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61tinkerbell

Virtual Tour Of Our Home - Feedback Please!

18 years ago

We just finished building our dream home 8 months ago, but things change.. and we moved last month. The tour shows the home furnished, prior to our moving and it is now showing empty.

There has only been about 10 showings since we listed it 6 weeks ago. Feedback has been nothing but positive, Realtor's say it is the best price on the market for this type of home, and nothing compares... however, it is a very high end home for the area. Never the less, the Realtor feels it will sell.. but not one real nibble!

I know what we paid for the land, house, barn and improvements and we are just hoping to break even.

I'd like feedback from this forum.

House: Don Gardner's The Southerland

Sits on 47 beautiful acres of pastures and some woods.

Brand new 4 stall horse barn, never used!

Kitchen, Monogram appliances (except frig is Jenn-air)

Cabinetry is Medallion

Hickory hardwood throughout lower and upper floors. Tile in baths, and carpet in bonus room

here is the virtual tour link (Kitchen doesn't display well on this, and new lawn was installed a few weeks ago)

Virtual

Tour

Comments (20)

  • 18 years ago

    Breathtaking! (The tower behind the roof line of the home is a power line on a distant hill.

    Ok, I cannot be the only one that laughed at this statement. HTH can a view be "breathtaking" when it is of a power line tower? Your virtual tour actually showed a lovely view. Because this comes at the beginning of the virtual tour this does your place a grave disservice. I almost didn't continue because I thought it would be more of the same.

    Apparently your Realtor does not know how to resize photos so they fit without a scroll bar. Because they are so large, they are blurry. I'm not sure why you have pictures up that only represent your furniture - the bedroom photos, the large couch photo and three pictures of your entrance way. Why no bathrooms? For a gourmet kitchen, that is one lousy picture.

  • 18 years ago

    Running windows Vista - I had issues with the tour, it showed the outside fine but froze up when it was going to the inside.

    I didn't like that it gave me the option to skip but wouldn't let me. If the forward / back button is there, let me use it.

    Have to agree about the tower, get rid of it.
    Inside the barn is an upside down for sale sign, get rid of that too

    I ended up going to your agents site to get the MLS number - realtor.com has the tour and only 1 picture that shows the tower behind the house :(

    Have to agree about the photo size - she has large 2272 x 1704, then some that are resized. She really needs to resize them all to no more then 800 x 600.

    Will have to go back when I have more time to save the large photos so that I can view them.

    Your house is beautiful from what I do see. I don't know the area but know a lot of people from NJ that are going to TN because it's cheaper. With a house that price, even in NJ, you'd be waiting for the right buyer depending on location.

  • 18 years ago

    Lovely home and grounds.

    Maybe I am just particularly impatient today, but . . .

    I stopped mid-way in the virtual tour. There are way too many photos of the land to sit through before you get to the inside pics. I would pick maybe 5 really good outside photos, then switch to the indoor photos. Get rid of the one with the power line tower! You don't need two photos of the tractor stall.

    I became impatient with the panning. There is too much watching the uninteresting stuff while waiting for the pan to get to the center.

  • 18 years ago

    Mine also wouldn't play all the inside pictures. I never could see the price. I agree, get rid of the picture with the tower, there is no need for it.

    Perhaps a property like this needs just the right people for it, it isn't going to be right for most people. From what I saw it looks great, but I couldn't see most of the inside.

  • 18 years ago

    The virtual tour is way too long and redundant. I couldn't stand it any longer and closed out of it before I saw most of the house.
    Your realtor is doing you an injustice by showing too much of the outside and leaving nothing for the buyers to discover when they see it in person.
    One shot of the house from a distance and one shot up close, then head inside and take the most impressive shots of the rooms as possible.
    Scanning back and forth does nothing for the person whose house hunting via the net. They want to see if it's a possible. I wouldn't even do shots of the barn. Let them come and see for themselves if the set up is going to work for them or not.

  • 18 years ago

    If anyone wants to look it up - MLS 514935

    Price $799,900

  • 18 years ago

    I dislike virtual tours in general because they take to long to load and watch. I would rather see about a dozen good quality still photograhs.

  • 18 years ago

    Land issues are important to me, more important than the houses sitting on the land....but even I think the landscapes are overdone. I am OK with the barn interior shot, and most horsey people would want to see your barn accommodations.

    I saw one shot of the interior and it was a pan,and that's nice if you aren't using a wide angle lens..... but the next images never uploaded. I stopped right there.

    My realtor brought in a little digital and my virtual tour has a lot of useless shots of a window because her camera didn't have the capability to do wide angle and she couldn't or didn't know how to position herself in for a more descriptive shot.

  • 18 years ago

    Yikes! I got bogged down on the virtual tour somewhere between the ugly dug up patch called a 'pond' and the horse trail. Then, nothing...loading, loading, loading. After a couple minutes of that, I clicked out so I never saw the interior shots.

    Then, I saw the MLS # & tried that. Much better.

    Comments:

    1.) Way too much of the land. One or two shots is all you need;
    2.) Lose the barn shots entirely unless it shows up in the outside panoramic picture;
    3.) For sure, lose the power line tower picture...can't believe your REA put that on the tour?;
    4.) The house is lovely. What's not to like? Somehow, though it just didn't 'feel' right knowing it was Tennessee. I would have expected something more casual with an elegant touch but since the furnishings are gone the house, probably, gives off a different aura now;
    5.) The master bathroom vanity & single sink in a home of that scale seems cheesy. Is there another vanity on the other side of the bathroom? If not, that's going to be a deal breaker for many looking at such upscale home, IMO;
    6.) Frankly, most of the tour showed like a furniture store advertisement rather than a home tour. If it were mine place...I'd have the REA reshoot the tour without the furniture. Then, your beautiful moulding, woodwork, windows, cabinets, countertops, etc. would shine through. As it is, they were completly lost in the blur of furniture passing by my eyes.

    It's a beautiful home on a beautiful piece of real estate. At that price point, even with the quality of the property, I think it's going to take a while to sell. Also, for whatever reason, I had trouble getting it to come up on realtor.com. I used the MLS # & three out of four tries displayed, "Sorry, couldn't find".

    Wishing you good luck with your sale. Hopefully, someone wanting a 'Gentlemen's Farm' will come along & your property will be a perfect fit! It really is lovely.

    /tricia

  • PRO
    18 years ago

    wow, great feedback and I am going to contact the Realtor and have this tour updated!

    The land is important to many, and 48 acres are not cheap - even in TN! The land value on the lower end there is $7000 per acre, but since ours have been reseeded and limes and is all good hay pasture, the price brings the value up to $8000 per acre.

    All that is good, but with so many people having trouble even getting to the tour.. who is going to care!

    I definately will be contacting the Realtor to have this updated and resized!

    Thanks everyone!

  • 18 years ago

    IMO, with the tour, see if they can reformat it, do the outside front, then inside tour, then continue with the rest of the property / barn.

  • 18 years ago

    I was only able to get to the shot of the inside of the front door, after that the photos wouldn't load (the loading bar kept scrolling though).

    I wonder if that photo with the power line tower can be taken from a different angle? I understand that you put in the description that it's far away to avoid discouraging people, but I don't think that's enough. If you can't take it from a different angle, I would remove that particular photo - I think you have enough distant shots of the house, and at this price you don't want any negatives.

    Another thing that I noticed was the For Sale sign in the barn - I'd remove it, and most of the stuff sitting on the floor (gas cans if I recall correctly) and retake the inside barn shots. I felt there were way too many land photos also, but I think Roselvr's idea to do the house first, land second in the tour is great!

  • 18 years ago

    You should only use pictures that pique the buyer's interest and make your home attractive enough that they want to see it in person. Lose the power tower picture because it does neither.

  • 18 years ago

    Did you know your house is listed twice at realtor.com?

    MLS 514935 virtual tour, 4 Bed, 3.5 Bath

    MLS 566806 no virtual tour, 4 Bed, 3 Bath - 2,870 Sq. Ft.

    I decided to try the tour with the realtor.com link and was surprised that I was actually able to view it. Let me tell you, my computer was screaming! Both processors were getting hot, I could hear the fans go on and off. With my 2 Intel Xeon's at 3.20 GHZ each, and 2 gigs of memory, I would hate to see someone with a less computer try to view. What was she thinking?

    Next, I found her descriptions to be a bit wordy, it was hard trying to read and look at the video and was easier to bring it up as a gallery, then move it on my own.

    In the back of farm there is a tree or two down. If the camera was in a different spot, they probably wouldn't have been in the shot. I would remove this.

    She needs to go back and read what she has written:

    description for home office / formal living room - space features crown molding, beautiful french doors opening up to the front porch and 10 foot ceiling. No need for an office? This room could just as easily be a formal living room with it's proximity to the front door, hickory flooring, and the same beautiful details as the rest of this home - French should be a capital F, I would also reword it.

    Family room - one level living with plenty of room to spare on the upper and lower level. Decorated with fashionable colors and with an incredible floor plan.

    Family room shot 2 - this angle shows the breakfast area beyond - then it goes to a wall. Why wasn't it taken more to the left to actually see the dining area?

    Master - large & spacious - pans to a wall.

    Kids room - anal but the electric cord from the spider man lamp is what my eye was drawn to. I would push the dresser left a little to hide the outlet.

    Childrens bathroom - fun colors yet tastefully decorated - perfect for that whimsical side in all of us or super easy to change to your own taste

    bonus room - large & spacious - pans to a wall.

    If someone is able to view the tour they will see your beautiful kitchen and an over all gorgeous house. We were looking for a house like this as I love the outside. Unfortunately I couldn't find one for sale in our price range to see the floor plan. She also mentions the floor plan, have you thought to include the floor plans in the listing?

  • 18 years ago

    What a beautiful home from what I saw, but I also was only able to load a few pictures and then it froze up and kept loading, loading, loading. I got tired and quit the program.

    I agree there are too many land shots. One or 2 pics gave me an idea of what kind of land you have, I didn't need so many. Hopefully your agent will be able to work out the kinks so people can actually view the home. From what I could see, it was beautiful.

  • 18 years ago

    Your virtual tour should have an index so you can look at the outside or each room of the inside of the house. That is the way that my vitual tour is made.

    I never got past the outside of your house since it took so long.

  • 18 years ago

    Despite the critiques (which I realize is what you asked for), I've just gotta say that you have one stunning property there!

  • 18 years ago

    tinker, here is a link to our virtual tour which shows an index. That makes it easy to see the outside and each room of the house.

    The index is the best feature of the virtual tour. Other than that, I am not impressed with our virtual tour at all. I think the angles are hard to look at. I think a slide show would have been better. Also the lighting for the outside is too dark.

    Plus there are lots of other things that I don't like about it. I should have had the realtor have it remade, but it is too late in the game to do that now since we will be off the market in 5 weeks.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Virtual Tour

  • 18 years ago

    try the virtual tour from realtor.com, click on where it says gallery. That brings up pictures, it will start the tour on what picture you choose. Clicking on gallery will then get you out of the picture you chose. I tried the stop button but it didn't work

    Here is a link that might be useful: realtor.com virtual tour

  • PRO
    18 years ago

    I haven't yet said anything to the Realtor, as she called today with a possible offer coming in (I hope so!!) People have been back 3 times.

    When I first viewed the tour, I had trouble - but thought it was only my computer because I had a few other people view it. Today, I tried again using the Realtor.com link, and I have been able to bring it up, and I can click through it without sitting through the whole thing. However, I do think that someone looking for land - wants to see it, but I agree with everyone - it should be less - or at least at the back!

    I am sitting on this a couple days to see if anything pans out with the maybe buyers. The Realtor has said we have 2 other buyers in the works, but they both have homes to sell first (I don't want to tie my house).

    I also told her to drop the price $50,000, she said to hold on... that she didn't feel we needed to and that she feels that this house is drawing lots of attention at the price it is. I DO think at a price of $151.00 per square foot is good, and that is giving someone a $50,000 free barn, free fence (which was just installed for almost $15,000) as well as all the other land improvements (large trees planted, pond dug out, etc...

    I am keeping my fingers crossed!