Virtual house tours have become a must in the real estate industry. They have transformed the property buying process and landscape, helping it adapt to modern technology and sensibilities.
What Are Virtual House Tours?
Real estate virtual open house tours showcase a 3D plan, rendering, or video of a property that is being sold or is up for rent. They allow potential buyers or even renters to experience what it’s like to be inside the property online.
By providing a virtual house tour, clients can get a detailed view of the property and tour the rooms in real time.
Real estate companies can use video capture technology or 3D renderings to showcase a house’s main features and layout to potential buyers or renters.
It has become an effective tool in the industry. In fact, 59% of millennial property buyers said they would be somewhat confident in closing a deal for a property they looked through virtually. Additionally, according to recent studies, listings with online tours are viewed 40% more than ones that only use photographs.
Types of Virtual Property Tours
Real estate websites may use several types of virtual property tours regarding format. Here are some of them:
Video Walkthroughs
This type of virtual tour uses pre-recorded videos to give potential buyers or renters a detailed run-through of the home. Usually, the video captures the home’s layouts and features. The video can mimic the point of view of a person touring the area, with narration and comments from an agent highlighting specific details in the home.
Virtual house tours are linear and straightforward. They don’t have any interactive elements that clients can use.
360-Degree Virtual Tours
The 360-degree tour helps users examine every nook and cranny of the home in detail. Since they combine multiple home images from different angles, 360-degree virtual tours are engineered to offer a seamless view.
This type of virtual tour is interactive, as it lets clients move from one POV to another, scroll through rooms, and zoom into specific areas. It provides an immersive buyer experience.
3D Tours
Unlike 360-degree tours and video walkthroughs, 3D tours generally use a digital model of the home instead of a video or set of photos. This type of virtual tour is highly interactive, letting clients select rooms and areas to explore.
This type of virtual tour is made using advanced imaging software, providing a comprehensive representation of the home’s layout and features.
Benefits of Virtual House Tours
Virtual property tours have become a must in the industry today because of their numerous benefits. Here are some of them:
Convenience
Virtual open house tours have become a game-changer for people looking for new properties. Because these tours are online, they offer clients the convenience and flexibility to explore a listing without the limitations of time and location.
In addition to convenience, virtual tours are also more accessible and efficient. Clients can explore numerous properties without leaving the couch, eliminating the need to travel from site to site. With virtual tours, they only need a device that can connect to the Internet.
Virtual tours are convenient for buyers, renters, agents, and real estate companies. Every time a home is showcased during a physical visit, agents and companies need to ensure the house is clean and in excellent condition. Hiring cleaning companies multiple times for multiple viewings can be a hassle. However, if you use virtual tours, you can showcase the house in pristine condition without the hassle.
Provides Spatial Context
Providing photos for real estate listings has critical limitations. They don’t usually offer spatial context, which is crucial for clients with specific property requirements.
Luckily, virtual tours can address these limitations by showing the home’s layout and flow in detail. Interactive tours let clients control what they can see and explore the flow, spatial context, and size of each space about each other. This gives users a more detailed understanding of the home’s interiors.
Better Audience Reach
Having a virtual home tour posted online helps expand the reach of real estate company websites. It also makes it easier to target specific audiences through digital advertising.
Through their accessibility, online property tours can reach people within specific demographics that traditional tours could not.
For example, these tours help accommodate potential customers with health and mobility issues. Since they can access the tour online, they can view the entire property easily without figuring out the logistics of a physical visit.
Another demographic that this type of tour appeals to is people with hectic schedules or those who live far away. Having busy schedules and living far away will make scheduling a physical visit difficult, but virtual tours enable such clients to see the property at their own convenience.
Expanding clients’ reach in the real estate industry helps improve market exposure, which can result in more deals being closed at reasonable prices.
Saves Time and Money
When listing a home for sale, agents may receive hundreds of emails and phone calls from prospective clients. Of course, this gets trimmed down further since many sending inquiries are simply curious. However, many may push through and schedule a meeting, which can be highly time-consuming for agents.
Visual tours let customers view the homes on their devices, eliminating the need to schedule meetings and travel from site to site.
Eliminating the need to drive back and forth saves time and helps cut travel expenses. In addition to the gas money that gets cut, fees from cleaning companies and other logistics costs can be allocated for other business purposes.
Adapting to the Times
Many real estate companies need to adapt to keep up with the market. Virtual property tours help provide convenience, practicality, and flexibility for the client and the company.
Are you looking for a property management company to help with virtual house tours and property management? Check out our online directory to find one today!
RELATED ARTICLES: