It’s the last day of January, and the rest of 2011 is before us. We hope you had a great start to the year. Since one month is now behind us, and the rest of the year is ahead of us, we ask one last time…How are your marketing dollars being spent, and are you getting the most value for your dollar?

We label our photography and virtual tour packages as robust for one specific reason: they give you 1 whole year of marketing for less cost than 1 month with traditional print advertising. In other words, if you go with a more traditional advertising route, and that listing doesn’t sell within a month, you will end up spending more of your time and money than you would have with bhamtours. And if that potential buyer doesn’t pick up and read the real estate magazine or survey the classifieds, then you most certainly have not gotten the most value for your dollar.

With traditional print media, if that listing doesn’t sell within a month
you could be wasting your time & money.

By investing that same amount, or often times less, with bhamtours, you get professional photography, a 360o virtual tour, and a listing specific website, which helps to ensure that your listing is presented in the best possible way on every search engine, in every real estate office, and on every potential buyer’s computer for an entire year! And an inherent benefit of having a website dedicated to your listing is the flexibility it provides. You can easily share that link in all sorts of places: sign riders, personal website, fact sheets/fliers, social media, etc. Remember – robust!

But what if the listing sells within a year? (With professional photographs and virtual tours there is a good chance it will.) Have you wasted money on a whole year of marketing?!?! Absolutely not: A local agent had the idea of putting a “sold” banner on the website and using it on listing presentations:

Think about your next listing presentation. Let your potential clients know that you will be making the investment in professional photographs, virtual tours and a website for their listing. Show them an example of our product at www.bhamtours.com, and they’ll rest assured that you understand today’s real estate market.  Or better yet, use one of your prior listings with a “sold” banner across it, and they’ll get excited!

How are your marketing dollars being spent, and are you getting the most value for your dollar?

With any of our packages you will get a robust, turnkey marketing solution that is an excellent value for your time and your dollar.

We look forward to working with you this year. Please call 205.563.1165 or email info@bhamtours.com to schedule now.

No shocker here: Sales listings taken by higher-end single-lens-reflex cameras (SLR), preferred by professionals, garner higher prices than those properties whose sellers use point-and-shoot cameras, according to Redfin Corp., a Seattle-area real estate firm.

Redfin analyzed listings in Boston and Long Island and determined that houses with better photos sold for anywhere from $934 to $116,076 more compared to listings using photos from point-and-click cameras. The data also showed that properties with better photos got more online views.

Only about 15 percent of sellers use professional photographers and better cameras. Redfin says that about half of $1 million-plus listings were shot with cheaper point-and-shoot cameras.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, Emily Peck (10/04/2010)

So we ask for the third week…how are your marketing dollars being spent, and are you getting the most value for your dollar? Real estate is in the midst of making its transition online. More and more Realtors are marketing their listings online. And more and more home buyers are viewing homes online. This is not a fad, we’ve seen the classified section of the newspaper shrink and the real estate magazines get thinner. The real estate business is being conducted online, and as the paradigm continues to shift, social media outlets like facebook, YouTube and the like become increasingly useful. It is VERY likely your next buyer or referral will come via a social media outlet.

Bhamtours is already engaged in the social media communities of facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and flickr and we encourage you to connect with us! Already your listings are getting exposure via these communities, so make sure you take advantage not only of our professional photographs, virtual tours, and websites, but access to these social media outlets with bhamtours. Please continue reading for more information about how we are using social media as a part of our daily business, and for even MORE information, make sure you check out our blog (www.bhamtours.com/blog) later in the week.

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There is a good chance you are already on facebook. It is the #1 social media outlet in the world, and has the power to network millions of people. Most people use it to share their personal life with their family and friends. But it also happens to be an incredibly useful tool to market yourself professionally, connect and network with potential clients, home buyers and colleagues, as well as, market your listings .

Bhamtours has a facebook fanpage (www.facebook.com/bhamtours) and it’s a part of our marketing strategy this year to offer facebook exclusive promotions and offerings. So, if you are not a fan of bhamtours on facebook already, you really should be so you don’t miss out on special deals throughout the year. But in addition to promos, did you know that we post a link to every website we build with the photographs and virtual tours of your listing?!?! And that goes to hundreds of people’s newsfeeds everytime we share a link. People view and leave comments about the house YOU are trying to sell. It’s easy to respond to people’s comments, maybe even expand upon the information in MLS.

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Billions of videos are shared on YouTube. That number is staggering…billions! We are lucky if our local theater gets a hundred movies a year. And although most users share and view videos online for entertainment purposes, YouTube happens to be one of the most untapped social media outlets for promoting yourself professionally and showcasing your listings.

Bhamtours started a YouTube channel last fall (www.youtube.com/users/bhamtours) to capture those viewers, and as an additional way to increase the exposure of our client’s listings. And just like facebook, YouTube is an invaluable way to expand upon the information that people read about a listing in the MLS.

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Realtors are used to connecting with each other via agent open houses and caravan groups, and nothing can ever replace face to face interaction. But no where is it easier to connect Realtors with affiliates than on LinkedIn, which has been around for years as a networking site for professionals. It is also the easiest way to share our resumes, professional accomplishments, and additional professional endeavors.

We recently added our company page on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/company/bhamtours) and we encourage you to follow bhamtours and connect with us via our own professional profiles. Not only that, but we have started a bhamtours group on LinkedIn, and hope to use it in the near future as a discussion forum for sharing marketing strategies and other valuable information.

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Honestly, we love a good photograph…of any sort. Who doesn’t?!? Flickr has become one of the newest and fastest growing ways photographers can share their portfolios with the public and other photographers, get feedback about their work, and strategize about how to get that perfect shot.

The heart and soul of bhamtours is ultimately photography. We take a lot of photographs to help make sure your listing looks its absolute best, but every now and then even one of our own photographs stops us in our tracks. Bhamtours started a photostream (www.flickr.com/photos/bhamtours) on flickr to share some of our favorite shots.

Just like you…we anticipate an exciting and profitable 2011. So each week in January, we’ve planned to send out an email newsletter discussing either a new strategy to market your listing or a way you can enhance your current marketing strategies; and how bhamtours can help you with marketing your listing this year and make your sales goals!

One of the key advantages of using bhamtours for photography is that we integrate the photographs and virtual tours with data from the MLS on a website dedicated specifically to that listing (e.g., www.1234mainstreet.com). The websites that bhamtours builds presents the photographs, virtual tours and the MLS data of your listing in a clean, uncluttered format that is easy for the potential home buyer to read and get the facts they want.

Too often search results pull up information about a listing in a non-user friendly format: small, hard to read font; cluttered information; data that is unimportant to the potential home buyer. And a lot of times it’s even hard to find the Realtor’s contact information. Not so with the websites we build for your listing; they are fresh, clean, perfectly laid out.

Once the websites are built, all that is left is to market the website link. The simplest and easiest way is to put a bhamtours sing the yard encouraging passerbys to visit www.bhamtours.com and click on the link for your listing.

Some Realtors place riders on the top of their real estate signs with the web address. Others us a generic “Google This Address” rider that can be used over and over on all their listings. Realtors have also shared the link to their listing on their own personal and professional websites, and social media outlets.

So we ask again…how are your marketing dollars being spent, and are you getting the most value for your dollar?

As 2011 starts to unfold before us, we want to pose the question: How are your marketing dollars being spent, and are you getting the most value for your dollar?

It’s a fact…almost all home buyers start their search online. High quality photographs will dramatically increase your listing’s online curb appeal and increase the amount of online traffic your listing gets.

• 97% of home buyers searching the internet find photographs the most useful feature in selecting a home.
• 89% of home buyers find virtual tours to be very useful.
• Listings with high quality professional photographs are 61% more likely to be reviewed online than similar homes within that price range.
• Listings with high quality professional photographs command higher asking prices, especially with mid to high priced listings.

So quit doing what everyone else is doing. Your time and your money are valuable. It’s a new year and time to try new marketing strategies: High Quality Professional Photographs.

Notice the difference between the 2 photographs; the top one is yellow and you can tell the lines aren’t straight from the white column. In the photograph on the bottom not only do you find better lighting which provides vibrant colors, but there is a wider view, the column is straight and the blemish on the column is fixed. You don’t want a potential home buyer to gloss over your listing because of an ugly picture. Let bhamtours help increase your listing’s online curb appeal.  We capture our photographs with professional equipment and lighting, and we individually edit each image. So the photographs of your listing aren’t going to be dark, or yellow, or crooked.

How are your marketing dollars being spent, and are you getting the most value for your dollar?

We hope the holiday season has granted you blessed moments with your family friends.  And we look forward to a bright and prosperous new year.

Let us help you finish the year strong…there is 1 more week to lock in our Preferred Package for $99!  That is 34% off the regular price, so call and schedule a tour before the new year arrives.

We look forward to working with you soon, so please call us at 205.563.1165 or email us at info@bhamtours.com to book your tours now.

We are pleased to offer our Preferred Package for only $99 if you book a tour during the month of December. That is up to 6 virtual tour scenes, all the interior and exterior photographs, and a property specific website for 34% off our regular price. We know time and money are at a premium during the holidays, and we also know the hard work doesn’t stop.

So take advantage of the reduced price, and let bhamtours help market your listing. Please call us at 205.563.1165 or email us at info@bhamtours.com to book your tours now.

We look forward to working with you soon!

Bhamtours has 2 marketing options that for a limited time are being offered without any cost to you. Yup, FREE! Share your listing’s online presence with all the vehicles driving past by having us put a bhamtours sign in the yard encouraging drivers to view the tour of your listing online at our website. There is a link to your listing’s website at www.bhamtours.com, and our website gets close to 400,000 hits a month. So help make sure that the vehicular traffic turns into online traffic!  And when a sign goes in the yard a video of the photographs we take gets posted on our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/bhamtours. So increase the exposure of your listing TWO ways for FREE with bhamtours.

**The Thanksgiving holiday is next week, and we all know everyone gets busy celebrating with family and friends.  Make sure you book your tour before the holidays arrive!

We look forward to working with you soon.  Please call us at 205.563.1165 or email us at info@bhamtours.com to book your tours now.