Welcome to Micro SaaS Insider — the free version. We analyze deals and use Moneyball tactics to discover undervalued, mispriced, and hidden gem micro saas products for sale.
This free version doesn’t contain as much info as the full issue. But we still try to make it valuable for you. You can unlock the full issue below. No credit card required.
Today, we do a deep-dive into a micro saas product that does virtual panoramic property tours. It’s an interesting, growing niche and potentially compelling acquisition.
Let’s explore
Table of Contents
ThreeSixty.Tours
Listing on MicroAcquire
Why virtual tours?
A virtual tour is a simulation of an existing location, typically compiled from a particular order of videos or images. It’s far better than just looking at some real estate online through Zillow — the interaction you get through virtual tours (whether it’s for buying real estate or scoping out a vacation spot) is much more comprehensive and immersive.
Three Sixty Tours takes virtual tours to the next level, allowing visitors to virtually explore 3D spaces. Also known as panoramic tours, it’s more than just seeing the space of a home; with virtual tours you get a bird’s-eye view, allowing you to see the surrounding areas of a property..
As one might predict, there was certainly a HUGE bump in search traffic during covid. We highlighted when the search term was at its peak, right at the beginning of the global pandemic,
Here’s the search traffic over the past 5 years:
Are virtual tours here to stay?
We think so.
The US, UK, and Canada lead the way in search traffic. Search traffic has still doubled now compared to 2 years ago.
Now, admittedly we’re still not done with covid (and probably never will be). However, while covid has definitely helped with the increase in popularity for this business niche, we believe that virtual tours are here to stay.
A few reasons why:
- The convenience of being able to see a far away space online at your own leisure
- The remote work movement means knowledge workers are increasingly seeking out cheaper rural/country real estate, which is much more conducive to this business niche than say, scoping out a new apartment.
- No longer having to physically be in the city, let alone state or even country of where the property is located
- Improvement in technology allows for better interactions and experience in this space. Adoption of 3D technology makes businesses like this more compelling and engaging
As investors become more sophisticated and continue to look to invest in other states & even countries, we believe Three Sixty Tours and competitors will continue to grow.
Exploding Topics paints a similar picture. Below is a 10 year chart for “virtual tour”. Similar to the Google Trends chart, this chart also features a large increase around when covid was officially announced as a global pandemic. While we see search volume taper off, we can see that according to Exploding Topics search volume remains 100%-200% higher than it was approximately 2 years ago.
Additionally, here’s the 10-year chart for Zillow 3D, which captures 3D virtual home tours, just one service of many that Three Sixty Tours can assist with.
The peak of this search term is April 30 — month behind that of “virtual tour.” We’re willing to bet it’s covid-related. And like with so many other covid-related trends, we’ve seen a huge interest spikes that then tapered off at a higher level.
What’s this micro-saas product all about?
- Three Sixty Tours is a SaaS product that lets its customers create panoramic, 2D, and 360-degree property tours
- It allows tours to be customized, including starting points, viewing angles, rotations and more and has a number of great features, including hiding branding to be MLS compliant for showing real estate properties
- The site is about 4.5 years old. It was started before virtual tours became cool, and has a good history
- It has a nice design but pages could be filled out more to provide more information and have the site look more complete. For example, here is a screenshot of the entire homepage:
The homepage lacks lots of critical information. Adding things such as testimonials, where the site has been featured on, etc. could make the site more attractive via social proof, while giving new leads a better idea of the problems it is solving.
Check out Seek Beak, a competitor whose home page provides much more information:
- The owners are both technical and have built the product up themselves
- Most customers come from one source — a forum called We Get Around
- The site has earned $14,600 over the past 12 months, with $12,000 of that being profit
- Most expenses are software and other tech expenses required to run the service
- The two founders do all the work; there are no employees or contractors
- The asking price is $60,000, representing a 5x multiple on net profit
Details:
- Net profit/month: $1,000
- Pageviews/month: 50k – 55k
- Age: 4.5 years
- Asking price: $60,000
Strengths, Weaknesses, and Opportunities
Strengths
- High profit margins. At around 85%, licensing and technology costs (such as hosting) are the only real expenses
[Unlock 4 more strengths for Insiders only]
Weaknesses
- Dependent on a single lead generation source. This is the biggest risk by far. Most of the current customers come in through a forum, which may be hard for the new owner to manage. The owners currently have a “great relationship” with the forum that drives most of the leads, which caters to 3D/360 professionals. A potential buyer would want to learn more about how leads are driven and to see if the associated accounts would be included in the acquisition of the business. A new owner will want to consider investing in other lead generation strategies to diversify where leads come from rather than relying on a single source
- Weak URL. This is minor, but we don’t love the URL. While brandable, it’s unnecessarily long, and the .tours domain feels very much like an “also-ran”
Opportunities
- Email marketing. The site currently has a list of current and past clients. Additionally, building a lead capture form can allow the new owner to nurture more leads
- Social media marketing. It’s an extremely visually-oriented niche, which tends to do well on Instagram and especially Pinterest.
Profit & Loss
A very simple P&L has been provided. Be sure to do further due diligence before making an offer.
Inferred Value
Outlook & Recommendations
[Unlock Outlook & Recommendations]
Due Diligence + Negotiation Service
Remember to do full due diligence before purchasing any saas product. Stefan created and runs Flippa’s Due Diligence program, and we offer a due diligence and negotiation service to help you buy the perfect saas product.
