In a recent story called the Virtual Vacation Home, I wrote about how some vacation home owners are using inexpensive Webcams to market their homes on the Internet. Since the vast majority of buyers and renters start looking for a place on the Web, it makes sense to add a webcam to your home's online profile.

But Webcams aren't the only unusual way that sellers and landlords are using technology to make their homes stand out. In fact, many owners are borrowing tools that were originally marketed to real estate agents to make them more interactive and compelling. Here are three that are becoming more popular:

Virtual tours: Though they take a lot of time to view and sometimes make you dizzy, virtual tours are nearly ubiquitous on real estate agents' Web sites these days. That wasn't true a few years ago, because the tours required hiring photographers with special cameras, at costs running into the hundreds of dollars.

But costs for professional photographers have dropped dramatically. And with a rotating tripod, a photo-stitching system, a digital camera -- and a lot of patience -- do-it-yourselfers can produce virtual tours, too.

Once you have the video in hand, you can upload it on your home's Web site, or on one of several sell-it-yourself Web sites, like ForSaleByOwner.com and BuyOwner.com.

Real Estate E-Cards. Hoping to cash in on the e-card craze, August Gilges, an entrepreneur in Portland, Ore., came up with the "real estate e-card": a short photo montage of a property set to background music, from a crackling fire to a string quartet. Though an e-card might seem too commercial for sending season's greetings to Grandma or declaring your love to your Valentine, it's a relatively low-key way to alert potential buyers that your house is for sale, particularly in the traditionally slow times around major holidays. Single-use cards themed to an event (think a backyard grill for Memorial Day) cost $20, while an annual subscription with unlimited use of all the cards is $150. Or, if you're happy with a single image rather than a photomontage, you can make up a card for free on Ecards-gallery.com.

Talking signs. On their face, chatty yard signs are simple, even mysterious. Interested parties can call a toll-free number and plug in the digits for more information, like location, price, size and maybe a description of the built-in backyard grill or the Tara-like staircase. The spiel runs 24 hours a day.

That's an advantage for sellers, who don't have to run out and replenish printed listing sheets in a plastic box on their front yards. But it's also a risk, since buyers who don't have cell phones handy might lose interest and drive on by.

Nevertheless, talking signs have become so cheap in recent years that they're worth considering. For example, Front Royal, Va. company Home Phone sells a 18- by 24-inch talking yard sign for $10.95, plus a $2 monthly fee.

Best of all, they allow an owner to keep embarrassing details, like whether the house will be auctioned or is in foreclosure, out of sight of the neighbors...if not out of earshot.