Nader Shureih
Editor in Chief
As a market researcher with the federal government, Nader's energies are focused on the good of the public - looking at the Canadian cultural and social landscape for the purpose of developing stronger ties between and among Canadians.
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Homes - Virtual Tours or Video Tours?
Posted by admin | July 14th, 2010
Hi – Seb here, CEO of New Home Alert. Our mission has always been to educate future Ottawa home buyers about the local new home industry by creating a positive and enhanced house hunting experience with easy to navigate content via images and videos of thousands of new home listings.
Most of the listings on our website feature 2D elevations and floor plans. These pictures and images can be very useful to give a general idea of what a home will look like once it is built. But for many people, trying to visualize the inside of a home with 2D plans is challenging.
When searching for resale homes on http://www.MLS.ca, I always take the time to view the “multimedia” link, which leads me to a virtual tour of the home. While I appreciate seeing all of those pictures, there’s nothing like seeing a video tour to get a better appreciation of the flow and size of a home.
I’m probably not the only one that appreciates seeing video, since over 1 billion videos are downloaded every day by web users around the world. That is why we have partnered with RealityHomes.ca, a local company specializing in shooting quality HD video tours of residential properties.
Video tour vs virtual tour?
What’s the difference between a video tour and a virtual tour you will ask? Most of the multimedia used to feature resale listings is virtual tours which consist of “stitching” of photos to produce a 360 degree tour of a room in a house. Video tours on the other hand are produced by a videographer who walks through every room in a home and then edits the footage to produce a video.
Personnaly, I feel that video tours present the most realistic view of a home. New Home Alert would like your opinion on the subject. Check out the following two videos, and determine for yourselves…
Virtual Tour
We appreciate your feedback! It will help us develop the best solutions to help you in your search for your next dream home!
Buying a new home brings out the designer in you!
Posted by admin | July 12th, 2010
Hi - Seb here (CEO of New Home Alert). One of the most exciting things about buying a new home is being able to personalize the core design elements of your home: the exterior finishes, the kitchen cabinets, the floors, the bathroom tiles, and so on. With all of the TV shows and magazines dedicated to interior design, most of us are inspired to become amateur interior designers, right?
My business partner Gen is building a custom home in Ottawa, and she’s in the process of choosing the finishes with her home builder. Yesterday at our business meeting, we spent the first hour exchanging ideas on the design of her new kitchen. We probably could have spent another 3 hours on the topic, going through the dozens of magazines she had on kitchen design ideas, but duty called!
Every future home buyer will have to go through this process of choosing finishes, and we know the list of finishes and options can be quite daunting. Because of this, New Home Alert is very excited to introduce a web video series dedicated to educating future home buyers with tips and advice for choosing the finishes of your new home. Our interior design series will feature a young and dynamic Ottawa company - Custom Home Interiors (CHI), who has in fact become a resource of choice for Gen in her new home buying process.
Custom Home Interiors is the ideal resource to help us create these web episodes, since they already work with Ottawa home builders and understand the new home buying process. You can look for episodes to start airing soon on www.newhomealert.ca, or follow us on Twitter or join our Facebook Fan page, where our episodes will be posted as we release them.
I look forward to presenting to all of you the great team at Custom Home Interiors and to get your feedback and suggestions on topics you’d like us to explore.
Oh, and one last thing. I hope this blog posting inspires Gen to start blogging about her own home building experience… What are you waiting for Gen?
The opinions and positions expressed in any blogs, wiki's and comments in the above links do not necessarily reflect those of nha, its partners, members or users.