3D Hits The Slopes

I came across an article in the NY Times about the use of interactive 3D Maps to promote various ski slopes and thought it was pretty cool.

CHECK IT OUT HERE

Send plans between accounts

Our technology partner Metropix Inc. has come up with yet another valuable update to the software based on a suggestion from one of their users.

"When covering for another administrator in another office it would be great to be able to draw a plan from your own office and be able to send the reference for the plan to that office so that they may upload the plan to the web."

Perfect for covering for a colleague who's sunning himself or herself while you're hard at work!

An Interesting Article from RISMedia

What Agents Are Forgetting
Four real estate executives offer their takes on where agents need to be going now

RISMEDIA, March 15, 2007-While the real estate industry continues to ponder commonly known trends-such as the normalization of the market or the majority of consumers online and how to get their business-we wonder, are we forgetting something or someone? According to four industry pros, we are: the real estate agent.

What facet of the real estate industry most needs our attention now?

Agent Adoption of Technology is Critical to Broker's Success

Brian Wildermuth
President and Co-founder
SharperAgent
www.sharperagent.com

It is no secret that leading brokerages seek out value-added technology to aid their agents in their quest to get new customers, serve those customers and manage their business. Agent adoption of these technologies and systems is critical to surviving and thriving in today's challenging market, yet most brokerages are struggling to get their agents to engage with any level of success.

Yes, there are examples all around us of agents who have succeeded and continue to succeed without the use of a computer, Web site or e-mail address. However, that number is dwindling into the abyss. Today's information-savvy consumers demand a more knowledgeable, connected and responsive agent.

Can you imagine Bart Starr-one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game of football-surviving in today's NFL without a strong understanding and adoption of the technologies afforded to today's quarterbacks? Today's offensive and defensive schemes are far more complicated than those of old and require ongoing communication, charting, review, etc. that was never afforded in Bart's era.

Communication goes directly to the quarterback via their helmet, digital photos and videos studied on the sideline, and coaches and players are connected via a network. This allows players like Tom Brady and Payton Manning to be more effective in their roles and dominate their competition. If one wants to be a professional athlete today, they must adopt the technologies surrounding their role.

Similarly, real estate agents need to accept and embrace the advancements within their chosen industry if they want to dominate their competition. I believe strongly that the broker's role should continue to be one that helps agents seek out the right tools. I also believe it is the broker's role to facilitate the awareness and education process for agents to learn how to apply these tools to their businesses.

However, it is ultimately the responsibility of the agent to tune into today's revolutionary technologies and systems, take ownership for learning how to use them, and implement them into their own way of doing business. Agents who don't grasp this concept will likely be replaced by those who not only grasp it, but take it to a higher level.

De-value of the Agent?

Michael Schindler
President & CEO
iClarus
www.iclarus.com

The most important "facet" to the real estate industry is the agent and how to keep the agent relevant in today's high-tech marketplace. Survival. With more and more technology companies providing services that agents once had a stronghold on, the industry needs to look at how best to educate their agents on how to compete with and embrace technology all at the same time in order to better serve their clients. If the industry fails to do this, the consumer base will not only haggle over agent commissions, but eventually determine the agent has no value.

Pretty strong opinion, I know. But it got your attention. Bottom line: agents have a tremendous opportunity to prove that they bring a wealth of experience to the home buying and selling process, something few technology-based companies bring. And they bring the personal touch.

In my opinion, people want to deal with people, and actually, the studies show the same. People may start their searches on the Web, but 80%, give or take, still employ an agent to guide them through the process. The breakdown happens when agents don't utilize technology to streamline the process. Multiple trips back to the office to get information just aren't acceptable any more. An agent without a laptop is asking for trouble. And be sure to follow-up.

Technology-based companies are excellent at follow-up (well, some of us are). We understand that there is a land-grab going on for loyal subscribers and clients. We send reminders, return e-mails and phone calls quickly and look for ways to out-serve our clients. But we do little eyeball to eyeball, handshake to handshake; this is truly where the agent has the advantage.

So how do you stay relevant? Combine the high-tech with the high-touch. Embrace the technologies that streamline your business; get the laptop and stop saying you don't need it; embrace technology so your client knows you are progressive and then bring your wealth of experience into their home. Do this and you will have lifelong clients.

A Need for Better Integration and Communication

Sharon E. Michnay, CRP, GMS
Director of Corporate Business Development
Halstead Property, LLC
www.halstead.com

In the past 10 years, we have seen more innovation in regard to the way real estate firms conduct business than in more than 30 years before that. Searches now begin from the comfort of a home computer, involve rich media, such as photos and floor plans, and can lead customers to properties in the remote corners of the globe.

Throughout this process and through one of the nation's biggest housing booms, real estate companies approached growth much as a growing family with plenty of land and not enough bedrooms; they added extensions and wings to their existing structures. IT departments were given the OK to hire Webmasters and bid on the cherished Google keywords. Photographers, professional draftsmen and stagers were contracted to fill the online space with attractive visual representations of properties. Media outlets started adding online components to their print contracts and listings became available on five, to 10, to 20 additional sites, not to mention the MLS and other listing aggregators.

All of this piecemeal growth left some holes in the greater strategy and message, though. Sales agents and consumers were confused as new technologies became prevalent and marketing strategies became more fragmented. New performance metrics like traffic rankings, unique users and pageviews appeared. Online advertising was handled by the technology group who was responsible for implementing it, which often created a schism in the corporate brand (ever found yourself asking "Why is our corporate color different online than on our stationary?). And, of course, the ever-familiar inter-firm competition, which answered pictures with virtual tours and virtual tours with video tours, then floor plans, then 3D floor plans and room-planning tools. The challenge to engage the consumer has escalated into a mantra of "In toys we trust."

Our challenge now and going forward is better integration. Greater coordination between marketing, IT and communication departments is integral to standardize messaging across all venues. Most importantly though, we must truly get a handle on all of our industry's data assets. For too long, we have focused on collecting and aggregating listing data as if it was the sum total of the value we offer, and this has led to a greater skepticism toward the commissions we charge.

We are an industry of service providers, trained professionals and expert negotiators. Our firms have years of market data for our respective areas of coverage and experiential knowledge on how to navigate through times of adjustment.

We also have technology that is largely untapped and the consumer information it has collected that is largely unused. Until we fully realize how this data can be quantified and catalogued, we will not be able to take the next real evolution toward providing the life and lifestyle services our customers are going to expect.

New Agent Survival in a Changing Market

Robert Munson
Broker/Partner
Advance Realty Inc.
www.advancerealtyusa.com

According to the National Association of Realtors, 86% of new real estate licensees exit the business within a year. Agent loss is due to many factors including softening real estate markets. These market swings are typical in a changing industry. Many agents experienced a false sense of security as a result of the boom market in past years. The current economic climate challenges new agents who haven't experienced what is considered to be a "normal" market, let alone a market that is considered to be a slowdown.

In order for new agents to survive, they must be properly capitalized and have a budget sufficient to maintain their business and marketing expenses. They must develop a business plan that sets goals, gives the agent direction, and helps them maintain discipline. Part of an agent's business plan needs to include developing their referral business, building their sphere of influence, locating motivated buyers and sellers and overall, developing lead generation and follow-up systems.

New agents also need to be creative in their marketing efforts. Typical advertising and marketing strategies will never set you apart in the mind of your client. Agents need to ask themselves:

"What will make my listing stand out from the crowd?"
"How can I get the most exposure for the least expense?"
"Where are my competitors and where aren't they?"

One of the many challenges for new agents is simply getting their foot in the door with prospects and winning listings away from their seasoned competitors. Agents need to consider brokerages like Advance Realty, which give even the freshest talent a competitive edge, help them differentiate themselves and allow for opportunities to build new relationships with clients.

We are excited to announce that our interactive division Launchsight Solutions has been selected to build the Commercial Real Estate website for CLK|HP.

With over 135 assets in 43 cities, consisting of over 24,000 residential units and over 4 million square feet of commercial property, CLK continues its quest to acquire properties in target markets, while always evaluating potential new markets to broaden its reach across the nation

I am proud to announce that our interactive services division, Launchsight Solutions, has been selected to redesign the website for the American Airpower Museum. I will let you know when we launch the new site.

Angled stairs have arrived!

We know for a fact that some of you will be very happy to learn that technology provided by our strategic partner, Metropix, now supports angled stairs. We appreciate that properties come in all shapes and sizes and not all walls run horizontally or vertically! Due to this valuable upgrade, you can now add stairs that rise and run along diagonal walls.

Where Floor Plans Are Sought After, and Why (NY Times February 11, 2007)

By JOYCE COHEN
THERE are things New York apartments typically lack -- a yard, a parking place, a washer-dryer. But there is one thing they do possess: floor plans, most often derived from buildings' original marketing materials.

Floor plans are important when an apartment goes on the market and a listing goes on the Web, real estate agents say, because buyers in New York depend so heavily on them.

''If I don't have it on the Internet right away, people want me to fax over a floor plan,'' said Lauren Cangiano, an agent at Halstead Property Company in Manhattan. She added that ''there are things that will make you not visit an apartment if it doesn't show on the floor plan.''

''People want split bedrooms; they don't want bedrooms next to each other,'' Ms. Cangiano said. ''Or they want a kitchen with a window so they can sneak a cigarette.''

A floor plan shows the entire unit, not just part of it. In other words, floor plans reveal what photographs often do not: the proportions of rooms, the number of rooms and the traffic flows among them. A buyer can instantly see, for instance, if the kitchen is conveniently situated near the dining room, whether bedrooms open directly onto the living room or whether a trip to the bathroom will involve a walk through a bedroom.

''When you look at a floor plan, it is the apartment standing there naked,'' said Gerald Makowski, director of marketing at Halstead Property.

Floor plans are starting to move into three dimensions, a real help for those who have trouble visualizing physical space. Some developers show elevation plans, where you can pick a floor from the side view of a building and then highlight a particular unit. More customization is likely as technology improves.

Outside New York, however, floor plans are rarely used as marketing tools by brokers who are reselling houses, although they are more likely to be used by builders of housing developments, who include floor plans as one of the many tools on their Web sites.

The Toll Brothers Web site, for example, includes an elaborate ''design your own home'' feature allowing people, within limits, to experiment with the floor plan. ''They get to design something with the builder and make it their own, and not settle for a resale situation where someone else has made those decisions,'' said Kira McCarron, chief marketing officer at Toll Brothers.

Those who are downsizing scrutinize the floor plan most thoroughly, said Kara Opanowicz, a vice president of architecture for K. Hovnanian Homes. ''We have a lot of move-down buyers -- empty-nesters taking their furniture with them,'' who want to be sure everything will fit, she said. ''They are concerned with the exactness of what they are getting.''

Brent Gleeson, the president of NewCondosOnline.com, which markets new condominiums worldwide, estimated that 90 percent of the properties that he was selling featured a floor plan online. In fact, the most requested items from prospective buyers using the site are prices and floor plans.

These plans help buyers determine ''how much space they want and need,'' Mr. Gleeson said -- something they are not able to do with an on-site visit. ''Builders do preconstruction and presale advertising, so they are marketing properties that have not yet been built.''

Some individual agents are beginning to create floor plans to distinguish themselves from the competition. Christine Pardo, an agent at Kroll Realty in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., often creates her own floor plans for clients, similar to those she created when she was a kitchen designer. It is timeconsuming: She spends an hour measuring and another hour working with a computer program.

People are always impressed by the result, she said. Currently, with so much inventory in Florida, ''it would be easy to show a buyer between 6 and 25 homes a weekend,'' she said. ''After 25 homes, which are you going to remember? The ones you are holding paperwork on.''

Sellers who want to create their own floor plans or experiment with designs can try user-friendly programs like those from smartdraw.com and plan3d.com.

There are endless debates about what floor plans should feature, and there is no standardization, so users should be aware of what the plans show and what they do not.

Many include a key plan, showing the unit's location on the floor of a building. But what about the swing of the doors? A thick line to indicate a load-bearing wall? The depth of a fireplace mantel? Some include interesting extras, like a label for a skylight.

But plenty of basic structural information can be missing: the height of the windows, the width of hallways, the placement of electrical outlets, the apartment's overall condition. Some lack an arrow pointing north.

Older plans usually show crosshatching in kitchen and bathrooms, to distinguish wet and dry areas. Now, the convention is to use crosshatching only in bathrooms, said Doug Barton, who creates floor plans for several New York real estate brokerage firms.

''I don't do it in kitchens,'' he said, ''because you have other things going on there. People want to know how many bathrooms there are, but usually there is one kitchen.''

In addition, dimensions are often printed on floor plans, but there is no guarantee that they are accurate. ''You must always challenge the dimensions,'' Mr. Barton said. ''I have seen two particular situations that were wrong. There was a squarish bedroom labeled 10 feet by 15 feet and a rectangular bedroom labeled 14 feet by 14 feet. So use your brain.''

Stephen Joseph, vice president for store design of Bergdorf Goodman, loved the floor plan of a West End Avenue one-bedroom coop, but was ambivalent when he finally saw the apartment. Almost every window faced a brick wall -- a deal breaker that hadn't appeared on the floor plan. Only the living room had a view of the street, and not a nice one.

''I went back time after time,'' he said. ''I tortured myself.''

Mr. Joseph ended up withdrawing his offer and buying a duplex with a floor plan that revealed lots of open space. This one had a lovely view of Broadway. What counts for him, Mr. Joseph said, are the three L's: layout, light and location.

''I have seen so many apartments that didn't have any views, that were all interior,'' he said. Had this information been on the floor plan, ''I never would have gone to see them.''

To help people read floor plans, Brooklyn Bridge Realty in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, has started using three-dimensional ones prepared by the Gotham Photo Company. Clients love it, and ''it is so much easier to read than a bare floor plan,'' especially when it comes to staircases, said Jean Austin, the owner.

That third dimension is likely to be increasingly important. ''Real estate lends itself really well to 3-D,'' said Vince Collura, director of business development for Gotham Photo.

He predicts that people will be able to zoom into the floor plan, so that ''instead of a bird's-eye view, you're at a standing level,'' he said, and to customize the plan by changing the color of the walls and floors.

Technology has made people increasingly design-conscious, helping them realize that layout may be as important as size, said Leonard Steinberg, a vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman in New York.

''The big shift happened when people realized how much space a regular TV used rather than a plasma TV,'' he said. ''The clunky old TV took up four square feet. Hello! That is $4,000 in New York!''

WhichWay Is Up? Here's Some Help

IF you have trouble understanding or making use of floor plans, here are some suggestions: Compare a room with one that is familiar. ''My old bedroom was 12 by 18,'' said Alison Rogers, an agent at DG Neary Realty. ''I can't tell how big a room is, but I can tell if it is bigger or smaller than my bedroom.''

Play designer: Enlarge the floor plan and make cutouts of your furniture to scale, so you can rearrange them on the plan and see how everything fits.

Carry a tape measure and verify measurements. ''Sometimes those measurements are really wrong,'' said Leonard Steinberg of Prudential Douglas Elliman.

Look up. If you are distracted by the furniture and cannot see the edges of a room, looking at the ceiling will give you the footprint, with some exceptions, like a kitchen island or peninsula, said Bradford Trebach of Trebach Realty in the Bronx. JOYCE COHEN

3D Sidewalk Art

Check this out! (3D Artwork made out of chalk)

I came across this guy Julian Beever during my research and his 3D artwork blew me away.


More samples can be found at this link.

Progress Update

We are getting very close to the official soft launch of our new website.
www.3dwalkthroughs.com

Our developers are working very hard to ensure that our website provides a user friendly experience to all of our visitors.

Our soft launch will allow selected clients to test out all of our products and offer any questions/comments/criticisms that will help us to improve the products prior to our official big launch. (Sometime Mid-March)