VisualTour.com® Contact: J. L. Winn, TRF Systems, Inc.
JLWinn@VisualTour.com 954.345.9701 ext 220

August 20, 2000 - Potentially thousands of house-hunters will soon have the opportunity to take a "walk" of sorts through Dr. Robert Hamilton's Butler County home, but you probably won't find the area physician making any extra preparations to accommodate a large crowd.

"They (virtual tours) are wonderful," she said. "In the feedback we've been getting from the marketplace, those who are computer literate can view a house and decide whether or not they want to go take a look at it."

"I really do like them," added Debbie Redding, manager at Northwood Realty Co./Better Homes & Gardens' Greensburg office. "It is very easy to use and it gives buyers a more in depth view of the property, which helps consumers a lot."

Virtual tours are made possible through use of a digital camera that provides 360-degree views of a property and its features.

For an inside room, for example, the camera is used to first take a 180-degree picture, from floor to ceiling and from wall to wall. Then, the camera is turned around to complete the scan.

Later, pictures are electronically "stitched" together to provide panoramic, three-dimensional views that can be manipulated by the consumer while displayed on the computer screen. The walkthrough can include moving back and forth between rooms, and the ability stop, or to zoom in if a closeup view is desired. Many realty companies and individual agents in the region say they are using the technology to an increasing degree, adding the tours to their existing arsenal of house marketing tools, such as yard signs, newspaper advertising and homes' magazines. The growing demand apparently is moving right in step with the increased use of the Internet in the real estate industry. Figures from the National Association of Realtors' 2000 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers show that nearly seven out of every 10 real estate companies generated businesses from the Internet in 1999, and that 37 percent of homebuyers seeking real estate information ventured into cyberspace to get it. That's up from 18 percent in 1997 and only 2 percent in 1995. The same survey indicated that of those who used virtual tours to aid in their home search, 45 percent reported the tours were "extremely valuable," with 25 percent calling them "very" valuable; 24 percent, "somewhat" valuable and 6 percent saying there were "not" valuable. "We're just in the first five minutes of this market," said Stu Roberson, who is vice president for marketing for Interactive Pictures Corp. Ipix, as the company is known, solidified its status as No. 1 provider of the tours with a 1999 merger with Bamboo.com Inc., a major rival, and it has since been signing up a growing number of major companies and individual Realtors as the demand grows for the ability to see multiple properties via a click of a computer mouse. "Nationwide, we are serving up over 1 million virtual tours every day," said Roberson, noting the volume was only about 250,000 tours at the beginning of the year. "We've been growing at a rate of 1 percent every day," he said.

The publicly traded company, which maintains headquarters offices in both Oak Ridge, Tenn. and Palo Alto, Calif. (Bamboo's former home city), is projecting that it may be able to claim a 4 percent share of all real estate listings nationwide by the end of the year, although Roberson said he hopes its market penetration will be substantially beyond that level.

Ipix already claims to offer sellers access to as many as 6 million potential buyers through such national Web portals as realtor.com, the official site of the National Association of Realtors, in addition to Microsoft's HomeAdvisor and HomeSeekers.com, among others.

"The major factor driving our growth is the adoption rate by both real estate brokers and agents to make the program a standard part of their marketing package," Roberson said.

Also expected to provide a substantial boost is an agreement signed in June with a unit of the giant franchiser, Cendant Corp., which purchased some 350,000 virtual tours for use by approximately 200,000 agents affiliated with the company's Coldwell Banker, Century 21 and ERA realty franchise systems.

Prudential Real Estate technology assistant Meg Yates demonstrates an Ipix Real Estate Visual Tour using the Wizard software program. Digital images taken at homes for sale are downloaded to the Prudential Web site showing a 360-degree view to a potential buyer.

All three of those companies have affiliates in the western Pennsylvania region. Under the agreement, Cendant will provide agents with toThen agents will have the option to purchase upgrades, which would include additional images, such as those showing interior rooms, at a reduced rate.urs featuring one single scene exterior view of the front of the property and the surrounding location at no charge. Then agents will have the option to purchase upgrades, which would include additional images, such as those showing interior rooms, at a reduced rate. Ipix normally charges $99.95 for its full-service package that includes four different images. But the cost for individual Realtors can vary from real estate company to company, because some of the firms choose to pay part of, or even, the entire cost for their agents.

Another option for Realtors is the "self-service" route, which involves a larger upfront capital investment - the purchase of a kit that includes a digital camera with a customized (fisheye) lens and the company's software. Then the agents or companies go through the process of posting the images on Web sites on their own.

"The cost for a kit can start at about $1,000 and go up from there depending mainly on the sophistication of the camera," Roberson said.

Ipix maintains its tours work on almost any available computer operating systems and on almost all browsers.

In some cases, a one-time download of an enabling software might be necessary to get the program started, but in most, just merely clicking on a tour will allow a customer to start viewing.

Roberson claims tours can be posted on the company's Web servers within 24 hours after the photos are shot, although the NAR's realtor.com home page says it usually takes three business days for a tour to appear on its site.

While most area Realtors agree that Ipix is the clear leader in the virtual tour marketplace, there are other companies in the field, including Florida-based VisualTourcom®, which recently caught the eye of Helen Sosso, president of Prudential Preferred Realty.

Sosso said the local company has been exploring use of the VisualTour® product, which requires a standard digital camera, but without a special lens.

"You can take a series of still shots and get them seamed together," she said. "After that, you can get them up on the Internet within an hour with pictures."

"The technology provides a 360-degree tour, but does not show the ceiling," Sosso said. "But an advantage is that it offers the ability for the agent to add his or her own voice and text descriptions of the property."

Cost of a VisualTour® listing to a Realtor is $25, according to J.L. Winn, vice president of sales and marketing.

Among those who sing the praises of virtual tours, and technology in general, is Kevin Mihm, the top-selling agent with Coldwell Banker Real Estate in western Pennsylvania.

Mihm said he purchased his own digital camera in 1998 and has been using Ipix virtual tours as part of his marketing program ever since. He has two of his own personal Web sites, and he has two assistants who spend a majority of their time working on the Internet and related technology services, including virtual tours.

"We advertise it to death, and the reason is because our ratio of success is so high," he said. "I sold 131 homes last year, and this year, I'm 42 percent of last year's pace. A lot of those leads are coming as a result of technology."

The tours also are finding increasing popularity throughout Coldwell Banker's Pittsburgh area operations, which include 14 offices in the region, according to John Wdowiak, marketing manager.

"We currently process 20 to 25 tours a month, and that has probably doubled over the last 10 months," he said.

Leslie Schupp, a top agent with Re/Max Realty Center in Murrysville, touts the time-saving benefit to sellers and buyers in the context of the realities of today's modern economy.

"With everybody working, both husbands and wives, they get very busy and selling a home is a major task," she said. "This eliminates the need for the seller to prepare the house for a visit every time someone wants to see it."

Schupp said she offers tours on every one of her listings, regardless of home size or price range.

Rick Coffman, an agent with the Re/Max Centre in Monroeville also sees virtual tours in a generally positive light.

"I can't use it on every one of my listings, such as when a home is right up against a hill and you can't get a good outside shot," he said. "But I am using one right now for a home I have listed in Churchill. "It's a multi-level Contemporary that has a lot to see. It really turned out nice."

Among those sounding a cautioning note is Helen Hanna Casey, president-residential sales, for Howard Hanna Real Estate Services.

The Hanna company has been market testing virtual tours in the Erie area for about four months, but Casey she says the results "have not been overwhelming" in many cases.

"We have about 50 houses offering virtual tours and 50 houses with a photo gallery tour with five still pictures," she said, "and we found a lot of the houses do not show up all that well in a virtual tour."

An example would be those with small rooms, tight spaces or dark corners, Casey noted.

Nonetheless, she agrees the demand for tours is on the upswing, and the technology is improving.

"Brokers are using it, but there are better ways to do it," she said. "The technology is moving so rapidly right now that I think you will soon see a vast difference in the what is offered and in the product you will see."

About VisualTour.com®
VisualTour.com® (www.VisualTour.com) is developed by TRF Systems, Inc. of Coral Springs, Florida. Incorporated in 1991, TRF Systems is the leading provider of innovative digital photo management software and services in a number of vertical markets. TRF is an Alliance Partner of MGI Software Corp. (www.MGIsoft.com), a worldwide leader of Internet visual media tools. The VisualTour.com® system is recommended by the Council of Residential Specialists, the Allen F. Hainge CyberStars™, and the Real Estate CyberSpace Society. For more information, please contact J. L. Winn at TRF Systems at 954.345.9701 or by email at JLWinn@VisualTour.com.