We are moving.  But not just moving, we are downsizing - a lot!  Both of us lived in big houses before we met but shortly after we got married, we downsized into a small two bedroom duplex.  Now we are downsizing even more -- from 884 square feet, two bedrooms, big closets and a storage area to a one bedroom that is probably less than 650 square feet, has one bedroom, one tiny closet and very little storage. 

We travel most of the year with our virtual tour business, Vision Quest Virtual Tours, so the original plan had been to  give up our little apartment and put everything in storage but the thought of being homeless was abandoned when we found this amazing little house right on the Mississippi River.  It is in Quincy, IL where my husband Greg grew up and where most of his family lives. 

We fell in love when we saw the first sunset off the dock and knew that we had found our home.  Greg snapped some quick pictures and did some panoramas and created a virtual tour so we could show family and friends our new place.  We only had about three weeks from the first time we saw the place until we load the U-Haul.  Furthermore, we have a two month trip to California and Oregon so we won’t be moving in until the end of October.  Everything we own will be in storage for two months while we are on that trip and I had two weeks to pack it all up. 

I got a great understanding of the value of a real estate virtual tour from this experience.    We only looked at one house and we knew we had found our home.  I can’t imagine working with a realtor and looking at multiple homes and trying to keep them straight from notes or snapshots.  We only saw the house a few times and I am relying on the virtual tour to decide what comes with us and what we are giving away or selling.  Sure, I measured walls but it’s hard to envision how things will work without seeing the actual layout and that’s something I would not have had without our virtual tour.

People often ask us why we charge by the job instead of by the image and the answer is because we think that a virtual tour should really give you a chance to look around and get the big picture and we take as many pictures as necessary to tell the story.  We shoot a combination of 360º spins, partial panoramas and still images so that the viewer can really see the space.  Because I have that tour, I have been able to see how our furniture will fit, where the pictures will hang, what size curtain rods I need to take, where my dishes and kitchen stuff will go.  I have donated stuff that just doesn’t work in the new space. 

I can close my eyes and see the sun setting over the Mississippi River from our deck but I am not as good at remembering how many cabinets are in the kitchen.  I would never have understood how valuable real estate virtual tours are without this experience.

Vision Quest Virtual Tours will be moving to Quincy, IL as of October 30th.  We specialize in 360º virtual tours for healthcare, hospitality and education but after seeing how helpful the virtual tour is to a home buyer, we will be offering our services to real estate agents as well!  For more information, visit us at www.VisionQuestVirtualTours.com or give us a call at 404-863-9769.