Rating DIY Real Estate Virtual Tours
DIY Virtual Tour Reviews
Virtual Tours are almost a requirement in today's tech savvy world but not all tours are created equal. Let's take a look at what makes for a great virtual tour.
“ While a good real estate property virtual tour must make the property look great, an often missed factor is having the tour be effective at lead generation. ”
Brad Inman
Virtual Tour Company Reviews
We wanted to take a look at many of the DIY virtual tour vendors in the industry and examine them all to see which ones really are the best. You want to save money and you want to be in control and the DIY model is great for that, you also want to know what you are getting. And while there are many criteria to focus on the most important we believe are the aesthetics - how good does the tour make the property look, lead generation - is the tour actually helping the agent generate new potential business, mobile friendly/responsiveness - does the tour look good across multiple devices and of course price.
Here Are Our Reviews in Order
Winner
ListingsMagic
ListingsMagic is a real estate marketing company that was formed in 2006. So their longevity in an ever changing market is impressive. What really stood out for us in terms of their virtual tour was that they are quite evenly split in terms of making a property look amazing but also do all they can do to help agents generate those oh so important leads. Gary Keller once said that every listing you get should generate a potential of three new listings or buyers. ListingsMagic heard that. Here's a sample tour.
Let's review...
Aesthetics
The ListingsMagic virtual tour looks fantastic and holds up across all devices - desktop, tablet and mobile. And while they wouldn't win purely on aesthetics alone, they did a fantastic job of making thier tours do what they need to do. Look really really good. They do lose a point or two as their ability to customize their property tours aren't quite as diverse as some of the others, they do offer multiple form factors and the ability to customize the look and feel with varying color schemes and patterns.
Lead Generation
This is where ListingsMagic really shines. Their tours are hands down the best at helping agents generate new leads. Both new buyer and seller leads.
The first thing that stands out is the fact that they include a proprietary chat tool into the tour. This doesn't require agents to install anything as the tool works via text. If someone wants information on the property they get to simply ask in the chat widget. It seems simple but why aren't all the other tour copmanies doing this? They also have the ability to automate posting to all social media account automatically and require a soft registration. What this means is that the viewer simply has to allow access to see the tour. They never have to fill out their email or phone number but just click "Allow" and the agent gets that lead immediately. There are some other great features like scheduling a showing, property valuation pages that are unique but we will save those for another time.
Price
ListingsMagic is one of the least expensive products in the marketplace. Their subscription model with starts at $49.97 a month includes unlimited properties and unlimited marketing tools. They also offer a free trial to get started and you can get a yearly subscription and save some money with that option. All in all they are in our opinion very inexpensive in relation to what you get.
Summary
In summary ListingsMagic's focus on a beautiful tour experience coupled with their focus on lead generation gives them a slight edge over the competition.
We rate ListingsMagic 8/10
You can find out more about ListingsMagic by visiting their website.
Runner Up - 1
TourFactory
TourFactory is another company that has been around for a number of years and has been a mainstay in the real estate marketing space. Their focus has always been more on the aesthetics side of things and if did come down to pure aesthetics and the look and feel of the tours, they would be number one. They seem to follow an almost Applesque approach to their marketing and consistancy is where they shine. Where they lack and the lack is considerable is in their attention to lead generation. Here's a sample tour.
Let's review...
Aesthetics
TourFactory as mentioned above has done probably the best job of all when it comes to making their tours really look great. They have a real pop to them. Their focus on detail is spot on. Their tours navigate flawlessly on all platforms. The one downside we noticed is that there is photographer branding on the tours which is a distraction in our opinion. They also don't really have any other additional marketing tools. It's pretty much here's your virtual tour and that's about it. If that's all you are looking for then they may be the product for you.
Lead Generation
TourFactory really missed the mark almost completely when it comes to lead generation but the good news for them is that they really aren't alone here. Their idea of lead generation is pretty much a contact me form which in today's world is just not enough in our opinion. With just a bit more focus on that side of the equation they would probably be number one. Not much more to say about that here but this will be a familiar theme.
Price
TourFactory is fairly priced at $49.99 a month. They also offer a scaled down version which at $24.99 but converts to the $49.99 a month price. They also offer a yearly subscription which saves you one month. We rate them fairly affordable but again the breadth of their product offering is a bit lacking.
Summary
In summary, the TourFactory platform is primarly a virtual tour only platform in terms of marketing. And this is really what they are good at. If lead generation or additional tools to put into your marketing arsenal aren't important than they are a fantastic platform and relatively easy to you.
We rate TourFactory 7/10
You can visit the TourFactory website to learn more.
Runner Up - 2
Inside Real Estate (CirclePix)
Inside Real Estate is a juggernaut in the real estate space. They are basically a shell corporation that put together a who's who of various marketing and backend real estat companies. One of their purchases was CirclePix. CirclePix was also one of the pioneers of real estate marketing. Specifically when it comes to the DYI virtual tour space. They seem great in terms of marketing tool options but their tours severly lack in terms of aesthetics. Here's a sample tour.
Let's review...
Aesthetics
Now we know that this area is very subjective so again we will say this from an "our opinion" standpoint. From here on out it seems that the rest of the companies have just not put in the effort to make their tour aestically pleasing or work in a very user friendly manner. The Inside Real Estate tours just feel old and out dated. This may be a reflection of the fact that they just haven't had the bandwidth to focus on updates as they are so busy acclimating the many companies that they purchased or it may be a reflection of the fact that they just don't really care that much. But for us, while aesthetics and elegance aren't everything, they are very important as it speaks to your professionalism.
Lead Generation
Inside Real Estate (CirclePix) does do a pretty good job of lead generation and is really why they are in position number three. It's like if TourFactory and Inside RE could get together they would be a formidable powerhouse but it just doesn't work that way.
Price
This is another area where Inside Real Estate (CirclePix) gets knocked down a notch. The CirclePix platform used to be sold on it's own and was priced in the $50 a month price range. But when we reached out to find out more we discovered that you can no longer simply by a virtual tour subscription but rather you must bundle the product with other offerings. This bumps the price up to over $100/month and while that gets you a great deal many features it is surprising that this is now how they structured their business model.
Summary
In summary, if you are looking for a powerful all in one marketing platform that includes websites and back end brokerage tools as well as a DIY virtual tour tool then you might find this product be to be a great fit. But if you simply want an effective and feature right DIY virtual tour tool then you will probably find this to be a bit much in terms of both price and complexity.
We rate Inside Real Estate 6/10
You can visit the Inside Real Estate website to learn more.
Runner Up - 3
Paradyme (VisualTour)
Paradyme was formerly known as VistualTour. They were THE pioneer when it came to the DIY virtual tour. They were founded back in the early 90s and revolutionized the industry. They were also purchased however back in 2018 and rebranded as Paradyme. The idea was to again create a more robust and all inclusive marketing solution beyond just the virtual tour. And while they are a solid platform they also miss the mark in many areas.
Sample Tour
Let's review...
Aesthetics
It seems that after the first two companies we reviewed there is a pretty steep dropoff in terms of quality of tour. If you review the sample tour link above you will see what we are referring to. While some may like the text to speech element and it has come a long way, it's still too robotic for our liking. In addition, the description being placed over the main photo is a bit distracting. And again there's a very subjective nature to all of this but there were 7 people who are part of this review team and we all agreed that this was probably the worst in terms of aesthetics.
Lead Generation
Paradyme seems to fall into the same category. Almost no consideration for lead generation or lead generation tools. They don't offer a way to share the product to the various social media platforms other than copy/paste the tour links.
Price
The Paradyme pricing model is $79.97 a month but there's also a one time $197 setup fee. Given what you get and what the platform costs they are a bit overpriced in our opinion.
Summary
In summary, it seems that the only people still using the Paradyme (VisualTour) platform are legacy accounts. We checked many of their existing tours and the agents we found were agents that have been in business for awhile and while that's great because they are established and probably have a great referral base but if that's not you then you just might be disappointed.
We rate Paradyme 4/10
You can visit the Paradyme website to learn more
About Us
At RealMarketingPro we strive to give real estate agents valuable information and reviews on various marketing solutions. We know that there are many many platforms and technology solutions out there to choose from and it can be overwhelming so we want to help agent make the best choices.
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