Reviewer: Mark S. Bergman
Product: Real Estate Shows free trial
1. Ease. Is it easy to use for real estate professionals? For real estate consumers? How steep is the learning curve?
RealEstateShows is relatively easy to use. Those familiar with other virtual tour products will be able to start creating tours and virtual fliers without reading the instructions, but read the FAQs or view the on-line video tutorials to get the most out of the service.
Strengths (250 words or less):
Simple, fairly intuitive user interface. I created my first tour in five minutes. Publishing to other Web sites is quick and easy. Basic features are easy for the average user.
Weaknesses (250 words or less):
I uploaded several photos that I’d taken in landscape mode. I’m accustomed to being to able to rotate photos from within virtual tour applications. I never found a way to edit a photo after uploading. If the feature is included, it’s well hidden.
Limited number of Web sites supported for publishing (or syndicating) tours.
Advanced features are the product’s real strength, but I have doubts about the average agent using the advanced features.
Numeric rating, from zero to 100 (zero is the worst and 100 is the best):
85
Explanation for rating (250 words or less):
While the user interface is straightforward, the developer could go the extra distance to simplify further and provide extra feedback. For example, one is limited to 15 photos in the initial upload. I’d like to see a counter to let me know how many photos I’ve selected. When one selects too many photos, the system provides a message indicating that certain photos will not be included in the upload. Those photos will be the last selected. Ongoing feedback via a counter would make the process more productive.
2. Value. Is it helpful and useful for real estate professionals? For their clients/customers/consumers? Cost vs. benefits: Is it worth the cost?
Well worth the cost.
Strengths (250 words or less):
Competitively priced for the features included.
Weaknesses (250 words or less):
While competitively priced, RealEstateShows is certainly not unique among a large number of competitors.
Numeric rating, from zero to 100 (zero is the worst and 100 is the best):
85
3. Power. Would real estate professionals and consumers be likely to use this often? Can it replace existing tools/methods? How much information and how many features does it put at the user’s fingertips? Does it have the power to change the industry? Can real estate professionals and consumers use this on the go? Is it innovative and cutting edge? Is it scalable (can be used by individuals and entire offices/companies)? Does it have advanced features for tech-savvy users? Does it integrate with other products?
Strengths (250 words or less):
Every real estate professional should have one virtual tour/slide show creation service. This is a mission critical application for the middle of the road agent. It’s certainly not cutting edge. Today’s real estate consumer expects to see virtual tours and video. However, many real estate sales agents and brokers are behind the curve so there is a large market.
The system is quite scalable; good for the solo practitioner, but includes management features for the larger office.
Weaknesses (250 words or less):
The most advanced features require some study and practice. For example; export to video. The average agent will use the basic features.
The how-to videos played back as if bandwidth was lacking. Choppy playback as the videos buffered. Other sites played fine on our test system.
Numeric rating, from zero to 100 (zero is the worst and 100 is the best):
85
Explanation for rating (250 words or less):
RealEstateShows.com is a competitive, but not unique product. While most functions work, I just can’t get excited about any one feature.
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