FRUSTRATION WITH REALTOR5334
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fotoguy private msg quote post Address this user | |
| We were scanning a house this morning for a realtor. It is the second house we have scanned for him. During the course of scanning the house he told us he had ordered his own MP after seeing the results of what we did for him. A frustrating statement to hear. My only thought was why would you buy your own camera when we are doing it a fair price for you? Plus, do you want to take 3 hours out of your day to scan this 3,000+ sqft house and the follow-up work just to save some money. Seems that time would be better off showing houses and marketing to new customers. |
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 WGAN ForumFounder & WGAN-TV Podcast Host Atlanta, Georgia |
DanSmigrod private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @fotoguy Yes. Turn it into an opportunity such as offering: ✓ training (scanning, trimming, Workshop) ✓ handle peak days (when more than one property needs to be scanned) ✓ consulting (which gear and why) ✓ fill in on vacation days (Realtor gone, but scan needs to be done) Dan |
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Jamie private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Matterport sales do a great job at convincing agents to do their own. Depending on how you do the sums and what your prices are, it works out to be between 4 - 8 scans per month is the agents break even amount (where it is no financial difference from doing it themselves v you doing it) I've had this before, and I've then picked up those new buyers clients when they return/sell their camera when they realise it's not as easy or worth their time to get a pro result. Put that out to them perhaps. If they decide it's not for them, you will be glad to help them again. |
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Regina, Saskatchewan Canada |
Queen_City_3D private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @fotoguy If he's a top producer he'll soon realize that his time is better spent with other activities. I'm a Realtor myself and despite being very active in this forum the truth is I've only ever done 1 matterport scan myself. It's my wife who does the work and she's scanned over 400 properties to date. I agree with @DanSmigrod and @Jamie that you should see if there's opportunities for you to work with the agent. They may come to realize that there's more back end work required that eats up more time than they had thought, and they may want to hire you for just the back end activities. Who knows, maybe as you expand your own business there may be an opportunity to hire a helper and cheaply rent or borrow the agent's camera for those times when you could be doing a few gigs at the same time. |
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fotoguy private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I understand. All I said to him is that it's not quite as easy as the ads make it look. There is a lot to learn and background production. I certainly don't want to burn any bridges as he may find out it wasn't the smartest move for him. Onward and upward. | ||
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Frisco, Texas |
Metroplex360 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @fotoguy - I think that your Realtor customer will regret their purchase. It's a bad investment for them. At the end of the day, the cost and time spent doing it is going to be an uphill battle for winning more listings. They would be wise to instead negotiate with you a bulk rate and retain you while concentrating on their marketing. I see each Realtor relationship that I have for Matterport scans as a very temporary arrangement. I strongly believe that EVERY Realtor should have 1-2 tours done so that they have two marketing pieces with their branding on it for their website and social media in order to lure sellers. For listing agents, it's a LURE. In most markets, the Matterport Tour doesn't sell the house. It -can- - and boy would it if Zillow would choose to integrate it (that's a separate conversation with pros/cons on both sides). In many cases, a Matterport tour is like an open house -- it's totally unnecessary, it's not going to sell the house, but the seller wants it because it has a perceived value. When that happens, you hire your local MSP to come out and make your seller happy. The seller will be happy you hired a Pro instead of being a weird Realtor who is cutting corners and saving money. If I were not a photographer and my Realtor was doing all the photography, I'd get a new Realtor. How many Realtors that own and operate a Matterport also show up in a Lexus? How many successful Realtors do their own scans? -- So to anyone out there who runs into this --- Totally embrace your Realtor friend! Be excited for his adventure! When he calls you for help, refer him to Matterport support. Offer to scan for them when they are too busy or if their Matterport needs to be sent back for repairs or realigning! Drop hints from time to time that you also will be calling Matterport to buy another camera as you are hoping to scale your business! Meet up for COFFEE after their first scan because of how much you care! Maybe: #1) You'll get a SWEET deal on a Pro-2 camera for your company in 3 months  #2) You can offer the Realtor a job scanning for YOUR company and share your vision for growth! #3) Same as #1, but after you pyramid scheme them with #2. -- As Queen_City_3D did point out -- when Realtors get a Matterport, it's often when there's a husband/wife team. I've seen this too - and then the husband gets the job of the scan  And ... just maybe ... that's the MSP that you need on your team to help you scale |
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ron0987 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| We have several agents that have there own camera and realized it was not as easy as they though and still use us. | ||
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Regina, Saskatchewan Canada |
Queen_City_3D private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @Metroplex360 Some excellent points. I completely agree that it is hard to convince any agent that a Matterport tour will sell the house. It's unlikely it would. But as @DanSmigrod always says... it can definitely help win listings. Part of my unique selling proposition is that I offer Matterport on practically every listing. I even had a vacant lot with an older garage where I did a Matterport tour for the garage! Most realtors are only going to do it for their top listings. I think a smart strategy for some agents would be to offer tiered packaging. Let's say they would list a property at 6% (or 4% or 5% or whatever....)... maybe they show a demonstration of a matterport tour they've done on another listing to the seller and explain on their top tier package they get the Matterport tour done, but then (using the first commission example) the cost is then 6.5%. If the seller is blown away by the tech and agrees to the top tier marketing package, then the agent has essentially MADE MORE MONEY by hiring a Matterport pro. My recommendation for MSPs looking to pick up more agents who are reluctant to sign up would be to provide them with a demonstration scan that you've already done but brand it to them as an example that they can use in their listing presentations to see if they can sell some "top tier" marketing packages and get extra commission in the process. |
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fullpreview private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @fotoguy - alright, time for some hard love brother, speaking truth. I am a real estate broker and own a Matterport Pro 2 camera, recently upgraded from the first. The value proposition for a Broker is very strong and, in my opinion, any broker not buying at least one for the office is not scaling their brokerage for growth. 1. Having our own MP Camera is a great feature for recruiting Realtors - they don't have to pay anything to add the 3D Showcase to their listing pitch when soliciting sellers. So, if you want to add Realtors to your sales force, then owning a camera.. just for that purpose makes very good sense. 2. By doing "in-house" processing, we can do whatever we want.. .whenever we want, no wait time. Client wants to add tag - boom!... agent wants another marketing page - boom! Customization are done on-the-fly exactly the way we want and this is superior customer service and a total WOW factor for agents. 3. Because we can host the tours on our own secure domain and push that link to the MLS and thus Zillow and Realtor.com and all of the other major sites, we can underlay pixels so that we can tag viewers and serve them ads that follow them around the internet.... any kind of banner we want to draw them back to an IDX website or buyer rebate offer, etc etc.. the value is exponentially great here. 4. When a broker leases a retail space, they can package a subscription for the tour online perpetually so that retail customers can walk through the store and thus build a micro continuity income as a hedge against operating costs. So, it is "nice" that your fellow forum members are offering encouragement. Yet, the truth is that you cannot compete with the value of Realtor ownership when the camera is Broker Purchased or the Realtor works on a team - high volume or low volume. Right now, the only saving grace that you have is the slow adoption of technology, among professionals, in the real estate sector... and perhaps that 80% of Realtors really don't make enough money to buy a camera. You should ride this wave right now and constantly be endeavoring to spread your wings to look from 30,000 feet above and navigate the best moves to keep and improve business. I hope this doesn't upset anyone, but the truth can sting. @DanSmigrod @ron0987 @Queen_City_3D @Jamie @Metroplex360 |
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PhotoJoe private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by fullpreview How do you host the tours on your own website? I thought you couldn't do that. |
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fullpreview private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @PhotoJoe More specifically, Matterport hosts the processed tour, of course, and they are the source. That line item was in reference to having the Matterport Tour, sourced from Matterport hosting, as part of a webpage on a website the we control and have hosted. You already know that you can inject the iframe anywhere online or better even, use WP3D Models plugin - literally one of the best plugins I have every used! Now that's out of the way... When you have a securely hosted website, ie. Full Preview, and you use WP3D models, you can also have pixels for Facebook or Ad Roll or Perfect Audience in the website that will track visitor metrics and you can target people with ads based on visits to the Matterport tour within the page on your securely hosted website. Next... and more importantly for real estate professionals... the link that is used for the MLS. Matterport gives you an MLS compliant link that will show the tour from Matterport. WP3D Models does something rather spectacular though... you can use the unbranded MLS compliant view with WP3D models, remain MLS compliant, but still use your secure website page as the link for the MLS... doing it this way, gets your website hits... tracks visitors who are most likely buyers.. and then you can use ad retargeting to chase them. I don't have time right now to go into how re-targeting works... I suggest you take a look a the easiest one which is Ad Roll and skim through how it works, if you're interested in that kind of thing. |
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WGAN Forum Founder & WGAN-TV Podcast Host Atlanta, Georgia |
DanSmigrod private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @fullpreview Thank you SO much for your detailed notes. Most helpful hearing directly from a Broker that also has a Matterport Camera. More about retargeting in this We Get Around Network Forum discussion: ✓ ADWERX Online Retargeting for Photographers Best, Dan |
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fotoguy private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Thank you all for all your comments. Some good points were made. I think for the right real estate office that has the personnel to follow up on all the links, clicks, etc, it is a good idea. I would venture to guess that many offices don't have the time they need to devote to all of those detailed items. Since I've been in the youth sports photography for 31 years I compare it to that business. If I'm shooting a league of 500 kids and photographing team and individual photos. From those images, I'm making up trading cards, buttons, magnets, mugs, fatheads and tons of other things. Because we specialize in that business we make it look extremely easy to the people watching. The league then gets the big idea that they can get a parent with a camera to do the same thing and save everbody money. What they soon find out is it not nearly as easy as the professional makes it appear. There are hours of work to get each of the 500 kids packages right, produced quickly, color balanced, etc. Nobody ends up happy with the new idea and they call us back the next year. MP does a good job at making the camera and software look stupid simple. As most of us have found out, it isn't and we can add extras to enhance the whole tour that MP alone can't do. That is where our value as professionals come in to play. By always improving and finding ways to enhance the tours quickly and easily, I believe the majority of realtors will find it easier just to hire the professional photographer and they stick to doing what they know best, which is selling houses. Time will tell. |
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justinv private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @fotoguy I honestly wouldn't worry too much about it. You mentioned they have ordered two scans, in what time frame? I think you bought your about two months ago? I would understand if it was two a week. They will only scan for their office and after a few scans, they will probably only do their own. They might hire someone to do everyone's in the office. But it will bring more attention to Matterport scansand they will not do another brokerage! |
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fotoguy private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Four scans in three weeks. I agree it will put more pressure on others in the area to up their game. | ||
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