Are you an expert on the neighborhoods in your area? Then why not be use your experise as a marketing advantage by creating VisualTours of your area?

What's the first thing a buyer normally looks for when they're beginning their search for a home? A REALTOR®? A particular listing? No, most people start by deciding which neighborhood they want to live in, then they narrow it down to a price range and eventually to a particular home. Many buyers start their Internet search many months before they make the decision to move. Virtual tours of neighborhoods can help you provide very valuable information to the buyer at this critical early stage.

This is a very powerful and effective marketing tool. Think about it…. if you were planning on moving to an area that you didn't know very well (especially if you were from out of town) how valuable would online tours of the neighborhoods that you're interested in be to you? Would you like to see the styles and price ranges for typical homes in the area, parks, churches, schools, shopping centers, police and fire facilities… etc. (in other words, exactly the same things you'd look at when you were looking in person.). Think of the time this saves a home buyer and the appreciation the buyer will have for the agent who delivered this time saving visual information to them!

Most agents specialize in several neighborhoods. Create a separate tour for each of these neighborhoods, and in each include EVERYTHING you'd show someone if you were taking them on a tour of the neighborhood in person.

There are numerous uses for neighborhood tours.

The first and most obvious is to link them directly to your website along with other pertinent information about the neighborhood so anyone that visits your site can view them easily. Remember, when a person starts their home search they'll normally search for a neighborhood first, and if you can engage them with a very informational tour that contains your contact information, picture and branding that's GREAT marketing!

The second is for communicating with out-of-town buyers. We'll talk more about remote buyers in a little bit, but the ability to show an out of town buyer several neighborhoods to help narrow down his search is very helpful. This can either be done with hyperlinks directly to the tour, or by sending offline tours as attachments to email.

The third use is in your local "hard copy" advertising such as your local newspaper and real estate magazines. In your local ads you'll advertise not only your listings, but also the neighborhoods that you specialize in. For example, "Go to www.MySite.com for a VisualTour of the Bear's Creek Neighborhood". You'll be amazed at the number of tour views that you'll receive for a neighborhood tour.

For consumers who view these neighborhood tours branded with your photo, contact information and company logo, YOU automatically become "the neighborhood real estate expert" in their minds.

Part of the interest is because potential buyers are looking at the tour, however, you'll also have people viewing who simply want to see their neighborhood's tour even though they're not planning on moving. These people will also send links of the tour to their friends and family. That's great marketing!

Here's another tip…. If you've created a great tour of your city, contact your local Chamber of Commerce and see if they'd like to link to it from their site.

Give the buyer what they're looking for early in their Internet search for a home, and they'll remember you later!