Exhibit 3-17 is a chart of survey responses to the question of what they valued in the way of website features. I'm taking the added percentage of those who found these features either "Very Useful" or "Somewhat Useful." Looking back at 2005, the same three items were the top three as now.
- Photos - In 2005 98%, and in 2008 98%.
- Detailed info about properties - In 2005 98%, and 2008 98%
- Virtual Tours - 2005 was 85%, and 2008 showed 92%
So, for the last three years, our customers are telling us that they really want lots of photos, detailed information, and virtual tours. The virtual tour number grew significantly. What are you doing on your website, and for your listings, about these top three items?
I went into my local MLS this morning. We're a small and rural MLS, and currently show 902 residential properties listed. Here are the numbers:
- Only 57% of the home listings posted all 9 photos allowed.
- 13% of the listings posted 4 or fewer photos.
- A whopping 80.4% of these home listings had no virtual tour link.
- 29 homes between $1 Million and $2 Million had no virtual tour.
- 4 homes between $2 Million and $9 Million had no virtual tour.
If you aren't uploading all of the images allowed on your listings, you're not listening to what your potential customers want. And, if there isn't a virtual tour of some type, look again at how that requirement is growing. Considering you can use Animoto.com for $30 a year and do professional high resolution tours from still shots, what is the delay?
