The phone rang. I answered. On the other line was an angry real estate agent that barked out to me, “Ok, before you even go into your sales pitch just tell me if you have coverage in Tampa, FL. That is all that I want to know. Do you have a physical person in the city of Tampa that can come and do a tour for me? NO I don’t want to buy or sign up for a stupid slide show program and no I don’t want to mail you my pictures. I want to meet with and see a person right here in this town that will come to my listing and create a virtual tour for me!”
Where was all this coming from? What did I do today…yesterday…or last week to disrupt my karmic circle? Well, as it all turns out, it really had nothing to do with me. The real estate agent was upset because they had spent the last three hours on a website looking for a company that could offer a virtual tour service in their area. Here is the link to that site:
http://resource.realtor.com/agent/ShowCasePlus/FindTourProviders.aspx
Go ahead and give it a whirl. Put in your zip code and location and allakazaam. The great and amazing Realtor.com spits out a myriad of so called virtual tour providers for you that were supposed to match your search criteria right? WRONG!! You have been hoodwinked and bamboozled again. The tom foolery on this page is really astounding and almost makes me cry. I will fend off these tears thought while I tell you the rest of the story.
Now, here is where you will begin to see the truth. Repeat the process over again. Go back to that link above and put in your search criteria again and allakazaam, chitty chitty bang bang! (Cloud of dust lingers over your monitor) What you see in front of you now is the same exact list of picture path partners but it is arranged in a completely different order than it was before. This would be a great idea and one that I would give the Ol Tip ‘o The Hat to; if every company on that list had an actual rep that could come and do a 360 Virtual tour.
The problem herein is that most of the people and companies that you see on your screen are NOT national companies and they only service a city or two making it a complete waste of your time and the companies on that list. The list provides, at best, only slightly better odds than a vegas slot machine of giving you a virtual tour provider at the top of your list that actually offers service in your area. End the end…this is simply a disservice and the virtual tour provider shopper has better luck turning to google for the answer.
Yes we have called them. Yes we have told that they should have a software only list and a provider list. Yes we have told them that should could easily verify if a company has providers in a specific area by querying their data base of tours published to Realtor.com. And no they have never done a thing about it. Perhaps if enough people read this and email CustomerCare@REALTOR.com they will actually do something about it.
We have called our Picture Path rep several times regarding this issue and never hear back. Maybe with enough complaints someday this ol slot machine will have better odds of servicing the public than it does now. For now if you are looking for a virtual tour company that provides coverage in your area just go to Google or get Real, Tour Vision.
Enjoy your weekend!!