Frequently Asked Questions | Using HomeShare TourCentral | Using HomeShare Virtual Showings

Q. How do I access my tours, control them, and switch sign in on and off?

A. When your order is completed, you receive an email with your TourCentral username and password. Login at http://www.homeshareoturs.com/TourCentral.



Your tours will be displayed on the left panel. Click on the tour you wish to edit.



Click on the part you wish to edit.



The drop down panels are where you edit the text and control the sign in.



When done click Apply Changes.

Q. How do I access the pictures that are in my tours?

A. When your order is completed, you receive an email with your TourCentral username and password. Login at http://www.homeshareoturs.com/TourCentral.



Your tours will be displayed on the left panel. Click on the tour you wish to access.



Click on Album. 



Choose the pictures you wish to download using the checkboxes. Then click the download button. Your pictures will be compressed into a file. When you see the dialog box, follow the prompts to save the file to your PC.

Q. How do I send the pictures that are in my tours to somebody via email?

A. When your order is completed, you receive an email with your TourCentral username and password. Login at http://www.homeshareoturs.com/TourCentral.



Your tours will be displayed on the left panel. Click on the tour you wish to access.



Click on Share Album. 

Your email client will be opened and a message will be created for you. Choose your recipient, add any additional thoughts to your message and send. Your recipient will click on the link and see your Tour Album.

Q. How do I send the tour to somebody via email? I don’t want them to need to sign in.

A. When your order is completed, you receive an email with your TourCentral username and password. Login at http://www.homeshareoturs.com/TourCentral.



Your tours will be displayed on the left panel. Click on the tour you wish to access.



Click on Share Tour.  

Your email client will be opened and a message will be created for you. Choose your recipient, add any additional thoughts to your message and send. Your recipient will click on the link and see your Tour. The admission ticket is included in your email, so they simply enter it to see the tour. Your TourLeads will show this so you will know when they saw it.

Q. How do I get the links so I can put the tour on my website?

A. When your order is completed, you receive an email with your TourCentral username and password. Login at http://www.homeshareoturs.com/TourCentral.



Your tours will be displayed on the left panel. Click on the tour you wish to access.



Click on Tour Info.  



Here is displayed your tour links. If your website uses IDX streams from MLS, your tours will automatically be displayed in searches. These links allow you to explicitly show your tours in web pages that you make for your site. There are also a collection of buttons you can download and use to launch the tours from your site.

Q. How do I change my photo in my tours?

A. When your order is completed, you receive an email with your TourCentral username and password. Login at http://www.homeshareoturs.com/TourCentral.



Your tours will be displayed on the left panel. Click on My Profile.



You can edit the information and upload jpg files of your logo and picture. After you are done, you must go to each tour where you want this info to appear and click Apply Changes. Use the My Tours button, then click edit.

After you are done, you must go to each tour where you want this info to appear and click Apply Changes. Use the My Tours button, then click edit.

Q. Where do I see my Leads for my tours?

A. When your order is completed, you receive an email with your TourCentral username and password. Login at http://www.homeshareoturs.com/TourCentral.



Your tours will be displayed on the left panel. Click on TourLeads.



Here you will see the leads, sign in info,  and the tickets that were generated by the system.

Q. How do I control the sign in automatically on a schedule for my tours?

A. When your order is completed, you receive an email with your TourCentral username and password. Login at http://www.homeshareoturs.com/TourCentral.



Your tours will be displayed on the left panel. Click on the tour you wish to edit.



Click on the drop down panel for the tour.

Click on the calendar, to the right of the “enabled” box.

Choose the time periods you wish the sign in to be enabled and disabled

Green means begin the enabled time, red means disabled at that date.

When finished, click Apply Changes. 

Q. What is a ticket and how do I use it?

A. The HomeShare Tours system uses tickets to control tour access and track usage. It is an updated version of the old “register on this website” method of gathering leads. The ticket is sent via email.



The ticket carries your contact information at the bottom of the message. You can edit the text in your TourCentral in case you want to add information for example open house dates.

If you have multiple listings with HomeShare Tours they will appear automatically at the end of any of your tours. Then your customer can see them all with the same ticket.

Q. How do I see the activity of my tours?

A. When your order is completed, you receive an email with your TourCentral username and password. Login at http://www.homeshareoturs.com/TourCentral.



Your tours will be displayed on the left panel. The popularity panel ranks them by activity. Click on My Tours.



You will see a hits indicator. This is a total of all activity. Click on the Hits link.



Your hits are tracked by mls tour activity and realtor.com+ activity. See these lists by clicking on the tabs.



Each action is logged so you can estimate the level of interest in your property.

Q. How do I link my HomeShare Virtual Showing to Boston.com?

A. If you have the property listed on MLSPIN or your office has a promotional service with the Boston Globe or Boston.com for property ad placement, then your HomeShare Virtual Showing will automatically link your tour and your listing. The distinctive icon will appear in your tour listing.

If you don’t have your property listed in MLS or have a property ad placement agreement, you will need to buy the listing in boston.com and link the tour in your ad, like this.

First, go to the real estate section of Boston.com. Start at sell the house.

Next, enter your property listing. The website will step you through the process.

Enter your HomeShareTours link here.

Get your HomeShareTours link at your TourCentral http://www.homesharetours.com/TourCentral

Login and go to My Tours Tour Info.

Q. How do I set my Outlook Express email to automatically respond to
HomeShare Virtual Showing activity so that I can engage the leads I get?

A. The HomeShareTours email notifications use a format that is easy for you to detect and automatically respond. The subject format contains the identification of the tour and the “from” is the lead’s email. Using this subject information you can make a rule:

HomeShareTours Direct Link contact 1024 Tenbit Road Memory Lane, MA via Email MLS12345

Make your rule detect HomeShareTours Direct contact with a reply message introducing your services and your contact information in a text file. Define your rule like this.

Open Outlook Express and go to the email rules

Make a new rule

Define the subject words that will make this rule take action.

Enter the text and add it to the rule.

Now define the action for the rule, reply with a text file, click on message and choose the text file you have created for your automatic response message.

Now your rule is complete. Click OK.

An example of a text file for your response is:

Thank you for visiting my HomeShare Virtual Showing. I hope the high quality viewing experience helped you in considering this fine home. I look forward to helping you meet all of your real estate needs. Please contact me at:

My Name and title
My Office affiliation
My Office address
My most easily reached Phone
My most frequently checked email

Best Regards,
My Name and title