Through the highs and lows of the housing market, one thing stays the same: Buyers and sellers want real estate agents to secure the best deal possible.
Even in a competitive market, people like working with a good real estate agent who can open new doors, and bring a fresh start into view.
It’s tempting to skip listing details like virtual tours or real estate videos when the market is hot, but this is actually the ideal opportunity to convert buyer and seller leads with impressive real estate tech. Not convinced?
Consider this: In 2020, two-thirds of homebuyers in 32 major markets bid on a property without seeing it in person.
Now that we’ve all learned to cope with a global pandemic, it’s clear that things like virtual showings, bids, and closings aren’t just a fleeting trend. In fact, a third of those polled by Zillow said they would rather take a virtual home tour—even after the coronavirus pandemic is considered ‘over.’
In the eyes of buyers, sellers, and other real estate professionals, your approach to virtual showings can set you apart. How do you decide which option is best for you?
In this blog post, we’ll go over why people love 3D virtual tours and real estate videos, and some tips on how to make the most of them.
Virtual Home Tours Are Not Created Equally
A ‘virtual home tour’ describes various ways of visiting a home without physically being there.
3D walkthroughs and real estate videos both have a place in real estate marketing, and there are different advantages to each type.
HomeJab produces both 3D virtual tours and videos for real estate agents.
To help you choose right type of virtual home preview, it’s important to know what distinguishes 3D virtual tours from videos, and how either can be a pivotal part of the home buying experience.
That means you’ll need to learn about a few technical distinctions, analyze market statistics, and make an informed decision about how to best motivate buyers in your market.
In other words, what challenges do your ideal clients face, and how could you address them upfront? What is the most effective way to help your clients picture themselves in their new home?
Accessibility, time conflicts, decision fatigue, and market competition are among issues that prospective purchasers face. Sellers face similar constraints that can affect the perceived value of the property for sale.
This is when your matchmaking skills and industry expertise really come into play.
How Real Estate 3D Virtual Tours Inform Buyers
A true 3D real estate tour invites and demands active participation from invitees. When you understand the experience of a virtual tour, you’ll see why it’s well-liked by buyers.
Hands-on Exploration
Clicking through a 3D real estate tour gives prospective buyers the freedom to pinch, scroll, zoom, and tap to explore what a property is really like. The novelty of this technology is only part of why it’s so successful in real estate. More than half of people surveyed said virtual tours were the most helpful resource in a real estate website.
The most important thing for a hands-on 3D home tour is that users are in full control. This means each person viewing the home can navigate it how they like, or follow the premade tour created with the software. Giving buyers the autonomy to check out areas of the home, based on what piques their interest builds excitement. When you’re looking for the perfect home, it’s hard to forget the first time you ‘walked’ through it.
Multiple Realistic Viewpoints
3D real estate tours use real footage of the home with clear lighting, good image resolution, and other high standards for quality. In a true 3D tour, you should be able to turn around completely to see every room with a real-life perspective of the rest of the property.
People can distinguish a ‘good’ 3D tour from a lackluster one based on how well they can see the details of a home. To make the 3d tour as realistic as possible, a well-made tour includes photos from multiple viewpoints, which are stitched together based on the real-life floor plan.
Listings with floor plans included are a crowd-pleasing favorite in virtual real estate. A bird’s eye view builds buyer confidence in a listing, sparking ideas for how a space functions before setting foot inside. The more true-to-life a home viewing experience is, the easier it becomes to see how the property could be a perfect fit.
Tour Properties On Demand
3D tours are an effective tool in many ways, but the importance of flexibility cannot be understated. There is no set time for a 3d tour: It can be accessed at any hour of the day, for as long and as often as prospective homeowners need. Naturally, homes with virtual tours can accommodate showings for significantly more people.
Real estate agents know how important it is to be flexible for potential showings, but nothing beats the convenience of a perpetually live link to the house tour. It can be shared with others for a unique, real-time experience. After a formal ‘showing,’ viewers can backtrack, explore the rooms at any pace, and linger as they need. This allows buyers to share with others and gain insight from trusted sources, while agents can focus on other tasks at hand. Realtors can take advantage of this by referencing virtual tour points when marketing the home, and sharing the virtual tour with even more prospective buyers.
Overall, 3D real estate tours offer perspective that’s impossible to get using standard 2D mediums like photos and videos. Today’s 3D tours should provide an intuitive, realistic, and versatile experience. Of course, one of the best advantages of 3D virtual tours is that homes sell and close sooner than listings without them.
So, why might you consider using real estate videos in your next listing?
Real Estate Videos Compel Buyers
When you ask users to watch a real estate video for a property listing, you are asking for passive engagement, so that you predict and control the way a listing is perceived. Real estate videos do this by using a more thematic presentation that relies on cinematography, highlights of the property, in a conveniently timed package.
Cinematic Perspective
Real estate video can be surprisingly creative, with sky-high drone shots that overlook the neighborhood, panoramic shots of staged rooms, and close-up details that might not come across in a virtual tour.
Real estate videos show a home in the most ideal light—literally and figuratively. Done right, a property listing video adds a warm and welcoming mood, getting buyers move-in ready. Real estate video is especially appealing to the buyers who have a set idea about what their future home looks like, so this technique can be a perfect match for properties with defining characteristics in the landscape and architecture.
Highlights Best Features
A real estate video covers the main selling points of a home, rather than revealing every detail. In this way, real estate video is more like an invitation to an in-home viewing experience. You can determine the most shareable features of the house ahead of time and plan the video sequence to match your priorities. This is helpful for properties with expansive acreage, awesome neighborhoods with nearby amenities, and scenic viewpoints.
Real estate videos are not usually a room-by-room tour of a property, but is a perfect complement to an attractive listing. This can motivate buyers who might compromise lesser preferences if the property has some impressive features that cannot be overlooked. The highlights you show in a real estate video can be the reason a property listing makes a buyer’s shortlist.
Convenient in More Than One Way
Convenience one major reason people choose to work with real estate agents. For prospective buyers who need an agent to meet them where they are, a pre-recorded video package is the right choice. Most buyers are familiar with how to play videos online, so there’s almost no learning curve to use it.
Video can make a real estate listing stand out on social media, where it can be shared and shared again. As an extra benefit for real estate agents, it makes for great marketing collateral where you can express your values and goals for your business.
Comparing Real Estate 3D Virtual Tours and Videos
3D walkthroughs and real estate videos both add tremendous value to a real estate listing, but there’s no one-size-fits-all choice for creating a virtual tour of a property.
For most real estate agents and their clients, “virtual” is now the norm. Open houses, once a standard of the real estate market, are now done remotely using a variety of tools and techniques. 3D virtual tours and videos are some of the go-to choices for real estate agents.
Still need help navigating the world of virtual real estate? Contact HomeJab for help.
