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How To Use Flickr to Set Up a Real Estate Virtual Property Tour & Share Photos Online

J. Lamar Ferren
5 min read

In this video blog post (vlog) we’ll talk about how to use the Flickr photo sharing website to set up a virtual property photo tour and share photos online. This is a good method to use if you don’t have a website and you want to advertise your properties online to attract potential buyers. It’s very simple to set up and I’m going to walk you through the process step by step.

Why You Should Use Flickr to Share Photos Instead of Email

Have you ever had trouble sending property photos through email because they were too large? Have you ever received an email from someone and it was difficult to open or it took up a lot of space in your email? Usually they have to send you a series of emails just so you can get all the property photos and you have to sift through each email and download them to your computer so you can begin browsing through them.

Let’s be honest…that’s kind of annoying and it takes up a lot of time. You can prevent all of this with Flickr. Watch the video below to find out how.

Note: All the steps below are shown in the video

How to upload and share your photos on Flickr

Note: Although there are a lot of steps, this is a very quick process. It should only take 5-7 minutes and you only need to do this once per property.  When you add another property, just start from uploading the photos. You don’t need to create another account.

Step 1: Go to www.Flickr.com

Step 2: Click the “Create Your Account” button and use a Yahoo ID to sign up. If you don’t have one, then simply sign up for a yahoo id and login to Flickr.

Step 3: You can personalize your profile you want, but in the video I’m going to skip straight to#2 “Upload Your First Photos”

Step 4: Click “Choose Photos and Videos” and select which photos you are going to use for your real estate virtual property photo tour and/or which photos you will be sharing with someone online. Hold “CRTL” and press the “A” key on your computer to upload multiple photos at once. (this saves a ton of time)

Step 5: Once the photos have been chosen you can verify them and if you see one you didn’t want, just click the little trash can icon to remove it.

Step 6: Make sure your privacy settings are set to public and click “Upload Photos and Videos” (This should be a quick process)

Step 7: Next, you need to click the “add a description” link and add a title, description, and tags for each photo. The title should of course be whatever the photo is (Example: front yard, bedroom, kitchen, etc.) The description needs to describe the photo, but I highly recommend you putting something in there about your business as well along with a way to be contacted. You can also put a link to your craigslist ad in there so they can get more info on the home. The tags should be keywords related to the area and property your trying to sell. Use Google Adwords Keyword tool for ideas.

Step 8:
Click Save and then add your photos to a “Set”. Scroll to the top and click the “Sets” link which can be found under the words “Your Photostream” Once you do that, it will say “You don’t have any sets” This is fine. Just click the “go to the Organizr” link to create a set.

Step 9: Click “Create Your First Set” and name your set and give it a description. Personally I use the street address for the set name and put information about my business in the description. You can also put a property description in there as well. (Example: “Here we have a 3 Bed 2 Bath single family home in…”)

Step 10: Drag the photos into your set from the bottom. Note: Be sure to add the first photo you want to appear in the “set album cover” first. Usually this can be the front of the home. When you look at your completed set, you’ll see why this is important.

Step 11: Click the Save button and then Click the “Your Photosteam” link in the top right corner. Now you can view your set and see how it looks. This is how the person on the other end will see it as well.

Step 12: At this point you can “Share This” button located in the top right corner. Click the “Grab this link” option and you can send that link to anyone who requests photos of your property or anyone you want to send photos to via email. All they have to do is click the link in their email and it will take them directly to your set. They can click the photos to get a larger view if they need to.

How To Create a Real Estate Virtual Property Photo Tour

Step 1: Now that you have created your set, you can use the “slideshow” button to view your set as a slideshow or “virtual property photo tour” (This is what you can call it in your advertising) Go ahead and click the “Slideshow” button, so we can share it.

Step 2: Once you get over to the slideshow and you’re satisfied with it, click the “Share” button and you will have the option of using a direct link or using the embed html code. If you use the direct link, then they will be able to come directly to your slide show. The embed html code can be used in free blog sites like blogger.com

Step 3: Copy the link or Copy the Embed HTML Code to put in your free blog. If you’re going to copy the embed html code, then follow the steps below.

Embedding Your Virtual Property Photo tour in Blogger

Step 1: Go to www.Blogger.com and sign up for a Free account.

Step 2: Once inside you’ll need to “Create a Blog”. If this is your first time, then you’ll be taken straight there. Just give your blog a blog title and then put something simple in the blog URL section. The URL is the link to your blog, so make it something simple. You can also buy a domain from GoDaddy and have it forward to your blog URL if you don’t want to advertise the url that blogger gives you upfront.

Step 3: Enter the captcha code and hit the “Continue” button. Then choose a starter template and click “Continue” and then click “Start Blogging”.  There are tons of free templates online. Just go to google. Be sure to search for templates that are specific to blogger if you don’t wan to use the templates that blogger already provides for you.

Step 4: Next, you’ll be taken to the blog post. Be sure to choose the “Edit HTML” tab instead of the “Compose” tab.  Paste your Flickr slideshow “embed html code” in the html field. Be sure to add information about your business below the code along with a way for you to be contacted.

Step 5: Give your blog post a title. Click “Publish Post” and then click “View Post” to see how it looks. You should see your slide show now.

I hope that helps. Remember that all these steps are in the video above, so be sure to check it out. There are a ton of photo sharing sites online that can help you accomplish this. There are also a ton of “slideshow” and “virtual tour” sites you can use to advertise your properties. The internet has free tools that you can use to accomplish this, so why not use it to your advantage.

To Your Success,

J. Lamar Ferren

“New Breed” Investor

Ps. Do you use virtual property tours in your advertising? How do you share photos online? Do you think Flickr is easier than email attachments? Leave a comment below!

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.