As agents begin to adopt 360 tours it's vital to understand that quality matters. There are now a large range of tours - from DIY gizmos to beautiful professionally scanned tours using expensive equipment and upscale tour formats.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of stealing a listing from another agent. Coming soon to market, after it "rests" and we let time undo the damage the previous agent created with poor marketing. It was a multi-million dollar listing whose former agent, apparently too cheap to use the correct tour and high end DSLR photos to earn their $100,000 in commission (I kid you not) - had shot a Ricoh Tour, themselves, with a low end consumer grade Theta V. The photos were no better. In a market where high end photographers are plentiful.

The rooms appeared squatty, shot from poor perspectives - chromatic abberation all over the place - lighting issues, glare, no HDR...etc. Sad. And the result: Virtually nobody wanted to see this beautiful house, on the market for over a year, because the virtual tour made it seem unappealing...when it was, in fact, gorgeous.

Photographers and 360 Professionals: This is why they need us - and they need us to maintain industry standards. Cheap isn't better. It's just cheap. When you're selling something in the hundreds of thousands - to millions of dollars.... saving a few bucks doesn't make much sense, does it?


Here are the statistics I verified when doing a complete review of 360 tour usage in the Greater New Orleans area: (feel free to use these as examples of how tours are being adopted)

Out of roughly 10,000 Active/Pending properties listed - only 300 of them were using a 360 Virtual Tour.

Of the tours linked on the MLS (of any kind, not just 360) - 40% of them did not go anywhere - broken links, improper entry

Of 4300 member agents, only 140 of them were using 360 tours on their listings. That's less than 3%

NOW: Here's the exciting part: Of the TOP 25 agents in the MLS - 28% of them were using 360 tours.

Of the top 10 agents: 50% were using 360 tours.


Go forth and educate - 360 Tours are the future. Those who get on board early will get the best seats!