Looking to stand out at listing appointments and online when you have a listing? Look no further than HomeDiary PRO, your local real estate listing media company. Through our platform, we help you Win the Listing, Win the Sale, and then Win the Relationship. The purpose of this post is to layout what we do, why we do it, and how it helps you.
With our service, completed in one appointment by one person, you get stunning photography, engaging 3D tours and interactive 2D & 3D floor plans complete with an industry exclusive 3D floor planner/designer feature, optional recorded walk through videos, including one for your social media channels, all in a customizable single property website that KEEPS your BRAND on your virtual tour when clicked on from SELECT websites like Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin, and even your own company or personal website. This magic is done with our patented Brandkeepr feature, only available via HomeDiary PRO.
Plus, it is more affordable than you think, typically less expensive than just photos compared to the pricing of some of our local competitors.
See the difference for yourself with one of our recent Stories.
Our Content Sells – your listing, and You!
We focus on the content and features Buyers want, and Sellers appreciate, according to 2018 Zillow’s buyer research study that asked buyers what were the important buying activities as part of their home search:
- Taking a Private Tour – we enable this right from our 3D Walkthrough Tour, where anyone with access to our virtual tour can take a private tour, 24/7, from the comfort of their own couch. 3D Tours are proven to sell properties faster and for up to 9% more
- Access to Comprehensive Data & History – floor plans with room sizes, square footage, uploaded documents or feature sheets, and more can be featured on our tour, including content with your branding, which will only show on the branded version (and since the branded version can be seen on the top sites with Brandkeepr, it gets seen more often than not).
- Viewing a FloorPlan – the most important traditional listing content combined with the photo of each space via our interactive floor plan, proven to sell properties for up to 26% more. We take it a step further by providing a 2D/3D space planner with designer, right on the virtual tour, and this same tool can then be used by the new buyer with our exclusive Claim Home to HomeDiary integration.
- Viewing Pro Photos – proven to sell properties faster and for up to 30% more according to one study, we create some of the most stunning photos for the money, hands down.
- Viewing a Video Tour – we have a built-in editable slideshow video, and with our 3D Tours, we make every Matterport a video-like experience by sequencing the walkthrough of the property, so with the push of the Play button, we guide the user through the home in a few minutes. NO ONE else is doing this because it takes a lot of time to create the best user experience. We eliminate the #1 complaint with Matterport – that it takes too long to use. See this Virtual Tour or scroll below for how we can walk you through the home in the example tour or its companion video in 3 minutes…or less if you view the social media version of it.
You can view the complete Zillow research results here, or see it in the graph below.
Remember, Sellers were once Buyers too, and they also know what kind of content is important in marketing their home, and the data points to the same content referred to in the Zillow study above. Research data shows how FloorPlans and 3D Tours help you Win the Listing, and then Win the Sale for your client:
Win the Listing
- 99% of sellers think 3D Tours make their home more competitive
- 88% of sellers want to work with an agent that offers 3D tours (per Matterport), 71% that offer interactive Floor plans (per Zillow)
- 82% of sellers would switch to an agent that offers such content
Win the Sale
- Sell 20% faster & up to 9% more with 3D Tours
- 92% of buyers more likely to buy if they had this kind of content
- Per Zillow: Listings with Interactive floor plans generate 79% more saves & 60% more views and sold for 22% more than homes without
- In the UK, listings with floor plans generated 26% more commissions for agents
- 64% of Millennial (55% of all) buyers would buy sight unseen if it had this kind of content
Annecdotally, we have been around long enough (20 years as of 2024) that we have had some of our longer term agents relist the SAME house 3 times now. And its not because they double ended each of those transactions and that buyer was their client. The drawing force to use the same agent as how the listing agent marketed the home and the content created, and it brought the buyer of the home back to that same agent. The HomeDiary content, and Story, pays for it self with repeat business over and over again. This is further reinforced with Brandkeepr, as well as our Claim Home features, discussed below. This all helps you Win the Relationship too.
The ONLY platform with Real-Time Editing of all Content
All of this great content is created from the the single property visit, including a 3D property scan with an automated Matterport walkthrough of the property, accurate 2D/3D floor plans with 3D Designer, and photos to help you market the home in different and unique ways. Plus, the HomeDiary PRO platform includes real-time editing of almost all of the content and layout as well, so you can customize and refine it to get it right without having to go through any support personnel (which we have a great team by the way, unlike others who force you to leave a voicemail and wait for a callback, or wait for them to make changes):
- Editable slideshow video can feature any photos or even video clips, pick different music, change image transitions and even the time to display. Branded content supported as well to allow for marketing snippets about you or your brokerage, which will only show on the branded version of the slideshow video (important with Brandkeepr).
- Editable Photo Gallery – pick which photos you want to show on the photo gallery or video. Branded content supported to feature any kind of image-based content on the branded tour (so show an ad for a mortgage partner in the gallery of the Branded tour).
- Editable Floor Plan – change a room name, add or change flooring or wall colors, or add a bed into a room and hit save to update the floor plan in a minute or less – no back and forth waiting for 24 hours like the other guys. Did we mention it has a 3D space planner built into the tour, and it is also passed on to the Buyer via our Claim Home process, a free feature.
- Editable Property Flyers/Upload Documents – use one of our templates or upload your own and mark it contains branded content to ONLY show on the branded tour (which will get seen more often than not with Brandkeepr)
- Custom Video – Request Edits in your account on any custom video, which does require editing the original source file, but we make it easy to communicate exactly what you want changed. When completed to your liking, view or download them right from your account.
- Edit the Story Layout – pick from dark or light color options, 4 themes and even drag and drop content sections into the desired position. Click to select the hero image and save to create your unique Story of your listing. You can also embed other content like a video or a 3D tour, upload branded and unbranded documents and more.
- Configurable Brandkeepr List – add your own website, your company website or deactivate select sites, if desired. It’s all under your control in your profile (top right when logged in).
Walkthrough Video addon
We leverage the automated Matterport and other media to create a cost effective Walkthrough video that is on both your branded and unbranded virtual tour, and available for download under Media in your HomeDiary account, so you can put it anywhere. We use Vimeo, the leader in video hosting, so it can be embedded with ease without costing you anything more or disrupting your website with content that can’t be displayed.
You can download all of your videos under the Media section for your listing, and use them anywhere. Its all included in one low price. As mentioned, you can even request edits on your video right inside your account by clicking the “conversation icon” that will pop a request edits page, so you can get exactly what you want.
View, Edit & Download Your Listing’s Media
All of the content created can be viewed, edited and downloaded for your use to market the listing. Your company can use it too, and since we support Company/Office/Agent accounts, anyone with access to an upper level account can get access to all of the media created for any listing in a sub-account. They can also help agents place and manage orders, or even create a Diary, our digital closing gift, referred to below. Check out this video on how easy it is, all under the Media section in your HomeDiary PRO account.
The Magic of Brandkeepr
Brandkeepr is our patented process (U.S. patent number 11,328,374 – so it is exclusive to the HomeDiary PRO platform) that magically keeps your brand on your tour when it is clicked on from some of the top sites like Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin and even your own company website and personal website or blog. It works by identifying what website a user is coming from when they click on our virtual tour link. If we can identify the source (called the referring website) and it matches the website addresses in your Brandkeepr Profile, then we will automatically forward the unbranded virtual tour you put into the MLS into a branded one. In addition, on all of your competitors’ websites, the unbranded tour still shows, so you comply with the MLS branding rules on the websites that force the rule (the IDX brokerage sites) and you will not get fined, but on websites that don’t care (and they may even advertise other agents on your listing, like Zillow), we show you some love by displaying the branded version of the virtual tour.
Key – Put the virtual tour into the MLS for FREE Leads
The single most important thing you can do is first Publish your virtual tour, and then put the UNBRANDED version of the virtual tour into your MLS listing (there should be a virtual tour or virtual media field) as the virtual tour link. Just confirm your website, and your main company website, is also in your Brandkeepr profile, and we do the rest. The unbranded and branded tours are under the Presentation Links section under Media, and they will look something like this below – you can see a b for Branded, u (or r) for unbranded or restricted (which removes the address and all out links too):
- Branded Tour: https://my.homediary.com/story/475950/b
- Unbranded Tour: https://my.homediary.com/story/475950/u
- Restricted Unbranded Tour: https://my.homediary.com/story/475950/r
Note, if you ordered a 3D Walkthrough Tour, or custom video, we do provide links and downloads (if applicable) to those separate content pieces as well under the Media section in your account, so if your MLS supports more than one virtual tour or media field, you can put the unbranded versions of those tours/videos in as well, but our suggestion is put the HomeDiary virtual tour as the #1 or main virtual tour link as Zillow will only pick up ONE link currently. Redfin and others will pick up all three, and enhance your listing on their websites too. Since we do not control the hosting of Matterport or the Vimeo custom video, Brandkeepr is not employed on those content modules, unless it is part of our branded tour. If you do put Matterport as #1, Zillow will pick it up as a 3D Tour on the Zillow listing, so your listing is enhanced (without your brand), but your HomeDiary tour will not show. So it is a balancing act of what is more important, but the choice is yours.
The end result of Brandkeepr’s Magic? More business for you, all free, because all you did was put your virtual tour into the MLS. This is how Valarie made another $75,000 in commission income from one HomeDiary virtual tour.
As I can attest, the HomeDiary Platform can help you get more business.
I received a call from a potential buyer who saw one of my listings online. While the home sold quickly and she was too late, she was so impressed with my marketing presentation, powered by HomeDiary, she not only hired me to sell her high-end home, but I helped her buy her new one, too. That one listing was responsible for an additional $2.5M in sales.
I would not have gotten the new client by providing just photos. This buyer specifically called me based on my HomeDiary virtual tour presentation. That’s why the HomeDiary platform is my go-to team for creating amazing content for my sellers, as well as a tool for new buyers through its HomeDiary Claim Home integration, which can be a channel of new business too.
See how easy Brandkeepr is to set up, and how magical it is to work to create free leads for you.
Content lives on with HomeDiary’s Claim Home
As mentioned above, we have had some agents relist the same home at least 3 times now. It’s because we leave breadcrumbs, and lasting memories of the listing agent, throughout the Internet, and tied to the home listed. This is now more true than ever as each virtual tour we create is also integrated with our HomeDiary homeowner management platform, so if a Buyer claims the home right from the virtual tour by clicking the Claim Home button, they get the photos and the 2D and 3D floor plans put into their own private HomeDiary account, for free, compliments of you as the listing agent. Now they have a tool to plan, visualize and improve their new home with the floor plan content you helped create, and you get attribution branding on the content passed over. So it is a subtle reminder of who provided the content, and each time they come in to use the floor plan, they will see you as the original listing agent. This is free for you, and it is free for the buyer. If the seller also wants a copy of their old home, they can also claim it and get it as a keepsake, and then use HomeDiary on their new home.
No other virtual tour system has this integration and ability to tie the floor plan, the core foundation of every home, to the home, the homeowner, and YOU.
The Diary – the missing Piece
The final piece of the homeownership lifecycle is the “buy or living” phase of homeownership. How do you as an agent stay connected to your client base over time in a relevant, no-spammy way?
We created the Diary to close this gap. The Diary is an option right in your account where you can set up and create a collaborative HomeDiary for a homeowner, and populate it with information about the home purchase, such as closing docs, before/move in day photos, reminders (like the HUD statement for tax time), how to videos and even a floor plan by snapping a photo of any existing source or uploading it and we convert it into a 2D/3D floor plan. Future enhancements will add using a mobile app to scan to get a floor plan, or hiring us for full service to do it for you, including a 3D property scan, if desired.
Think of the Diary as a digital closing gift that allows you to put content into your homeowner’s HomeDiary over time, and you get permanent sponsorship attribution for the life of their homeownership. When it is time to sell, we can repurpose the existing floor plan, add new photos and add an updated 3D property scan to create a marketing virtual tour (automatically Win the Listing since you never left your client’s homeownership experience) and this content then helps you sell the listing faster and for more money (Win the Sale). In effect we connect you, the agent, to the homeowner, but also the home.
This is how HomeDiary helps throughout all phases of homeownership. The Diary starts at just $29 and is available by selecting Diary when logged into your HomeDiary PRO account.
We hope this overview was helpful in showcasing how HomeDiary PRO can help you Win the Listing with content buyers and sellers want, Win the Sale with content proven to sell homes faster and for more money, and then Win the Relationship by helping you stay connected in a relevant platform all about the home. Its unique and nothing else like it exists anywhere in the world that we know of. So be part of something unique and it will bring you business from your client base over time.
Social Media Video
Each Walkthrough Video not only includes an HD version for your tours, we also create a companion social media video formatted in portrait mode, or in a 9:16 sized aspect ratio, perfect for Instagram Stories, Facebook Reels or TikTok (assuming it is still allowed in the US). So you get 3 videos for under $50! What a value, and what engaging content. See for yourself by playing this social media video embedded on this page – it’s exactly what you can download and then upload to your social channels.