This article provided by Isaac Toussie, a professional real estate developer in one of the greatest property markets on the planet, New York City.  It’s where Isaac Toussie learned all the ins and outs of the industry first-hand, and it’s this kind of direct experience that has him raising his eyebrows at the number of online real estate courses now being offered, even by some rather prestigious institutions.

Once the near-exclusive preserve of worthless diploma mills, so-called distance learning has really come of age with a vengeance with the advent of the internet.  And now, in this age of Web 2.0, it seems like everybody and their subsidiary is getting in on the action.  Well, in this article, we are going to take a look at them for ourselves, through Isaac Toussie’s own understanding of the real estate business.  But, as always, be advised that the  opinions within this article are just the personal observations of one man, Isaac Toussie. So just enjoy the article and do not misconstrue it for any kind of business advice whatsoever, for which a consultation with the  relevant professionals, like lawyers and accountants, remains a necessity!

Online courses do not do too bad a job at educating people in the basics.  Of course, they just cannot compare to actual field experience, but such limits are inevitable.

What they are, are really great at accommodating one’s schedule.  With most online courses, you can attend class whenever you want, wherever you want – and certainly in whatever you want, including your pajamas!  Convenience is their number one draw, and such accessibility is not much more expensive than the kind of learning offered by the traditional classroom setting.  Indeed, many of the courses sampled were a little less expensive.

More problematic is the hands-on approach that I feel necessary for a really good grasp of how this business works.  Learning about the relevant laws is all fine and good, but what’s really needed is a way to cultivate the mindset of a real estate tycoon!  One of these internet real estate courses even offered an internship as a part of the experience, which does go some way towards remedying what I’ve just noted, and I suspect other courses exist with similar arrangements.

So, how do you create a virtual tour, and what goes into making a good one? For the answers to these questions and more, keep reading.

Capturing and Creating a Virtual Tour

In the past, real estate agents who wanted to create virtual tours had to go through expensive graphic design and video editing firms. Today, there are a number of inexpensive software programs and even free online services that will create the virtual tour for you if you provide the photos.

To capture the photos, you’ll need a digital camera and a tripod. By capturing each shot and rotating the camera approximately 15 to 20 degrees between each shot, you’ll have enough photos to create an accurate and compelling virtual tour.

Then, you can use any of the following services or products to stitch together your tour:

FlyInside.Com (http://www.flyinside.com)

Totally free and easy to use, this simple website allows you to create a virtual tour using their basic online wizard. You can add your own branding for a small, additional fee.

TourWeaver (http://www.easypano.com)

This software is expensive ($200 to $700, depending on the edition), but it creates fantastic virtual tours that also allow you to create clickable hot spots right on the tour. So, for example, you can add roll-over pop-up windows to the kitchen to tell prospective buyers about the new gas hood range or a hot spot in the bathroom to highlight the spa shower.

MapWing.Com (http://www.mapwing.com)

MapWing allows you to create free, basic virtual tours which can then be shared on the web. You can upgrade for a more customizable, branded look.

Tips For Shooting a Virtual Tour

Try to get at least two or three hours in the home with no other activities for your photo session. You want your shots to look great and you’ll need time and privacy to get it that way.

When shooting the outside the house, remove all the cars from the driveway, shovel or sweep the walkways, remove the garbage cans, and tidy up the garden. Also, try to shoot the home on a sunny day. The appearance on the shots should be as attractive as possible.

When shooting the inside, try to get as much natural light into the home as you can, and turn on all the interior lights. Then, turn off all the TVs, appliances, and ceiling fans. Next, declutter the property by clearing countertops, making the beds, tucking away clutter and straightening any errant items.

Once you’re ready to shoot, focus on steady shots that are most flattering but also clearly visible, and take each shot four or five times to ensure a good shot.

Take your time to ensure your shots are clear and attractive. High quality virtual tours are a great selling tool.

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After all, there is a big market out there for real estate right now. However, just because there is a big market out there does not mean that you are going to do good. You have to first generate a lot of leads to your website. So now we are going to talk about tips that can help make your website the best that it can be, and get the most out of it as well.

The first thing that you are going to want to do for your real estate website is to build a landing page. A landing page is the page that your leads are going to land on when they click on one of your many ads. It is very important to have your landing page be different than your home page. That is because a landing page is just suppose to give a little bit more information on what the ad was talking about. If you take them right to your website they are going to get overwhelmed. The best way to get leads is to break them in easy.

Next, create a lot of keywords rich pages for your real estate website. To look for keywords that are searched for the most, you can go to any search engine and look for their most searched keywords.

However I recommend to use keywords research tools like keywords discovery to identify keywords related to your niche or location. You are going to want to work these keywords into the text of your website. Another great thing that you can do is to include these keywords into the title and subheadings of your website. When search engines search sites, the main thing that they look for is headings.

Next, you need to make sure that you increase your link popularity. The idea is to get inbound links on many relevant websites as possible. The more links that you have out there, the better. This is how search engines will rank your site. So not only will you get a lot of leads from the search engines, but you will get a lot of leads from the links you have out there pointing to your website. I like to use article marketing to build my link popularity. The key is to submit 2-3 articles each day. Your articles will act like a viral marketing tool spreading your links all over the internet.

Nowadays Realtors who aren’t utilizing the internet as a key marketing tool are really missing the boat. Statistics show that internet users looking for a home online are increasing steadily and that is not going to change anytime soon.

To Your Success!

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Newspaper real estate listings

Looking at real estate listings in the newspaper is one of the most traditional ways to find real estate to purchase. Today, it still stands as one of the most used ways to look over real estate listings. Unfortunately, looking through real estate listings in newspapers can become very time consuming. You will find yourself flipping through pages. After reading through them all, you have to go back and find the ones that fit your needs the most.

Once you find the real estate listings that fit what you are looking for, you have to take the time to write down the contact information and then call them and make an appointment to view the property. Sometimes the real estate listings do not include pictures, which can be a total setback. Newspaper real estate listings are updated every week or so. This means that real estate you are interested in may not be available once you get around to it. If someone were to purchase the real estate before you, you have no way of knowing it before you waste your time.

Internet real estate listings

Since the Internet has grown more and more popular, finding real estate listings online has become one of the easiest and quickest ways to find real estate. The best thing about internet real estate listings is that they are updated two or three times a week. This makes it easier for those who are looking for real estate to buy because they do not have to worry about the real estate being unavailable or already sold.

Also with internet real estate listings, you will be able to few high-resolution photographs of the real estate you are interested in, instead of relying on a small black and white photo out of the newspaper. This allows you to truly see what the real estate looks like. Finding the perfect real estate for you is easy online. You do not have to go through lists and lists of listings to find one that is suitable for you because with a simply click of your mouse, you could find the real estate you are looking for.

Online, you can pick certain criteria such as how large the real estate is, where it is located, etc. This cuts down on the amount of time spent looking for real estate that fits your criteria. With online real estate listings, you do not have to worry about finding contact information. Most times, the website will provide you with a service to contact a realtor, or you can easily print out the real estate ad.

John is a writer and contributor to Connecticut Real Estate Agent Directory and Connecticut Real Estate Mortgage Rates.

Paid Search Marketing (PPC/CPC)

Real estate businesses are now choosing to market their business through paid search advertising. This is where the owner pays a search engine for each click made from the search engine to their website. Search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN display these adverts on the right hand side of search results. The advantages of marketing through this method include that people are searching for what you can provide along with the fact that you can choose what kind of budget you wish to allot to your paid search advertising. The level of scalability can range from as low as $20 per month all the way up to $20,000 plus. When opting for this method of advertising it is best if you really know your stuff; that is why taking an online PPC training session such as the one offered by Google can really help.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization is where you can choose to position your website for searches such as “real estate” in the organic search engine results. This means that you do not pay anything, rather visitors come to your real estate website through the searches that they conduct that are relevant to what your business offers. Although you do not have to pay anything to the search engines for advertising using this method, you may have to pay money to a search engine optimization company that will work with you to increase your search engines position. They will advise you to add more content to your website and will attempt to garner back-links to your website from other real estate websites. When working with a search engine optimization company it is important to ensure that they employ ethical tactics to increase your websites position in the SERPs. You should ask the company if they comply with Google’s webmaster guidelines and also ask to speak to past clients of theirs that have had a positive experience and had increased levels of traffic as a result.

Email Marketing

Email marketing was a far more common form of marketing in years past, however it remains just as effective today as it was in the past, even although search engine marketing has become increasingly popular. Email marketing will not convert as well as search marketing because people are not necessarily looking for services that you offer. Despite this, email marketing is still a highly effective way of finding customers for your real estate business. If you decide to work with an email marketing company it is important that you ensure you do not break the rules, and that you comply with anti spam laws that are in place.