Once your virtual tour is completed and online, you will receive an email with the URL (web address) of your finished virtual tour page. For Puget Sound Real estate, we use the MLS number for the address of your virtual tour. For example, your virtual tour's web address will look like: http://www.eSiteTours.com/27182709 where 27181709 is the NWMLS number. This web address needs to be typed or copied into the area labeled "Virtual Media" within the view/add information area for changing your listing in the NWMLS system. The NWMLS office can be of assistance when needed, but most find it pretty straight forward. Obviously, we do not have access to your NWMLS account so we can not type in this address for you.

Please check out the Additional Features section of our Services page for a complete listings of features you may add on to your tour.

eSiteTours Virtual Tours use state of the art technology to create computer displayed spherical, 360 degree views of a location. Users are able to control the speed and direction of Virtual Tour Images from the internet any where in the world. They are actually photographic images (not video) which can be manipulated by moving the mouse or zooming in and out with the shift and CTRL keys. The virtual tours can not be printed nor put onto a DVD.  Computer web browsers use a program called Flash to make them work. The Flash format is a universal format and the viewer is a free download for those who have not done so.

Spherical Virtual Tours are created by capturing a precise series of photographs and digitally blending/stitching them together to form a full 360 circle. This image is then enhanced for quality, sized for the web, digitally warped and finally uploaded into our tour webpage that users see.

The use of specialized, high quality camera equipment, high powered computers and specialized software result in a "state of the art" finished product. The blending and stitching may not always be perfect and occassionally there may be very minor digital stitching errors. We do the best we can and our tours are typically devoid of major artifacts.

After developing the virtual tours, we send you a simple website link (URL) that goes to your virtual tour. This URL can be used on your other sites and other marketing by linking to your tour that is hosted on the eSiteTours.com web site..

We all want the property to look it's photographic best so it must be in a "ready" condition.

After scheduling a photo shoot, we will send you an email detailing steps we recommend you take to get your location in good condition for the photos. These are some of the things we recommend:

1. Open all windows coverings and blinds.
2. Turn on all lights, replace bulbs where needed.
3. Clear countertops and flooring as much as possible.
4. Straighten pictures and lamp shades.
5. Have trees and hedges trimmed where it matters such as with views.
6. Cut grass, if applicable.
7. Remove clutter where possible.
8. We do not stage as personal preferrences vary greatly. The better a place looks, the better it will show in tours and photos.
9. Display outside and inside furniture in an appealing, comforting, welcoming way.
10. Remove garden hoses, trash cans, tools, toys, etc from the yard.
11. Try not to schedule the shoot during a garbage day or right after the sprinklers go on.
12. Considering Time of Day in scheduling your shoot. We want the colors to look the best while not shooting directly into a blazing sun. If your property often experiences cloud cover, you'll need to consider that in timing.
    

    We shoot what is there, so it is very important to have the home ready.

For perfect shoots we need good lighting. Clouds, rain and haze immeditately diminish the quality of tours. Time of day affects colors, shadows and weather.

Some general rules of thumb from our experience:

1. If you are a real-estata agent, ask the owner! Find out from the owner when the most beautiful time of day is at their property - they may not know, but it's worth the question.
2. Sunny days are best - small white puffy clouds look great too as long as they are not casting shadows the location.
3. Views look best with the sun behind you: before noon for West facing and afternoon for East Facing. North and South facing depend on the season, but are best shot around noon time generally, but can have nice morning or afternoon possibilities too.
4. For views we also must avoid glare from the sun being low on the horizon.
5. Shadows: shadows from trees, etc look great, but a shadow from a building as your view foreground looks terrible. Being in a large shadow not only pulls out the light, but also the colors and sharpness. We can digitally enhance and will, but best results are had when keeping shadows in mind.
6. Cancellations: we do not charge for cancellations due to weather made 1 hour before the shoot. If we have to drive and then cancel the shoot we will have to charge $35/hour of travel for gas and time - in half hour increments.

We are happy to update contact information and links, etc to your pages.  When first developing your tours, modifications are included and we most often make quick changes without charge to you. We offer these tours at extremely low prices for the work involved, and we can't give hours of extra editing to make them perfect without charging. For changes that take more time we charge a small fee for each half hour. We are fast and most often changes can be done free of charge. We guarantee our work which means we give the best we can up front. If you don't like the tours we are capable of producing in the time we have, we will not charge you and will remove the tour from our web site.

In the future, we will offer online payment methods. For the time being, we accept personal checks only. Payment is due at, or before the time of the photoshoot, however, we will not cash your check until the tour has been completed and we have received your final approval.

We guarantee our work, therefore, if you are not satisfied with the product, your fee will be returned to you and your tour and photos will not be available on our web site. Please note that we own the copyright to all of the photos until the point we deposit your check into our account. At this time, the photos belong to you and can be used in any way you wish.

We try our best to configure the photos and tour in the best possible way. Is it possible to satisfy everyone all the time? No. We are happy to fix any error or make minor changes to your tour and site but it is simply not possible to do extensive cusomizations or changes for every client. Like yours, our time is valuable and we try hard, but there are limitations to the amount of time we are able to spend on every tour.

We are happy to update contact information and links, etc to your pages.  When first developing your tours, modifications are included and we most often make quick changes w/o charge to you. We offer these tours at extremely low prices for the work involved, we can't give hours of extra editing to make them perfect without charging. For changes that take more time we charge a small fee for each half hour. We are fast and most often changes can be done free of charge.

Yes, if you are a Real-Estate agent, we will use the photo provided on the NWMLS system, unless you provide an alternative. For businesses, you may supply us with a small company logo or photo.

Yes, in fact this is one of the most powerful and cost effective methods of advertising your services and demonstrates your profesional approach to marketing. A virtual tour is a wonderful tool to share with friends or family who live out of town. For Real Estate agents, when your clients have direct access to the virtual tour, it often means you save time by not needing to show the house as often after the sale. Whenever you clients wonder what things look like, all they have to do is log into the web site to remind them of what the home look like.

The tours may be used for as long as you want. Once we receive payment, you own the copyrights of the photos we took and you may use those photos for any purpose.

Hosting of the virtual tour is provided by us and is included in the tour package your purchase. If you need your tour hosted for longer than than the time provided in the package, we would be happy to accomodate you.

Sure. We charge $15 for this service. All CDs include the high-resolution version of the photos we take. 

For our package tour shoots we send one photographer with a digital SLR camera and the best on-camera mounted flash available. We are happy to honor any special requests of areas that you think would make a good photo or virtual tour. Please just let us know in the sign-up form.

We are able to shoot nearly all spaces without extra lights and crew saving much of the cost, due to powerful editing software now available.  Camera technique and special software editing help us pull it all together giving you a quality product without added expenses.

We are very sensitve to the marketing costs associated with virtual tours. We beleive our virtual tour is the best mareketing value available that you can offer to your clients. There are many steps involved in the tour creation process. Not only are there many time consuming processes, it takes talent to make it all come together and look attractive. It also takes a wide variety of photographic equipment and computer software to complete the various steps. We have tried to price the tour realistically. We know that many professional photographers charge more just for 7-10 photos and nothing else. We anticipate high demand for our tours and we are trying to make the effort benefit everyone.  To demonstrate how sincere and honest we are about pricing, here's an estimated breakdown of the normal costs for producing a typical virtual tour package: