Real Estate Websites

Over the last year that there has been more and more interest in showcase websites of homes for sale. Using the address as the domain name, when a buyer drives by a home that is for sale, when they get home they can type in the address www.8262WoodshillTrail.com. There they can find out any in contact information, photographs, virtual tours, and all those other details of the home.

During the last year I have been toying with the idea of providing websites for real estate. I think they are a clever idea. Most buyers will look for the home on Realtor.com first, but if it's not listed on Realtor.com where do buyers look next? The Multiple Listing Service(MLS) can be a bit confusing, which area MLS is it listed on? However, using the address as a domain name, when you have the address of the home for sale, you have the website name. Once I realized how smart this really was, I decided that I had to start offering the real estate websites in my packages.

So, I have spent the last week figuring out how to make these websites myself. I'm actually finding it very fun and different for me. My goal is to keep them simple, clean, and keep information available and easy to find. Here is my first version. click the image or the URL above to get a full view. So let me know what you think. You'll be able to see real estate websites added into my packages in the next week or so. I'm pretty excited!

Insight Virtual Tours!

I wanted to introduce another virtual tour photographer friend. Through RealTour Vision, the company that produces the virtual tour technology that I use, I met Lori Nunes from "Insite Virtual Tours". Insite Virtual Tours is located in the coastal area of central California. You can find her running around San Luis Obispo, Morro Bay, Cayucos, and everywhere in between. Lori is new to the business in the last year but Insite Virtual Tours has absolutely taken off! Let me tell you I have been learning a lot from her. Lori is a networking wiz! If you are located in the San Luis Obispo area and are looking for a great photographer to photograph your business or real estate, give Insite Virtual Tours a call!

www.insightvirtual.com

Las Palmas

Here is a beautiful home that I did still photography for last week. It was a home for Pamela Rich Properties. Her team was really great to work with and the home was fun to shoot. Take a look at the slideshow...

Bel-Air Bar & Grill Part 2

I know I posted about the Bel-Air Bar & Grill last week, but I just realized after a year of owning my slide show software that I can create slide shows for my blog! I love it! So I went back and made a slide show of the Bel-Air Bar & Grill and I'm including the virtual tour that I photographed for them.

All About Virtual Tours!

Besides the fact that I absolutely love my job, I can really be thankful for the friends that I have made while being a virtual tour photographer. One of the first people I met was Dawn Schaffer, Owner of All About Virtual Tours in South Western Washington. She's a wonderful person to talk with. We seem to end up on the phone longer than we ever intend to bouncing tons of ideas back and forth. Not only has she been a great friend and supporter, but she's a fantastic photographer! If you are located in Southern Washington and need virtual tours or photography give her a call. She's a wealth of information and has lots of ideas! Thank you Dawn!

www.allaboutvirtualtours.com

Friendly Quotes

I have a great friend who sends me great quotes almost daily. Where she finds them, I have no idea. But I love it! Here is today's quote sent to me. I thought it was great and decided to share it with you...

To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, and to be given a chance to create, are the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the gravy!

- Bette Davis, actress

Bel-Air Bar & Grill

Last week I had the opportunity to photograph still and virtual tours for the Bel-Air Bar and Grill. It's a great restaurant off on Sepulveda near the Getty Center. Moody lighting, a great bar and patio area. It really looks like a nice place to have a drink with a friend!

Fun Photo Day For Me!

I spend so much time photographing for everyone else, homes, businesses, restaurants, apartments, cabinets, etc., that I sometimes forget to take photographs for myself. Part of it can be attributed to the fact that I love love my job, I get to practice my photography all the time, so I don't think to just photograph for me. However, there is definitely a different excitement and creativeness between shooting for hobby and shooting for work.

So last Sunday, my wonderful boyfriend took me to the zoo and let me go crazy taking photos of the animals. First, I really do need to thank him for his patience at the zebra habitat...I might have been a little too excited about all their patterns and wouldn't leave for a long, long time. Long Time. He was very patient as would I think I was ready to leave and then turn around and spend another 10 minutes there.

Zoos are really a great place to practice your photography. Not only are there a great amount of animals that you aren't likely going to run into on any normal day, but there are great habitats and tons of people there to practice on. Photographing at the zoo also tends to be sentimental for me. My father used to take my sister and me to the zoo when we were young budding photographers, I visited the Santa Barbara Zoo plenty of times to fulfill assignments while I was in photography school and while traveling in Europe with my sister, we visited a few zoos to photograph. So, photographing at zoos tends to take me back to very fun, creative and even comforting times.

My First Celebrity Home!

For those of you CSI Miami fans...go ahead and feel jealous! Yesterday, I was lucky enough to photograph the beautiful home of one of the CSI Miami's actresses, Khandi Alexander. It was very exciting for me because I am a huge CSI fan!



What was a fixer-upper for her, is a dream house for most people. It looks like a smaller modest home from the front opens but up to a huge four story estate. The last photo in the slideshow really shows how big that house really is. It was a very beautiful house and that makes it so easy to photograph! Click here to view the slideshow.

A trip to Big Bear!

I got the opportunity to photograph five cabins in Big Bear last week. What made it even better was that the owner let us stay in one of the cabins for the night. Only one night away but what a nice time! It had snowed the week before, so there was alot of snow every where. It gave me the chance to practice my evening and sunrise photography. It's was worth standing knee deep in snow to get these shots...Also, click here to view some of the virtual tours!

Bear's Lair



Pine Tree Cottage





Summit Ridge



Meadow Lake Cottage

Embed A Tour on Your Website!

It's Christmas time...let the goofiness begin!

It takes a while to load but it's fun! Staring me, my boyfriend Mario, my sister Lindsay, Mario's mother, Isabelle and sister Angela. I'm pretty sure Isabelle and Angela won the fight. I think I'll have to make a new one or my own mother will feel left out!

Chatsworth Hills Academy

Here is a sample of what your virtual tour window would look like. I pulled the colors directly from your website and your logo.

Chatsworth Hills Academy

3629 Corinth St.

I shot a really cute house out in Los Angeles last week. A broker is selling his own house and needed tons of photos for it. It was a really great house. A little waterfall in the back yard, a sunken dining room, and a bunch of little sitting area's in the backyard off of each room. Click here to view the virtual tours.

Active Rain

I started blogging not to long ago, recently followed by another but similar blog on ActiveRain. Active Rain is a Real Estate Network, tons of great people on there and lots of good ideas and information. Not only that but I have some connected with some friends and made some new friends. If you are in the real estate profession at all, I highly recommend checking it out!