Interesting Use of a 3D Rendering To Market a Property

While reading an article in the Sun Sentinel we came across a mention of an art-friendly building going up in NYC. 650 Sixth Ave., a seven-story building with an art gallery on the ground floor that feature new artwork on a monthly basis.

Here's the cool part...

If you go to their website you can drag a painting from room to room to see where it would look best. Conceived by Michael Shvo, the innovative builder and marketer, this building is set to be one of a kind.

3Dwalkthroughs.com is a big fan of the marketing techniques of Michael Shvo and would love to introduce him to our Custom 3D Walkthroughs and 3D Floor Plans for his future developments.

Manhattan condo amenities hit new heights
Sandy rooftop beaches and bocce courts

By KAREN MATTHEWS | The Associated Press
July 30, 2007
Article Tools
E-mail Print Single page view Reprints Reader feedback text size: NEW YORK It used to be that a full-service apartment building in New York meant a doorman, a roof garden, maybe a gym.

These days, the can-you-top-this amenities include chic screening rooms; covered dog runs; golf simulators where you can practice your swing in front of a screen; wine cellars; bocce courts; rooftop beaches with sand and hammocks; and your own personal "art concierge" to dispense advice on what to hang on your walls.

With Manhattan's luxury real estate market awash in money from rich foreigners and Wall Street investment bankers with big bonuses to spend, developers are competing hard to attract tenants.

At William Beaver House, a 47-story tower under construction in lower Manhattan, developer Andre Balazs — the hotelier and sometime Uma Thurman boyfriend — has promised valet parking, a covered dog run and a cinema with purple-upholstered lounging areas for recumbent movie viewing. Apartments there range from $900,000 for a studio to $2.6 million for a three-bedroom.

Nearby, at a building called 75 Wall Street, maids from the hotel on the lower floors will be available to make tenants' beds. On the 42nd-floor rooftop, there will be a solarium, lounge, sandy beach, hot tub, hammocks, grills and a lounging area with a fireplace and a kitchen.

"Without a doubt, amenities have become an essential element," said Kelly Mack, the president of Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, which sells luxury condos. "There's a need for them to be customized as part of the lifestyle package specific to each building."

The past few years have seen a surge in residential development in New York, as builders have put up new towers or converted commercial space into apartments.

According to census figures, 31,599 permits were issued for privately owned residential units in New York City in 2005 and 30,927 in 2006, the highest two-year total since the 1960s.

The high end of the market is particularly strong, for reasons that include the abundance of cash on Wall Street, and the slumping dollar, which has made Manhattan real estate a relative bargain for foreigners.

Charles and Jane-Mary Stewart live on a 13-acre farm outside Belfast, Northern Ireland, with three ponies, a horse and a donkey. They wanted something more urban for their second home.

"My wife and I just love New York," Charles Stewart said. "We've been quite a few times."

The couple — he's a lawyer, she's a doctor — selected a spacious one-bedroom condo at 650 Sixth Ave., a seven-story building with an art gallery on the ground floor. While they were at it, they picked up a $35,000 painting of diamond-studded dog tags by Israeli artist Nir Hod to put in it.

"I think it'll be a great combination," Stewart said. "It just spoke to me."

The Stewarts' 67-unit building is a gut renovation of an 1892 Beaux Arts structure in the historic shopping district known as Ladies Mile. Apartments start at $930,000 for a studio. One-bedrooms are around $1.3 million and two-bedrooms start at $1.6 million.

"Month after month you're going to be able to walk through the lobby and see something new on the wall. And if you see something you like you can buy it," said real estate marketer Michael Shvo, who was hired to conceive the project.

The gallery will also offer art collecting advice to residents. And the building's Web site lets you drag a painting from room to room to see where it would look best.

Design Teams Hired in Nassau Coliseum Project

Two friends of 3DWalkthroughs.com have announced that they will be working together on the Nassau Coliseum Redevelopment Project (The Lighthouse Project). RexCorp Realty (Scott Rechler) officially hired the Spector Group (Marc Spector) as one of two master planning/architect firms that will be spearheading the project.

The mixed use development project will include: an 18,000-seat arena for sporting events and concerts, housing, office space, retail stores, a hotel and a complete restoration and renovation of the Nassau Coliseum.

3DWalkthroughs.com will be closely following the progress of the Lighthouse Project as it is one of the largest and most ambitious development projects to ever happen in Long Island...not to mention two of our best friends are involved.

Below is a blurb from Sunday's NY Times describing the partnership.

NYTIMES

In the Region
Long Island, Westchester, Connecticut and New Jersey
Go to Complete Coverage » The Nassau Coliseum redevelopment plan advanced another step when the project’s partners chose a master planning team of two architecture and planning firms, the Development Design Group of Baltimore and the Spector Group of North Hills.

The two companies will design a $2 billion suburban center on 77 acres of county-owned property. It is scheduled to include an 18,000-seat arena for sporting events and concerts as well as housing, office space, retail stores, a hotel and a complete restoration and renovation of the Nassau Coliseum. The project’s partners — Lighthouse Development Group, a joint venture between Charles B. Wang, owner of the New York Islanders and founder of Computer Associates, and Scott H. Rechler, chairman of RexCorp Realty — announced the hiring of the planning team on July 20.

The Development Design Group is known for malls and mixed-use developments throughout the country. The Spector Group’s projects include RexCorp Plaza in Uniondale, Jericho Plaza and the Islandia headquarters of Computer Associates. The company will provide local expertise for the project’s planning and design, said Marc B. Spector, one of the company’s principals.

Mr. Rechler, Long Island’s largest developer of commercial real estate, said, “We were looking for a team who would want to stick with the character of Long Island, but at the same time provide Long Island with what it doesn’t have.”

The Lighthouse Project is expected to create 16,000 construction jobs, as well as thousands of permanent jobs and many new businesses, and to generate almost $60 million of annual real estate tax revenue, Mr. Rechler said.

Papers Losing Realty Ads to Online

An interesting article in the Economic Times exposes the migration of real estate shoppers from newspapers to the internet. With the amount of innovative applications available online focused on providing the most intimate details of a property it is no wonder the internet is eclipsing a static newspaper as a way of shopping for real estate.

3Dwalkthroughs.com believes that newspapers will have to focus heavily on creating an online presence that works synergistically with their print format if they are going to make a comeback. Tools such as 3D Walkthroughs and Interactive Floor Plans will obviously not work in a newspaper, but the newspaper can be used to highlight a property that contains these marketing tools on a listing.


28 Jul, 2007, 1058 hrs IST, AGENCIES

NEW YORK: It's bad enough that a cratering housing market is leading to a slump in real estate advertising at newspapers, as a dreary series of earnings reports showed this week.

What's worse is that a lot of that advertising may never come back to newspapers even if the real estate sector recovers. That's because a significant chunk of those advertising dollars are moving — you guessed, online.

Exactly how much of a shift is occurring is difficult to measure in terms of dollars or market share, but several real estate executives say they are making a conscious decision to move money out of newspapers and onto the Internet as that medium grows in importance as a tool for researching home-buying decisions.

Granted, a significant amount of the declines in real estate advertising in newspapers can be attributed to the general weakness in real estate markets, particularly in hard-hit markets such as California and Florida, which were booming a year ago — leading to big gains in advertising back then.

This week Tribune Co, the No. 2 publisher by circulation, posted a 24 percent drop in the second quarter, while industry leader Gannett Co has reported a 9.9 per cent decline and McClatchy Co reported a 19 per cent decline, citing big losses in California and Florida.

Like the housing market itself, much of the up-and-down movement in newspaper real estate advertising can be viewed as cyclical, meaning it will be weak in down markets and bounce back in the upward part of the cycle, whenever that comes up.


But what's worrying analysts this time around is that real estate could become the next category of classified advertising — after help-wanted ads — to mark a significant and permanent shift away onto the Internet. The stakes are big for newspapers since classifieds are highly lucrative and make up more than 35 per cent of their revenues.

Mike Simonton, the top media industry analyst at the Fitch Ratings credit analysis service, says that currently a good 30 per cent of help-wanted classified advertising is now online, while the Internet's share of real estate and auto classified advertising is lower, at about 15 to 20 per cent, but poised to move higher.

"The threats from the Internet are real," Simonton said. "Newspaper advertising should remain under pressure until newspapers are better able to address the threat of online advertising."

Representatives of several major real estate franchisors said in interviews that many home sellers still see newspaper advertising as an essential component of selling a home, but that younger brokers, home sellers and buyers are clearly more focused on using the Internet.

"For our agents, newspapers are an old standby," said Abby Lee, director of regional advertising in Denver for RE/MAX, a major real estate franchisor. "With younger agents, there's a trend of going online. There's a realization that's where they need to be."

Suzy Antal, director of marketing, communications and public relations for Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, a unit of Prudential Financial Inc., said many Prudential agents have been pulling back on advertising during the current downturn, but as they return, they're shifting ad budgets to their own Web sites, creating blogs, and taking different approaches beyond newspapers.


"Is newspaper a high priority? No," Antal said. "I don't believe my buyers and sellers are going to be in that market."

Newspaper publishers understand they need to move more aggressively to hold on to real estate advertising. "We can't sit on our hands," says Charlie Diederich, the director of marketing and advertising at the Newspaper Association of America, an industry group.

Diederich said newspapers are still a key part of most people's real estate searches and an important tool for realtors to make people aware of their brands. But he also acknowledged that newspapers need to do more to make their own Web sites essential to home buying decisions.

"We've got to improve both our print but especially our online products ... so consumers will continue to come to us first so we can deliver that audience to the professional realtor," Diederich said.

A group of five major newspaper publishers also owns Classified Ventures, a Chicago-based business that powers the real estate sections of the Web sites of its 125 member newspapers.

Tim Fagan, president of that group's real estate division, said Classified Ventures would "significantly increase" its investment in Homescape, a real estate-related Web site that provides home listings, but he declined to provide specific numbers.

Whether those efforts will be enough to stanch the flow of real estate ad dollars to online alternatives remains to be seen.

Blanche Evans, the editor of Realty Times, an online real estate news service, says that realtors now have a number of alternatives besides newspapers for listing homes for sale, such as Realtor.org, a site run by the National Association of Realtors, in addition to major online destinations such as Yahoo Inc.

As home-buyers flock online, it's also tough on realtors, Evans said, since home-buyers are becoming accustomed to seeing extensive color photos, descriptions of the neighborhood as well as video tours of the property — all of which costs money to produce.

With all the online tools available today, realtors "have the ability now to really expose the property in a significant way," Evans said. "People have the ability to tour the house. That has changed everything."

Realtor.com Mobile - Using Cell Phones and PDA’s To Find Homes

An article in RISMEDIA details the launch of Realtor.com Mobile, a free application that will give both consumers and realtors the ability to search for real esate listing from a cell phone or PDA.

Realtor.com mobile has some cool features including the ability to have a picture and the details of a property sent directly to a mobile device if there is a for sale sign on the property. The properties can also be saved in a favorite folder on
the mobile device to be reviewed at a latter date.

3Dwalkthroughs.com is confident that Realtor.com Mobile will expand its offerings as the technology improves across all mobile platforms. The increased capabilities will surely include sending video, 3D Floor Plans and other more immersive media.

Please enjoy the article from RISMEDIA below.

RISMEDIA, July 30, 2007—Realtor.com just launched the next generation real estate search technology, Realtor.com Mobile. According to Realtor.com, with a free and easy downloadable application, consumers and RealtorsR can now perform searches for real-estate listings from their cell phone or PDA anytime, anywhere.

To begin using Realtor.com Mobile, house hunters take their Windows
Mobile enabled cell phone or PDA, go to [1] http://Mobile.Realtor.com, download and install the application and begin their search.

“We developed Realtor.com Mobile because more people are using hand held devices to access information on the road,” said Realtor.com Senior Vice President, Product Development, Joe DeTuno. “Through this new mobile technology, consumers now have current listings with property details at their finger tips whenever they want it.”

Instead of cruising neighborhoods or searching ads, consumers can now use Realtor.com Mobile to search for homes using criteria including city, state or zip codes, price range, as well as number of bedrooms and bathrooms. If a prospective home looks interesting and is close by, a simple touch of the “Contact Details” feature connects the house hunter with the listing agent or broker.

“One of the more exciting elements of Realtor.com Mobile is the ‘Homes Near By’ feature,” said Realtor.com President, Errol Samuelson. “If you’re walking or driving through a neighborhood and see a ‘For Sale’ sign, one click of a button delivers a photo with all of the property details right to you. With another quick click, you’re connected with the listing agent or broker. There’s no waiting or wondering because you have instant results. We think the mobility, immediacy and convenience of Realtor.com Mobile will revolutionize the way people search for homes.”

Similar to the Web site interface, Realtor.com Mobile features a user-friendly Home Page with several new search and save options. The Homes Near By search feature expands this locator function by searching for listings that meet the selection criteria within a 10-mile range. The Find a Home search option lets you search listings in a particular city/state combination or zip code, with an additional filter allowing for specifications such as number of beds, number of baths and price range.

Favorite listings can be stored in a Saved Items search folders for future reference and comparison. To use the Homes Near By feature, consumers need to be equipped with a GPS-enabled mobile device that runs Window Mobile OS.

To help find and view homes or neighborhoods, Realtor.com Mobile also offers maps and driving directions to each home for sale in the area. Through this feature, house hunters can view the home on a map, get driving directions and plot the most convenient route for multiple homes, creating their own home tour. This feature allows house hunters to save information and access it online or offline. In addition, consumers can save the most commonly used addresses such as home and office, as well as the most commonly viewed listings, to avoid retyping or remembering previous searches.

Realtor.com Mobile can be used with devices running Windows Mobile 5.0 OS,
including HP hw6965, HP hw6925, Palm Treo 700w (or Palm Treo 700wx), AT&T
8525 , Cingular 8125, O2 Xda Stealth and Audiovox XV6700.

We choose Door 3!!

3Dwalkthroughs.com is excited to announce that our interactive services divison, Launchsight Solutions, has joining forces with Door3.

Over the past several years, Launchsight Solutions has grown our client base significantly, and in doing so we have also focused on the development of new software products and services. In an effort to continue this growth and and business model diversification while maintaining our current level of service and responsiveness to our new and existing web site clients, we have actively explored a partnership with a firm that exhibits the same commitment to quality and excellence as we do. We have found that company...

3Dwalkthroughs.com is excited to announce that our interactive services divison, Launchsight Solutions, has joining forces with Door3.

With a focus on business application development, usability, and design, Door3 bring a team of 15 qualified Web professionals to the table to help support our existing and future clients. Founded in 2002 by Peter Neufeld and Alex Asianov, Door3 has provided services to companies of all sizes including: Fresh Direct, CBS, First Fidelity Mortgage Group, Crown Holdings, Studley and many more.

In addition to helping Launchsight Solutions expand its interactive services capabilities, Door3 will also lend their expertise in usability design to help us refine the 3Dwalkthroughs.com website. With a sleu of properietary products focused on the mortgage and mobile communications industry, Door3 will also be heavily involved in new product development and marketing for 3Dwalkthroughs.com.

If you have any questions regarding this exciting new partnership please feel free to comment.

Builder Homesite Delivers Comprehensive New Home Listings on Yahoo! Real Estate

Yahoo! Real Estate is teaming up with NewHomeSource.com to provide consumers the ability to access the most accurate, up-to-date, and comprehensive new homes data available online.

Communities listed on NewHomeSource.com will automatically be displayed in the featured listings placements on Yahoo! Real Estate.

Funded and endorsed by a consortium of the top U.S. homebuilders, NewHomeSource.com brings consumers the combined expertise of the nation's top builders in one intuitive website.

3Dwalkthroughs.com is excited about the opportunity to deliver our 3D Walkthroughs, 3D Floor Plans and 3D Renderings to the members/visitors of the new NewHomeSource.com website.

Sharing Live Video by Cell Phone (New Property Marketing Tool?)

An article in today's Newsday describes a new service launched by AT&T that will provide the ability to Share Video on cell phones.

The technology which can send live video from one cell to another is just the beginning of what 3Dwalkthroughs.com believes to be a huge emerging market. The small amount of compatable phones coupled with some minor flaws in the technology will surely be overcome and many new applications will be launched as a result.

The article mentions this technology will marketed to real estate professionals as a new business tool. We are certainly looking forward to the day when our 3D Walkthroughs, 3D Renderings and 3D Floor Plans can be sent to a phone as simply as sending a text message.

By GREG BLUESTEIN
Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA -- My cell phone flickered to life in the middle of a rowdy party, and seconds later, my fiancee's face brightened up the screen. "Sorry I couldn't make it," she said. "I wish I was there."

She wasn't physically at the party, but her presence -- or at least her agony at being stuck in the office -- was felt, thanks to AT&T Inc.'s new Video Share service. As I panned my phone around the table, I saw how this technology can come in handy.

The service, which AT&T claims is the first to pipe live video from one cell phone to another, worked well. Still, you can't quite call it a "video phone" because Video Share is only a one-way link, meaning one party can see the other but not vice versa at the same time.

AT&T started offering Video Share this week to most of its 160 markets where it has third-generation wireless service. It only works on four phone models so far -- iPhone users need not apply -- and only when the phones are within range of the company's 3G network.

The phones cost anywhere from $25 to $130 (with rebates), and the service runs about 35 cents a minute. Two plans offer cheaper options -- one with 25 minutes for $4.99 a month and another with 60 minutes for $9.99 a month. The company says most subscribers use it for one or two minutes at a time.

It's fairly simple to use. Once a call between two Video Share-capable phones is connected, a prompt appears if both are in AT&T's 3G network. The caller who decides to initiate the connection controls the video camera, and both phones instantly snap into speaker mode.

The company sees great potential. Aside from the obvious uses for doting parents, it will also be marketed to real estate agents and insurance adjusters as a new business tool. And, as AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson hinted at a telecom trade show, the service could be expanded to PC and TV screens.

But first some kinks need to be worked out. We were using the Samsung A717, a snazzy flip-phone that easily fit into my pocket and got lost in my fiancee's purse. But the phone's speaker was nearly impossible to hear in a noisy or crowded setting.

We also found it was sometimes frustratingly difficult to stay connected. Even when both phones were receiving strong signals, the video link occasionally dropped out with little warning, particularly when one of the callers was indoors.

The video reception also can be halting or pixelated, like streaming a Web video on a less than blazing Internet connection.

The camera's range can be perplexing, too. One night, some friends thought it would be funny to show my fiancee a racy billboard while we were playing trivia at a local bar. She could see the lit-up billboard clearly even though it was 25 feet away (she didn't think it was so funny) but she said she could hardly see the more dimly lit table of friends within an arm's length of my phone.

Despite the pitfalls, I found plenty of uses for Video Share during the five days I experimented with it.

I was able to show a colleague stuck in the office the happy scenes from Atlanta's Centennial Park, flash video of traffic-choked streets to my fiancee and watch a glimpse of a TV show from a roommate fooling around with the phone at home.

If this is the prelude to the video phone, I'm eager to see what cell phone providers have in store for us next. Whatever it is, though, I hope it includes a decent light for dimly lit close-ups.

Wynn Hotel - An Unbelievable Attention To Detail

As per yesterday's post, the 3dwalkthroughs.com staff has travelled to Las Vegas to promote our new 3D Walkthrough, 3D Floor Plan and Interactive Floor Plan products.

For this stay in Las Vegas we decided to book our rooms at the Wynn Hotel. An in-room magazine described their never ending goal to improve on every fine detail of decor, experience and amenities available for vistors of the hotel. The magazine describes the magnitude of changes that are made literally over night in an effort to achieve this goal.

On our way to checking out of the hotel this morning we were disoriented as the entire floor of the lobby has changed from carpet to marble...literally over night. We were also amazed watching a hotel employee laying face down carefully placing colored tiles into a new decorative mosaic walkway.

In todays day and age it is inspiring to see a company that actually meets/exceeds its promises. It is also a good lesson on how to run a business.

An Explosion of Property Development in Las Vegas

A few of the staff members of 3DWalkthroughs.com have taken a business road trip to Las Vegas. In between our scheduled meetings we have been walking the strip taking in the sights and sounds of "Sin City".

We are amazed at the amount of new construction that is underway, both on and off the strip. It seems like everywhere we looked there was a construction crane and signs for new coming condos, casinos and golf resorts.

After returning back to my computer I reviewed the websites of some of these developments. It is an interesting phenomenon that the quality of the website really does have a profound effect on the interest level that can be generated in potential buyers/visitors. The websites that utilized 3D Renderings and 3D Walkthroughs were particularly effective in creating an emotional reaction and left me wanting to know more about the end product.

Virtual 3D Marketing

Today I came across a new and interesting business application utilizing 3D technology. Virtual 3D Marketing, released by an Indianapolis company, Expo 3D, creates 3D virtual business environments that can be used by business owners to present their products and services from a remote location.

The end product seems like a "mash up" of Google Sketchup and Second Life. The company builds 3D representations of an actual business environment which utilizes avatars as an online host or hostess. The potential customer is seated in a virtual seminar room, where they can listen to a presentation and interract with the live presenter's avatar using text chat or Voice over Internet Protocol.

We believe that there definitely is a value with this type of business application, although we would like to see the 3D Walkthrough graphics continue to become more realistic. Perhaps 3D Walkthroughs.com can lend our assistance in this area.

Below is a press release from the Indianapolis Star about Virtual 3D Marketing.

Fishers firm's software lets vendors show demos of products online at time convenient to clients

By Dwight Adams
dwight.adams@indystar.com
June 25, 2007


In a global economy running 24 hours a day, imagine the benefit of having your products on display to see in any time zone at any hour of day or night -- without having to be there in person.
Or consider the convenience of being able to attend that important industry trade show -- without the travel expense or time spent away from your busy small business.
A Fishers startup -- Virtual 3D Marketing -- can create custom three-dimensional virtual business environments in real time that can make possible those things and more.
"You don't have to travel. We take a lot of the time and expense out of doing business," said Todd Root, vice president of sales and marketing at the company, also called V3DM.

The company is the marketing arm of Expo3D Corp., a California-based software developer, which launched its virtual business platform last fall.
Some of the services V3DM offers, Root said, include interactive exhibit areas and 3-D products on display, online automation, and tech sessions and workshops using live, pre-recorded or archived learning tools.

Participants in online seminars are greeted by an avatar -- an online host or hostess -- and seated in a virtual seminar room, where they can listen to a presentation and interract with the live presenter's avatar using text chat or Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, functions.

A "proximity chat" function even allows the presenter avatar to hear other participants' conversations if he's close enough in the virtual conference room.
The product is useful for clients in industries such as electronics, heavy manufacturing -- even romance book publishing, which is represented by one of Expo3D's current clients. And it can be used for virtual trade shows, Web sites and interactive catalogs, according to company brochures.

Single Property Websites - Marketing Real Estate in a Slumping Economy

3Dwalkthroughs.com is constantly researching the most cutting edge and effective ways of marketing real estate properties. Over the last few years we have witnessed an explosion in the use of Single Property Websites as an effective tool to help both the real estate agent as well as the property itself to stand out from the crowd.

Single property websites can offer a large amount of information about a property including: photos, videos, virtual tours, text, documents and more. Realtors benefit because they are an easy, affordable way to get more exposure online where 8 out of 10 buyers are searching.

We are just starting to see a few single property website companies offering 3D Walkthroughs and 3D Floor Plans as part of their allowable data. We believe it is just a matter of time before our products become an integral part of all single property page website.

Terabitz: Website To List All Real Estate in One Place

A new website is entering the competitive real estate portal field with the goal of trying to organize the plethera of real estate information in one intuitive site.
The drag and drop feature is really cool and easy to use. We are certainly excited to finding our first 3D Walkthrough and 3D Floor Plan that appear on this site.

Here is an article from Cnet.com that describes this new website:
Posted by Elinor Mills

Imagine you are moving to a new city and you are considering different neighborhoods. If you want to find out if there are any cafes in a neighborhood, where the gas stations and post offices are, if there is a cinema nearby and what the crime is like, you typically have to consult multiple sources.

Not anymore. A new Web site set to launch on Tuesday called Terabitz offers all sorts of information in one place. The site is geared toward people looking for real estate, but it definitely will be helpful for a variety of purposes.

I recently moved to a new neighborhood and had resorted to discovering what's in the area the old-fashioned way--walking around. Now I can literally map out the neighborhood with my own points of interest.

Terabitz enables users to create a custom dashboard related to a particular neighborhood or city. For instance, users can create a mini map with points of interest, a chart showing housing sales, and modules listing homes for sale, middle schools and nearby cafes.

The site features a customizable dashboard that lets you drag and drop different information modules with local data such as fast food restaurants, libraries, hospitals, pharmacies, grocery stores, schools and weather. You can also find out what homes in the area sold for recently, calculate mortgage rates, see listings from Craigslist, Trulia, Google and the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) site and even get housing valuations from Zillow.

One click on a tab and your customized data points are displayed on a map. You can take a snapshot of the dashboard to save or e-mail to someone else.

Terabitz Chief Executive Ashfaq Munshi acknowledges that he is entering a crowded field with a real estate Web site, but points out that none of the other sites offers such a variety of local information.

Munshi, who has raised $10 million in capital from the Tudor Ventures, says his now 17-year-old son got the inspiration for the Web site after seeing the first real estate mashup, Housingmaps.com, in 2005. "You might even assert that he hired me to run his company," Munshi joked.

Interactive Floor Plan With Photos

Please take a moment of your time to check out the latest product upgrade from our technology partner, Metropix Ltd.. Interactive Floor Plans are floor plans with integrated photos that appear as camera icons on the plan. We are really impressed with the resolution quality the picture offers when enlarged. The smooth transition between pics makes navigating through the floor plan much more enjoyable than other products we have seen.

Metropix is currently testing these products with their clients in the UK. In an effort to help make any improvements prior to a full launch, 3dwalkthroughs.com is asking our US customers, old and new, to test drive the product and respond with any feedback/suggestions.

We're particularly interested to hear if it displays correctly on your computer, whether you find it easy enough to use and whether it has the features you want. Don't forget to click the 'Photos' tab as well, which shows full screen versions of the same pictures. Don't worry you can also easily navigate back to your 3D Walkthrough or 3D Floor Plan of the same property.

Click Here For A Sneak Preview

Using Video To Market Real Estate - Catching On Throughout The World

An article in today's NY Times describes the explosion of Podcasting in Europe and Asia. Podcasting, or the act of loading video onto an Ipod is being used by real estate buyers and sellers as a way for finding and marketing properties.

The use of video to market real estate properties in America has caught on most quickly — with video tours of homes now widely available — but property markets in the rest of the world also are beginning to embrace the idea. One of the possible reasons for America leading the charge is the slow down in our housing market and the need to come up with innovative ways to make a property stand out from the crowd.

As tools to create these marketing videos continue to become simpler and more inexpensive, coupled with the continued launch of video posting sites such as You Tube and Google Video, this medium is sure to explode.

3Dwalkthroughs.com promotes the use of the various video posting sites to clients that it has created 3D Walkthroughs, 3D Floor Plans and 3D Renderings for. The more places that they make these pre-sales marketing tools available the more likely and quicker it is that they will find an interested buyer.

You can read the full NY Times article here>>>

Mobile Pre-Sales Marketing? 3D Graphics for Mobile Phones By Toshiba

Toshiba announced today a dedicated 3D graphics solution that is supposed to offer new levels of realism and excitement to games played on mobile phones.

Toshiba's new chip integrates a newly developed 3D graphics processor that achieves 38 times the performance of existing products. Its advanced capabilities open the way to further development of software applications of mobile phones.

3Dwalkthroughs.com views this announcement as an important step towards being able to promote our products to a truly mobile audience. As the majority of our end users are on the go, it is our goal to be able to offer our clients 3D Walkthroughs, 3D Floor Plans and 3D Renderings regardless of where they are.

Intero Real Estate Services Develops Department and Portal to Support Resorts, New Homes & Developments

An article in today's RISMEDIA describes a new marketing website focused on marketing the finest resorts and new home developments. While they do not currently list 3D Walkthroughs, 3D Floor Plans or 3D Renderings as the media formats they will provide on their website, we believe it is just a matter of time. Along with our current product mix which are perfect for pre-construction marketing we will soon be announcing our latest product which is perfect for marketing upscale resorts and hotels. Stay tuned for more on that.

RISMEDIA, July 12, 2007—Intero Real Estate Services, Inc. has announced the premiere of a new department that will market a collection of some of the finest resorts and new home developments offered today. To support these marketing efforts, the company has unveiled a new Web site that will provide descriptive information, photos, pricing and access to Intero’s award-winning client services division. The Web site can be accessed at interoresorts.com or interonewhomes.com.

“Intero prides itself on innovating and approaching new channels of business to serve our clients’ real estate needs,” said Gino Blefari, founder, president and CEO of Intero Real Estate Services.

“I believe our resort and new home development department will serve as a key resource as the demand for vacation and second homes continues to increase.”

In addition to the Web site and client services resources, the resort and new home development department will utilize Intero’s new Santana Row store front location to showcase a variety of properties from all over the world. Customers can discover information on villas in Mexico, ski cabins in Lake Tahoe and extravagant resort properties in the Bahamas and Costa Rica.

The list of current resorts and new home & development projects currently involved in the department include:

The Residences at Atlantis – Paradise Island, Bahamas
St. Regis Residences – Costa Rica
Fairmont Heritage Place, Ghirardelli Square – San Francisco, California
Seasons at Sandpoint – Sandpoint, Idaho
TRUMP Ocean Resort – North Baja, Mexico
The Villages of Loreto Bay - Baja Sur, Mexico
80|50 Northstar – Truckee, California
Tahoe Mountain Resorts, Communities & Club – Truckee, California
Resort at Squaw Creek – Squaw Creek, California
The Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino – Las Vegas, Nevada
Robles del Rio Resort Hotel and Spa – Carmel Valley, California
Kai Maluna Luxury Condominiums – Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
IBIS Golf & Country Club – West Palm Beach, Florida

Real Estate Marketing...Selling The Experience

While doing some research for a new real esate marketing project, we were referred to a website for 20pine.com, a new development by Michael Shvo. The website is extremely well thought out and makes use of well optmized high resolution 3D Renderings and 3D Floor Plans. It also illustrates a new philisophy in real estate marketing described in an excerpt from Fast Company magazine:

Shvo's strategy--to turn each building he markets into a luxury brand of its own--is calculated to insulate his developers from such turbulence. His basic contention is that real estate should be marketed in the mode of Cartier, Gucci, or Rolex: massive market research; devotion to demographic and psychographic analysis; extreme attention to customer experience and service; integrated marketing across every touch point, every function, every channel.

That's not news in the consumer-products realm, but it represents fresh thinking in an industry that, until recently, worried less about seducing customers than about simply feeding their insatiable demand.

"The real-estate industry is accustomed to being very conservative," says Anna Klingmann, author of the upcoming Brandscapes: Architecture in the Experience Economy (MIT Press, fall 2007). "They have, by and large, relied on tried-and-true formulas." In the urban condo market, that meant selling based on location, square footage, and predictable amenities ("Working fireplace! Park view!"). But as consumers have become more design savvy, demand has escalated for more upscale, sophisticated dwellings that serve, essentially, as a residential shorthand for a buyer's style, aesthetic, and weltanschauung.

And that niche is where Shvo sees his opening. If the product is extraordinary, he says, it's insulated from the dreaded competition that invariably afflicts commodity properties when the market softens. He raises a bottle of branded Shvo water-- Shvo2O--to make his case. "If you're buying this water from me for $1, and somebody else says she'll sell it to you for 99 cents, you're in a race to the lowest price," he says. "But if I bring you a bottle of water from the Holy Land, you'll pay $2 for it because you can't get it anywhere else."

We encourage you to read the full article and also take a peek at the 20pine.com website.

3D Renderings...Truly Effective

Today my wife and I took one of our marathon 4 hour powerwalks through the streets of NYC. It is fair to say that we covered most of the west side of NY from mid-town down to Battery Park. If there is one thing that we noticed it is the tremendous amount of new condo development underway in spite of the housing market cool down throughout the country.

As we walked by these various construction sites we were definitely more interested by the ones that had large realistic renderings illustrating both the exterior and interiors views of finished product. Along with these renderings most of the billboards that displayed the renderings also had their properties marketing website address prominently displayed. A quick review of these websites revealed what I already expected, they all had detailed 3D Floor Plans and many had 3D Walkthroughs as well.

It is nice to know that the core products of 3DWalkthroughs.com really do get a property noticed...maybe too noticed. My wife just informed me that we have 3 meetings with sales agents of these buildings this week.

3D Marketing To Promote 3D Products

How cool is this? This morning, only 15 blocks from our corporate office, Adobe launched an interactive wall of animation that can be manipulated by pedestrians as they walk by. The animated wall is being used as an advertising campaing to launch Adobe's new suite of 3D Products. Many of these new products are proving to be extremely valuable for the 3DWalkthroughs.com design team.

We have been dabbling with some of these newest products which have been released in phases over the last few months. A few of our newest products including interactive Floor Plans will take advantage of this new technology along with some additional products that we are keeping a secret until we get closer to their official release.

For a more detailed description of Adobe's interactive wall of animation please click here to read an article from the NY Times>>

How To Run A Real Estate Brokerage: Marketing Tactics

An article in today's Forbes.com discusses some technology "must haves" for a real estate brokerage to stay competitive in today's tough environment.

According to the article, the most important tool for property marketing is the internet. By 2010, online real estate advertising will likely hit $3 billion, or 32% of the real estate ad market.

There are many advantages to using the internet to market real estate including:
- The ability to reach the largest audience for the least amount of money
- The ability to include multiple media formats such as photos, virtual tours, 2D Floor Plans, 3D Floor Plans, 3D Walkthroughs, Video, etc.
- The ability To Create a Brand for your Company
- The ability to drive traffic to property listings by utilizing pay per click advertising and blogs.

Unless you live under a rock, 3DWalkthroughs.com believes the use of the internet to market real estate will continue to increase and evolve in ways we probably can't even imagine.

The full article is below.

How To Run A Real Estate Brokerage: Marketing Tactics
Lisa LaMotta, 07.11.07, 12:00 PM ET

Every new business owner needs to know the fundamentals. Forbes.com is breaking down those building blocks by answering eight core questions related to a given industry. Taken together, the information will give budding entrepreneurs a head start on making those first critical steps.

What are the most effective marketing tactics?

Brokerages have to appeal to buyers and sellers--but the techniques for snagging both groups are not the same.

Attracting buyers: Roughly four out of five people looking for a house now use the Internet to do their research. By 2010, online real estate advertising will likely hit $3 billion, or 32% of the real estate ad market--more than any other media, including newspapers, estimates Borrell Associates, a national research and consulting firm that tracks advertising.

Pay-per-click advertising on Google works wonders if you have deep pockets, but smaller shops need to be more creative. Blogs do a nice job of attracting search engines and connecting with customers. According to Bernice Ross, licensed agent and chief executive of RealEstateCoach.com, blogs should feature specific information on the neighborhoods buyers are considering. This could include everything from a digital map of local "haunted" houses to tips on how to cut the water bill during a heat wave. (For more on blogging, check out Go Blogging For Customers.)

Despite all that activity in cyberspace, nothing beats a decent yard sign. Traditional 24-inch-by-36-inch signage might run you $80 for a batch of five, depending on quality and design. (There are vendors galore online.) Each sign should be placed front and center and display the name of your firm, the telephone number and your Web address. Some signs have convenient cavities for brochures.

Note: Before you slap signs up on every telephone pole in the neighborhood, check the rules. At a minimum, you'll need a permit to post signs, but there can be a tangle of other restrictions. Some jurisdictions allow signs only on the property for sale; others impose size constraints. Check with your local city council.

Attracting sellers: Sellers hang out online too, but brokers maintain the best way to attract them is still by advertising in the good old Yellow Pages. (For better or worse, most sellers tend to pick the first agent they come across.) Expect to pay around $1,200 a month for one ad.

Dresden 3D-City Model

3DGeo, a company based in Germany, has announced the launch of the Dresden 3D city model. Using their LandXplorer technology they modeled a total of 154,000 buildings with around 30 modeled in fine details that display an exact representation of the facade elements. Also, highly complex city-landmark buildings and geometric roof features can be viewed.

3DWalkthroughs.com is looking into investing in the LandXplorer technology to help round out our offerings. Clearly we would like to offer the ability to step inside the model and Walkthrough detailed interiors and Floor Plans. As we have discussed in previous posts, interior walkthroughs of public buildings could present a security issue so this must be more thoroughly researched.

Below is a press release from the 3DGeo website.

Dresden 3D in Google Earth
Montag, Juli 09, 2007


The Dresden 3D city model, the largest city model in the world, is now accessible through Google Earth.

The LandXplorer technology from 3D Geo GmbH makes it easy to create 3D models and import them into the Internet; this is also possible for very large models. Control of the data remains in the hands of the local governments. There are numerous fields of application for using the models.

Potsdam, the 9th of July, 2007 Dresden is now accessible in a close-to-reality way to everyone as a complete, interactive 3D city model in the Internet. The 3D city model, with its more than 150,000 buildings, is the biggest of its kind in comparison to other similar models available in the world today. Dresden’s vice mayor and city councilman for urban development, Herbert Feßenmayr, together with the head of the city surveying department, Helmet Krüger, gave official public access to the virtual model of the Saxon capital city via Google Earth’s Virtual Globe on the 9th of July. The interactive, real-time environment allows the user to move about in virtual space and observe the city on the Elbe from various perspectives. Internet users can start the model by clicking this link www.dresden.de/3d-model and then viewing it via Google Earth’s visualization platform. German-speaking users can start the model by following this link: www.dresden.de/3d

The city fathers placed great emphasis on the creation of a complete representative model of the city. And in compliance with their wishes, the entire urban area of the Saxon capital was recreated in model form. All buildings that were larger than 25 square meters were taken into consideration – a total, then, of approximately 154,000 buildings. With this volume, Dresden surpasses the “first-mover”, Berlin, with its 44,000 model buildings, which went on-line in March. Around 30 buildings in the Dresden model are presented to the viewer replete with fine details; they display an exact representation of the facade elements. Also, highly complex city-landmark buildings and geometric roof features can be viewed.

Save by selling your home online

An article in todays's Market Watch confirms what many of us have know for a long time...a lot of money can be saved by selling your home online. Based on the average price of a home in the US, sellers are paying close to $19,000 in broker fees.

Item #2 in the article below specifically relates to 3DWalkthroughs.com. Using tools such as 3D Walkthroughs can 3D Floor Plans can be an inexpensive way of effectively showcasing a home online. This is advantageous for both the buyer and seller in terms of the time saved by not having to visit the property in person. In addition, both of these tools can easily added to many existing websites that are visited frequently by potential buyers.

Please read the article below.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Despite the recent slump in the housing market, many Americans are still paying a walloping 6% commission to real estate brokers.
At first blush, 6% may not sound like much, but consider: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average price of a home is $313,000, which means the average seller has to pony up nearly $19,000 in broker fees. This is a hefty penalty for selling your own home, one that more and more Americans are unwilling to pay.
Many homeowners are now opting to market their property directly to the consumer using online services such as Yahoo Real Estate and Craig's List. There's good reason for going to the Web: One recent survey, conducted by the National Association of Realtors, found that 80% used the Internet when searching for a new home.
Selling your home online is simpler then you might think, says Colby Sambrotto, chief operating officer of For Sale By Owner.Com, a leading online home marketplace. Here are the three key steps you need to take:

1. Find out what your home is worth. If you're working without an agent, the first and most important step is to get an accurate home appraisal, says Sambrotto. To find a licensed home appraiser in your area, visit Appraisal Institute.org, an association of professional appraisers. There is also a group of free services on the Web, such as Zillow.com, that allow you to estimate the value of your home by comparing it with neighboring properties.

2. Market your property. The goal when marketing your home, says Sambrotto, is to "drive as many buyers as possible to your ad," so make sure you choose a site with a lot of traffic, and augment your listing with high-quality color photos and a compelling description. You might even try a "virtual tour" if you're willing to pay a little extra.

3. Transfer the title. Once your home is sold, you need to call in the professionals. East of the Mississippi, title transfers are generally handled by real estate attorneys, whereas in the West, the job typically falls to title companies. Regardless of who handles yours, you shouldn't pay more than about $500, says Sambrotto.

So, how much do you stand to gain by leaving out the realty broker? According to Sambrotto, selling your home online is likely to net you between $12,000 and $15,000.

3D Virtual Reality and Real Life Continue To Converge

An article in today's Boston Globe discusses new gadgets that are being developed to allow residents of virtual worlds, such as Second Life, to interact on the road. As the virtual worlds continue to become more realistic and more accessible from multiple locations, 3DWalkthroughs.com predicts they will take over as the social networking platform of choice.

According to the article, motion sensors will allow people to live through their avatars in the real world and even allow their virtual world friends to see what they are up to in the real world. We are keeping a close eye on the development and release of the various applications that will be released as a function of this technology.

Gadgets may help merge virtual reality with real life
By Mark Baard, Globe Correspondent | July 9, 2007

That hipster you always see talking into his Bluetooth headset might soon be able to use a similar device to leap into Second Life without even stepping out of line at Trader Joe's.

The company behind Second Life, Linden Lab, hopes to introduce hand-held and wearable systems that act as gateways between the real and virtual worlds. Linden Lab and other virtual worlds also are developing versions that run on existing mobile phones.

Researchers at a recent virtual worlds conference at MIT said that special eyewear, display "badges," and speakers worn about the neck will allow us to live more fully through our avatars -- those idealized versions of ourselves that typically boast better proportions than the saggy originals.

Second Lifers wearing the gadgets will be able to attend "in-world" parties and gallery openings, whether they are sucking down beers at Cornwall's or stuck in Fenway traffic. Motion detectors and other sensors in the devices will also show your virtual mates what you are up to in the real world.

It might sound like public safety officers will need to shift focus away from the risks associated with driving while chatting on cellphones to the inherent dangers of operating in two realities at the same time. But conference participants said such concerns are premature.

"It's like you're not going to be allowed to be in a virtual world while driving in the real world," said Robert Sutor, vice president of open source and standards at IBM.

Linden Lab vice president Joe Miller described one of the early products that will bridge the two worlds as a wearable box that creates a "3D sound field" that allows the wearer to hear voices from his virtual world without completely shutting out the real people around him.

The prototype speaker device presented to Linden recently by a developer "is not ready for prime time yet but it's working pretty well," said Miller, speaking at "Virtual Worlds: Where Business, Society, Technology & Policy Converge," sponsored by MIT and IBM.

Linden is encouraging open source developers to create client software for mobile devices. And Blizzard Entertainment, creator of the online multiplayer game World of Warcraft, is hiring developers with experience in Symbian and Adobe Flash Lite for its mobile interface initiative.

Conference participants said cellphones are likely to be the first mobile devices to create two-way connections between real and virtual reality.

"The idea of cell phone as sensor has started to catch on in the sensor network community," Joseph Paradiso, leader of the Responsive Environments Group at the MIT Media Lab, wrote in an e-mail last week. "They're much heavier platforms than usually seen in sensor networks, but they are certainly ubiquitous!"

ResEnv has produced a prototype "tricorder" -- inspired by the information- synthesizing gadget from "Star Trek" -- that gathers data from real-world surroundings and translates that information into virtual desks and chairs.

In a video at the ResEnv website, media.mit.edu/resenv, grad students demonstrate how the tricorder's sensors can detect someone swiveling in a desk chair and typing on a computer keyboard. The device can also show the user what is happening in the virtual space he or she is helping to create.

It will take some retooling before virtual worlds can accommodate all of the data streaming from ubiquitous sensors.

"We're talking with Linden Lab [about creating] more efficient pipes of sensor data into their environment," said Paradiso. "I can certainly stream video, but I can't efficiently input diverse sensor data.

The Day After (7/7/07) Media and Musicians Unite During Live Earth

Yesterday's Live Earth Concert marks one of the biggest worldwide media events ever, reaching an estimated 2 billion people. The 24-hour music marathon spanned seven continents and featured music from rappers, rockers and country stars.

The theme of the worldwide Concerts with performances from over 100 of today's top musical acts was that "everyone" needs to take their own little steps to protect the environment.

MSN.com reports the event boasted the most simultaneous viewers of any online concert with over 10 million viewers.

3DWalkthroughs.com pledges to continue to further educate ourselves on ways that we can conserve energy both in the office and at home.

Awesome Architecture

Today, 3Dwalkthroughs.com pays homage to a building that was featured in the month's Metropolis Magazine. Highly visible from the West Side Highway (a frequent walking path for my wife and I) stands the new Inter­ActiveCorp(IAC) headquarters. We have been first hand witnesses of the construction of this building from when the first rendering was made public, and it is exciting to see the final product in all its glory. After reading the article and seeing some of the interior spaces it is amazing to consider the meticulous attention to detail involved with this creating this type of landmark building.

To read the featured article in Metroplis Magazine Click Here>>>

Click Your Way to an Architect-Designed House

An article in today's New York Times discusses the business of selling ready-made, architect designed floor plans online. While these stock floor plans often require minor modifications they are still said to be significantly cheaper than plans designed from scratch. Another advantage of utilizing pre-made floor plans is the ability to view pictures of an existing house that was built using the same floor plans.

Can anybody guess what 3Dwalkthroughs.com is thinking???

You guessed it, how about utilizing our 3D Floor Plans and 3D Walkthroughs to create a database of these plans in an easier to comprehend and dynamic 3D format? Bringing these 2D Floor Plans to life with our 3D products would help the layman understand the possibilities when photos are not available.

The Full Article Can Be Found Here>>>

New Blog for 3D WareHouse Buildings

Greg Rose, from the GIS at the City of San Jose, California started up a blog earlier this month which highlights new 3D SketchUp building models as they are added to Google's 3D Warehouse. The blog called SketchUp Buildings is updated daily with the new models that were added to the Google Warehouse.

Many new applications are being developed to promote the sharing of 3D images to be integrated into Google Earth. 3DWalkthroughs.com seeks to be a big contributor of 3D Walkthroughs, 3D Floor Plans and 3D Renderings as the technology continues to evolve.

Happy 4th of July

3DWalkthroughs.com would like to wish all our families, friends and clients a very Happy and SAFE 4th of July.

Our offices will be closed all day but will re-open first thing in the morning July 5th.

First live Long Island Web open house

An article from Monday's Long Island Newsday describes a new tool being used to market available Real Estate. Broker Mike Costanza broadcast to over a dozen potential buyers who watched the virtual open house from the comforts of their own home. Using a camcorder hooked up to his laptop Mike was able to take viewers on a tour of the house for sale and even included an online Q&A session during the 30 minute tour.

The open house was broadcast through VMdirect, a Web marketing business based in Las Vegas. As this quality of the experience improves 3DWalkthroughs.com expects this form of marketing is sure to gain in popularity.

A nice complement to the virtual open house would be a follow up email which would includes: A PDF Flyer, Photos, Detailed Property Information, 2D and 3D Floor Plans, Video Tours or even a 3D Walkthrough which could highlight local landmarks and other amenities not shown during the Virtual Open House.

The full article can be found HERE>>>

Some Exciting New Developments in The Weeks To Come...

Over the next few weeks/months 3dwalkthroughs.com will be unveiling many new ground breaking products. Here is a small sample of what's to come from our technology partner, Metropix.

An excerpt taken directly from their blog:
"Geocoding" is the technical term for finding out where things are, and as part of the recent upgrade, the Metropix system gained the ability to geocode the thousands of floor plans drawn by users since the company's inception in 2004. There are now over 400,000 geocoded floor plans, and the rate of growth is continuing to accelerate.

In essence, you will be able to use google maps to search for all properties within a selected area and view which ones have floor plans. Please check back often over the next few weeks to hear about other product releases that are sure to blow you away.

Davis Buckley Architects

3Dwalkthroughs.com and Launchsight Solutions is proud to announce the official website launch of Washington DC based architect Davis Buckley.

We will continue to impart elements such as 3D Walkthroughs, 3D Renderings and 3D Floor Plans to create an impressive showcase for their unbelievable bodies of work.