Thanks everyone so far. The first series of links might be closest what I need.
I could have been more prcise what I'm looking for. Here is an example of something almost identical:
http://www.environmentsforliving.com/
click on "Take the Virtual Home Tour"
Really 3d panos are just out, completely, no way to do that at this point. The client hates them with a passion.
Also, this is a national scale project, and having the whole country have to download an extra plugin would not go over well. We might even be over optimistic by using flash honestly.
I did make some progress with flash, and getting some basic buttons made that control animations. So I'll keep poking around to see if I can figure out how best to make menus and buttons and animations.
Thanks,
Chris