – Yes, we do offer discounted pricing for multiple agents in the same office who would like unlimited virtual tour accounts.  The minimum sign-up is only 2 agents.

*Tip: Take advantage of our Corporate Offer there are no contracts required and no setup fees.

Marketing Affiliates – We are proud to have an incredible amount of marketing affiliates that your listing is submitted to by the click ONE button.  Here are just some of the syndications we offer – Google, Yahoo ($49.95 – Free for FirstHomeTour.com Customers), Trulia, Vast, Oodle, RealtyFeedSearch, Lycos, CLR, Probot, Hotpads, Military, Landwatch and more.  FirstHomeTour.com can effectively market your home using out TotalListingSystem®!

Video Uploads - Yes, you can upload your pre-created videos to your virtual tour and we do not charge any additional fees to do so.  We currently accept videos from YouTube, WellcomeMat, Yahoo, Google and Blip.  Uploading a video can be a complimentary addition to your virtual tour – especially if you have a video of the listings surrounding area or of your brokerage.  FirstHomeTour.com Video Example

FirstHomeTour.com Pricing – We DO NOT charge hosting or setup fees.  We DO NOT believe in contracts or nickle-and-diming you so we offer you two very simple account types.  Choose from our Monthly Account Type (Unlimited Virtual Tours) or our Pay as you Go Account Type (Only pay for what you create).  Of course we DO believe in discounts so we offer Corporate Accounts – for those who have more than two agents to sign up or Re-Seller Accounts – for Real Estate Industry Professionals who need to create branded tours for other agents. We also offer you a hassle free trial.  Create a Virtual Tour from Beginning to End during your trial period and never enter in a credit card number until you are ready to choose an account type!

*Tip: Need Proof? Check out our Virtual Tour Vendor Comparison Chart to see who is charging what and what you get!

We Thank your For your Interest in FirstHomeTour.com.

Let us know if you have any other questions, we will be happy to answer them for you.

See What our Customers Have to Say About Us

The Real Estate Today show can be heard every Sunday monday at 9:00am on San Diego’s KOGO AM600 channel.  The show covers many facets of the Real Estate Industry in San Diego County and throughout the country. 

Thank you SDAR, George and Erik for having us, a great time was had by all!

To learn more about creating virtual tours or becoming a member of FirstHomeTour go to www.FirstHomeTour.com and start your free trial today!  Don’t forget to enter the promo code “AM600” for our SDAR special pricing - 3 Months for the Price of 1!

To hear the interview between George, James and the current SDAR President – Erik Weichelt click on the play button below.

Here is a little bit about Addy’s daughter (Adrianne) and her band the Rescues:

 The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. No band in recent history illustrates that notion better than The Rescues. Comprised of four successful and critically acclaimed solo singer-songwriters in their own right – Adrianne Gonzalez, Kyler England, Gabriel Mann, and Rob Giles – The Rescues have more than 15 albums, dozens of songwriting awards, and thousands of miles on the road between them.

Friends and occasional touring partners, The Rescues formed when a former Atlantic Records executive (a fan of their solo projects) asked them join as a group to perform a concert at his wedding in the Hollywood Hills. The chemistry was instantaneous, both between them and with the audience, and a band was born. The ensuing 18 months have been a whirlwind. The band has done two sold-out tours, played Mountain Stage for broadcast on NPR, staged a string of sold-out concerts in Los Angeles including a residency at Hotel Café, been featured regularly on Grey’s Anatomy and Army wives among other hit TV shows, had songs in films including “The Lucky Ones” and “Superhero Movie,” been Spotlighted on Myspace’s Music Page, released their debut record “Crazy Ever After”, and charted on FMQB’s AAA Public Breakout Chart.

Their press has been delirious. They’ve been called “The First Indie Supergroup,” “A cross between Crosby, Stills and Nash and Concrete Blonde,” and “On a level above everything else on the L.A. Music Scene” (The Reader). They’ve been described as “Pure musical Bliss” and delivering “Poignant, powerhouse songwriting” (Indie-Music.com). LA Weekly says, “It’s hard to believe they’ve only been playing together for about a year. Their voices take flight on the soaring opener, “Lost Along the Way,” and rarely land again.” And Music Connection said: “Historic. A new band composed of four of L.A.’s finest singer-songwriters. It was as if these four had been born for this moment, such was the chemistry emanating from the stage. The Rescues have everything they need to become the leaders in a musical revolution.”

The Rescues began writing and recording their sophomore album “Let Loose The Horses” during their hugely successful January residency at the Hotel Cafe. The record is set to be released in July 2009.

 www.therescues.com

 Adrianne – Addy – Sara Barailles

  The Rescues and Sara Ramirez

   The Rescues and Sara Bareilles

If you live in Fairfax County, VA and looking for an experience photographer to create a custom virtual tour of your home, give Addy a call.  She can be reached at 703-635-5106 or emailed at fotoart08@gmail.com. To view an example of a virtual tour Addy has created view the following link:  www.FirstHomeTour.com/9970/ToursbyAddyG or visit her website: http://www.viewpropertytour.com/

The whole is

Branded Virtual Tour:
http://www.firsthometour.com/497/branded
http://www.firsthometour.com/virtualtour/497/branded

Branded virtual tours follow the format of “http://www.firsthometour.com/” followed by your virtual tour number, in the above example 497. The last part of the URL can be anything that you want as demonstrated below:

Custom Branded Virtual Tour
http://www.firsthometour.com/497/firsthometour
http://www.firsthometour.com/497/my virtual tours

Non-Branded Virtual Tours (IDX Compliant):
http://www.firsthometour.com/497

This format is very simple, its our domain name followed by a slash and your virtual tour number.

Using these shorter virtual tour urls will make it easier for your users to remember and for search engines to index the content.

Enjoy,
The FirstHomeTour.com Support Team!

Your virtual tours can now be converted to videos!   The videos will be added to the FirstHomeTour.com video channel on YouTube, the video tab of your virtual tour and will be syndicated out to sites like Google & AOL!  Intersted in finding out what your converted video will look like?  View our FirstHomeTour.com video samples here:

It is important to note that when you send the video conversion request to FirstHomeTour.com any tours who have High Definition images uploaded will automatically have High Definition YouTube videos created (below).  If you’ve uploaded standard images for your virtual tour, a High Quality YouTube video will be created (right). FirstHomeTour.com will automatically use the virtual tour title and description found in your virtual tour for your YouTube videos.  The map location in YouTube will show the Geo-Coding used in your virtual tour as well. If you would like your contact information to be a part of the video description – don’t forget to put that into video description section!

Requesting a video conversion is as easy as logging into your account, selecting Manage Multimedia in the dropdown list next to the virtual tour you would like converted and filling out your customized video settings.  

In order to get a good synthy turnout make sure to overlap your pictures. We used a tripod in the examples below and took about 5 minutes to take all of the pictures. The end result is a cool product that doesn’t take too much extra effort. Creating a synth isn’t for everyone but it does add a lot of fun factor to an otherwise boring experience. Subscribe to our feed on details of how to create a quality synth without taking hundreds of photos!