A picture might paint 1,000 words, but it just isn't good enough for many home sellers anymore.

Real estate agents and individual home sellers are increasingly embracing their inner auteur and creating movie-like virtual tours of homes online.

The marketing tactic sparked interest several years ago but waned somewhat during the housing boom, when buyers were aplenty and homes often were plucked off the market within days.

With home sales in a protracted tailspin, real estate agents are now looking at virtual tours in hopes of setting their properties apart from the multitude of other unsold homes.

About 80 percent of home-buying interest begins on the Internet, says Delores Conway, director of the Casden Real Estate Economics Forecast at the University of Southern California.

Online information about a home, including virtual tours, helps prospective buyers be better prepared should they decide to make an offer.

On Realtor.com - the most popular real estate Web site - listings that feature virtual tours generally see a 150 percent boost in the number of visitors they get versus those that view listings without them, says spokeswoman Julie Reynolds.

Do Virtual Tours work?

But do virtual tours really help get buyers on the hook - not just window shopping - more than regular photos do? And what if you're selling a beaten-down foreclosed home? Is this the way to go for all properties?

Clearly there is a time and place for everything. Each property should be considered on its own merit. For example, a property that a real estate agent has a secured sole mandate for is certainly a prime candidate for a Virtual Tour.

Fisheye Warping effect can do more harm than good

Some agents popularized one style of virtual tour that emulates the feeling of being inside a room and being able to look around in every direction. But users complain they give the viewer a distorted, fisheye view of the home. These often do more harm than good, making the home look unattractive.

Quality is of utmost importance

"Virtual Tours can be compared with online dating sites: You don't always know what you're seeing," one realtor says. "It's not until you see the home in real life that you know this is the one or this isn't the one. Low quality Virtual Tours do not give enough of a realistic impression of a home for a buyer to trust what he or she is seeing. However, there are now some high quality techniques that we are seeing that open up full screen, and truly give a good idea of the property. These ceartainly are the next best thing from actually physically visiting the home."

See this high quality Virtual Tour example by 360sa.

What about full video?

While some real estate agents now opt for full video, experts say that can lead to shaky, lower-quality images, unless the person filming the home is an experienced camera operator.

Lighting can be another drawback with video, as even natural light shining through a living room window can appear too hot, generating an image that is oversaturated and obscures a detailed view of the room.

Conclusion:

Virtual Tours must be of high quality, open up full screen, and make the viewer feel like he or she is really there. Low quality alternatives suffer from lighting problems, the horrible warping effect that distorts the images, and display far too small on screen for the user to have an experience that they are really there.

Low end homes may not benefit much as the buyer may not like what he or she sees, it may be better to take the buyer physically to the home.

Top end homes have much to gain from Virtual Tours. And finally, commissions payable on top end homes well cover the fee of employing a professional Virtual Tour photographer.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/25/REK613K4KS.DTL