The technology Hayes purchased is called the IPIX multimedia system from Houston-based Internet Pictures Corp., a publicly traded but not yet profitible company currently getting hammered on the Nasdaq. The system consists of a special camera and software that about $2,000.

The user takes two high-resolution photographs, shot through a fisheye lens, and then uses the software to digitally combine them and create the virtual tour. The user can then host the images himself or pay a hosting site like LoopNet to do, and when people click on the listing and then on the image the picture "pans" in a 360-degree arc on the computer screen.

"What's cool is I can send you an email link and all you do is click on it and it takes you to a menu screen where you can click on the virtual tour, print out a flyer, download the floor plans or, if you're another broker, forward it to your client," says Hayes, who uses the IPIX multimedia system from Houston-based Internet Pictures Corp.

Typically a large-scale user may send as many as a dozen people to look at facilities before the serious negotiations begin, says Hayes, but with virtual tours he can save the company a great deal of time and expense and give those decision-makers an experience that's almost like being here. "I think the whole industry is headed this way," says Hayes.

Moreover, the added feature gets results. "When I send out an email with a link to a property with a virtual tour to 200 industrial brokers and then check my Web stats, my site traffic has gone through the roof," says Hayes, who in addition to the cost of the system pays about $75 bucks a listing to license the virtual tour and have it hosted by a site like LoopNet, which provides search engine and data collection capabilities.

"It's not as expensive as buying a sign for the property, which is a couple of hundred bucks," says Hayes. "It's also not as expensive as four-color brochures, and it's available 24 hours a day, so the client can look at it on their time."